for black women.
“That or somebody’s gonna die tonight,” Black speculated. Bobby parked the car and he and Black went inside.
“Told you,” Bobby said when he saw Angelo standing at the bar talking to the most beautiful woman in the place. He walked up behind Angelo and tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, what you all up in my woman’s face for?”
Angelo turned around slowly and smiled when he saw who it was. “Look at what we have here?” Angelo said and turned to his female companion. “Honey, I want you to meet the dynamic duo. This is Batman,” he said and pointed to Black. “And this is-”
“If you call me Robin, I’ll shoot you right now,” Bobby said and made a move for his gun.
“All right, all right. Honey, this is Bobby Ray and Mr. Happy here is Mike Black.”
“So, you're Mike Black?” the woman asked.
“You know this guy?” Angelo asked her.
“You can’t be from around here and not hear of Mike Black. A friend of mine used to talk about you all the time,” she said and looked at Black like she was willing to go with him any time or place to give him a taste.
“I’m glad you're here, Mikey,” Angelo said before Black could ask the beautiful woman who her friend was. “Freeze tell you I needed to talk to you?”
“No,” Black said, still looking at the woman. She had the type of body that he liked to play with. “I just left Freeze a couple of hours ago, but he didn’t mention it. But we’re up on something else right now.”
“Yeah, he told me. But let me holla at you for a minute, Mikey. Excuse us for a minute, honey. I need to talk to this guy.”
“Sure,” was her reply.
“It was nice meeting you, Miss-” Black said.
“Cameisha, Cameisha Collins, but you can call me CeCe,” she said. Until a few weeks ago, CeCe was Cash Money’s woman, but now she was free agent and looking for a new love. Mike Black would do her nicely she thought and watched him walk away.
“What's up, Angee?” Black asked as soon as they were far enough away from CeCe.
“Crazy Joe got out the joint a couple of weeks ago,” Angelo said. Joey Delfino used to do jobs with Angelo back in the day. Him, Angelo, and Black were supposed to hijack a load of cigarettes from a truck at the Molly Pitcher service area on the New Jersey Turnpike. Black and Angelo never showed up, so Crazy Joe did the job alone. He was arrested by Newark Police at the toll booth when he got off the turnpike.
Joey found out later that Black and Angelo were late because on the way to the job, they stopped to rob a jewelry store to settle an argument.
“I ain’t scared of shit, Mikey. You fuckin’ know that shit,” Angelo boasted as they drove to New Jersey to meet Joey.
“All I’m sayin’ is I like to plan a job before I do it. That don’t make me scared; that makes me careful,” Black told Angelo that day.
“You won’t do it ‘cause you’re scared, Mikey. Scared ’cause you don’t know what you're walkin’ into. Me, I don’t give a fuck. I’m ready for whatever they got in there.”
“Fuck you, Angee. And fuck that dumb shit you talkin’. We just passed a jewelry store ’bout a block ago. If you such a bad mutha fucka, turn this car around and go rob the mutha fucka.”
“Never challenge me, Mikey. You know better that shit. You know I will turn this heap around and do that shit, but we gotta meet Crazy Joe.”
“What's that I smell? Is it pussy I smell in here? ’Cause it sounds to me like somebody’s scared,” Black taunted.
“I ain’t scared of shit, Mikey, and I ain’t no fuckin’ pussy,” Angelo said and made a U-turn. Angelo double parked the car in front of the store. “You comin’ with me, chicken shit?”
Black put on his gloves. “Let’s go,” and got out of the car. The robbery went off without any problems, but they got stuck in traffic coming across the George Washington Bridge. When they got to the service area they found Joey’s car, but no Joey. Angelo found out the next day that Joey was arrested.
“You talk to him since he got out?” Black asked Angelo, thinking that he already had enough shit to deal with.
“Yeah, I seen him a couple of times.”
“What’s he talkin’ ’bout?”
“Same shit. Still talkin’ ’bout killin’ you. He says it was your fault ’cause you shouldn’t have challenged me and he’s got a point,” Angelo said.
“Whatever, Angee. It ain’t my fault that he went and did the shit by himself. He could have waited for us. That shit didn’t make no fuckin’ sense.”
“We don’t call him Crazy Joe for nothing. Anyway, when Freeze said somebody tried to whack you, I asked was the guy black or white. When he said the guy was black, I knew it wasn’t Joey,” Angelo said.
“No, he wanna do the shit himself,” Black said. “I know who tried to kill me.”
“Who?”
“You ever hear of The Commission?”
“No.”
“Whoever they are they thinks I’m out to get them and that I killed some baby baller named Cash Money and some other cartoon character soundin’ mutha fucka.”
“I never heard of no Commission, but Cash Money, him I heard of. In fact, that used to be his woman,” Angelo said and pointed at CeCe.
“No shit,” Black said and looked at her on the dance floor. “She’s seems to be takin’ his death well.”
“Seemed to me that she was more interested in replacin’ him than mourning his death, if you know what I’m sayin’.”
“Mind if I take a run at her?”
“What are you, kiddin’ me? This is America; it’s a free country, Mikey.”
“You can have her back when I’m done. I’m not hiring right now. I’ll catch up with you later, Angee,” Black said and made his way to the dance floor. He stood in a spot where CeCe could see him. When Black had her attention, he motioned for her to come to him.
CeCe leaned close to her dance partner and whispered something to him. Then she left him standing there and walked straight to Black. “Hello again,” CeCe said over the music and stepped closer to him. So close that Black felt her nipples brush against him.
“I need to talk to you.”
“What do you want to talk about, baby?”
“Cash.”
“The man or the paper?”
“The man.”
“I would much rather talk to you about something else, but I figured that’s what you wanted. What you wanna know?”
“Where can I find Stark?”
“Why, so you can kill him too?” CeCe asked.
“Let’s get something straight. I never even heard of these niggas and their commission before tonight.”
“Then why they think you killed Cash and K?”
“I have no fuckin’ idea. I’m lookin’ for Stark to settle this shit. I am not his enemy. You tell him that for me. Tell him I wanna sit down with him, ’cause we ain’t got no problems.”
“I’ll tell him next time I talk to him.”
“You do that,” Black said and started to walk away, but CeCe grabbed his arm.
“How can I get in touch with you?” CeCe asked.
“Why you wanna get in touch with me?”
“In case Stark wanna meet.”
“He’ll know how to get in touch with me.”
“Okay. Suppose I wanted to get in touch with you?”
