“My brother is gonna kill me,” Frankie said, tracing the line of Duce’s chest with her finger.
“Your brother, shit, I’d thought you’d be more worried about Cowboy finding out what we did,” he said smugly.
Frankie sat up and looked at him. “Well, it wouldn’t have been any of Cowboy’s business if you’d kept it gangsta with me. You can start if you want to Derrick, but believe I’ll finish it.”
Duce matched her tone. “What? You getting mad because I’m kicking some real shit? You belong to that lame ass nigga now.”
“First of all, mutha fucka, I don’t belong to nobody. Frankie Five is and has always been her own woman, whether it was in your bed or Cowboy’s,” she pulled her purse closer to her. “Now you’ve got one more time to try and insinuate I’m some whore bitch and we’re gonna have an issue, you understand?”
“Frankie, go ahead with that extra shit,” he told her, but didn’t take his eyes off her bag. He was seeing a whole new side of Frankie and wasn’t sure if he was prepared to deal with it. “Ain’t nobody trying to call you out your name or nothing, I’m just telling you what it is. You don’t think Cowboy would wild out if he found out that I fucked his broad?”
“So, that’s what this is all about? You had sex with me to get under Cowboy’s skin?” Frankie snatched her pants off the floor and began sliding them on, completely forgetting about her underwear.
“Hold on,” he grabbed her arm. “Frankie, I was and still am, madly in love with you. This had nothing to do with getting under Cowboy’s skin. I’ve got something way nastier planned for that mutha fucka.”
Frankie looked at him confused. “I don’t get it. One minute you guys are smiling and shooting shit up together and the next you act like he kicked your dog or something. What’s the deal with you and Cowboy?”
“Ain’t no deal, I’m just trying to get back on my feet,” he lied.
Frankie twisted her lips. “Duce, miss me with all that. Even after the lawyer fees you left me with almost a hundred stacks, and if I had a hundred then you had quadruple that tucked away, so I know you ain’t hard up for paper. We’ve never lied to each other in the past, so let’s not start now.”
Duce pondered lying, but she knew him too well not to see through it. “Frankie,” he began, “you know I love you, right?”
“Duce, please just spit it out.”
“I joined Cowboy’s team to kill him,” he said flatly. If Duce noticed the shock that flashed in Frankie’s eyes, he made no mention of it.
“Kill him, why?” she asked.
“Frankie, who do you think set me up?”
Frankie was confused at first, but then her eyes flashed recognition. “Cowboy put the murders on you?” she asked in shock.
“Not personally but that pussy gave the order. My brother was the man, and all these mutha fuckas was jealous of him. There wasn’t a nigga on the block who didn’t want to be my brother, but all knew that to take his spot you had to go through his shadow,” Duce pounded his chest. “My brother was a great and fair business man, but his heart wasn’t cold enough,” Duce said emotionally. “He wasn’t like me… he wasn’t a killer.”
“Duce…” she began.
“Let me finish,” he placed a finger gently over her lips. “All I ever thought about was murdering the men who crossed my brother. I needed a way to cut into this Cowboy nigga, and my ticket came through when I met an inmate named Costello Brown who was coming through on a robbery beef.” He went on to explain to Frankie how he’d met Cos in prison and they’d become fast friends. “Once I plugged in to him, murdering his man would’ve been a cake walk, but I was still sitting on life and waiting on an appeal. You know I ain’t never been real religious, but I got down on my knees and did some serious praying. I know it’s wrong, but I promised the powers that be if I got out of prison I was gonna balance the scales. Now, I don’t know if it was God or the Devil, but a few years later my prayers were answered.”
Frankie eyed him suspiciously. “Cowboy is a cunning and cautious man. How in the world did you get him to accept you as a part of the crew with him knowing he’d not only killed your brother, but sent you to jail in the process?”
“Because the arrogant son of a bitch never made the connection. Frankie, the only people that called me Duce were you, Granny and Knowledge. Everybody on the street knew me as D or Derrick, if they were from the old neighborhood. D-Murder was a phantom, and I was locked up under the name Melvin Bernard. The bulls fucked up and listed my middle name first, but it ended up working to my advantage when me and Cos got tight. D-Murder was the muscle behind the Uptown Boys, and Melvin was some poor lump sitting on life.”
Frankie’s head was spinning at what Duce was revealing to her. She’d known that Cowboy could be ruthless, but until that moment she hadn’t realized how much so. There were a thousand questions running through her head, but there was one she had to know the answer to.
“How?”
He knew what she was asking without her having to say. “Your boys provided me with that. One night Cos was bragging to me about this homicide cop that his man Cowboy had on the payroll who let him and Thor kill recklessly. As soon as he slipped and said the name I recognized it from my case. It was the same cock-sucker that arrested me at the murder scene. I put damn near every dime I had on the streets and then I had my people make two phone calls; the first was to inform some suspicious cats at Internal Affairs that this pig had a key of blow in his trunk, and the second was to make sure it was there when they caught up with him. I ain’t gonna give you all the details, baby, but just know that price I had to pay for my freedom isn’t something I’d be willing to negotiate again.”
“Damn, Duce, that’s some heavy shit.”
“Heavy is an understatement love, but I thank them old heads everyday for always telling me about keeping a low profile. My brother loved the spotlight and I was glad for him to have it, but all I cared about was the paper. If my paper wasn’t straight then I was coming for your head. You remember those days, ma.”
Frankie rubbed her arms as if a wind had appeared from nowhere. “Yeah,” she said, just above a whisper. Her mind drew up old images of Duce creeping in with blood splattered on his boots.
Duce chuckled. It wasn’t the normal charismatic laugh that Frankie had known, but something darker. She couldn’t imagine what Duce must have been feeling all those years as she had never been in that position, but she could feel it seeping from him like sweat on a summer day. She wanted to reach out and touch his face, but there was something about the set of his jaw that made her hesitate.
“Cowboy is the loose end,” he continued after a long pause. “That snake took five years of my life, my brother and apparently my girl,” he half-joked. Tears welled in his eyes but never fell. “So you see Cowboy has to die.”
“I had no idea,” Frankie sobbed.
“I know,” he stroked her cheek. “When I came back here to take my revenge I never imagined that fate would further mock me by having you share Cowboy’s bed.” Frankie tried to turn away but Duce wouldn’t let her. “There’s no shame in that Frankie. I was gone and I guess you needed someone to turn to. I ain’t mad at you boo. The question is, now what? Do you run and tell your lover what I plan to do, or do you turn the other cheek while I lullaby his ass?”
“Duce, you know I’d never betray you, no matter how I feel about the situation.”
“Then fall back and let me boogie.”
“Damn, you and your vengeful ass nature,” she placed her head in her hands. The thought of losing Duce again made her feel ill. “Why can’t you just let it go? We can go away together and start fresh,” she pleaded.