Free Gangsta Bitch by Sonny F. Black

able to run up in my spot, make off with twelve and a half kilos of my coke and 65 grand of my money?” El Pogo leaned in so close that spittle hit Tito in the face.
    “El Pogo, I had nothing to do with it. I wasn’t even in the spot when it happened,” Tito gasped.
    “I don’t give a fuck who was in the spot, it happened on your watch so it’s your mess to clean up,” El Pogo pressed the razor to Tito’s cheek, but didn’t cut him. “Tito, you better tell me you’ve got a lead on these cock suckers or it’s your ass in the fire!”
    Tito swallowed. “From what Rosa says, there were two of them who took the coke, but one of my look outs says that three men left. He says that two of them he’s never seen, but the third one comes in the store from time to time to buy beer and shit so he’s probably local.”
    “I want them, Tito. I want my money, my coke and the sons of bitches that had the balls enough to rob me for it.” El Pogo demanded.
    “On everything I love, I’ll take care of it!” Tito almost shrieked.
    “I’m sure you will,” El Pogo slacked his grip a bit. “And just to make sure you’re properly motivated,” El Pogo flicked his wrist and cut Tito’s face, not enough to scar him, but enough to draw blood. “Get my shit, Tito, or I’m gonna cut more than your pretty little face,” El Pogo patted him on the bloody cheek before leaving Tito to show himself out.

EIGHT
    Frankie was awakened by the sounds of Jane’s Addiction’s
Been Caught Stealing
. Without even looking at her cell she knew who it was so she didn’t bother to answer. Just as she was about to drop back off to sleep, her house phone started ringing. She tried to ignore it as she had done her cell, but unlike her cell the house phone’s ringer was much louder. The caller obviously wasn’t getting the hint so she picked up.
    “Hello?” she rasped into the phone.
    “Nigga, why you ain’t pick up ya cell?” Cowboy barked.
    “Good morning to you too,” Frankie yawned.
    “Frankie, I know you ain’t trying to be funny?”
    Frankie cast her sleepy eyes to the digital clock, which read 9:30am. “Cowboy, it’s too early for this shit.”
    “Oh, you leave me stranded last night and you got the nerve to have a fucking attitude? What the hell happened to you?”
    “Ask ya bitch what happened to me!” Frankie snapped.
    “Come on, Frankie, I told you that shit wasn’t bout nothing so stop acting like that.”
    “Wasn’t about nothing,” she snaked her neck as if he could see her. “Cowboy, how long do you think I’m gonna put up with this shit? You can’t keep sticking your dick in these young girls you love so much and running up in me. I respect my body too much to let you keep playing craps with our lives. If you can’t be true to me, don’t be shit to me.”
    Cowboy sighed. “Frankie, you know I love you, mommy. Mutha fuckas talk out of jealousy and your overactive imagination always tries to convince you that it’s true. On my kids, my heart only beats for Frankie Five-Fingers.”
    “Cowboy, you can’t keep hurting me,” she said, half burying her face in the pillow so he couldn’t hear the sobs. “One day I’m gonna get fed up and bounce, I swear I am,” she tried to force the power of truth into the words, but it wouldn’t come. “I’m better than this.”
    “Hush with that foolishness, baby,” he cooed. “I’d rather die a thousand deaths than force one day of misery on you. You’re my better half, Frankie Five Fingers and I couldn’t go on without your strength,” the lies rolled off his tongue so easily that he actually believed them. “I went through with that thing last night.”
    Frankie’s mind immediately switched to
money
mode. “You tried to pull a two man job alone? You fool son of a bitch, you’re lucky you didn’t get killed!”
    “I’m a’ight, but I can’t say the same about young Pablo.” Pablo was the coded nickname he and Frankie used when talking about