The Grind Don't Stop by L. E. Newell Page B

Bow; anyway me and one of the workers had some hard words. Man, I was ready to pull my shit on his ass and would’ve too if it wasn’t for Cynt grabbing my arm. And that nigga Don sided against me. Even had Red Tony going along with that bullshit. And y’all know that I been looking out for that nigga for years.” He leaned back in the seat and looked at them one by one. “I’ve got to get those muthafuckas back for that, yo.”
    Cynt moved his arm and sat down on his lap. “How you want to handle it, baby?” Everybody at the counter knew she was dead serious, for despite her small stature, she didn’t hold back in the least when it came to protecting big dude.
    Duke leaned back smiling proudly, feeling good about knowing his little soldierette was down for whatever. “Sweet stuff, I’ve been working on something all the way over here; trust that there.”
    He pinched his nose and looked undereyed at Sparkle. Sparkle knew he’d already come up with some really devious. He cranked his neck from side to side, pinched his own nose and looked undereyed right back at him.
    When Duke started scratching his chin with his baby fingerand cocked one brow, they all knew they had to get ready for one helluva time. Some real drastic stuff was about to go down and all of them would have to be involved regardless of how dangerous it may get.
    He stared directly at Sparkle. “Baby boy, you remember that time back in the white elephant that we got old man Moore to steal all the cards out of the commissary and Googie’s slick ass helped us fix ’em up over the weekend and put them back in the store?”
    The words had barely left his lips when Rainbow’s face brightened up. “Oh, hell yeah, man, we kept the whole joint broke for the whole fucking summer. Niggas couldn’t figure out what the fuck was going on.”
    â€˜B’ slammed his thighs so hard that it made everybody jump and he burst out laughing. “Uh-huh, shit, we’d still be living high off the hog off that lick there if we hadn’t gotten out.”
    Sparkle jumped in, “Come to think of it, nigga, you never did give me the money for those fifty dozen billfolds I sent out in your name from that game we had on the yard for the Fourth of July. Let me see, that’s like fifty dozen times fifteen dollars a dozen plus. What’s it been now—ten, fifteen years, uh-huh, fifteen years of interest, it would come to.”
    He started counting his fingers. They all yelled, including the three girls, in unison, “Nigga, shut the fuck up.”
    Big Duke was smiling cheerfully right along with everybody else and then coughed into his fist. “Man, on the serious side, I feel like we can pull some of that same shit off on those niggas at the 617.”
    â€˜B’ looked around at all the girls who had gathered around listening to the conversation. That didn’t fit well with him at all. He took a long gulp of his drink and cleared his throat. “Y’all hoes need to find something to do.” When they didn’t react quickenough for his satisfaction, he stood up and shouted, “Y’all bitches, all of y’all get the fuck to the muthafucking car right muthafucking now.”
    They sprinted out like the place was on fire. The last one, Cynt, who was still sitting on Duke’s lap eyeing him shyly, started pouting and then left when he nodded for her to follow the rest. ‘B’ sat back down. But not before he stared down every patron in the joint until they turned away from his evil eyes.
    Rainbow folded his arms across the counter and stared at Duke. “Man, you must really be pissed off about this shit. How in the fuck are we supposed to pull something like that off? We don’t even know where them niggas buy their cards from.”
    Duke folded his arms across his big stomach. “I ain’t said a damn thing about buying no