Roy Glenn - In A Cold Sweat

Her man?

Mystique knew it was stupid, but she was falling in love with Mike Black. Whether he felt anything for her or not, Mike Black was her man. She had something none of the other hoes there had and so many wanted. When he walks in every jealous-ass bitch in this joint knows he’s here to see me. They all know he is my man, Mystique thought as Black got up and started coming in her direction.

“Hey, handsome,” Mystique said and touched his face. Something else she loved doing.

“What's up with you?”

“I’m fine.”

“I know. How’s your night?”

Mystique looked around the room. “Well, you know I just got here, and from the looks of things, it’s gonna be a slow night.”

“I know you just got here, I saw you when you came in. But I asked about your night. The night didn’t begin when you got here, or is this all there is for you?”

“No, this isn’t all there is for me, but I am hopin’ that my night is just beginning.”

Black looked at Mystique without commenting on what she said. “Come here. Let me talk to you for a minute,” he said and took Mystique by the hand and led her up the stairs to Cynt's office.

Black knocked on the door, and not getting an answer, let himself in. “I want to ask you something,” Black started, but Mystique had other ideas.

She threw her arms around his neck and forced her tongue down his throat. “I missed you, baby,” Mystique said when she stopped to take a breath.

Black looked in Mystique’s eyes and thought about the part she played in his decision not to see Jacara that night at the Sheridan and leave the island. “I missed you, too.”

Mystique got wet hearing those words coming from him. “Whew.” She took a step back from him. “What do you want to ask me?”

Black leaned against Cynt's desk and folded his arms across his chest. “Do you like working here?”

“I like the money.”

“You could do other things for money.”

“Sure I could,” Mystique said, smiling inside in anticipation of where Black was going with this. She wanted to say, but if you want me to stop shakin’ ‘your’ ass in here every night I will quit tonight, but she didn’t want to get ahead of herself. “I would much rather train, but I don’t have enough clients yet to replace this money.”

“You let me worry about money.”

“So what are you sayin’?”

“You know what I’m sayin’.”

“Yeah, I do,” Mystique said and stepped to his chest. “But I wanna hear you say it.”

“Mystique! You don’t work here anymore. I’ll compensate Cynt for her loss of income, but you don’t work here anymore.”

His words were music to her ears. Maybe he didn’t say I love you, but he definitely stepped up to the plate and claimed her. Mystique couldn’t have been happier. “Are we leaving, now?”

“No. I got something to do.”

“You found out who tried to kill your wife, didn’t you?”

Black looked at Mystique. “Never ask me about my business. The less you know about what I do, the better it is for you.”

“I understand. When will I see you again?”

“I don’t know. You go home and I’ll call you later.”

“Yes, baby.”

With that said and done, Black and Mystique walked out of the office. As she made her way through the club to the dressing room, she saw Black stop and talk to Cynt before leaving with Bobby.

“Guess you’ll be leavin’ soon, huh?” one of her haters said.

“Yeah, and I won’t be back.”

“What?”

“My man don’t want me dancin’ here no more,” Mystique smiled and went to change clothes at Cynt's for the last time.

“Where we going?” Bobby asked.

“Stark hunting,” Black said as he got in the car.

“I thought you told Freeze to handle that?”

“I changed my mind. Why? You got something to do?”

“Nope.”

Black and Bobby had been riding for hours, checking out all of the spots Freeze said Stark hung out at. By two in the morning, Bobby had had enough.

“Don’t you wanna go back to Cynt's and pick up amazon Shy and call it a night? This nigga gone underground hidin’ from you.”

“Yeah, you're right. I just wanna roll by one more spot then we’ll call it a night. Ride up White Plains Road,” Black instructed.

As the two drove down the street, they passed by one of the spots that Freeze told them that Stark frequented. They saw a familiar car. “Isn’t that Angelo’s car?” Black asked.

“Looks like somebody got a case of jungle fever tonight,” Bobby replied, knowing Angelo Colette’s fondness 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.”