"Another one lost" By @mrviquez

Summer's re always mild in in Buffalo NY.  Probably because the Winters are pretty cold with regular round the clock snowstorms.  Not no little five inches either but a foot or better.  The city is split in four different parts.  North and South Buffalo and  the East and Westside.  Crime in the East and West was the highest in the city.  Leaving North and South Buffalo wide open to commit crimes under the radar.

Antonio was a 27 year old Puerto Rican from the WestSide.  He moved to South Buffalo and had been living there for about two years.  Things were going pretty good for him.  He had a job paying a decent wage, plus he painted houses on the side for extra cash.  He was a felon and was out of prison for about 3 years.  When he was 17 he shot some dude from his block.  He got ten years and did seven coming home with 3 years of parole.  He had about two weeks left on parole to finally be a free man.  Life was definitely great.

Antonio had just bought a dope Benz.  He just slapped some chrome 22' rims with a head knocking system.  

His barber still worked in the WestSide.  Pablo had been cutting his hair since he was 10 years old.  It's a religion to stick with the same barber in the hood.  Pablo wasn't just a barber he also robbed drug dealers in his spare time.  Nobody knew that he was a stick up boy.  The only one was Antonio.  I guess they had built a trust between them.  

Antonio got to the barber shop at around ten in the morning.  He was the only customer there and Pablo was the only barber.  

"Dimelo, what's up you getting a cut son?" Pablo said.

"Hell yeah yeah I need a cut.  I'm gonna go see my daughter tomorrow for the first time!" Antonio said with a huge grin on his face.  

When he got arrested his high school girlfriend was pregnant and she didn't even know it.  While he was locked up she found out that he had been cheating on her with a couple of her friends.  So he received a letter from her stating that she was pregnant and that he would never know his child.  At the time this didn't even bother him.  Antonio was young and dumb and didn't appreciate life yet.  When he was released three years prior he had attempted to contact his daughter's mother. But she had moved to another state.  By the time he was able to reach her his daughter she was almost ten years old.  Her mother never spoke bad about Antonio in fact she spoke well of him and made up a little white lie that he was in navy.  Antonio begged her to bring her daughter back to NY to see him but she refused.  She told him once he completed his parole he could come see his daughter at anytime. 

"Word that's what's up.  I know you been dying to see her all the time.  Ya daughta gonna think you a celebrity wit dat benz you got." Pablo just stared out the window admiring the car.  Not everyone had a brand new benz in the hood.  

"Man keep it real you must be doing something on the side to afford that car fam." Pablo said puffing up his chest.

"Relax.  Have you ever heard of a car note.  My credit is a 720 dog, they basically paying me to drive this shit.  Listen man just stick to the cutting and let me stick to drivin' whips you wish you could drive." Antonio just sat in the chair laughing shaking his head. 

Pablo started cutting his hair.  He had been cutting his hair so long he didn't need to ask him what kind of cut he wanted.  They were almost finished with the cut when Pablo remembered he wanted to ask him something.

"Listen fam I know you been doing this whole 9-5 shit but I got something that might change your life. Before you start shooting me down let me just let you know all you gotta do is ride in the trunk of my car." Pablo paused and waited to get a response.

Antonio just sat there looking at Pablo like he was crazy.  "Before I say one thing I'm just gonna let you finish telling me ya little mastamind plan.  Please do continue." Antonio said.  Crazy thing is, he was actually intrigued.

"Okay Okay at least I got your attention.  Listen I been buying ounces of dope (heroin) of this cat for stupid cheap and I knew he had that weight on him.  So two months ago I asked him for a half a brick (half kilo-gram) and the dude straight told me....Its about time!!!!. So yesterday I told him I need 5 big boys (kilos) and he said he gonna meet me at seven o clock tonight." Pablo paused to see if Antonio was even listening.  There was no need to further go into detail with the plan Pablo knew Antonio knew what had to be done.

"You have somebody lined up to buy that kind of weight." Antonio responded quietly.

"Yessss I knew you was gonna be down to--" Antonio cut him off in mid sentence.  "The only way I'm doing this is if I get half,  that's 50% not a penny less and I want to be there when you sell the bricks." Antonio knew that he had no choice but to agree with these terms.

"Ok you greedy bastard meet me at Jim Steakout on Allen at seven tonight." Pablo was a lil annoyed because he was the one who had all the intel on the little caper tonight.

Antonio got home took a shower and cracked open a beer.  He picked up the phone and called his daughter in Florida.  The phone rang twice and a mousy little voice picked up the phone.

"Hello who is this?" asked the little girl.  " It's your Pops.  How are you doing little princess?"

"I'm fine just excited to finally meet you tomorrow.  Are you going to live in Florida now?" She had always dreamed of being able to have her daddy in her life.  Now it was finally becoming a reality.

"Well come to think of it I am going to move to Florida once I'm done with the Navy.  I want to be able to pick you up from school and spend as much time with you as possible." Now that Antonio was possibly going to have some extra cash he could go out to Florida to be closer to his daughter.

They finished up on the phone and said their goodbyes.  Tomorrow will be a brand new day.  He will be off of parole and onto a new life with his daughter.  Only one more loose end to tie up.  Money.  Can't do anything without money, no matter how much he loved her.  It was almost seven and it was time to go meet Pablo.  Antonio went into the basement to go get Demon.  Demon was the desert eagle he had for the last three years.  Just having this gun in his possession no matter the reason will get him back in prison asap.  But in this day and age it's better to have one and not need it than to need it and not have one.  Antonio wasn't gonna drive so he called a cab instead.

By the time he got to the restaurant Pablo was outside standing looking like he was ready to go to war.  Antonio jumped out the cab and saw that Pablo had been smoking angel dust.  This is not the way the night should have started.

"Yo what's good why you lookin' all fucked up homie.  This some serious shit we 'bout to do fam." Antonio couldn't afford to let anything let anything go wrong on this little job.

"I'm good man, I got the car around the corner.  Don't worry if I looked fucked up or not just make sure you do you part." Pablo said a began to make his way to the car.  They jumped in the car and sped away.  After about fifteen minutes they stopped and Pablo told Antonio to jump in the trunk.

Antonio got in the trunk and Pablo told him jump out of the trunk once it popped open again. Pablo slammed the trunk and hopped back in the car.  He drove for about another 15 minutes and then he stopped.  After about five minutes he could hear two muffled voices coming from inside the car.  He tried to make it out but couldn't understand anything.  All of a sudden the trunk popped open.  Pablo must have opened it from the inside.  A rush of adrenaline washed over him as he hopped out the trunk with the gun firmly gripped in his hand.  Antonio snatch the guy in the passenger right out of the window and put the barrel of the gun in the guys face.  The man looked terrified and confused.  Antonio then hit him in the head with the butt of the gun.  His head instantly split open and blood began squirting out.  The man wrenched in pain as he grabbed the top of his head.  He grabbed the duffel bag with the drugs in it ans slid it to Antonio.  He grabbed it hopped in the passenger seat and Pablo pulled away. 

"YEEEAAAhhhhh we paid bitch!!!!!" Pablo screamed as he drove quickly to escape the area.  "What's in the bag?" Pablo could not wait any longer to know how much they had scored. Antonio opened up the bag and was shocked with what he saw inside.  15 tightly wrapped kilos of 100% pure Heroin.  Just one kilo alone cost almost 70 grand.  They had hit the jackpot!!!!!

"We got 15 joints in here fam.  15!!!!!!" Antonio said proudly. "Let me see!" Pablo said reaching for the bag.  "You need to watch the road you not even-" Antonio stopped in mid sentence as he turned to see two bright lights and then darkness.

Antonio opened his eyes gasping for air.  He felt extremely disoriented not know where he was and what had happened.  All he remembered was 15 Kilos.  His eyes began to adjust to his surroundings and he noticed he was laying on the street and his leg was caught under the car.  As he looked in the car he could see Pablo hanging upside down from his seat belt with no life in his eyes.  Pablo was dead.  At that very moment Antonio realized that he needed to get away from this accident because there is a lot of drugs and guns in the car.  If the police came and he was still here his life would be over.  This would be his third strike and with this much drugs is a one-way ticket to life in prison.  All he could see is his daughter waiting for him and he will not let her down. 

He tried to pull away from the car and he was making some progress.  Every pull crushed his foot a little bit more but he didn't mind the pain.  Rather him than his daughter feel the pain of abandonment for the rest of her life.  

"Sir are you okay?"

Without turning around he knew exactly who was asking him that.  The way he said sir he knew it was over.  Antonio turned around and said.

"I'm okay but my friend is dead officer."

15 Kilos 

I hope you all enjoy this Short Story more to come

Until the next post

STEEM ON!!!!!