He didn’t bother to look at me as he grabbed his chair and dragged it over to the door. I thought he was going to leave the room, but he pushed the chair against the door and plopped down in it.
“Why in the world are you sitting in front of the door like that? How are people going to get in and out?”
“That’s the point.”
“How are the doctors and nurses going to check on me?”
“They know how to knock. Everybody else can stay on the other side.”
“Wow.”
“Am I still securing you, or can I go home? I don’t have to be here. You calledme!” he spat.
“It was just a question, Kannon. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“No, you meant to get on my fucking nerves. We already know you don’t trust me to protect you, so why did you even call?”
“How can you even say that?”
“You fucking left, Carteay! You left. You knew what kind of danger you were in with those people. I’m sure it was even worse than you told me. You knew what they were capable of, and you put yourself back at their mercy. I asked you over and over to let me protect you, and you fucking left! Now we’re—” He shook his head, cutting himself off before he could finish his statement.
“Kannon, you are the only person in the world that I know I can trust to protect me. If I thought I could trust anyone else, I wouldn’t have drug you back into my shit.”
“I could’ve lost you, Carrie. Obviously, you’re not taking this shit serious enough. Look what he did to you. What the hell do you think I would have done if this shit would have been worse? What if you weren’t able to call me? What if he . . . what if he killed you, Carteay? You think I would be able to live with myself if we were in the morgue instead of this cold ass hospital room?”
“I was trying to protect you,” I managed to croak through the lump in my throat.
“I don’t need your fucking protection. You need mine!” he snapped.
“I know, Kannon. I know I need you. I can admit that. Now can you please get me out of this freaking hospital before someone finds out where I am? I’m sure the label plans tosend Cyrus up here to make a big production with flowers and paparazzi when he finds out which hospital I’m in.”
“You never have to fear another man as long as I have something to do with it. Let his ass come. You think I don’t want to see him about this shit?”
“I’m not sure he’s actually coming. I’m just saying that’s typical of them.”
“What’s the name of the other security company the label uses?”
I shrugged my shoulders. I had never really thought about it. “I’m not sure, but I can find out.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve already got somebody on it. Get some rest, Carrie. I’ll take you home when they discharge you.”
“To my house? I can’t go home, Kannon.”
“Get some rest, Carteay,” he said before closing his eyes.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and tried to get some rest. I knew it would be next to impossible, but the least I could do was try. It wasn’t like I wasn’t completely exhausted. As soon as I closed my eyes, I started to drift off to sleep.
I must have been way more tired than I imagined because I opened my eyes to pitch darkness. It was early morning when I woke up. Breakfast hadn’t even been served at the hospital yet. Now I was cloaked in darkness.
As I adjusted myself in bed to get more comfortable, I realized two things: I wasn’t in the hospital anymore, and I was tied up. Panic struck me as I tried to sit up. My ankles were tiedto the footboard, and one of my wrists was tied to something over my head. I could move but not enough to reach my feet.
“Kannon!” I yelled.
Knowing his affinity for tying people up gave me hope that he was the one responsible for tying me to the bed. I had no idea how I had gotten from the hospital to this dark room. I couldn’t remember anything. I didn’t know what the hell I would do if someone else other than Kannon had tied me up. As I shifted my weight to try to sit up, Kannon’s warm, woodsy scent on the sheets gave me enough comfort not to have a heart attack as I screamed his name again.
“Kannon!”
The dull headache squeezing what was left of my brain should have been a red flag. I probably needed to be in the hospital just as much as Carteay after rushing into that building and not finding her where I thought she would be. That nigga really drugged my baby. I was going to fucking kill him. Death was too easy for him. I had to make him suffer first.
