I burst out laughing. “Ooo, Mrs. Gibbs.”
“A girl’s gotta have her fun some kinda way these days.”
“I hear you.” Her girlish grin made me smile.
I carried the boxes of donuts inside and set them up on an empty table before walking over to Mrs. Gibbs.
“Give me a hug for the road,” I said, extending my arms and making her blush.
When I made it over to her, she gave me a hug. I had a thought and pulled out my phone and snapped a picture of us. “Now you’ll have something to show Lizzie in case she wasn’t paying attention.”
“You’re so bad.” She giggled.
“I know it.”
“See you next week, baby.”
“See you next week, Mrs. Gibbs,” I told her on my way out.
I wasn’t so sure of that, but I didn’t want to get into that at the moment.
Once I dropped Mrs. Gibbs off, I headed to my next stop. In the back of my mind, I was nervous about Carteay leaving again. I kept telling myself that even if she ran again, she wasn’t running from me. Still, I didn’t want her to leave. Even if I wasn’t in love with her, I would have wanted to protect her. I didn’t like a bully on any account, nor did I like the idea of somebody being taken advantage of. At the end of the day, I was here to help her.
My number one goal was to free her from the chains of her label. No matter how much I told her that she didn’t have to be afraid of a fucking soul as long as she was with me, I knew she wouldn’t be comfortable with that concept until I put some action behind my words.
Arf. Arf.
The sound of barking caused me to peek my head out of Kannon’s bedroom. I had been taking my hair out of the French braids I wore at night to keep my hair from getting tangled. It was something I did to keep from having the hairstylist come every other day like Cyrus and Tyler suggested. I didn’t need somebody tugging on my hair every day.
I had a performance next week. I had no idea how Kannon was going to act, but I planned to be there. He was already so touchy about me leaving the house that I could only imagine what he would say when I mentioned having a performance. I looked forward to the show, so I didn’t care what he had to say,because I was going. As long as he stayed close, I knew I didn’t have to worry about anything.
I was going to call Tyler and get him to let the client know that I had an injury that would cause me to have to sit through most of my performance. Technically, today was my last day to keep the weight off my foot. Instead of riding around in that wheelchair like a little fool, I had been sitting most of the time.
If Kannon wanted to wait on me hand and foot, then his wish was my command. With that in mind, I quickly hobbled over and plopped down in that stupid wheelchair. I didn’t feel like hearing Kannon’s mouth. I winced in pain as I rolled over to the door to see where the hell that barking came from.
I had been biting the bullet and not taking anything for pain. I had already been drugged. I didn’t need any more poison in my body right now. There was too much at stake. I followed the sound of the barking, expecting to see Kross.
Kannon’s brother Kross had huge dogs that went with him everywhere, so I figured he must have been there. When I finally made it to the door, instead of the big black dogs, I saw the cutest brown labradoodle.
I looked around the room but didn’t see anyone else. As I walked closer, I noticed that the dog had a note hanging from her sparkly pink collar. Something told me Kannon was behind this, so I squatted beside the adorable dog and plucked the note from its collar.
Mommy,
Daddy is really sorry for leaving you tied up. Please don’t be mad with him. He was really worried about you. Plus, you leaving him in the cold like a stray dog made him a little crazy. Let him make it up to you.
Love,
Your new daughter Frisky
I looked up from the note in time to see Kannon walking in the house with his eyes glued to the dog. The stuffed monkey under his arm made me smile, but I had to fight it off. I wasn’t giving in that easily.
“You’re adorable, Frisky, but I’m not forgiving your daddy for being crazy until he makes it up to me.”
“What I gotta do, Carrie? I feel like we’re even. You dumped me on my head like a chump first.”
“You said something about making it up to me,” I mentioned. “And you’re the one that likes Mojo Jojo, not me.”
“I’ll play fair. The next time I tie you up for two days, it will be to eat your pussy for forty-eight hours.”
