Instead of responding, he punched the steering wheel.
“I let my mom buy the house herself, so it’s not on any of my paperwork. My sister is in college though. It’s public knowledge where she goes to school. When I was laying low with you before, they sent pictures of her on campus, saying they would hurt her.”
“Have her go to your mom’s, Carteay.”
“She’s not gonna listen. They don’t even know about the contracts.”
“It might be time to let them know what’s going on. Plug your mom’s information into my GPS. I can’t risk taking you back to my house.”
“OK.” I nodded.
“Still think your boy should keep his job?” he asked, glancing over at me.
We had been on the road for two hours before I could convince Kannon to stop and let me get food. I couldn’t believe that someone had tried to kill me. Kannon’s words about when I wasdrugged were starting to set in. Maybe they had been trying to kill me the whole time.
I tried not to pout as I sat in the passenger seat and ate the steak gorgonzola that was decent but nowhere near as good as the place I had in mind. Plus, they didn’t have chocolate cheesecake. At the same time, I was more than grateful to have escaped the scene with my life. In fact, I would probably never eat at that other place again.
I had lost my taste for food altogether, but Kannon insisted that I didn’t let what happened ruin my mood. He was a fool to think that my mood wasn’t absolutely ruined, but like I said, it was sweet of him to try to help. To make it better, Kannon had some, too, but messed his up by slathering it with hot sauce. I kept saying I didn’t know what in the world I would do without him, and he kept making me see how good a question that was.
Someone had literally tried to shoot him to get him out of the way. I knew that was exactly what it was. They knew that Kannon would do everything he could to protect me from the goons at the label. They wanted him out of the way so they could get to me.
My phone rang, and I rolled my eyes as I continued to enjoy my meal. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now. Especially Tyler, who I figured would be blowing me up by now anyway. I wasn’t surprised when I finally picked up my phone and saw his name. I sent the call straight to voicemail before tossing my phone in the cup holder.
“Who was that?” Kannon asked, not bothering to look my way.
“Tyler.” I didn’t want to tell Kannon who it was, but there was no use in trying to keep it from him. I’d already been taught a lesson on hiding things from him. I didn’t need to learn it twice.
“You shoulda picked up the phone so I could tell him to make sure he has all his affairs in order.”
“I don’t know if he did this, Kannon.”
“It ain’t for you to know. He’s either in on the bullshit, or he’s a liability. Who else did you tell about the meeting?” Kannon quizzed.
I dropped my eyes to the plate in my lap. “No one.”
“Answer when he calls back.”
“I don’t want to talk to him, Kannon.”
I barely had enough time to finish my statement before the phone rang again. Kannon picked it up and swiped the screen. He didn’t say a word before none other than Cyrus Gibbs came on the line.
“Call your people off, Carteay. This shit done went far enough.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Cyrus?” I quizzed.
“That crazy muthafucka just tried to kill me!” he bellowed.
“Again, what the hell are you talking about?”
“So, you wanna play dumb?” he asked.
“Watch your fucking mouth,” Kannon snarled.
“Aye, man, this shit is never that serious. First, y’all blew my ride up, now a nigga shooting at me.”
“Nobody’s shooting at you, Cyrus,” I explained.
“So, you want to act like y’all didn’t just try to lure me to a meeting with Tyler and have me killed? Tyler claimed that he wasn’t even going to let you know I would be there. Soon as I pulled up to the location, a nigga started letting go. Thankfully, my guys stopped him, but this shit gotta stop. That’s what I was going to talk to y’all about today.”
