Chapter 10
Icame so hard that I would have blacked out if it weren’t for Carteay’s confession.
Her voice snatched me out of the abyss and thrust me back into reality.
She’s what? Now all the crazy shit she had been eating and even her claim to have quit drinking to work on her health hit me at once.
When my body finally relaxed, I found my voice.
“Untie me, Carteay.”
“Why? Are you mad? I’m sorry. I was gonna tell you.”
“Is he mine?”
“Who said it was a boy?”
“Is he mine?” I repeated.
I didn’t know why her hands shot to her face.
I needed her to talk to me. I used the hand that I’d been able to get free to remove her hands.
It broke my heart that there were tears in her eyes.
It didn’t matter to me if the baby was mine or not.
I just wanted to know. I wasn’t going to abandon her.
Still, I couldn’t help but hope that it was mine.
“What’s wrong, baby?” I asked.
She sniffed. “I don’t want you to hate me, Kannon.”
“I could never hate you, baby. Talk to me.”
“I don’t know if it’s yours. I don’t know how far along I am, but I haven’t had my period since before I came here the last time. I took a test before the incident with Cyrus.”
“In that case, I don’t want to know if he’s mine.
We’re not going to try to do all that calculating and figuring shit out.
You’re mine, so he’s mine. I’ma take care of y’all.
I don’t have to be hands on with my business.
The only time I really do it is for you.
I’ll follow you on the road if I need to. This can work, Carteay.”
“Kannon, you don’t have to stop your life.”
“Who said something about stopping my life? You’re part of my life. I should have known it was something. I knew you were getting more beautiful every day for some reason. Now I know it’s because you’re glowing. I want to do this with you at least ten more times.”
Her pretty brown eyes ballooned, making me chuckle. “Ten times, Kannon?”
“Don’t worry. I’ma take good care of you. You know that.”
“You don’t even know how this pregnancy is going to go, and you’re already planning on doing this ten more times?”
“I’ll do the heavy lifting. You just be pretty and cook our babies. If you saw what I saw right now, you would understand, gorgeous.”
“Let’s just do one at a time and see how it feels.”
“That’ll work.” I nodded. “Now can you untie me, woman?”
She laughed as she removed the handcuff from my wrist. “I was so caught up in the moment. I almost forgot you were tied up.”
I scooted down the bed to help her release my feet. Her little maniacal ass had all kinds of knots in the ropes that were on my ankles.
“If you think you ain’t marrying me, Carteay Hoyt, you’re crazy. I’m not about to be no single dad of twelve. Frisky is already a bastard as it is. We’re not doing that again.”
Her eyes ballooned. “Twelve?”
“OK, seven.” I shrugged.
“Let’s get this one here first.”
“I’m excited, Carteay,” I confessed.
“Wait a minute, did you call Frisky a bastard?” She giggled.
“We ain’t married yet, girl. You gotta make an honest man out of me if I’m going to be out here spreading my seeds in your garden,” I teased.
She giggled, making me smile. It was good to see her relax. “OK, Kannon.”
“It’s gonna be OK. You know that, right? You don’t have anything to worry about.”
“You can still tie me up, right?” she asked, lifting her brows.
“Yeah, baby. I won’t do anything that’s not safe for our son.”
“OK.”
My heart soared at both the idea of this life that was coming into the world and the fact that Carteay was asking if I could still tie her up while she was pregnant. That meant she was putting it back on the table.
“Can I tell my brothers, or are we waiting? You know both of their wives are pregnant. I didn’t know how left out I felt until I had news to share of my own.”
“A lot has happened. Let me go to the doctor first. I haven’t even had a checkup.”
“Man, I just realized that I can spray the club up all I want to! It just keeps getting better.” I grinned.
Carteay shook her head, but her little cute ass was still smiling. “Not that it ever seemed to matter anyway. Only you would think of something like that.”
“Shit, I can’t believe I’m gonna be a dad.” I blinked my eyes like crazy once I realized that they were getting watery.
“I don’t want to put this on you if you don’t want it. Don’t try to be OK with it if you’re not, Kannon. I’m a big girl.”
“Shut up, woman. I’ma try to act like I’m not offended right now. Close your ears, Son. Your mama didn’t mean to disrespect daddy like that.”
“You sure you want this?” I asked.
“I don’t like repeating myself, Carrie Ann.”
Her smile grew. “You’re going to be the best daddy in the world, Kannon.”
As soon as I was sure I’d swallowed the lump in my throat, something started to register. “Have you told him?”
“Yeah, I had just found out.”
“Is that why he did that shit, Carteay?”
Her eyes darted around the room. She usually did that when she was trying to find a way to change the subject. I didn’t need her to answer the question. I jumped up and dashed to my closet. This shit ended tonight. Carteay scrambled out of bed and followed me.
“Kannon, what are you doing? We have a son to think about.”
“A nigga tried to kill you and our son, Carteay. I was wondering what would possess that man to drug you. Now I know.”
“This is why I was scared to tell you. I can’t have you flying off the handle when you’re my biggest supporter. I need you, Kannon.”
I fell back against the wall as I thought about what she said. That nigga really tried to kill my son. I already planned to make him suffer, but now I was really going to make him feel it.
“I don’t even have time to speak to you about keeping shit from me because we need to go. Come on. Let’s take a shower so I can take you to the hospital.”
“What?”
“They didn’t check on my son at that hospital. They didn’t say anything about a baby. I don’t even know if they knew you were pregnant or knew what to check for. We have to go make sure he’s OK.”
Carteay walked over and stood in front of me before wrapping her arms around me and laying her head on my chest.
“Relax, baby. He’s fine. They did check on him. That’s why the doctor asked you to leave the room when she talked to me. Everything is fine so far. I haven’t been bleeding. I haven’t been cramping. I’m still having cravings and a little nausea throughout the day. I know that the baby is fine.”
I scoffed before kissing the top of her head. Carteay could be sure all she wanted to, but I needed a medical professional to check them both out.
“Well, I’m anxious right now. So, either I’m going to find that nigga and remove his fingers and toes with a pair of vice grips, or I’m taking my girl to the hospital to make sure our son is OK.”
“It’s late, Kannon. I would rather stay in and play and wait to go in the morning. I’m already exhausted. I’m sure you’re tired too. We had a long day.”
“I’m not going to be able to sleep, knowing something might be wrong with either of my babies.
” Carteay lowered herself to her knees in front of me and looked up into my eyes as she took my dick in her hands.
Thankfully, she had just drained me. “Get up, C. You can’t be down there like that.
I already don’t want you walking as it is. ”
“Fine, but don’t try to join me in the shower.” I pulled her to her feet, but she snatched away from me.
“How the hell you gon’ be mad about somebody trying to take care of you, lady?”
“Because you do the most. I’m fine, Kannon,” she said as she stomped out of the walk-in closet.
“Your little ass wanna be stubborn, but I’m not letting up. Get in the bed, Carteay. Now.”
She spun around on her heels and put her hands on her hips. “You don’t tell me when to go to bed. I can stay up all night if I want to.”
“You sure can,” I said, not breaking my stride until I picked her hardheaded ass up and tossed her over my shoulder.
She started giggling like crazy. “Kannon, put me down.”
I slapped her on the ass before laying her on the bed. “Are you going to defy me like that in front of our son?”
“Wow, you’re already doing the most.” She threw her head back.
“I’m just asking, Carteay.”
“I’m not trying to defy you, Kannon. I’m trying to keep you from doing something crazy.”
“If I’m saying get in the bed, does it sound like we’re going somewhere?”
“I’m talking about you.”
“And I’m talking about you. You running a nigga crazy out here. I’m ’bout ready to start smoking or something. You out here running away from home, flaunting a nigga on TV, getting drugged, and sent to the emergency room. Plus, you hiding a baby from me, Carteay. What is going on?”
“Kannon, you’re really exaggerating right now. I wasn’t hiding the baby. I was waiting for the right time to tell you, especially after what happened.”
I didn’t want to hear any of that shit. Carteay needed to understand the importance of being up-front with me.
I couldn’t protect her if I didn’t know what to protect her from.
I wouldn’t have known to protect the baby if I didn’t find out she was pregnant until she started showing.
Now there was a rush on me getting Cyrus out of the way.
Carteay could say what she wanted to say, but I didn’t see a way around killing his ass.
He had gotten away with way too much shit.
If I was a police ass nigga, I guess I could have turned him in to the authorities, but nah.
I’d rather just kill him. Actually, I was sticking to my original plan of ruining him, then killing him.
“You just proved my point of why you need to go to the hospital.”
“I know a gynecologist that could come by on call, but it will have to be in the morning.”
I plopped down on the bed and ran one of my hands down my face. “She better be here bright and early, Carrie.”
“She will, baby. Now come to bed.”