And Playing the Role of Herself (Frankiana)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I leaned out of my car and pressed the buzzer to the intercom outside Kiara's gated estate, pulling back and saluting the camera mounted above the intercom.

"Good afternoon, Miss Mackey," came a voice that I recognized as Risa, Kiara's housekeeper.

"Afternoon, Risa. Is Kiara in? I know she's not expecting me, but I'd like to see her if she's around."

There was a long pause, while presumably Risa checked with Kiara, and I glanced in my rear-view mirror, noting that the white sedan and black toyota camry that had been tailing me most of the day were pulled up on the side of the road a safe distance behind me.

"Persistent little buggars," I muttered, squinting behind me and hoping neither car would try to follow me through the gate.

There was a loud click and the gate started creaking open. "Come on through, Miss Mackey. Miss Takahashi is most happy to see you."

"Thanks...ah," I glanced in my mirror again, "Risa? I've got some paparazzi on my tail - I don't want them to follow me in..."

"Don't worry. Miss Takahashi's lawyer made the last photographer who tried to sneak in very sorry...they won't follow you."

I drove through and the gate closed behind me with a solid clang, leaving my lurking paparazzi friends on the other side. At times like these, I understood the attraction of a gated property. I had no such barrier around my house, and I'd been dealing with groups of photographers and reporters hanging around my yard, as well as the annoyance of my neighbors at having their lives disrupted, since returning from Cebu two days before. The neighbors had all been thrilled when I first moved in, excited to have a TV star in the neighborhood, but the crowds of press generated by my disappearance, added to this recent group of campers, had changed their minds, and I'd been seriously considering relocating just to get them off my back.

I pulled up in the circular drive and climbed the steps to Kiara's door, pushing my sunglasses up on my head and shifting the bag I carried into the opposite hand. I rang the doorbell and in a few moments, Risa, opened the door, smiling slightly.

"Miss Macky, nice to see you. How was the trip?" She stepped back and gestured for me to enter.

"Hi Risa." I smiled, and stepped past her. I reached into the bag and pulled out a rolled up tshirt with the UKG's logo printed on the chest with the signatures of the hosts. 

The small smile she'd given me at the door got noticeably bigger; a rare occurrence for the normally stoic woman. "Oh...thank you, Diana." She took the tshirt carefully.

"You're welcome." I grinned, pleased at her reaction. The use of my first name meant I'd scored big points. "Where's the mistress of the house?"

"She's in the atrium," she informed me. I nodded and headed in that direction, frowning when she called out after me, "Careful of the dogs."

I frowned. Dogs? Kiara didn't have any dogs.

Puzzling over her warning, I walked past the stairway and rounded the corner, letting out a girlish scream when two large, hairy, furiously barking bodies threw themselves against the sliding glass door that led into the glass walled atrium.

"What the fuck!" I jump back, nearly dropping the bag I was carrying.

"Bonnie! Clyde! Down!" Kiara spoke firmly, rising from the couch where she'd been reading and walking to the door. The two creatures from hell immediately quieted and lay down, morphing into two attentive and almost harmless looking German Shepherds.