Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
A LONG TIME COMING
“Inari?” Kong’s deep voice grabbed her attention outside the hospital.
She was still outside, seated on a bench a few feet from the entrance, staring off in a daze with her arms tucked across her chest and her purse in her lap.
All she could think about was Ayla. Seeing Iara warmed her heart, but it was also bittersweet because she wondered what Ayla was carrying and now mourned the idea of being an auntie for the first time.
Kong paused when her desolate gaze locked with his on his way inside.
“Hey.” She quickly wiped away a single tear and sat forward.
“You good?”
Half shrugging, she forced a smile onto her face.
“As good as I know how to be. I just saw Coast and the baby. That made me feel a little better. She’s beautiful and perfect. Born on one of the worst days of my life… but regardless of that, something good came out of it. I’ll hold on to that. I know Lala would.”
Kong moved to join her on the bench. Sighing heavily when he dropped and rested his hands clasped together in his lap. He was still in the clothes she’d seen him in yesterday, and Inari raked her sharp eyes over him.
“Have you been home?”
“Nah.” Kong shook his head, eyes focused straight ahead.
“I don’t know what to say when I get there.
Kyro and Kara adore Lala. Like if they could live in her skin they would.
” He chuckled. “I know that feeling. She blew into our world, and my kids haven’t been the same since.
For the better. She genuinely cared about them, their well-being, and their education.
The only other person who felt like that besides me was their mother. Then she came along.”
“That’s my sister,” Inari murmured, a soft smile claiming her lips that made her heart ache thinking about her.
“She was organically good with them. Never missed a beat, even when they were terrorizing the whole house.”
Inari turned, watching his eyes glisten when he spoke.
There was no doubt in her mind that he loved her sister.
It wasn’t easy, and the situation was damn sure complex as hell.
She didn’t fully understand Kong and his intentions or why he moved the way he did, but she guessed there was some reasoning behind it.
Maybe it would forever be a mystery. He was the kind of man who seemed to be constantly tortured.
“She would have been a hell of a mother, too,” he muttered, eyes drifting to his hands as he studied the platinum wedding band.
“I never thought about having more kids after my wife. She wanted them more than I did, no need to cap on that. It wasn’t until the day Kyro was born that I realized I wanted it too.
I was just too scared to have it. Then she had Kara and she died.
She was just gone, and I was here with these two little people…
their sole parent.” He sniffled and looked off, not wanting Inari to see the single tear that slipped out, which he quickly wiped away.
She reached out, resting a hand against his shoulder.
It was the only way she knew how to comfort him.
Hugging him didn’t seem appropriate because she only now started to feel like she knew him.
All these months, he had been Moose’s brother and the object of her sister’s affection, but she hadn’t taken the time to get to know Kong and vice versa.
It was nice to know someone shared in the loss as deeply as she did.
She went into her purse, searching for her phone.
She still hadn’t talked to Dane. The sliding doors to the hospital opened, and Moose strolled out with his phone against his ear, looking left first before barking into it.
“I don’t give a fuck, Clue! I pay you, muhfucka! I said keep this shit quiet, that means don’t say nothing to nobody. Not even Mozzi.” He quickly hung up, and when his head swiveled right, his stomach tanked.
Not expecting to see Inari or Kong, he swiped his beard and tried to recover by putting on a blank expression. Face now covered in a deep frown, Kong checked his emotions and slowly rose to his feet.
“What’s up, bro? Where you been?” Moose queried, slipping his phone into his pocket.
“What bullshit you on now, Moose?” Kong cut right to it, sensing that Moose was distracted and not just with the Inari situation.
Glancing past him at Inari, Moose shook his head. She was watching him, too, waiting for a response that he wasn’t prepared to give.
“You do shit your way; I’ll do it mine,” was the only reply Moose gave. “Mozzi is having Coast discharged. She’s going back to the house until shit cools off around here. He wants us to meet him at the farm in two hours.” Moose prepared to walk away.
“Moose…” Kong’s concerned tone gave him pause.
He knew his brother. When shit ate him up, he didn’t sit around dwelling on it like him or Mozzi.
He had to do something. Idle hands for Moose often left him getting into something.
They talked about Mozzi and his unhinged behavior, but Moose was straight up reckless and didn’t give a fuck when he felt a way.
A cocaine habit on top of all that was bound to leave disaster in his wake.
“Now ain’t the time for you and that bullshit! You got a fucking problem! And that shit ain’t going away—”
“Nigga, I don’t need you telling me shit!” Moose belted, stepping into his brother’s face and going toe-to-toe. “You ain’t me, and I ain’t you!” he growled, pointing a finger in his face.
Kong had no idea what watching Ayla burn in that fire did to Moose. It wasn’t just about her, although it was fucked up, and his guilt ate at him for not going with his instincts that night. It was also about the fire that killed his entire family.
“I understand you might—”
“You don’t understand shit!” Moose spat, glimpsing Inari over his shoulder watching them.
She couldn’t deal with Moose right now, and although he pissed her off, there was still a huge part of her that gave a damn.
She hated that part of her. His lies and lack of accountability were the real issue.
Maybe he didn’t know this Justin nigga was a threat.
Ayla gave him no impression of that, but the fact that he had more than likely prioritized getting high over making sure her sister was good wasn’t something she could overlook.
Even now, she was starting to give him grace over the heist at her job.
She realized she was crazy as hell for even giving a criminal the benefit of the doubt, but who was she to judge when she had her own colorful past?
Moose stomped across the lot to his bike and hopped on it.
He revved his engine, making it purr louder and louder before speeding out of his parking spot and to the edge of the lot.
Making it roar one more time, he hit a quick right and zoomed down the block, whipping through cars like he was in a video game.
Inari watched him until he had long disappeared.
“That nigga slipping.” Kong pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration and sighed.
“How long has he been using?” she asked, standing and slinging her purse over her shoulder.
“Too fucking long. He hid it for a long time.” Kong faced her. “How did you find out?”
“I confronted him last night. He dropped the pack out of his pocket, and it was clear he wasn’t planning to distribute it, so I assumed it was his. I should have known. He was always so… optimistic and in the moment. Impulsive.”
“Don’t get it twisted, that is who Moose is.
” Kong voiced. “It’s just intensified when he’s high.
He’s always been a livewire but can sometimes be reclusive and go off and do his own thing.
He’s the only one that can sit with Jane and drink, smoke, and talk shit to her like she’s still here.
I can’t. Mozzi can’t. Audiemar damn sure can’t. ”
Inari’s heart was so torn. On the one hand, she wanted to hate Moose, but on the other, she knew it was easy to be mad at someone, and he was the closest person to her now that her sister was gone.
The person whose head she truly wanted on a platter was Danilo’s, then Mira.
Him first for being the father of her child and doing something like this that would crush him. She’d never hurt Dane in such a way.
“Tell me something, Nari.” Kong inched closer. “How would you feel if something happened to your baby daddy?”
“I would slap on a tight red dress and stroll right into his funeral with a smile on my face,” she answered, facing him.
“Even if that means it would hurt your son?” Kong hiked a brow.
“My son is better off.”
Kong bobbed his head, glad to see that they were on the same page.
“I’ve been calling him and Dane all morning, but neither of them are picking up.” She stared down at her phone screen.
“We hit one of Mira’s spots last night.”
Inari’s head popped up. “What happened? Did you find her?”
“She was gone.”
“Doesn’t surprise me.”
“I’m not stopping there. I put money on Danilo’s head.” Kong lowered his voice. “If you run me his and Dane’s numbers, I can have Mozzi run a trace. He can pretty much find a needle in a fucking haystack.”
“I need one thing from you, Kong.”
“I’ll keep him on ice for you. If you need to have last words,” Kong assured her.
Eyes filling, Inari had never been more grateful.
“Thank you.” She sniffled. “I have to go. I made arrangements at the funeral home for an appointment.”
“If you need anything, let me know. Send me those numbers too.”
“I appreciate it, Kong.”
He watched her walk away, and moments later received a text from her with two phone numbers. By the time they all said their goodbyes to Ayla he planned to have ridded the world of Danilo and his raggedy ass auntie.