Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
ROOTED
“Ma, what’s going on?” Dane asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes while descending the stairs in the foyer.
Inari sat up on the couch, placing the glass of tequila she’d been nursing down.
She’d just gotten off the phone with Coast, who was up feeding Iara since she was fussy and didn’t want to go to sleep.
If Mozzi wasn’t near, that little girl sensed it and became restless, giving her mama the blues.
She finally got her to sleep, so Inari told her to try and get some rest, too, and she would call her the minute she heard something.
She hadn’t let go of her phone, hoping and praying she got word from Kong or somebody soon.
“What you still doing up?” Dane checked the time and saw that it was almost midnight.
“Got a lot on my mind.” She wrestled her hands together between her legs and rocked. “What are you doing up?”
“Had a dream.” Dane lowered himself onto the sofa beside her with his hands in his lap. “About Danilo. Still can’t believe him and Mira had something to do with what happened to Lala.”
“Dane, I know this isn’t easy for you—”
“It’s not just about that, ma.” Leaning forward, he shook his head. “I fucked up.”
“Watch your mouth,” she warned, watching his head turn slightly in her direction as he hung his head.
“How can you not be mad at me? How can you still want me around after everything?” he questioned.
Guilt had been getting the best of him. It was one thing to lose his father, but he barely knew Danilo. Lala dying and being so distant from his mother is what was killing him the most. Now, all he could think about was all the ways to make it up to her.
“Because you’re my son, and I love you.” Inari grabbed his hand in hers. “Danilo did everything he could to turn you against me, and he knew exactly how to do it, by going against everything I said and did. He made me the bad guy in the situation, so he could come out looking good.”
“I was stupid. I should have known better.” Dane gave her hand a squeeze.
“You ain’t ever let me down, Ma. I should have known you had a valid reason to feel the way you did.
I guess part of me was just kind of hoping it could be different, and maybe we could be something like a real family. Something I never had.” Dane shrugged.
“Nothing wrong with that, Dane.” Letting go of his hand, she reached out to place her hand on his neck and rub the back of his head.
“Nah, Moose was right.”
“Moose?” Inari’s face bunched into a frown. “What does he have to do with anything?”
“Oh, we just been talking.” Dane leaned back.
“Since when?”
“A while now. Since everything went down anyway and he got arrested. He had a cell phone, even though he wasn’t supposed to be on it and be in recovery, but he would take my calls. Mostly at night when neither of us could sleep,” her son expressed.
This was news to Inari as she lowered her hand from his head and turned her attention to the other side of the room. She was grateful that her son had someone to talk to, even if it wasn’t her. That damn Moose, always full of fucking surprises. He’d been doing that shit since she met him, too.
“What else did you talk about?” she pried, swinging her head back in his direction.
“Sports, school… you.” Dane’s eyes drifted to his mother, who tried to remain unreactive.
“What about me?”
“He just wanted to know how you was. What you were up to. If you were happy. I couldn’t answer all the time because we weren’t talking much. I know you were sad, because of Lala. Didn’t help that I was acting like a little kid either. I know seeing Rara made you happy, though, so I told him that.”
“Listen, I was sad, okay, and I missed my son and my sister. Lala was gone, but you… you were right here, and it was like I couldn’t even reach you.”
“I know, and I’m sorry about that, ma. For real. I won’t ever do no shit like that again.”
“Language, Dane! Damn.” She rolled her eyes and reached for her shot glass on the table. “But there’s something we need to talk about. It’s Lala.”
“What about her?”
“She’s alive,” Inari confessed.
“What?” her son replied, brows crowding together above his eyes. “Ma, you sure you ain’t had too much to drink?” He nodded to her glass on the table.
“No.” She snickered. “I don’t know how it happened. I just know that she is. Moose, Kong, and Mozzi went to get her. A while ago, actually.” She raised her arm to check the time on her watch.
It had been nearly two and a half hours, so she was getting worried.
She reached for her phone to check notifications, but there weren’t any.
The minute she went to pull up Kong’s number, headlights flickered off the window, and someone pulled into the driveway.
Inari hopped up immediately with Dane on her heels.
She quickly unlocked the front door and pushed the screen open before bolting out into the brisk but cloudy spring evening.
Holding her breath on the porch, she watched the car park but couldn’t make anyone out behind the thick tint of the car windows.
“Ayla,” Inari whispered, watching Kong step out first and then extend his hand to help her sister.
She was smaller, fragile. Not like Ayla.
Her baby sister may have been meek, but she’d never been weak.
She was unsure as she looked around, taking in her surroundings carefully.
If she’d walked by her on the street, she’d have to look real hard to recognize her.
She looked homeless, with no shoes, hair standing tall, and stained clothes.
Moose hopped out the front, and Mozzi on the passenger side while Kong walked Ayla up the driveway to the sidewalk leading to the front porch.
Inari didn’t budge. Her sister locked eyes with her from the bottom of the stairs.
Dane pushed past his mother so he could run and hug her.
Although weak, Ayla took comfort in her nephew’s arms around her and fell into his embrace with her eyes shut.
“I can’t believe this!” Dane kissed her cheek, her forehead, and all over the top of her head before pushing back but not letting go, so he could get a look at her.
He didn’t care how she looked. He was only happy that she was there to begin with. “You really here?”
“In the flesh.” Ayla held onto him and tittered.
She was dizzy but didn’t want anyone to worry about her. She hadn’t had a decent meal in what seemed like forever. Dane helped her up the steps, but Kong wasn’t far behind as his brothers sparked a blunt near the truck.
“I’m good. Y’all head out,” Kong instructed when he reached the porch.
“Just like a nigga.” Moose scoffed. “Why we can’t see the reunion too? And I’m hungry,” he complained. “Nigga wasn’t eating good in Premier like that.”
Tears fell past Inari’s cheeks like rainwater when she reached out and could actually touch her heart. Ayla was the first baby she ever held or had to care for, so it was only right.
“Look at you,” she whispered. “Are you okay?”
Something flickered behind her rich brown orbs before she blinked, then nodded slowly.
“Better… now.” She took in the house and sighed.
Inari let out a cry and pulled Ayla into her arms. She held her so tight, Ayla thought she heard something crack as she struggled to take in a breath.
Bringing her arms up, she held her sister back and inhaled the familiar aroma of her perfume.
Dior. Always. Inari nudged away and searched her sister’s exhausted face.
She could tell from her dismal gaze that she had been through it.
“Come on, let’s get you inside.” With an arm around her, Inari led her through the front door.
A fresh, clean scent slapped Ayla’s senses as she examined her former home, noticing that not a lot had changed.
She stopped at an old photo of her parents and reached for it.
She didn’t think she’d ever see their faces again.
After a moment, she paused and found everyone staring at her like she was going to fly away.
Even Moose and Mozzi had come inside as she hovered near the arched doorway to the living room.
“What do you need? You hungry? You want to take a bath? You still have clothes in your room upstairs.” Her sister pointed anxiously to the staircase.
“Some water and a bath sound amazing.” Ayla forced a smile on her face. “I hope I’m not spoiling this reunion or anything. I’m just… kind of tired.”
“Of course you are.” Inari’s brows bunched together.
“We can talk, just… not right now.”
“Dane, grab her some fresh towels, please, and a bottle of water. Get some fruit, too. Just in case,” Inari instructed. “You okay with the stairs, or you want to use the bathroom down here and maybe sleep in the living room?”
“No.” Ayla shook her head. “Sleeping in my bed sounds perfect. I can make it on my own. I remember the way.”
She grabbed the railing and started up the staircase, leaving Kong and Inari staring after her while Moose and Mozzi made their way into the living room. Inari turned to Kong once she figured her sister was out of ear shot.
“What happened?” she pried. “Where is that bitch Mira?”
“She’s swimming with the fucking fishes.” Kong slid his hands into his pants pockets and ambled into her living room, where his brothers took up space on the couch. “We found her whole operation where she was running girls. Had them all locked up in cages like fucking animals.”
“Oh my God.” Inari gasped. “Was… did she do that with Ayla?”
Kong looked at her. Jaw tightening as he thought about all the things Ayla could have been through in the last four months.
“I don’t know. She hasn’t said much since we found her.” He paused near the fireplace. “She did say our son was alive.”
“Son? It was a boy?” Inari asked.
“She said she remembers giving birth, hearing him cry, and then he was gone. Mira took him. No telling where he is now.”
“Wh… well, we have to find him!” Inari shrieked. “Mira didn’t say anything before?”