CHAPTER ONE
SWEET DREAMS
“Inari, baby—” Moose knelt and reached for her.
She flinched at the thought of his touch and yanked away. Eyes shutting tight to block the burning tears, Inari whimpered.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” she screamed, tears streaking her face before finally breaking down and staring into her phone where the video played.
She knew what she saw, but her heart didn’t want to believe it. Not her sister. Not Ayla. Shaking her head, she rocked without consent, chest tight, like her next breath would never come. Her pain quickly shifted into anger after reading Danilo’s message again.
“What’s happened?” Moose pried, squatting in front of her.
She finally brought her eyes up to meet his. This man. He’d quickly made himself a factor in her life, and now she hated him for it. Examining his muscular frame and handsome face, something cracked inside her. Just another thing in her life swirling the drain.
“What happened! You want to know what the fuck happened?” Inari jumped to her feet. “My sister is fucking dead!”
Moose’s brows immediately wrinkled together when he stood.
“What you mean? I just saw her at the Shack not long ago.”
“What?” This was news to Inari.
“She was there when I went to get our food. She said she was going back to the house, but some dude approached her when we stepped outside.”
“What dude?” Inari’s face dissolved into a grimace.
“I don’t know. Justin, I think. She said she knew him from school, and she was good, so I left.”
Now there was an empty sinkhole in the pit of his stomach. Slowly, his eyes closed, and he thought about how every instinct he had told him not to let her leave with that nigga. He was too worried about getting his hands on his product. Inari’s gaze shifted from Moose, and she tried to remember this Justin person. She was drawing a blank, and it pissed her off. She and her sister had been so disconnected lately, and that wasn’t like them. Inari snatched her gun off the floor and let it linger at her side before diverting her oval-shaped eyes to Moose.
“You left?” Inari repeated.
Moose eyed the gun in her hand and then stared her dead in the face.
“She said she was good. I was there long enough to watch them get in her car and take off. Who sent you the message?” Moose reached for her phone and tapped the screen.
What he saw made his blood run cold. The fire, Ayla bleeding and unconscious. It was enough to trigger his nervous system and make him nauseous. Stroking his beard, he shook his head.
“Fuck!”
“You said you would take care of Danilo and Mira. That’s what you said.” Inari’s voice was deadly calm, sending chills over Moose’s flesh as he watched her warm eyes shift into something dark. “Now, my fucking sister is dead! This is why I don’t put mytrust in anybody. I don’t even want to talk about what you did to me at Vintage Vault!” She brought a hand up like she wanted to swing but waved it to shake off the spirit that was itching to take over.
“Nari, that?—”
“I don’t want to fucking hear it!” she spat, getting in his face. “You’re a liar! Stay the fuck away from me!” She bumped past him, but Moose wasn’t letting her just walk off.
When he grabbed her arm, Inari immediately turned the pistol on him, and something slipped out of his jacket pocket. Moose released her, throwing his hands up in surrender. He didn’t want that kind of smoke with her. Anybody else, he would have already put a hole in their head and watched them bleed out on his floor. This was different.
“Touch me again, and I’ll send you to your mama,” Inari snarled coldly, eyes drifting to the floor.
It was fucked up, like a punch to the gut, but Moose had to take that. She was grieving and hit with the memory of what he did to her the night of the heist. Lashing out was all she could do in the moment, or she’d end up on the floor crying and would never stop.Ayla is dead.It played on repeat over all her other thoughts.
“Is this what you left her for?” Inari scooped up the cocaine off the floor. “Too small to be a distro pack. So, it must be personal.” Scoffing, she shook her head and shoved it into his chest.
How had she ignored all the signs?
Moose studied the hatred bouncing around her orbs, and his chest tightened. The admiration she used to hold for him was gone, and he didn’t think it would ever come back. She snatched up the duffel bag full of her things she’d packed, along with her purse, off the couch, and stormed out.
