“You ready?” Moose questioned, looking to his left where she stood and sizing her up.
Inari’s jaw tightened, but she didn’t hesitate.
“Let’s do this.”
Feet crushing the snow beneath their feet, Kong, Moose, and Inari approached the cabin porch together. Once he picked the lock, Kong turned the knob and slowly stepped inside. Pine and smoke from the fire filled his nostrils, and the warmth inside the cabin wrapped around all of them.
“Get off me, man!” Dane shoved his father and turned to the living room entry.
Danilo went for the pistol behind his back the moment he saw Kong and Moose. Too late. Kong already had his weapon aimed at his head.
“The f—” Dane’s face balled in confusion when Inari slid in behind them.
Moose moved first, slamming Danilo into a wall and snatching the gun from behind his back.
“What you doing?” Dane demanded. “Ma, the fuck going on?” Looking between her and Danilo pinned against the wall, his brows furrowed.
“You need to listen to me.” Inari stepped forward, steps slow and measured.
“Listen about what?” Dane shook his head slightly. “Why are you here?”
“Dane.” Her voice cut through his panic, very firm and grounding like always when she had something to tell him.
Pausing, her son searched her puffy, red eyes. He’d never heard her like that before, and it scared him. Something had wrecked her. It was written in the somberness now residing in her expression.
“I’m sorry, baby.” Inari’s face wrinkled in pain, and tears glistened in her eyes. “Your auntie Lala is dead.”
“Wh—” Dane stumbled back like someone had punched him in the gut.
He blinked, once, then twice.
“What you talking about, Ma?” He struggled to breathe and gradually lowered himself to the sofa.
“She’s dead, and he’s the reason why.” Inari’s voice recovered, stronger, angrier; her eyes shifted to her child’s father.
Moose tightened his grip on the Balmain sweater Danilo wore.
“She’s a fucking lie!” he spat, fighting against Moose.
Inari inched closer, pausing with about two feet of space between them before she swung. Her fist connected to his jaw, rocking him into the wall. Moose snickered, and Kong remained in the doorway, waiting for Danilo to try anything. Dane’s breathing changed. It was faster, shallower as he jumped to his feet.
“You’re lying. You gotta be. This shit don’t make no sense!”
“It might not make sense to you because you don’t know everything.” Inari faced him, fist still throbbing a bit as she opened and closed it at her side. “I have proof, but I won’t show you. I won’t do that to you.” Her lip quivered. “You shouldn’t have to see what they did to her.”
Looking past her at Danilo’s tight grimace darkening his face, Dane took in a deep breath. His chest ached, like a part of hisheart had been cut out. Ayla was dead. His auntie. His Lala. How? Why?
“Tell me she’s lying,” he addressed his father, desperate to make sense of some of this.
Danilo only gaped back at him. A flicker of malice lingered there, and he tried to replace it with a softened glint, but Dane had already caught it. He didn’t want to believe that his father was the type to do something like this, but the truth was, he didn’t know him. He didn’t remember him as a child, and their conversations while he was locked up were brief. Danilo was practically a stranger to him aside from sharing the same DNA.
“I didn’t make that call,” he said.
Final words. It was clear he wasn’t going to take any type of accountability for himself. Bringing his hands to the top of his head in disbelief, Dane backed away from him.
“Ma, she’s really dead?” He spun to Inari, tears clouding his vision.
Briefly closing her eyes, Inari took a breath. This was the moment. The same one she didn’t want to have with herself, but she had to. When she opened them again, she wasn’t Dane’s mother. Not right now. Turning away from her son, she looked at Danilo, lip busted, panting with a menacing scowl. He’d never stop coming for her if he lived. Dane would continue to be weaponized against her. Danilo was relentless.
