“Plan your sister’s funeral. We’ll take care of it,” Kong insisted.
“I appreciate it.” She peeped his eyes on her in the mirror before hers shifted to Moose. “Both of you.”
“I’m leaving Irv on the house, just to be on the safe side,” Kong told her, noticing his guard’s SUV pull up and park on the curb in front of her house. “If you need anything, call me.”
Nodding, Inari pushed the door open and climbed out. Her boots hit the fresh snow in her driveway, leaving footprints all the way to the front porch, where she let herself inside. Shedding her coat and boots at the door, she ran her fingers through her hair, brushing it out of her face. She paused in the arched entryway to her living room. The house was still, and then she heard Dane moving around upstairs.
Stepping over to the bar set up in the corner, she grabbed a clean glass and a decanter filled with gin. She took both over to the sofa and set them on the table before lowering herself into the soft cushions. The day had damn sure caught up to her, and she knew this was going to be the only thing that helped her sleep tonight.
Slipping into the quiet of his home, Kong paused. It was too still. No children running through the halls. No television playing somewhere in the background. No Kara crying for attention or Kyro ripping through the house like a storm with all his action figures and remote-controlled cars. It was just an eerie silence. The kind that settled in your bones. Dropping his keys onto the entry table, exhaustion plagued his face when he looked at himself in the mirror hanging above it. Not physically; it wasmuch worse. His shirt was wrinkled, his eyes were bloodshot, and his jawline was shadowed with two days of neglect. He smelled faintly like smoke and rain, sprinkled with a layer of grief he couldn’t shake.
The lights in the sitting room flicked on. Nayelli sat curled on the sofa, wrapped in one of his blankets. It was obvious she’d been waiting for him because she was wide awake with her brows knitted together.
“I was wondering if you were ever going to make your way back here,” she said softly, her chestnut eyes raking over him.
Kong didn’t respond immediately. He loosened his watch on his wrist and tossed it on the table beside his keys before stepping into the sitting room to join her.
“Where are the kids?”
“Finally asleep.” She sighed.
Nayelli didn’t feel like she was doing the best job in the stepmother department. Kyro and Kara were a handful and very vocal. Nayelli understood that they were kids, but she couldn’t stand their little asses. When they weren’t being terrors and running amuck through the house, they were always comparing what she did or how she did something to Ayla. She hated that shit more than anything.
Ever since the Christmas party, she’d been playing scenarios over in her head, finally realizing why Kong moved them out of Audiemar’s home and into their own when they married. It wasn’t for them to be a family in their own place; it was so he could get away from Ayla.
“You missed Kara’s recital,” Nay announced.
She wasn’t going to attend herself, but her mother told her if she didn’t, and Kong was already absent, it would look bad, so the two of them actually went together. For her to be such a spoiled brat, Kara was talented. At four years old, she had great composure and posture as a dancer, and Nay thought it wasn’ta bad hour and a half. Kong didn’t react to the statement, and that irritated her. Even when she was trying, he never put in any effort.
“You’ve been gone for almost two days, Kong.”
“I know.” His voice was flat.
Dead tired is what he was. Nayelli studied him carefully. She’d heard the news about Ayla. According to Phoebe, Audiemar had also been affected, and he wasn’t a man who showed much emotion. With Kong, this wasn’t just guilt over a family employee. He was devastated, and it was pouring out of him in the way he moved, how he spoke, and that dark, lost look behind his stare now.
“You look horrible.”
Kong laughed once under his breath. Not an ounce of humor in it as he went over to his bar in the corner to pour a glass of whiskey.
“Thanks.” After pouring himself a drink, he thought he’d go to the kitchen and try to put something on his stomach.
He couldn’t remember the last time he ate. Now when he thought about food, it immediately made him think about Ayla. His grip on his glass tightened.
“Kong.” Nayelli stood, stopping him in his tracks, but he kept his back to her. “Talk to me, please,” she pleaded, greeted by his stillness.
She watched his shoulders shift like he was releasing a breath.
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
That was a lie, and they both knew it. Folding her arms over her chest, Nayelli glared at his back.
“So, this is about her, right?”
“Don’t.” His eyes closed briefly, and all he saw was Ayla’s smiling face behind his lids.
“Don’t what? Hmm? Call you out on your shit?”
He gradually turned, facing her. Nearly five feet away from where he stood, she felt the warm heat from his glare. This was a side of Kong she’d never seen before. Very much cold and detached. He’d been distant before, but never like this.
