“I did everything I fucking could!” Moose clapped back, standing toe to toe with his big brother, both huffing and puffing. “I got the intel on Mira’s operation. I was waiting for the word from my inside man on when to move. I couldn’t go in there on some half-ass shit because it would have gotten Inari fucked off too.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.” Moose sighed, lowering his eyes to the ground. “She found out about me and the heist and then got the message about Ayla, so she left.”
“I suggest you push all that other shit to the side and find her! The fuck you think they gon’ do to her now? Inari ain’t got shit to lose at this point. How do you think she’s gon’ come at them now that her sister is gone?” he questioned.
Kong was surface-level calm. Underneath, every part of him trembled, and there was an ache in his heart that he’d been trying to prevent this whole time. Ayla. Pretty, sweet face, soft voice. Gone. He couldn’t connect the words and make them make sense, so he took a step away from his brother and quit trying.
Bobbing his head, Moose adjusted his jacket around him. Lucky for him, he had Inari’s location too. Kong wasn’t wrong,but Moose wasn’t in the right headspace to deal with her now. Dragging his hand down his face, he took a breath.
“Fuck it. Drop me her pin.” Kong tapped his phone screen. “Take yo’ ass in there and check on Mozzi and Coast. Tell them something came up, and I had to go.”
“What you gon’ do?” Moose asked, watching him yank the door open to his ride.
“Whatever the fuck I need to do,” Kong replied, hopping in his driver’s seat.
He’d heard the words, but he didn’t want to believe them. Until he had all the facts, he wasn’t taking anybody’s word for shit. There was no way God would do this to him again. Not her. It was supposed to be different. He shifted his car into drive and yanked out of the parking lot, studying his screen to track Inari. He recognized the location as the house she and Ayla grew up in, so he sped up and headed in that direction.
Inari let herself into her home, the deafening silence unbearable. Closing the door behind her, she pressed her back against it and listened for something. Anything. All she got was the hum of her fridge and the rustling of the heat through her venting system. Sinking to the ground, she kept her knees propped in the air with her hands clasped together between her legs.
She went through her purse for her phone and immediately went to her text thread with her sister. She’d talked to her earlier about hanging out with Mozzi and Coast, but Ayla was tired, so Inari told her some other time. She added in a separate message that she really needed to tell Kong, but Ayla never responded. Inari knew after the Hawaii trip that her sister was torn between her heart and her head. She’d fallen for Kong, and even if he feltthe same, his actions told a whole other story. He’d committed himself to another woman, and Ayla had fooled herself like so many others. She didn’t realize plenty of men were about self-preservation.
“Ayla,” she whispered. “What happened?” she wept, studying her sister’s smiling face on her caller ID picture. “Talk to me,” Inari pleaded, as if she could hear her.
She didn’t have to keep looking at the video. What happened to her sister now played in a loop. Her face, then fire, then an explosion.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The wood throbbed against her back as someone pounded on her front door. Quickly shuffling to her feet, Inari took a breath. That was an official knock. She knew it when she heard it. She had to put her game face on. The police couldn’t know she knew Ayla was dead before they told her. It would cast too much suspicion on an already dicey situation. She cracked the front door open after unlocking it and squinted out at the officers standing on her porch.
“Can I help you?”
“We’re looking for Inari Jacobs,” the ginger-haired officer announced.
“I’m Inari. Is something wrong?” she queried, holding her breath as red and blue lights from their police car bounced off her house.
“Ms. Jacobs, I’m very sorry to have to tell you this… but your sister, Ayla Jacobs, was killed this evening in a car explosion,” he announced.
“What?” Inari’s voice trembled, and her hand slipped from the door.
Although she’d already seen it for herself, hearing someone else make it official left her chest caving.
“What do you mean?”
“There was an accident, looks like her car engine caught fire. She was trapped inside, and the car exploded.”
“So, how do you know it’s her?” Inari questioned.
“The license plate was visible. We also found her wallet on the scene and this.”
The officer held up a gold chain with a gold locket, and Inari’s heart cracked when she reached for it. She didn’t know when Ayla started to wear it again, but it was a gift she bought for her on her 16th birthday. A photo of each parent was inside.
“I don’t understand. Wh—what happened?” Inari’s somber eyes drifted from the necklace she’d grabbed from him back to the policeman taking up her doorway.
“We are still unclear on some of the details ourselves, so the chief has called for an official investigation. Our medical examiner will also be reaching out. They will do an autopsy for an official cause of death. If you need anything, please feel free to reach out to me.” He held a business card out to her. “Very sorry for your loss.”
Inari let the tears fall freely this time. She could barely make out his name on the carbon paper because her vision was so blurred.
