FULL NOVELXO Joey: Chapter 28
Kat doesn’t say anything when she walks into the dining room where Dante, Lorenzo, and I are sitting with Kristin. She simply sits beside me, reaches for my hand, and gives it a gentle squeeze, letting me know she’s there. My brothers have been grilling Kristin for over an hour, wanting to know everything she knows about where Max was going and why. Unfortunately, it appears she doesn’t know more than what she already told us.
I’ve spent that time quietly observing her. She’s young and vulnerable, yes, but there’s a quiet strength about her. She’s not as naive as she looks. Maybe it’s her huge doe eyes that make her look so innocent. Does Max stare into her eyes the way he looks into mine? Has he made her promises and broken them too?
Every few minutes, I remember what he’s done, and a fresh wave of pain crashes over me. My heart physically hurts—a deep, visceral ache in my chest. And then I look at the girl sitting across the table. She’s eighteen years old, almost nineteen, and she’s six months pregnant with a boy. How could Max cheat on her too?
Dante was right, Max DiMarco is not the man I thought I knew.
“Everything okay, kitten?” Dante asks his wife.
“I’m just about to put Gabriella down for the night and wanted to let you know that Sophia made dinner. I think it’s important our guest eats something.”
“I-I’m okay,” Kristin stammers. “I just want to find Max.”
“And we will,” Lorenzo replies. “But Kat’s right. You must eat.”
I squeeze Kat’s hand in mine, steeling myself. “We’ll be eating in here anyway. And we can talk while we have dinner.”
Kristin gives me such a genuine smile in return that it makes my stomach roll. She thinks I’m her ally, but I’m the woman who’s been fucking her baby daddy. No wonder the cheating snake wouldn’t take me to his place. That anger and pain bubbles inside me once more, but I swallow it down.
Kat releases my hand and gets up. “I’ll go tell Sophia to serve dinner then.”
“I’ll come with you. I need to kiss my daughter goodnight before she goes to bed,” Dante says.
“I’ll go check on Anya.” Lorenzo follows Kat and Dante out of the dining room, leaving Kristin and me alone. I want to leave too. I hate her. No, that’s not true. I want to hate her. It would be easier than hating Max because he’s out there somewhere and he might be suffering. Or worse. I can’t think about what I’ll do if I never get to see him again.
“Do you think we’ll find him?” she sniffs.
“Yes,” I say with total confidence, but I don’t voice the rest of my thoughts—that I hope we find him before it’s too late. People don’t get kidnapped for no reason. There’s been no ransom or any other demands, so his disappearance is likely about revenge. And I know the kind of damage wrought by the people in our world when they want revenge. The mere thought of him suffering such a fate makes me feel like I’m going to pass out.
I refocus on Kristin. There are so many things I want to ask her. How long have they been together? Where did they meet? Does he take her to his cabin in the woods?
“Do you love him?” I ask instead.
“Max?”
No, Ryan Reynolds, I think, but I bite back the sarcastic response and nod instead.
She hesitates for a second, and the love-blind idiot in me sees a glimmer of hope, but then she smiles and says, “Yeah. He’s a good guy.”
Let’s see if she still thinks that when Max is back here and she finds out what he’s been up to behind her back. Because even if I don’t tell her, one of my brothers sure as hell will.
I pick at my food during dinner, barely eating a bite.
My stomach is a giant ball of worry and fear, and anything I put in there is liable to come back up. Questions constantly buzz around my head. It feels wrong to sit here eating while Max is out there somewhere, probably suffering at the hands of his captors, but Dante and Lorenzo have every available man looking for him. There’s nothing more to be done right now. Throughout dinner, they take calls and follow new leads between asking Kristin every question they can think of.
I’m staring down at my plate without seeing it when the sound of my name catches my attention. Looking up, I find Lorenzo frowning at me. “Where’s your pendant?”
I brush my fingertips over my skin where it usually sits.
My cheeks turn pink. “I left it in the cabin.”
If me mentioning the cabin means anything to Kristin, she doesn’t show it.
He sits forward in his seat, his eyes wide. “Is it still there?”
I roll my eyes. “Is that really important right now while Max is missing?”
“Yes,” both he and Dante say.
Confused, I shrug. “Then no. Max has it.”
Kristin still doesn’t react. I guess she trusts Max the way that I used to. Pair of fools, the two of us.
Dante pushes his chair back from the table and Lorenzo follows suit. “Joey,” Dante says as they walk out of the room, so I follow them, wondering why my pendant is so important.
As soon as we’re in the hallway, Dante grabs my arm. “Max has your pendant?”
“Yes. He said he was going to wear it and look after it for me.”
Lorenzo doesn’t often display his emotions, but I swear his eyes shine with joy. “You think he’s still wearing it?”
“Only one way to find out,” Dante says over his shoulder as he strides toward their study.
“Can one of you please tell me what the hell is going on?” I demand as I trail after them.
Dante’s the one who answers. “That pendant is a tracker, Joey. Why do you think we gave it to you when you went to Italy?”
“A tracker? You’ve been tracking me?”
“We track your phone as well.” Lorenzo shrugs nonchalantly. “We track each other’s phones too.”
“Yeah, but that’s different.” I don’t know how it’s different, but it is. “You told me the pendant belonged to Mom.”
“Would you have worn it otherwise?” Dante retorts.
“You know you really need to stop lying to me,” I snap.
Dante looks at the ceiling and sighs. “If Max is wearing your St. Christopher, then we can trace the signal and find him. Shouldn’t you be focusing on that right now?”
“I guess,” I admit with a frown.
Lorenzo reads off numbers from a file on his phone, and Dante types them into his computer. When he’s done, he leans back in his chair and steeples his hands over his mouth.
“What’s happening?”
“We wait for the locator to start transmitting,” he says, like I understand what that means.
“Huh?”
“It doesn’t transmit constantly because it doesn’t have a battery to sustain that kind of activity like a cell phone does. It’s activated remotely and now we wait to pick up its signal.”
“Wow. That is some fancy shit. Do I have any other tracking devices I need to be aware of?”
They both shake their heads.
“You’re sure?”
Lorenzo puts his hand on my shoulder. “We didn’t lie to you because we wanted to deceive you, Joey. We only ever wanted to protect you.”
“I know, but you’ve got to stop the lying. I’m not a kid anymore.”
“You’re here now, aren’t you?” Dante says. “Not in the dining room with Kristin. We know you’re not a kid, Joey, but you are our little sister, and like it or not, it’s our job to protect you. Just like we protect each other.”
“It’s active.” Lorenzo nods at the map that just popped up on his screen. A flashing purple dot has me leaning closer.
“Where is it?” I peer at the screen, hoping it isn’t at Max’s penthouse or the cabin.
“Cedar Rapids,” Dante says with a frown.
“What the fuck?” Lorenzo looks at our brother.
Dante closes the laptop. “Let’s go get our boy.”
The two of them immediately slip into tactical mode, like generals of an army, discussing grenades and weapons.
“I want to come too,” I say, interrupting their battle planning.
“No,” they reply in unison.
I cross my arms over my chest and scowl at the two of them. “You literally just said you’d stop treating me like a child.”
Dante grabs my arms. “This is serious, Joey. We don’t know what we’re walking into. This isn’t about protecting you, this is about going into fucking battle with our best soldiers. I love you, kid, but in this situation, you will slow us down.”
Lorenzo cuts in before I can say anything. “Part of being a grown-up is knowing when to step aside and let someone more capable do the job, Joey. We can’t focus on rescuing Max if we’re worried about protecting you. And not because you’re a girl or because you’re our sister, but because you’re just not ready for something like this yet.”
Yet? That’s a good sign. And he’s right. I would slow them down, and I need all their energy focused on getting Max back here—if only so I can kill him myself. “Fine. I’ll stay here.”
“I know it’s not easy but stay with Kristin.” Dante opens his safe and starts pulling out a variety of guns. “She’s hiding something.”
“You think?” I ask.
“Yeah.” He frowns. “Could just be that she’s scared, but something isn’t quite right about her story. So keep an eye on her, yeah?”
“Of course.”
Lorenzo squeezes my shoulder on his way out the door. “We should be back first thing tomorrow. Take care of Anya for me too?”
“Always.”