Page 15 of Joey

“He comes from a good, loyal family. He’s the same age as her. He’s got brains. He’s respectful. From what Ash said, he didn’t make any moves. They’re friends.”

“So, you’d be happy with your sister dating him?”

He frowns at me. “He’s not the worst guy she could date, Max. Actually, I think he could be good for her.”

I grind my teeth together and keep my mouth shut. If I disagree with him, he might see right through me.

Dmitri’s surprised to see us when we pull up at the gates of his house, but he welcomes us inside. A few moments later, we’re seated opposite him and his younger brother, Kyzen, in the study.

“I wasn’t expecting you, Dante,” Dmitri says with a frown. “Is something wrong?”

“Just want to know where things are at with your former boss,” Dante replies.

Dmitri glances at me before he looks back to Dante. “As I told Maximo last night, it is proving more difficult than I’d hoped to find Pushkin. He has a lot of friends.”

“Even after everything they’ve found out about what he was involved in?”

“The tide is turning against him, slowly. People have accepted that I’ve taken over, but Pushkin has many allies. He was their leader for over twenty years,” he reminds us in his slight Russian accent.

“It’s turning too slowly,” Dante says.

“We are doing everything we can,” Kyzen pipes up.

“Did I fucking ask your opinion?” Dante asks, a deep scowl furrowing his brow.

“We can only work with what we know,” Dmitri interrupts, shooting his brother a warning glance. He’s always been much more levelheaded than his younger sibling. “I promise you that we will deliver him to you soon. Everyone knows he is the man in the frame for killing your father,” he says pointedly.

Dmitri doesn’t know Dante murdered his own father, but I suspect he knows that Pushkin didn’t do it either. The two men were in business together for years. Still, he’s never pushed for more of an explanation than the one Dante gave him months ago. He was already preparing to orchestrate the takeover and having the Morettis’ backing to do so escalated and fortified his plans.

“And this is why I can’t sit back while you chase your fucking tail trying to find him, Dmitri,” Dante snaps. “I cannot put my father’s death to rest until we have vengeance on the man who killed him.” Dante and Lorenzo have played the dutiful role of mourning sons perfectly and managed to convince the entire world that Pushkin killed Sal, but there’s only so long his death can appear to go unpunished.

“I understand,” Dmitri says with a solemn nod. “But I swear to you that I am doing all I can.”

“Do more,” Dante says calmly, but the threat in his tone is implicit.

“It would be a hell of a lot easier if we could have blown the whole trafficking ring wide open from the start,” Kyzen retorts. “But instead we had to protect your family name.”

Dante turns in his seat, but he doesn’t have time to respond before I’m on my feet. I grab Kyzen by the throat, pull him up, and squeeze until he struggles to breathe.

Dmitri stands too, but Dante signals him to sit his ass back down and he does.

“You ever speak to Mr. Moretti like that again, you piece of shit, your brother will be cleaning your tongue off his carpet. You got that?”

He glares at me even as his face turns purple, but he nods his understanding, and I drop him back into his seat.

“We’ve been friends for a long time, Dmitri,” Dante reminds him. “There’s no reason to waste this opportunity to strengthen our alliance, but if you don’t deliver some results soon, I’ll be forced to take matters into my own hands.”

Dmitri bristles. He knows that could make him look weak after he openly challenged Pushkin for leadership. “I will find him.”

“See that you do.” Dante stands, and I follow him out of the study. There’s nothing left to say.

“You going to stick around when we get back to the house?” he asks me as we reach his car.

“I wasn’t planning on it.” I promised Kristin I’d do more to look for her father today.

“I haven’t seen much of you this past week.”

“I know. The new casino deal is keeping me busy.” That isn’t a complete lie. We’re in the process of buying our own casino, and it’s occupied a fair bit of my time, partly because the current owners, Ralf and Micah Strauss, are resistant to selling outright. They want to form a partnership, but that shit isn’t gonna happen.