Page 64 of Joey

ChapterTwenty-Seven

JOEY

Maybe if I glare at my phone hard enough, a dozen missed call and text notifications from Max will suddenly pop up. But of course that doesn’t happen. I know the damn thing is working because Mo keeps calling me. She’s desperate to know what happened after I left Toby’s house with Max the other night, and although I’ve told her again and again that he just brought me home, she doesn’t seem to be buying it.

She can speculate all she wants. I’ll never tell her the truth about Max and me. Well, maybe not never. But not yet.

A groan of frustration rips out of me when I get Max’s voicemail for the thousandth time. I no longer care that I’ll look like a desperate stalker when he switches his phone back on. I’m worried about him. He would never break a promise like that. Not to me.

“That thing will burst into flames if you keep looking at it like that, kid,” Dante says as he walks into the kitchen.

I’m too distracted to even give a snappy retort. “I’m worried about Max.”

Rolling his eyes, he sighs.

“I’m serious, Dante. He said he would call me.”

That gets me an even bigger eye roll, which lights the fuse of my rage. I’m aware that I sound like a lovesick teenager, but that’s not what this is. “Stop with the eye rolling,” I snap. “I’m telling you that something’s wrong. I haven’t been able to get through to his cell since yesterday morning. It goes to voicemail every single time. And I haven’t spoken to him since the night before last.”

He snorts. “If he has any sense, he’ll be staying out of the way. Hanging his head in shame.”

“Can you stop being an asshole for like one minute? This isn’t like him, and you know it.”

He pours himself a mug of coffee, his brow furrowed in a frown. “He’s probably cooling off somewhere, Joey. At his fucking cabin in the woods or something. I’m sure he’ll call you soon.”

“Can I go to his place with Ash and Henry?”

“Don’t make a fool of yourself, Guiseppina,” he says, his tone weary. “Can’t you just accept that maybe Max is not the man for you and he’s doing you a favor by staying away?”

Tears prick at my eyes. My brother is an overbearing, overprotective jerk a lot of the time, but it’s not like him to be cruel.

I open my mouth to respond, but I’m interrupted by one of the armed guards. “Boss, there’s someone at the gate. A young girl. Says she’s here about Max.”

Every hair on my body stands on end. “A young girl?”

“Yeah.”

Dante goes to speak, but I cut him off. “How young?”

His eyes dart from me to Dante, then back to me. “Um. Could be anywhere from sixteen to twenty. I can never tell. She’s pregnant though.”

“P-pregnant?”

Dante glowers at the guard. “Who the fuck is she, and what does she want?”

“She claims Max is missing and she thinks someone took him.”

My heart rate kicks up several gears, and I turn to Dante, hands on my hips. “I told you I couldn’t get a hold of him.”

With a frown, Dante tells the guard to show the girl into his study.

I pace up and down Dante’s study while he sits quietly in his chair. How can he be this calm? Max might be missing!

The same guard from before escorts the young woman in. His assessment of her age was spot on—I can’t pinpoint it either. But she’s definitely pregnant.Verypregnant.

Her eyes are bright red, and it’s apparent she’s been crying a lot. She rushes into the room, her hands flapping as she fidgets nervously. Something about her is endearing.

“Take a seat,” Dante says, not unkindly, and she sits down. “Who are you?” he asks.