Page 67 of Joey

“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. Iwantto 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.”