Page 68 of Joey

“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 youareour 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?”