Page 18 of Sweetest Sin (Tempting Love #1)

Dominick

Four and a Half Years Later

“Anthony’s been approved to bid at the city auction.” Lorenzo walks into my office and has a seat. “The little fucking snake is going to be a problem.”

“I should’ve taken him out when I had the chance,” Matteo says, sitting in the visitor seat next to his best friend and glaring at me.

“There’s no way he has the funds.” I lean back and steeple my fingers. “Nobody in this city would give him a loan or back him. We made sure of it.”

It took about a year to cut ties with Rothschild International, but the CEO who bought out the company was agreeable, not wanting to spend time or money caught up in court.

When Anthony and his mom, Maria, found out Joseph had sold the company instead of passing it down to either of them, Maria used his life insurance to buy a new house just outside the city, wanting to start fresh, while Anthony lost his shit and took off.

We haven’t heard from him in years, but apparently, he’s back, and he wants to play games.

“Well, someone didn’t get the memo,” Lorenzo says, throwing a file onto my desk.

I open it up, and sure enough, his name is on the list of bidders who are planning to attend the property auction this week.

Several months ago, a hurricane came through and fucked up hundreds of acres in South Harbor Point. The area was old, taken up by homeless and drug addicts, bringing the value of the city down, so they decided rather than try to restore it, they’d sell off the lots to the highest bidder.

With the development having taken off in Coral Bay, when I saw how many parcels were available, I brought my idea to Matteo and Lorenzo, suggesting we buy up the lots and replicate what we had done in Coral Bay—which was a success and has taken our level of wealth from nine to ten figures.

With the city auctioning off over two hundred acres, if we play our cards right, we could purchase enough to create a gold mine in our city.

A high-end shopping mall, residential buildings, condominium development, a private golf course, a luxurious new hotel—everything North Harbor Point has, but shinier and newer.

“We need to find out who’s backing him,” I tell Matteo and Lorenzo, who both nod in agreement. “With the auction this week, we can’t risk anything going wrong.”

“The schedule showed you’re heading to Coral Bay this weekend. Think I can catch a ride with you?” Lorenzo asks. “It’s family weekend at Coral Bay University, and I was thinking about going since our parents went every year …”

His words hang in the air as we all take a moment to remember how fucking crazy the past few years have been.

After Andrey and Joseph died, we created a new business relationship with Giuseppe, who was smart enough to see that he was outnumbered, and it would be better to work with us rather than against us.

He started stepping up, training Lorenzo to eventually take over Russo Property Group, and everything was going smoothly until a few months ago, when Lorenzo was awoken in the middle of the night to learn his family home had been burned to the ground.

Both his parents were asleep and died in the fire.

An investigation proved it had been arson, but we haven’t been able to get a lead on who’s responsible or why they did it.

The only thing that was gained by their deaths was Lorenzo inheriting the company.

He was given fifty-one percent of Russo Property Group and appointed the CEO while his sister was given the other forty-nine percent.

Once she graduates, she’s planning to move home and help him run the company.

So, the fire was either a successful suicide attempt or someone had it out for Giuseppe.

We spoke to Maria since he had killed her husband, and she admitted that there was no love lost when Joseph died. We’ve considered Anthony as a suspect, but until we can catch his slimy ass, we have no way of proving it.

“You should go,” I tell Lorenzo. “Daniella might say she doesn’t care if you do or don’t, but she wouldn’t mean it.”

“Speaking of which,” Lorenzo says, “how’s Brielle?”

“She’s coming home.”

Matteo glances at me in confusion since this is the first he’s heard of this. “Does she know this?”

“No, but she doesn’t have a choice. With our grandparents both having passed away, she can’t be in Russia alone.

She’s been hiding out long enough. I get that she lost somebody she loved, but it’s time for her to move forward.

After I attend Jaimie’s wedding, I’ll be taking the jet to Russia to get her. ”

“Oh shit.” Matteo snorts. “This is going to be interesting.”

Over the past four and a half years, we’ve only seen Brielle when we went to visit her, and every time, she was frosty toward us.

I tried to talk to her, to find out what we had done for her to behave this way, but every time, our grandmother would intercept and tell me that she needed time to heal.

With Mom traveling, I let it go. But then our grandfather died from a heart attack, and shortly after, our grandmother passed in her sleep, leaving Brielle alone in Russia.

Our mom has been home for the past few months and agrees it’s time for Brielle to come home.

“It will be fine,” I tell him. “Brielle isn’t a child. Surely, she’ll be reasonable.”

This time, it’s Lorenzo who snorts out a laugh. “Name a woman who’s reasonable.”

“My mother,” I say with a shrug.

“The woman who arrived home after being gone for three years and proceeded to burn everything Andrey had bought in the backyard, so the fire department had to be called out?” Matteo laughs. “Oh, yeah, she’s full of reason.”

“She was going through one of the stages of grieving,” I point out.

“Face it,” Lorenzo says. “We’re surrounded by crazy-ass women in this city, and it’s why we’re all in our thirties and still single.”

Ignoring Lorenzo’s comment, I get back to his original question. “You can come with me, but you’ll have to charter a flight home since I’m heading to Russia after the wedding.”

“Hey, maybe you’ll find a bridesmaid to hook up with.” Matteo waggles his brows. “Need a plus-one? It’d be nice to dip my pole into some new waters.”

“No,” I deadpan. “While I’m gone, I need you to handle shit. But first, we need to figure out this Anthony bullshit. We didn’t do all this work for him to slither in and bite us when we aren’t looking.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Anthony barks, stomping over to me.

It’s been over four years since I last saw him, and time has not been good to him. With greasy blond hair, pale skin, and a beer gut nobody our age should have, he looks like he’s spent the past several years sitting in front of the television instead of getting his act together.

Sure, his dad didn’t leave him shit, but if I were in his shoes, that would’ve motivated me to prove my old man wrong and make my way in this world without his fucking money.

“Hello to you too,” I tell him, glancing around for Matteo.

We’re in public, surrounded by city officials, investors, and the management company that’s running the auction, so as much as I’d like to take this fool out, I need to be careful.

I might have most of the city’s police force in my pocket, but there’s only so much they could do if I killed the guy in front of everyone—or if he ended up dead shortly after our encounter.

“They fucking denied me because of you,” Anthony spits.

The auction has ended, and between Russo Property Group and Antonov Enterprises, we’ve scooped up over one hundred and fifty acres in land.

We were hoping to get a few other parcels, but they went to a couple of different bidders.

We’ll figure it out though. With the land we have, there’s only so much they can do with the parcels they bought.

We’ll contact them and offer them a number they can’t refuse, and then we’ll be set to put our real estate development plan into motion.

“No, they denied you because you’re unstable, and if you default on your loan, they’ll lose their ass. How did you get preapproved anyway?”

“Eric Vanderbilt vouched for me.”

Mayor Vanderbilt? Hmm, that’s interesting.

We’ve been butting heads with the newly appointed mayor since he was sworn into office.

We’d had a great relationship with Paul Astor, the previous mayor, who unfortunately reached the last term allowed.

Everything was set for his son, Paul Jr., to become the new mayor, when he was in a car accident that forced him to drop out of the running and allowed Eric Vanderbilt to slide in and win.

Something about it always felt shady to me, but now that I know Eric vouched for Anthony, my interest is piqued.

We don’t know much about Eric, aside from him being a conservative family man. He has a wife and daughter, and every Sunday, you can find him at church, sitting in the first row.

“How do you know Mayor Vanderbilt?” I ask casually, watching closely to see how he reacts.

Just as I suspected, he flinches, showing his cards.

“First, you guys took what belonged to me, and then you killed my father,” Anthony hisses, avoiding my question. “You’d better watch your back because, thanks to you, I have nothing left to lose.”

I wait until he’s gone before I pull out my phone and send Matteo a text.

Dominick: I need you to take out the trash.

He doesn’t text back, but I know he’ll handle it. We discussed this when we found out there was a chance Anthony would be showing up today.

Only now, we have one more person on our hit list—Mayor Eric Vanderbilt.

With the auction out of the way, I head home to finish packing for Jaimie’s wedding.

Despite the distance, we’ve become close these past few years.

I don’t have many friends—in my line of work, it’s hard to trust anyone—but he’s one of the few I consider an ally.

So, when he invited me to attend his wedding, I accepted.