Page 56 of Sweetest Sin
“Yet, had you arrived a few minutes later, he would’ve been taken.”
“I know,” he says. “I fucked up. I got a couple of cryptic texts, and we traced them back to Coral Bay, but I didn’t think they knew about the two of you.” He looks at me, his eyes filled with raw emotion. “We didn’t know they were going to go after you and Damien, but Matteo insisted on coming to Coral Bay after he saw the texts. We were just pulling up to your place to demand you and Damien leave with us when we watched them walk up to your door.”
He curses under his breath, clearly affected by what happened, but I don’t have it in me to comfort him because he did this.
“I went around back while Matteo and Scotty, one of the men who works for us, took the front. I grabbed Damien while my brother got you, and Scotty handled the guys.”
“Who were they?” I ask again.
“We don’t know yet. Our guy is running their prints to see if anything pops up. Normally, we’d interrogate them, but …”
“But they’re both dead,” I finish.
“We weren’t risking it with you and our son,” Dominick says. “But I can assure you, once we figure out who is responsible, we will take care of them.”
20
Dominick
It was close.Too close. Had we shown up a few minutes later, Peyton and our son would’ve been gone—or worse, dead. Since we don’t know who is responsible, we don’t know what their intentions were.
We have their phones for our IT guy to go through, but I’m not taking any chances. Until we know who is after me and my family, everyone is on lockdown.
My thoughts go to Brielle. She’s going to be pissed. She just got home, and now, she’s about to be a prisoner in the house she despises.
The rest of the ride is quiet—though Peyton’s glares are plenty loud.
Scotty takes off once we arrive at the airport, and Matteo rides with us back to the house. The entire drive home, Peyton holds a still-sleeping Damien while I watch the two of them, hating how much I’ve missed of my son’s life. His first words, first steps. He’s almost four now.
Has he asked why he doesn’t have a father?
I always told myself that I would be a better dad than mine was. I wouldn’t force my child into this life. I would let them follow their dreams, and I would support them.
But Peyton took it all away from me the moment she made the decision to not tell me about my flesh and blood.
I want to hate her for it, but a part of me gets it. It’s the reason I didn’t go after her all those years ago. She’s sweet and innocent, and I didn’t want to taint her with our shit. Brielle could watch a man get murdered in front of her and not blink an eye. My mother has witnessed men get tortured and then sat down for dinner like it was just another day. But Peyton merelyheardme take a man’s life and ran scared, refusing to tell me that she was pregnant with my baby.
I can admire her protectiveness. It’s obvious she’s a good mother to our son, giving him what she can with what she has. But she’s no longer his only parent, and she’s going to have to get used to me being around because they’re in my life now and there’s no leaving.
When we pull up to the property, Peyton’s eyes widen. The home is situated on a few acres of land on the outskirts of North Harbor Point. Andrey built it over thirty years ago when he earned his first million, and it has since been renovated to be brought into the twenty-first century.
Our car stops in front of the black wrought iron gate with a largeAin the center, and one of our men steps out of the guardhouse to ensure it’s us—they know better than to assume.
After the gate opens, we drive down the driveway. The two-story home, complete with a circle drive and an obnoxious fountain in the middle—which my mother loves—comes into view. Despite Peyton trying to hold in her emotions, a small gasp leaves her parted lips.
“You live here?” she questions, letting her curiosity get the better of her.
“We all do,” I tell her. “Though my mother is probably out.”
After a few weeks of her rarely being at home, I asked the guard I had on her what she’d been up to, and he confirmed she was dating someone. After having her boyfriend investigated and learning he wasn’t a threat, I let it go. She hasn’t told us about him yet, but I’m assuming she will once she’s ready. She knows we support her moving on from Andrey.
With me just having learned about Damien, I haven’t had the chance to tell her about him, but I have no doubt she’ll be ecstatic to learn she has a grandchild she can dote on.
“It’s late,” I say as we exit the vehicle and head toward the front door. “I’ll show you to a guest room. Tomorrow, I can give you a tour of the place, and we can figure out which rooms you guys want.”
Peyton shoots daggers my way, but doesn’t argue since she’s still holding our little boy in her arms.
“Do you want me to carry him up?” I offer since there are a lot of stairs and he’s got to be heavy from her holding him for so long.
