Page 18 of Scandalous Kingpin

“We have one more person joining us,” the lawyer said, trying to placate us all with a feeble smile.

My brother stiffened, his gaze darting to me. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the door of Athair’s office flung open and a man strode into the room like he’d been here a million times. Like hebelongedhere.

My jaw dropped as I watched a man dressed in jeans and a white dress shirt, piercing blue eyes, and a square jaw take the seat next to Aemon.

Aiden Callahan.

“Fuck,” all three of my brothers muttered at the same time, their gazes locked on me.

A deep frown marred my brow and my hackles rose. This better not be another fucking revelation. There were only so many mystery siblings I could handle.

I jumped to my feet, confusion and uncertainty surging through my veins.

“Aemon?” I hated the way my voice trembled. “What the fuck is going on?”

My words made Aiden’s shoulders tense, and his eyes found mine. It took every ounce of willpower not to take a step back. It had to be his size and the dark aura about him. Definitely nothing to do with the beast I sensed lurking beneath the second most attractive male I’d ever laid my eyes on… No. Certainly not.

“Apologies for my tardiness,” he started, his deep, rumbling voice filling the air around me and commanding the attention of everyone in the room.

“No fucking way,” Bren hissed. “We agreed to wait.”

Aiden’s perfectly shaped brow lifted before he shifted to face me, his eyes dropping down my body.

“No, you asked that we wait. I said I’d consider it,” he reasoned, shrugging. “I considered it.”

My youngest brother’s eyes lit up, his jaw rolling ominously, when Aemon’s hand came to rest on his shoulder.

“There isn’t much we can do,” he pacified him. “It was Athair’s call.”

“What was?” I asked curiously. Why did it always feel like I was invisible when I stood among the men in my family?

“Let’s get started,” the lawyer announced, cutting through the tension in the room and clapping his hands.

Aemon’s shoulders slumped. “Ivy, I’m sorry. I was trying to buy you more time.”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Aiden stated matter-of-factly, and the self-important way he carried himself irritated the hell out of me. I couldn’t stand that he knew something aboutmylife,myfather, that I didn’t. He made himself comfortable in a chair, spreading his legs wide, making the fabric of his pants stretch across his muscled thighs. “Sit down.”

“Don’t fucking tell her what to do,” Bren, always my protector, barked.

Nonetheless, I took a seat and signaled to the lawyer I was ready. Page after page of instructions and wealth—legitimate and illegitimate—were read aloud before my name was brought up, and I straightened up in my spot.

“Ivy, my princess, you are to marry Aiden Callahan and the Murphy empire will finally have backing to?—”

My world tilted on its axis, the room spinning.

“No,” I hissed, cutting off whatever else was coming. “There is no fucking way Athair would demand I marry a stranger.” I shook my head back and forth, unwilling to believe what was happening. “There’s no way I’m marrying that… that?—”

“I’d think twice before you finish that statement,” Aiden stated, clearly unfazed by what was going on.

“Or what?” I shouted, my blue eyes met his defiantly.His eyes are the wrong shade of blue, my mind whispered. Therewas a sinking, dreadful feeling that filled my chest despite the knowledge that there’d never be anything between Priest and myself. “What kind of man agrees to marry someone he’s never met?”

I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, this sort of thing happened in our world. Arranged marriages. Bargaining for power. Using daughters to obtain more power.

My blood froze at the thought of my life becoming a bargaining chip, marrying this stranger with a smug smile. What made him—or my father—think that they could do this to me? Without a warning! I wasn’t a puppet to be played with.

Ripping my eyes from the wrong shade of blue, I turned to my oldest brother. “You knew!”

Two words. A heavy accusation.