Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
IVY
I let my vision blur as that familiar grief returned and sadness dominated the room. Whenever I thought of him, my chest squeezed painfully and fire ignited in my veins, hungry for revenge. Sofia Volkov was on a lot of radars, but she was a very difficult woman to find.
The business of Athair’s will had lingered over us for months, and the day had finally come. Why it took so long, nobody seemed to know. A part of me was also terrified that Athair’s secrets would be revealed today.
My brothers sat around me, but I didn’t look over. I couldn’t. Ever since Athair’s passing, they’d been smothering me, so I could only imagine how they’d act if I told them my chest felt tighter than it ever had and that I also might be sick in the potted plant to my left.
Thanks to my eavesdropping, I knew they feared retribution for his involvement with Sofia. Hence, I was practically a prisoner in my own home. Everywhere I went, bodyguards tailed me or I had one or both my brothers breathing down my neck. Even my birthday was a disaster—one that still gave me goose bumps whenever I thought of it.
So, most of the time, I kept to the walls of this fourteenth-century castle like some medieval maiden waiting for a knight to swoop in and save me.
Aemon sat on my right, while Bren and Caelan boxed me in on my other side. It was the time to read the will. My guess was Aemon would get most of it, and Bren and Caelan the rest. I doubted I’d even be listed—as was customary in these old families. My brothers would inherit the Murphy fortune, our enemies, and the responsibility of caring for me.
Our family lawyer sat uncomfortably at our athair’s desk, rifling through his briefcase to locate the paperwork. I just wanted to get this over with.
It’d been six months already. My brothers were busy handling the Murphy operation and cleaning up the mess left behind while I twiddled my thumbs, calling my girlfriends and living vicariously through them from dreary Ireland. My friends hadn’t been out to visit since my birthday, which left me bored out of my mind and lonely. Not to mention, I had way too much time on my hands to think about Sofia Volkov and the mysterious twins, wondering what it was that Athair even saw in her.
Although, this lonely spell was about to end.
My brothers promised I could visit the States after this business with the will was behind us.
The lawyer glanced at his watch, then at the door, and unease slithered through me. What was he waiting for?
“Can we get this started?” Aemon snapped, just as impatient. Ever since his meeting with the Callahans, he’d been on edge. Sometimes he’d look at me, and I swore there’d be pity in his eyes. But then he’d mask his expression and be the same old big brother I’d always known.
“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 he belonged here.
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 about my life, my father, 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. There was 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.
“Ivy, I know this comes as a shock?—”
“We’ll find a way out of this,” Caelan said fiercely, surging toward me and wrapping me in his arms. “I promise you.”
But I knew better than to believe it. Agreements like this could only be broken by starting wars, and I didn’t want that for my brothers. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to them.
“Just so we’re clear,” Aiden interrupted. “Whatever it is you’re planning, you must consider what it will mean for your business relationship with the Callahan mafia.”
I sighed, bringing my hand to my forehead as I prayed for strength. There was a movement and all the hairs on the back of my neck lifted. Before I had time to move, I caught a movement in my peripheral vision as Caelan stepped up to Aiden, coming chest to chest. I barely had time to blink when I realized what my brother was about to do. He clenched his fist and pulled his arm back, throwing a punch into Aiden’s face.
“I told you at the fucking club to find a way out,” Caelan said, his chest rising and falling. I knew what would follow. I jumped to my feet and moved in front of the window just as my brother lunged for him, but Aiden effortlessly restrained him. “You touch even a hair on my sister’s head, I will end you.”
Aiden glared at my brother while Aemon and Bren ripped him from the other man, keeping him at bay. The air crackled loudly while my heart pounded in my ears. “I assure you, you little Irish prick, every woman wants me to touch a lot more than the hair on their head.” Caelan kicked against our brothers, rage clear on his face, a promise of retribution. “And I promise you, women love it. Your sister will too.”
It was the wrong thing to say because now all my brothers lost their shit and lunged for Aiden, tables and chairs tumbling and cracking. My eyes darted to the window, miles of lush green grass and mist stretching for miles as I mentally checked out from the chaos inside this room.
We all knew we were only delaying the inevitable.
Eight hours later, I stared out the window of the private jet, the Statue of Liberty in all her copper glory greeting me back. The only problem was the man in the plush leather seat next to me.
I glanced at Aiden, who hadn’t said a single word since we took off from the Dublin Airport. Neither had I, but you wouldn’t see me cracking first. I wasn’t the one who arranged this stupid marriage.
“If you have something to say, do so. Don’t just stare.”
My eyes narrowed on my fiancé. “Why would I have something to say?”
He shrugged, never lifting his eyes. “Are you saying you agree with our impending union?”
“What gave me away?” I scoffed, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
He kept clacking away on his sleek laptop, oblivious to my rising blood pressure. “You haven’t stopped glaring at me.”
“And how would you know if you’re staring at your computer screen like your life depends on it,” I mused.
He knew I was baiting him. I’d been bursting to discuss how this would play out. I wanted to know the expectations—while also hoping there were none—so I could mentally prepare. I sure as fuck hoped the man didn’t think I’d fall into bed with him.
He finally lifted his head from his laptop, his gaze finding mine. Asshole tendencies aside, Aiden Callahan was a gorgeous man—if you were into tattoos, dark hair peppered with gray, and icy blue eyes. Unfortunately for everyone involved, they were the wrong shade.
“Tell me, Ivy,” he started, his voice still holding that note of indifference. “What would you like to talk about?” When I huffed and directed my glare back out the window, he chuckled and added, “I’ll give you this. You’re cute when you’re pouting.”
I raised a brow. “What are you? My brother?”
It was what they used to say to me. Of course I’d hoped I’d outgrown it, but apparently not.
He gave me a heavy look. “No, but maybe we can be friends.”
I stifled a laugh. “That would be great, if only we weren’t arranged to be married.”
“Can two people not be friends if they’re to be married?”
“Not if we would rather not get married.” I might be significantly younger than Aiden, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize the signs. The man didn’t want to get married either. “Why did you agree to it? Do you even want this?”
His lip curled in distaste. “The decision was made without my knowledge.”
“Oh.” We remained quiet for a moment, both of us lost in our own thoughts, before I found his gaze again. “And there’s nothing that can be done about it?”
“We have a duty to respect our families’ wishes.”
“It’s primitive,” I muttered begrudgingly. “Especially if neither one of us wants it. My brothers wouldn’t enforce it if you broke it off.”
“Yeah, I got that when they attacked me.” His lips tipped up as if amused at the memory.
“You held yourself well against the three of them,” I remarked.
“I’ve done my share of fighting.”
I let my eyes travel over his muscular form. Aiden was tall and objectively handsome; in another life, he probably could’ve been a boxer or model. Still not my type.
“So who wants this to happen?” I questioned. “Not you. Not me. Not my brothers. My father, obviously, but he’s dead.” That old pang pierced my chest while flames of vengeance flickered. I still hadn’t given up on my quest to find Sofia. “Who’s left to enforce it?”
“My uncle.”
“Well, let’s get rid of him.”
He threw his head back and laughed, the sound ringing through the jet’s luxurious cabin, and I shot him a surprised look. He didn’t look like someone who laughed a lot.
“That’s what you think it’ll take, huh?” he repeated, mirth still lacing his voice.
With an uneasy sensation filling me, I nodded. “Why not? We could make it look like an accident.”
He shook his head. “I guess I can see what he sees in you.”
My brow furrowed. “Who?”
“Don’t worry, Ivy. I have a feeling everything will work out just fine.” He leaned forward, putting his big palm over mine and patting it. Like I was a kid, and the gesture kind of pissed me off. “But we won’t be killing my uncle. I happen to like him.”
I didn’t share his conviction, but as the plane started its descent, he returned to his work, refusing to elaborate further.