Hearts of Fortune (Heirs of Cape Canyon Book 1)

Chapter 1

SINCLAIR

“Fuck me, tell me that’s not her,” my brother Presley leaned in, muttering in my ear.

The three of us stood in a line at the altar beside our father who, like the stupid, lovesick fool he was, had decided to get married.

For the third time.

Wife number one had been my mother, who he’d married when they were eighteen, too young and foolish to realize they actually hated each other. It took them thirty years of tearing each other to shreds, one baby of their own, and my two adopted brothers standing beside me for it to sink in that they were a match made in hell.

Our father bounced back fast, though.

Unfortunately, wife number two was a walking cliché – twenty-five years my father’s junior and only with him for his houses, his money, and his malleable personality that meant she could manipulate just about anything she wanted out of him so long as she sucked his dick on demand. She didn’t stick around long, but she sure as shit took a hefty sum with her when she left him for the guy who made her coffee at the country club.

Lucky our father had more than enough money to last him seventeen lifetimes, even after establishing enormous trust funds for his three sons. The bitch wife had tried to take half of those too. She’d failed, though, because nobody fucks with me and my brothers. Not as long as I’m breathing.

I didn’t think it was likely that this latest wife would be any different than wife number two. I’d met her a few times when she’d started appearing at the house. She played the role of the doting wife and keen stepmother well, but nobody could keep up an act like that forever. Her true colors would no doubt come out the moment she moved in.

Except…this wife didn’t come alone.

She came with a daughter; one who was an absolute smokeshow now that we were getting our first look at her. She walked down the aisle towards us in a thin strap silk black dress that screamed sex, even if it did look classy as fuck. It showed off her tanned slender legs, the top half clinging to the perfect handful at her chest. Presley was a tit man, hence why he was drooling over her already. Her long dark hair was loose down her back in waves and her light blue eyes were completely devoid of any kind of emotion. Maybe our darling stepsister wasn’t as excited about this union as our new mommy had made out?

She clutched a bunch of peonies in both hands as she took slow steps down the aisle. All eyes were on her. The eyes of total strangers. As far as I knew, she’d never met any of them, myself and my brothers included. Yet her spine was straight, her shoulders back and her head high as she ignored them all.

“How the fuck am I supposed to focus with that living down the hall from me?” Dacre muttered from where he stood on the other side of Pres.

My hand tightened on my wrist clutched in front of me, my brothers and I standing tall and stoic as she approached. Our father grinned at her, desperate to make this marriage work before it had even begun, which meant he would be eager to win this girl over with his version of fatherly affection.

It wouldn’t fucking last.

And maybe it wouldn’t matter, because our new stepsister gave him nothing. She ignored all of us as she passed in a wave of coconut shampoo and Chanel perfume, to take her place alone on the other side of the altar.

“Fuck me,” Dacre said a little too loud.

Our father shot him a hard look. “Don’t even think about it. You three are to watch out for her, not try to corrupt her. There’s too much riding on this.”

We nodded once in acquiesce like good soldiers.

Our father clasped my shoulder. “I’m trusting you, Sinclair. It’s your job to welcome her to the family.”

My brothers waited until my father had turned back to his ceremony, no longer listening.

“You got that, Sin?” Presley said with a smirk. “We better make sure we welcome her to the family.”