Page 25 of In the Midst of Chaos

As much as I didn’t want to look, I couldn’t help it. Where Riley commanded attention looking like a hooker, Finley did it solely with her presence. I wanted to rip the buttons of her blazer with my teeth. I was so close to ripping it off earlier.

She didn’t care that most people in here looked down at her. To them, she was just a spoiled brat who got a seat because of her dad. They thought the same about my brothers and me. Most of them didn’t know the demons that lurked within.

Finley assessed the room as she slowly walked in; she looked every single suit in the eye, ignoring the side of the room where Riley and my brothers sat.

“I assume you all know who I am,” she said with her head held high.

Finley kept walking around the table, ignoring the empty seat next to Huxley. Instead, she stopped where Leon sat. A seat that used to be her father’s, but upon his death, he took it upon himself to fill.

“You’re in my seat,” she said in an even cold tone.

Leon glared at her, and I found myself holding on to the armrest, gripping it because if he said one wrong word, I was afraid I would jump up and throw the chair at him.

He chuckled, trying to sound light, but I knew Leon, and he was one prideful motherfucker, which wouldn’t go over well.

“Finley, sweetie, there’s a lot of empty seats. No big deal.”

My dick was even harder than when it was in the elevator when Finley smiled at Leon. “Right, but I want to sit in the chair my father sat in for many years. After all, I’m a Primrose, and my last name is on everyone’s checks.”

Pure rage burned through Leon’s eyes. He turned to look at my father to calm Finley down, but my father had a small smirk on his face. He was proud of her, and so was I.

“Fin, darling, why don’t you come sit with me?” My brother smiled at her, and I felt sick again.

Finley was making a play for dominance over the board, and my fucking brother was making a play for her in front of all our colleagues.

He was one cunning son of a bitch.

Finley couldn’t be a bitch in front of the board because if these sharks sensed that there was bad blood between the Crulls and Primroses, they would be out for blood. What made us a formidable empire was that we’d always stood together.

One girl had the power to bring all of that crumbling down, and the fucked-up part was I was right there helping her tear the bricks.

Finley smiled at my brother, all sharp teeth and fake innocence. “I like it here. You can look at me from across the room.”

She winked at my brother, and the smile fell from his face.

She was not meant to sit at his side, but he was meant to look up to her.

“Very well,” my father cut in. “I’d say we get this over with.”

The voting started with my father, and it would end with Finley. I watched as, one by one, they cast their votes. Most of the table had said yay, and when it got to my brothers’ and my side, it was with nay’s, also from Riley and Leon.

There were three votes left, but so far, things weren’t looking so good even with Finley’s vote. We had decided to play dumb on Joel’s disappearance and instead say he had proxied his vote with Leon. If anyone dared question it, we knew they were the ones behind the attack.

Before the next person could vote, she cut them off.

“I can’t do this,” she said as she rose from her seat, holding onto the table for support.

My father didn’t bother to give her his attention. Leon looked pissed, and there was a small smile on Riley’s lips.

“Look, I get it, the last years have been a little rough. Your income came down what…5 percent?” she asked the room. Some of them nodded, too stupid to see she was disgusted with them.

“My father, along with Axton, started this company from the ground up. They didn’t do it by stepping on the backs of innocent people.”

Yeah, just the corrupt ones. I smiled to myself at her choice of words.

“I don’t have any blood family left other than my aunt.” She motioned to Riley. “What I do have is a legacy, and I want to honor it, but I can’t do it alone.”

It was the sexiest thing I had seen in a while, and she wasn’t even naked.

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