Chasing His Brother's Bride
Chasing His Brother’s Bride – Chapter 14

Jolie was shaking in her shoes. Literally and figuratively as she stood in the bedroom, she was sharing with Pia back in the hotel suite and waiting for Brix and Malik to tell her she and Pia could come out.

Elio had arrived to the hotel. His men were escorting him up. It was unclear to her if Chiara had travelled with him but if she had, Jolie wasn’t sure she could get through the meeting without a full-blown panic attack. Brix had said he’d told his father she wasn’t welcome and had given him the information she’d shared earlier in the day but he hadn’t heard back from the man since.

She’d been able to avoid the topic of Chiara with the whirlwind morning and afternoon, Brix and Malik had taken her and Pia on. Now though with Pia napping on the bed, Jolie was pacing back and forth trembling violently with the notion she could very well be coming face to face with the woman who had aided her son in abusing her.

Brix had told her to stay in the room because Elio had indicated he wanted to have a conversation with Brix and Malik before meeting her and Pia. The hearty laugh of men in the other room made her jump and race to the door and put her ear to it. She listened attentively for the sound of a woman’s voice but heard none. The voices drifted away and she realized they had gone into the bedroom Brix was occupying and had closed the door.

She resumed her pacing, stopping periodically to stare down at her child. Pia had been exhausted after the playground and house hunting followed by playing with every single toy, she could find in a toy store. Then clothing shopping where Brix had allowed her to pick out more frilly dresses and bright colored tights than she had imagined possible. The height of her excitement had been the ability to go through a drive-thru restaurant and being permitted to eat chicken nuggets and fries in her booster seat while they drove back to the hotel. She had eaten two whole chicken nuggets and three fries before falling asleep clutching a piece of chicken in her hand like it was a lifeline.

She stroked the hair off her child’s forehead and sighed. Today had demonstrated she could not compete with the money and power Brixton Beckwith held. If he and his family wanted to take the first grandchild born to the Cacciola family from her, they could take her to court and wipe the floor with her. There wasn’t anywhere in the world she could hide now where he wouldn’t find her, of this she was certain. She was going to have to play by their rules.

More than once she reminded herself Brix was a busy man with offices all over the world. He would be away more than he would be in Boston. He would likely pop in and out and while Pia would be sad when he left, she would get used to his schedule. Jolie would see to it.

A knock on the door made her jump and Malik poked his head in, a serious expression on his face. “Jolie, could you please join Brix and Elio in the other room? I’ll sit with Pia in case she wakes.”

“Sure,” she said bravely. She crossed the room and as expected found them in the other bedroom. Both men were standing with their backs to her staring out the window overlooking the city. The resemblance, even from behind was uncanny and she knew if Valentin had been standing there, they would be a trio of tall, broad chested, dark-haired men with an infinite amount of power between them. She shuddered with fear and the urge to run slammed into her. She gripped the door handle tightly.

Elio turned first and smiled softly, his eyes sad as he regarded her, “Jolie. Oh Jolie. My poor girl.”

His soft-spoken words were not what she had been expecting and she felt the air filling her lungs again. “Mr. Cacciola,” she nodded at him.

He grimaced at her formal address, “child, I think we are far beyond this. You can call me Elio or Dad as Malik does.” He stepped towards her and she instinctively stepped backwards. He held up a hand, “I’m sorry, Jolie. I don’t mean to frighten you. Can we sit?” he motioned to a small table in the room and motioned for her to sit.

She looked to Brix who appeared to be stone-cold, with his jaw set and avoiding her gaze. Now what had she done? What was going on? She moved to sit in the seat closest to the door and waited for Elio to start.

“I would like to begin by offering a formal apology on behalf of the Cacciola family for the events which transpired. Valentin was not in any way acting on behest of the family when he opted to take a payment in the form of you from your father. It is not how this family has ever operated and it should not have ever occurred. I regret your father did not come to me immediately to question Val’s decision. I regret even more my wife was aware of what was going on three floors below me and did not feel compelled to notify me or intervene.”

“You believe me she knew?”

He slid a photograph towards her and she flicked a glance at it and felt her lungs squeezing together. Darkness pricked at her eyes and her breath wasn’t coming to her. She gripped the table as fear coated her body. She was going to faint. She wished she could.

“Jolie,” Brix was in front of her in seconds, “look at me, Jolie. It’s okay. You’re safe.”

She was shaking uncontrollably, her entire body vibrating but she didn’t miss the way he flipped the photo upside down and shoved it back to his father with a curse. He ordered one of the men in the other room to bring a bottle of water and he held her hands as he squatted in front of her. He held the bottle to her lips and urged her to drink. She recoiled from him, her panic at the man who looked so much like her abuser mixing with the memory from the photograph almost causing her to tip her chair backwards on two legs to escape.

“It’s okay, Jolie. The photo is gone. Val is gone. He can’t hurt you.” He held his hands up, “look at me, Jolie. It’s me. It’s Brix.”

“Brix,” she whispered back at him cringing when he gripped her hands in his oversized ones. He held the water up again and she let out a cry, “no! I’m sorry.” She tore her hands from his and covered her mouth protectively.

He looked at the water bottle in confusion and then set it aside.

“Jesus Christ, did he try to drown her?” Elio hissed as he moved to stand on the other side of Jolie. “Jolie, Valentin is dead. Remember. He can’t you hurt you. You’re safe. Pia is in the other room and she’s safe with Malik. Nobody can ever hurt you again.” He cursed at Brix as the girl started to cry, “if he weren’t dead already, I’d want to put the bullet in his head myself.”

Elio kneeled beside her, “Jolie. We won’t hurt you. We only want to make sure you and Pia are safe and provided for. We want to fix Val’s mistakes. Please sweetheart. Take a breath.”

She nodded and knew she was trembling violently but she couldn’t stop herself. She wasn’t sure how long she floated in and out of her panic but eventually her breathing was returning to normal and she stared at him. His eyes. They weren’t the same as Val’s. Concern and sadness were in Brix’s eyes. Actual emotion. This man was not Val. She exhaled again.

“Jolie,” Brix spoke quietly to her. “Can you focus on me for a minute? I have several questions and I really need you to answer them. Please. You’re safe. We aren’t going to hurt you.”

“Okay,” her voice was a squeak as she blinked rapidly trying to focus on him.

“The photograph of you, Chiara, and Val. You’re in a wedding dress. Did he marry you?”

She nodded closing her eyes against the memory. “Three weeks after he took me from dad’s house. He brought in a clerk and his mother and his two friends, Tony and Ray were the witnesses.”

“Three weeks?” Elio’s voice was hoarse. “Chiara was there and knew of you from three weeks?”

“She knew from the second day,” Jolie met his eyes as her eyes avoided the table with the photo and focused on the two men sitting almost on the floor in front of her.

“How?” Brix rubbed his mouth with an impatient hand as if he were struggling with not knowing all the details of what happened.

“On the drive home from my father’s house, Val called her and said he was cancelling their plans because he had something better to do,” she spoke bluntly. “He was up all night taking payment as he called it. He was supposed to meet Chiara for breakfast and she came to find out why he stood her up. She walked in on him holding my head under the tap in the kitchen. I was naked, bleeding everywhere and drowning. She begged him to let me up.”

“She helped you?”

“She told him he couldn’t f**k a corpse and it was better to beat me than to drown me. He took her advice and beat me unconscious while she stood there bored drinking a coffee from a paper cup. I remember her telling him to hurry up because she was hungry before I finally passed out.”

Elio got up and walked to the patio doors and shoved them open as if there wasn’t enough air in the bedroom. He turned and faced her, “from the second day?”

“Yes.”

“How many times was she involved?” Brix asked.

“She had dinner with us three nights a week. She once stabbed my arm with a fork because the broccoli was over steamed and Val didn’t like soft vegetables.” Her anger was starting to come back and her terror was subsiding.

A string of curses in Italian spouted from the elder Cacciola and she cringed but felt she had to tell him all.

“When I missed my period, I begged her to get me out of there. I told her she might hate me but the baby would have been her grandchild. She nodded at me, patted my cheek softly and then called Valentin on her cell while I was still with her in the room. She told him if he didn’t get rid of the baby, she would have to do it herself and if she did, she was putting a bullet in my head to do it. She said she was too young to be a grandmother and while she could keep me as a dirty little secret, she couldn’t hide a kid. He came home and kicked the s**t out of me. Broke three ribs according to the doctor he murdered.”

Brix rose from where he was squatted in front of her and turned to his father, “your wife needs to answer to this.”

“I agree. I will personally have a conversation with her.”

Jolie started to stand up, “can I go to Pia now? I need to hold her.”

“In a moment,” Elio held his hand out. “There is something else we need to discuss.”

She saw the way Brix tensed and glared at his father and she wondered if this was where he told her he was overruling Brix’s decision to not kill her and to take Pia from her. “Mr. Cacciola, I promise, I won’t say anything.”

“You are correct. You will not. Brix will make sure of it.” Elio rolled his shoulders as if he were preparing to deliver her bad news. “As his wife, you will know better than to talk about your family.”

She felt the b***d drain from her face as she slid off the chair and landed in a heap on the floor. Not again.

“No,” she barely croaked the word out.

“I want my granddaughter to have the Cacciola name. This will ensure she knows who she is and where she comes from. This isn’t about you Jolie. This is about her. Brix knows to tow the family line and you will learn the ropes from him. Nobody will be a better instructor for you.”

Brix was looking coldly at his father, neither man moving to get her off the floor where she gasped for breath.

“Consummate the marriage, don’t consummate the marriage, I don’t care. Just don’t embarrass me. Brix will never lay a hand on you in anger. As his wife, you are guaranteed never to leave this family or speak out against us and you will be provided for in the way the wife of a Cacciola should have been provided for when you were taken by Val. You’ll be given every possible luxury afforded to a senior member of our family.”

“You could have waited,” Brix spoke suddenly. “She was already reeling from seeing the damn photo.”

“There is no point in sugar coating the truth. I want the marriage done by the end of the week. It is the only way she stays alive and we both know it.” Elio spoke, “I also want you to get her to a counsellor. She can’t be dropping to the floor like the world is ending every time we have a hard conversation. As a Cacciola she needs thicker skin.”

“f**k you,” she spoke suddenly as she got up on all fours and glared at the older man.

Two dark pair of eyes spun in her direction.

“f**k you both,” she stood on shaky legs and gripped the edge of the table. “I survived your f**k-up of a son and your b***h of a wife and raised my baby, mine,” she screamed the word, “scrimping and saving and giving her the best life I could, despite being terrified of getting a bullet in my head and looking over my shoulder every single day of the last six years. I could have gone to the feds with all the s**t Val did in front of me and I kept my mouth shut and I survived. Do not,” she pointed at him crossing the room in his direction, “disrespect me by calling me weak ever again.” She was yelling now as rage filled her and she lunged at him, her fists flailing as Brix grabbed her right in time to stop her from striking the older man who hadn’t backed down.

“Easy tiger,” he whispered in her ear and pulled her backwards. “Don’t make him order me to kill a woman for the first time.”

“Let me go,” she struggled in his arms as he kept his arms tight around her middle, her arms pinned to her side.

“You promise not to try to smack the head of our family?” amusement laced his voice.

“It’s not funny Brix.”

“It really kind of is,” he was laughing now as Elio’s lips twitched.

“I’m not marrying you.” She twisted in his arms.

“It’s in name only. You’ll live your own life. I’ll live mine. It’s entirely for both yours and Pia’s safety and security. She’s already calling me daddy and it makes sense.”

“His idea speaks to the fact dementia might be setting in. You may need to take over sooner rather than later,” she glared at Elio.

Elio flung his head back and laughed, “Jolie, it’s not my idea. I simply love the plan so much I’m all in. It’s the best way for us to make up for the hell Val put you through.” He looked to Brix, “I love her fire. This is why she survived Val. She’s stronger than I thought.”

She turned her head slowly to meet the dark eyes of the man holding her. Contemptuously she sneered at him, seeing his raised eyebrows and surprisingly, concern. It was the concern which made her pause. She stopped struggling and he held her stare as if begging her to understand. She flicked a sideways glance to the man watching them and then knew deep in her heart, he was saving her life.

Where his brother forced her to marry him with the intent to destroy her, Brixton Beckwith was going to marry her to keep her alive. The question was, why?