Chasing His Brother's Bride
Chasing His Brother’s Bride – Chapter 21

He rarely overslept but this morning he had been exhausted after working until after four in the morning. Then he’d laid awake another hour after this to watch Jolie sleep and wonder how she could remain so full of kindness after the atrocities bestowed on her. Her stance on violence still baffled him. He was blaming his fascination with her on the guilt for what his brother had done. The more time he spent around her, the more he realized how much he’d underestimated her. He was impressed by her and the woman she was. He wasn’t too much of an a*****e to admit it either.

Brix looked to Malik as they moved to his bedroom away from where Pia was squealing with delight over a toy his father had brought up. Jolie was lounging in the armchair she’d been curled up in the night before while they waited for confirmation their driver and the team were ready for them downstairs to take them to breakfast.

“Did you find them?”

“We’re rounding them up,” Malik agreed. “We already took care of Tony and Ray. Back then both of those bastards said they knew of Val doing drugs and getting rough with her but they had no idea he was stealing the money or beating her within an inch of her life every day. Tony confessed last night, not only did they know,” he looked away, “Val once raped her on the kitchen table while he made them watch and then beat her for being naked in front of a man other than him.”

Brix felt his heart clench in sync with his fists. “Mother fucker I wish he were alive so I could f*****g kill him again.” He looked to his best friend, “tell me you didn’t quickly put a bullet in his head?”

“Nope. Jerome took his time. Used the cat-o-nine tails he found in Val’s closet on him. We can watch the video later.”

“I might jack off to it,” Brix said dryly.

“Video surveillance of the condo complex from the night he brought Jolie in until the morning she was taken out of the condo was reviewed. Apart from the one hour which was erased which we presume was when someone went in and shot him, there were sixty-eight different visitors to Val’s door.”

“Three of them were innocents. The cleric who wed them. The doctor he murdered. A woman who was a nurse. She left with a black eye but alive. The other sixty-five, seven of them left in bags. Interestingly, there is a whole bunch of visits from Garcia, like Jolie said and the last one a couple of weeks before Val died. The visits with Garcia were all timed for when your father did his weekly dinner out with Chiara. That b***h covered for him.”

“I’d like him for Val’s murder if he hadn’t turned up dead a week before Val was killed.” Brix admitted.

“Payback?” Malik questioned. “If Val offed Garcia, maybe one of Garcia’s underlings offed Val.”

“He’d have to be smart enough to have IT access to the complex’s security system. Garcia wasn’t as successful as Juan because he had a fraction of the skilled men Juan does.”

“I still think it was an inside job. Who else would know how to erase only a specific time frame? Why not erase all the people who came and went the night he was killed. Maybe we have a traitor.”

“Do we?” Brix held his best friend’s gaze thoughtfully. “The only person killed was Val. Nobody else was hurt. We’ve had nobody defect or leave. No big surprises have come up. We don’t have a leak and haven’t since Val.” He shifted his posture. “They left everything in the condo of value at Val’s. Nothing was taken. They didn’t even kill the potential witness. Whoever it was, had access to the building. Was able to disable our system. Went in. Killed Val. Left Jolie alive. Then went back turned everything back on again and nothing else ever happened.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying whoever it was, hated Val and him alone. I don’t believe they were traitorous to the family for shooting him in the head. I would go so far as to say, whoever it was, cared for Jolie. It was someone who had been around them often enough to know what she was going through. This murder,” he gave an impatient snort, “of Val was a rescue of Jolie.”

“Why?” Malik frowned. “Val’s goons loved him. He had them all eating out of the palm of his hand. They did the drugs with him. They partied with him.”

“Yet, he didn’t trust them. Jolie said herself he never once put money in the floor safe if any of them were around and none of them knew it existed. One of ours, in the eight months of her capture and his downfall, got sick of his antics and played white knight.”

“I’m still not following why though,” Malik shrugged as Brix adjusted his tie in the mirror. He g*****d, “turn around and I’ll fix it.”

Brix chuckled as Malik moved to him, “we’ve spent two days with her. We’re both ready to murder for her.”

“I saw the scars. I’m like you. I want to bring him back to life to f**k him over.”

“Exactly. Two days and like dad said last night, she has us wrapped around her pinky. She’s light. She has an energy about her. She argues when she shouldn’t and she bitches when she should keep her mouth shut and yet, there is a light in her eyes which makes the three of us want to protect her. Her little girl has the same light, Malik. A person in Val’s circle also fell under her spell.”

“Under her spell? You think we’re spellbound?”

“I heard you apologize for making her show you her scars,” Brix mocked his friend. “P***y-whipped. I’ve known you since we were two. You’ve never apologized to a woman in your life, not even for the shitty s*x.”

“Hey,” Malik punched his arm.

Brix laughed as Malik stepped back to admire his handywork with the tie. “Better?”

“Much.” Malik sighed, “the boys were simply going to round up the rest of Val’s regulars and execute them but let’s do a thorough investigation and interrogation. We need to find out who had considered it worth the risk to go against the family to shoot Val point blank in the head.”

“Do it. Make it painful,” he commanded. “I don’t care which of them shot him. What I do care about is all of them knew for eight months he tortured her and none of them went to dad. I get not coming to me. Val hated me and they were his buddies and believed his bullshit, but they fell under dad’s command. They should have gone to him.”

“Agreed.” Malik looked to the bed and then to him. “Want to tell me what she was really doing in your bed?”

“Sleeping.” Brix looked away uncomfortably.

“Not like you to put a girl in your bed for sleep.”

“She’s not simply a girl.” Brix reached for his coat.

“Thought she wasn’t your type.”

“She’s not.”

“You sure about this? I saw the way you looked at her when she was waking up. You’re not a morning person and you were smiling when Pia and I came into the room. You were itching to see her squirm when she realized how you were all tucked under the blankets with her.”

“I was too,” he admitted laughing lowly and then let his smile fade away. “She had a nightmare last night about Chiara coming for her. I was in here working and she was on the sofa thrashing and screaming in her sleep. I was worried she’d wake Pia up. She couldn’t sleep so I put her to work.”

“Put her to work?” Malik lifted an eyebrow.

He motioned to his laptop. “She helped me go through two years of budgets before she conked out in exhaustion. I didn’t want her to go back to bed with Pia in case she had another nightmare. I convinced her to sleep here.”

“Brix,” Malik looked him straight in the eyes. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t have a clue,” he admitted suddenly. “I want her safe and protected but sitting here last night working with her was as easy for me as working with you. Better than Keely.” At Malik’s snort he grimaced, “now what?”

“Keely is a great personal assistant and can figure out your schedule and make your flight arrangements on a moment’s notice or pick out a suit for you but if you had to have her actually read through a report and comment or provide insight on the contents,” Malik made a mocking sneer, “you’d be waiting for the second coming of Christ.” As Brix opened his mouth, “and if you asked me which of the two, I could spend an entire weekend with and not want to strangle her for her weirdness, Jolie is the one I’d choose hands down.”

“Keely isn’t weird.”

“She brings her own canned sardines to luncheons to add to her salad.”

Brix gave a chuckle, “maybe a little weird. However, she’s good at keeping my calendar in order and she keeps her mouth shut.”

“She’s the daughter of your father’s favorite enforcer. Do you know why she’s weird, Brix? Because her father brought his work home with him. I’m certain he fed his kids the men he took care of.”

Brix lifted a finger, “you can’t say things like this, Malik, especially in front of her.”

“I won’t but you know I’m not far off.”

Brix shook his head. “I can’t argue with you. The man is odd but effective.”

“Speaking of effective,” Malik held up his phone and showed Brix a text which had come through. “Jerome has Ted, Val’s third. He is and I quote, crying for his mommy.”

“Tell him I want graphic photos of every minute of the interrogation. I want him begging for his life the way Jolie would have begged every night. All of them could have helped her. None of them did. I want them paying for turning a blind eye to the rules of this family. We don’t hurt innocents. Ever. He knew the rules. He ignored them.”

“Agreed.” Malik was texting furiously. “I’ve given him the go ahead to use the same tools he did on Tony.”

“Good.” He straightened his sleeves and then nodded. “We leave this in this room. None of this s**t follows us into the other room and makes either of our girls out there upset.”

“Agreed,” Malik gave a sly smile.

“What’s the smirk for?”

“Our girls,” Malik spoke lowly. “I like how you’ve claimed them as ours in less than a couple of days.”

“They are ours, Malik.” He smiled back, his countenance wicked, “and I dare anyone try to take them from me.”

“Brix,” Malik grabbed his arm and pulled him backwards. “What if she meets a man and falls in love?”

“We’ll cross the bridge when we come to it but she doesn’t date. She told us point blank she’s not interested in s*x at all. Most men aren’t going to want to be with a woman who can’t have s*x with them.”

“Maybe she would for the right man,” Malik held his gaze seriously, his intention clear.

Brix scoffed at him, “I look so much like her abuser, her parts would quite probably involuntarily seal shut in pure terror. I on the other hand, like my women very willing, very experimental, and very, very passionate. We are so far polar opposites sexually there is no need for you to be concerned for her wellbeing. I will find my satisfaction outside the home and I will not embarrass the family name.”

“Yet, you enjoyed having her there beside you this morning. You can’t deny it Brix.”

“I don’t,” he said bluntly. “I feel protective of her and knowing she was there where I could keep an eye on her with my gun tucked into the nightstand makes me feel better. Until my ring is on her finger and her name is officially Cacciola, Juan is a problem. The closer she is to me, the more I can relax.” He paused and gave Malik an impatient shrug, “I also admit, I like watching her relax with us and be more comfortable. It might seem like a d**k move to make her squirm and be uncomfortable but I need her to put her guard down. She’s going to be living with us for a long time, if not forever. I don’t want her walking on eggshells. It may seem cruel but the faster we push her to simply accept the situation and be herself around us, the more she will come to us when something is wrong. I need her to demonstrate for Pia we are their safe haven. Jolie tells me Pia is painfully shy and has no friends at school. I cannot help but wonder if it has anything to do with the way Jolie has had to lay low for so long.”

“You think keeping her sheltered and hidden has affected her ability to bond with other kids?”

“I think when the person who is your only connection to the outside world has spent all of your life looking over their shoulder and hiding from the law and from the mob,” Brix gave an uncomfortable twitch, “you cannot help but absorb those behaviors. We need to make them both know they are safe with us and we are family. The more they relax, the more the pair of them will flourish and be the people they are meant to be.” He flicked a glance to his phone and noted the text from the driver. They were ready.

Malik was staring at him, his eyes narrowed and his lips curled downward.

“What?”

“I’m wondering whether Jolie slipped you a drug before bed last night. You seem far less a*****e-y than usual. Almost,” Malik’s eyes were devilish as he mocked his best friend, “soft.”

Brix stepped closer and without warning punched him hard in the gut, causing him to double over and grunt in pain. “It’s still me, dickhead. Don’t make me shoot you.” He gave him a shove sending him toppling towards the bed.

Malik rolled on the bed and grinned through his pain, “you couldn’t shoot me. You love me.”

“Hm,” Brix grunted at him and shook his head as he adjusted his sleeves and walked out of the room leaving his friend writhing on the bed. He saw Jolie watching him and he extended his hand motioning for her to get off the chair, “the cars are ready downstairs. Let’s go have breakfast.”

“I heard Malik g***n. Is he okay?”

Brix grinned at her, “just reminded him who is boss.”

“Did you hit him,” she hissed out of earshot of Pia who was swinging off Elio’s arm. He knew she was realizing all the Cacciola men were strong and powerful. She tore her eyes away from the pair and looked back to Brix. “Why?”

“He called me soft.” Brix grinned. “I showed him how hard I can be.”

Jolie’s eyes glittered with amusement at his words and forgetting who she was talking to, and speaking as she would to Opal smirked, “so you showed him how hard you are and made him g***n with it? Interesting.” She bit her l*p as his eyes widened at her smart comment. Her cheeks burned as she realized who she was talking to and then she stiffened when he threw his head back and laughed, draping his arm over her shoulder, and pulling her to his side.

He hugged her tight, “Jolie, I knew deep down in there you have a touch of wickedness in you. Naughty girl.”

As he led his family out of the hotel suite he was still laughing. Minute by minute she was getting used to him and her true nature was revealing itself. It had him very curious to know how devilish she could really be.