Chasing His Brother's Bride
Chasing His Brother’s Bride – Chapter 15

At her glare, Elio held his hands up, “darling child, I promise, it’s not me who wants your head on a platter. As you know, Val stole a lot of money and a lot of drugs worth a lot of money. My business associate is not as easy to convince you are innocent in all of this considering you are the only one left alive and you managed to evade us for so long. He will be easier to control with Brix as your husband. He wouldn’t dare go against Brix and with Brix as your husband, it keeps you safe.”

“You could just tell him to f**k off.”

Elio chuckled, “I hope Pia doesn’t curse as much as her mother. I did tell him you were untouchable but he wants payback. It was after all our family who f****d up. He knows though if he goes for you and you have Brix’s ring on your finger, he’s going for Brix and Brix,” he gave his son a look of pride, “is not the kind of man one simply goes after.”

“You’re saying he’ll kill me if I don’t marry Brix?”

“I’m saying right now, because technically you are not affiliated to our family you are a sitting duck. He thinks you’re expendable and untrustworthy. Nobody would expect us to go to war for a woman who is not ours. My grandchild yes but her mother? No. Brix’s wife though? Yes.”

“You would go to war for Pia?”

Brix rubbed her shoulder softly, “we would go to war for either of you, Jolie. You are valuable to us. You raised the little girl in there despite the hell her father put you through to be sweet, loving and kind. We owe you the world but other families do not always treat their women with the same level of respect. To keep you safe, you need the Cacciola name.”

“Why is he so bent on me?”

“As I said,” Elio spoke, “Juan thinks you absconded with his drugs and money to support yourself. He wants b***d.”

“Give him Chiara,” were the words on the tip of her tongue but she held back. “I didn’t take anything. Surely if I sit down and talk to him?” Both men started laughing loudly and she frowned, “what?”

“My darling, Juan thinks less of women than Val did. He has three wives, eight children and the girls he doesn’t even allow to be educated.”

“Sounds like a swell guy.”

“He would however go to war for anyone who went after any of his girls or his wives, which means, he understands if you are mine, he can’t touch you.”

“But I’m not going to be yours, not really. Right?” she needed reassurances.

“I don’t know how many times I have to say it, Jolie but, while I feel protective of you because you’re the mother of my niece, you aren’t the kind of woman I usually go for.” He looked her up and down and smirked when she slapped at him, “just saying, you’re short.” He tugged her and dropped his arm over her shoulder and her head was at his armpit. “I’m kinky but armpit girls aren’t my thing.”

“Oh,” she scrambled out of his grasp and shoved away from him. “You are not funny.”

“You would rather I want to f**k you?”

Her mouth opened and closed, hating her initial response was not an outright denial and then she shook her head and she looked to Elio. “You had two sons. Why were they both so different?”

“I had a better mother,” Brix grinned before Elio could answer.

Elio shook his head, “come here, Jolie. I will protect you from the moron who is my eldest son. You know, very few people get to see playful Brix. Usually, they see the cold-hearted businessman who runs his companies with ruthless precision or they see the murderous a*****e who is ready to take over my family and would kill a man simply for disrespecting his name. The man who laughs and jokes is not the Brix the rest of the world gets to enjoy. It speaks to your character, Jolie. He trusts you, even after only a day or two.”

“Humph,” she snorted and moved closer to Elio who tugged her hand and drew her to his side.

“You do need to toughen up though, child. There are people who will do their very best to get under your skin, make you upset, remind you of Val, if for no other reason than to prove you are the weakest link in our family.”

Strangely she was gravitating to this man who was giving her the fatherly affection she had missed for far too long. “For the last six years I’ve been hiding thinking you were going to have him,” she jerked a thumb in Brix’ direction, “put a bullet in my head. Your family hasn’t exactly instilled a lot of confidence in me.”

“Have you talked to anyone about the abuse Val put you through?”

“I don’t need to talk to anyone,” she denied his suggestion.

“Let’s table the discussion,” Elio patted her shoulder, “I would very much like to meet my granddaughter. May I?”

Jolie considered in the moment while he put on the act of loving patriarch, this man was as two-faced as they come and like his description of Brix, what she was seeing right now as the kind-hearted man was not what the rest of the world knew. If she refused his request, she knew damn well he was going to do it anyway.

“She was still sleeping but knowing Malik, he’s poked her a few times to wake her up.”

“Then let’s go to the living room and you can bring her out to me,” Elio put his arm over her shoulder and ignored the way she flinched at his touch and grinned at Brix. “She is tiny, isn’t she?”

“Wait until you see Pia,” Brix grinned. “I guessed her to be three and not five. I would have thought Jolie lied if it weren’t for the nose.”

“She’ll grow into it,” Jolie grimaced.

“Or we will pay for her plastic surgery,” Elio laughed. “On a man it’s a good nose but my sister is hideous with her nose.”

“You will not offer her plastic surgery,” Jolie made eyes at the laughing men. It dawned on her, as ruthless and as terrible as she knew these two men were reputed to be and as much as Val had told her they were vicious and violent, she felt far more comfortable in their presence than she had even in ten seconds of Val’s. She knew they were dangerous but as they teased and joked over her head, for the first time in many years, she felt safe. Far safer than she had felt in a long time.

Elio paused as they reached the sofa, “we do need to have a conversation about the night you were taken from you father’s home, Jolie and what exactly transpired with your father. He wants to see you and feels you’re overreacting to his behaviour but things Brix has said to me tells me he has left out vital information. Once Pia is in bed for the night, you and I will share a drink and have a conversation like adults, no?”

“Sure,” she nodded and wrinkled her nose, “but it may take me a couple of drinks. They are not pleasant memories for me, Elio.”

“Of course,” he looked to Brix, “if I know my son, he has excellent scotch stocked in the bar.”

“Once Pia is asleep though. I don’t want her to hear. She doesn’t know anything.”

“What have you told her about Val?”

“Not even his name,” she admitted looking away from him. “I said he died before we even knew she was in my belly. She’s never asked me questions on who he was in terms of his personality or his attitudes. She’s been more obsessed lately with the idea of a dad than what hers was actually like.”

“Well, we will give her a dad,” he waved to his son. “Once you’re married, Brix will legally adopt her.”

“What?” Jolie blanched. The punches were coming from all directions and she wondered when they would stop. “Is this another thing I have no choice in?”

“She will have the Cacciola name,” Brix shrugged, “besides, she wants a daddy and I want to give her one.” When she opened her mouth he gave her a look, “we will discuss it later when she’s in bed for the night. I believe it is time for her medication and to meet her Nonno. Let’s go.” He motioned to the door to the bedroom as if he were done with the conversation.

“Pushy bastard,” she whispered under her breath not missing the raised eyebrows of the two men who towered over her in the room. She opened the bedroom door and then frowned at the image in front of her. Malik was stretched out in the bed, his ankles crossed, his hands linked behind his head and his eyes closed as if he were sleeping. Pia was stretched sideways her head on his chest her face towards the door and her eyes closed, still sleeping.

“I’m awake,” he said not opening his eyes.

“You’re in my bed.”

“Pia asked for a cuddle,” his eyes were still shut but he unclasped his hands from behind his head. “She’s hard to refuse, especially when she calls me daddy Malik.”

“Are you adopting her too?” Jolie asked bitterly and was rewarded with one eye open.

“They told you huh?”

“Yeah. Now Elio wants to meet Pia. I need to wake her up.”

“Jolie,” Malik’s dark eyes fully opened and were fixed on her. “This is the best way to keep you safe. Both of you. I know you don’t trust our family yet, but you will and you will know what we do, is in your best interests. You might not like the heavy-handed approach we have but I promise you, Brix will be good to you.” He winked, “I’ll be watching to make sure of it. You never have to worry about him hurting you, not the way Val did.”

“None of you get it do you,” she shook her head. “You’re taking away my freedom and keeping me against my will. I’m as much a prisoner to this family as I was to Val. You don’t have to beat me around for it to still be captivity.” At his widened gaze she shook her head, “I’m doing as I’m told because I’m terrified. Not because I want to. Not because I think it’s what is best for me other than I want to live so I can be her mom. Whatever you three tell yourselves to help you sleep at night, is up to you but you’re robbing me of my future.”

“We are ensuring your future,” Brix’s cold voice spoke from behind her. “You wouldn’t last a week without the family behind you and before you say you lasted six years, you were lucky and you know it. It’s why you kept a damn go-bag. Now wake Pia up and get her medicine into her and get out here. You’ve kept my father waiting far longer than anyone would normally dare.”

She looked over her shoulder at Brix and saw him glowering, “you can’t expect I’m going to jump up and down with delight over all of this.”

“Jolie, wake her up and get her out here. It’s already ten minutes past the time she should have had her medications. We don’t want a repeat of last night with her in agony.” He looked at Malik, “and get out of her bed.”

“Are you jealous?” Malik wiggled his eyebrows. “You want to be in her bed?”

“Ew!” Jolie grimaced.

“Not in the least,” Brix spoke at the same time and then he caught her protest. He gave her a gentle push, “ew?”

“What? Do you think you’re the only one with a type? I like quiet nerdy types who are blonde,” she lied and looked him up and down, “and you’re too tall. You’re like an Italian Frankenstein.”

Malik sniggered as he got off the bed, gently laying Pia back in the pillows. “Most women would never talk to him like this you know. Most of them grovel and beg to sleep with him and need to be pried off with a crowbar. The rest cower and cry. Do you know how many of them would be thrilled to be in your position?”

“I don’t care how many there are but don’t bring the clingy ones around Pia or into my house. I’m not having a slew of aunties paraded past her.”

“I won’t be having anyone in the house,” Brix growled at her, “and I expect the same of you.”

She paused before reaching for Pia and then snorted, “are you kidding? I’ve only ever been with two men in my entire life and the second one destroyed any kind of desire to ever be with another one again in my life. I’m content to be a mother. I don’t need anything else. Not now. Not ever.”

She was met with stunned silence and she turned to look at the two men staring at her with their mouths gaped open. “What?”

“There’s been nobody since Val?” Malik asked curiously.

“No and there never will be.”

“Don’t you have urges?” Brix asked as if horrified by her words.

She pulled her lips back in disgust, “I am not having this conversation with either of you.”

“But like, not even a k**s?” Malik was curious as she growled at him, “fine, fine. I’m dropping it but at some point, you need to satisfy biological urges.”

“My biological urges are handled quite well,” she wiggled her fingers at him and then held the middle one up, “now piss off so I can get her up so she can meet her Nonno.”

As the two men turned and left the room she sighed gratefully. For the last six years the only s****l conversation she’d had was with Opal when they watched movies with good looking male actors in it. She had a small vibrating egg toy Opal had gifted her one year on Valentine’s day as a joke when they were both questioning why men existed at all. Yet, for all intents and purposes for the first few years after Val, she had been healing. Then she got her job working for Mordecai and dating while she had a five-year-old at home with the mob chasing her had never seemed a priority.

Now she had two men underfoot who admitted they did threesomes and they were not shy about pushing boundaries she didn’t want crossed. She pursed her lips as she gently coaxed Pia awake and reminded herself all she needed in life was this little girl and to make sure she was kept safe and protected. There isn’t anything she wouldn’t do to secure her future and to be alive to see it happen, even marrying the devil himself; again.