Chasing His Brother's Bride
Chasing His Brother’s Bride – Chapter 16

Elio’s laughter and Pia’s squeals of delight as he chased her around the hotel suite pretending to be an alien chasing the Martian Princess, was music to Jolie’s ears.

Her daughter had yet again gravitated to the strong presence of a Cacciola male and the normally shy and reserved little girl was chattering a mile a minute and laughing at everything one of the three men said.

“Mommy, mommy, save me from the alien!” she rushed at Jolie and ducked between her legs and almost knocked her over.

She chuckled and let Pia hide behind her, “of course I’ll keep you safe.”

Pia leaned out and looked at her grandfather, “my mommy always keeps me safe from the bad guys.”

“Mommies are good at that,” he agreed and squatted in front of Jolie, panting heavily. He looked up at her and shook his head, “she’s high energy.”

“She is but it’s in short bursts,” she grinned back. “It’s almost bath and bedtime.”

“Aww,” Pia protested. “But we didn’t get to watch a movie.”

“Nonno will be in town a whole week, Pia. We can watch a movie any night this week.”

“You’re staying the full week?” Jolie asked quietly.

“Until the marriage is completed, I stay. Safety in numbers, child.” Elio commented equally quiet as he rose to meet her. “Jolie, I cannot express enough the concerns we have for your safety. The only way I can convince Juan to leave you in peace is to make you part of our family. Short of divorcing Chiara and marrying you myself, Brix is correct in his suggestion.” He winked playfully, “besides, it won’t be all bad. You’ll at least have the distinction of taking the most eligible bachelor off the market. The supermodel world will be so devastated.”

She giggled at his comment, “it’s not a real marriage. I’m sure he’ll still –”

“No,” Brix commented before she could finish her sentence. “I’m not saying I’ll live like a monk, Jolie but I promise you there won’t be a tabloid alive who will replace me in a compromising situation which would embarrass you or Pia. To the outside world, this will be as real a marriage as any.”

“You won’t have a mistress out there who might talk to the press,” she made wide eyes as she shook his head vehemently and realized he was saying he was giving up having girlfriends and long-term lovers. “What will you do?”

“I’ll borrow one of Malik’s,” he made wide eyes at her and ducked from Malik’s head slap. “Don’t worry Jolie, you and I can live in s****l frustration purgatory forever.”

“Why don’t I believe you?” she asked him.

“Because he couldn’t keep it in his pants ten minutes in a room with a willing woman?” Elio commented. “He’ll simply have to be discerning on who he decides to take as a lover moving forward.” They all turned to watch Pia jumping on the sofa as if it were a trampoline. “I expect the same of you. If you have a lover now, get rid of him and if you need one in the future, replace one who won’t cause trouble.”

“She told us she hasn’t had anyone since Val.”

“The last time I was intimate with a man it was one who assaulted me so badly violently, the fact she is there,” she looked to the child, “is nothing short of a miracle. The thought of a man touching me makes me want to vomit. Brix, I have no problem with you doing whatever you need to do so long as we all understand I will never warm your bed.”

“Consider your words duly noted,” he mocked her yanking at her hair playfully.

“Daddy, watch!” Pia yelled for his attention and they noted she had climbed onto the top of the sofa and was going to jump off. “I can fly like a real alien.”

He got to her right in time to catch her and he growled and nuzzled her neck, “Pia, you are going to scare me death. No jumping off things so high.” As she squealed with delight at his mock ferocity and the way he tossed her high into the air to effortlessly catch her, his grin was wide.

Jolie felt her breath catch at how easily this man had fallen in love with the little girl he was tickling. He was sliding into a parental role with far more ease than she was in accepting he was forcing himself into their lives. She noted the big smile and happy laughs he had for Pia were not the same as the teasing or mocking he gave her. He treated her the way she imagined cousins or distant family treated each other, a bit of teasing but still a coolness and reservation. Yet with Pia there appeared to be a close bond and immediate adoration between them. If for no other reason than this, Jolie was resigned to her fate.

If her options were to run from a cartel leader or have her child have the protection of a Cacciola, then the latter would be her choice. She didn’t have to like it but from the moment she’d found out she was pregnant with Pia her entire world had revolved around her. She wasn’t going to stop putting her first now.

She was still ruminating over her life and the way she had so easily capitulated to this family’s demands ninety minutes later when Pia was tucked into bed, her eyes heavy with sleep and her breath finally evened out. She was on one side of her in the bed and Brix on the other, Pia insisting both her mommy and daddy Brix tuck by her in and cuddle her before sleep.

“I think she’s out,” Brix said with a smile.

“I think so too,” she whispered back.

“She’s such a special little girl.”

“She is. Her personality is shining around you, your dad and Malik. She’s not usually so boisterous around strangers.”

“I saw her at the playground today. She didn’t try to play with a single child there.”

“Nope. She watched other kids and rarely joins in. She has a couple of kids she will talk to at school but for the most part she is very reserved.”

“Except when she punches a kid in the face.”

She met his eyes and noted the pride there. “Do not encourage such behavior. Violence is not the answer.”

“Yes, it is,” he smirked back. “You were exposed to the wrong kind.”

“There is no right kind.”

“Jolie,” he tsked at her, “retribution, vengeance and violence all go hand in hand, especially to a Cacciola. When someone tries to take what is ours, tries to steal, lie, slander, or insult us, we do not take the polite route of sitting down and discussing things the way you wanted to do with Juan. No, my soon to be wife, we get even. Sometimes we take things back. Other time we have to make an example.”

“Why with violence?”

“It is often the only language people can understand.”

“It’s animalistic.”

“Survival of the fittest,” he quipped.

“I’m not saying I’m perfect, Brix. I have lost my temper a time or two and I’m all for defending yourself if someone physically harms you. If you can fight back, then fight back. But if there is a way to resolve the conflict with words, then I need her to use her words.”

“Sounds very p***y-like,” he made a mocking smirk at her.

“I don’t want her to be him,” Jolie admitted not breaking eye contact. “She has his temper. She kicks off and I work hard to teach her to control her anger. I won’t have her being him.”

Brix stroked Pia’s rounded baby cheek and chuckled, “Jolie, this child is so full of light and love there is no way the darkness of Val is in her. All kids kick off and have temper tantrums. It’s not because she’s going to be like him. Forcing her to let her bullies pick on her and not stand up to them herself makes her weaker not stronger. She can control her temper. She shouldn’t have to control it around a kid who deserves a smackdown.”

“Nobody deserves a smackdown,” she furrowed her brow with annoyance. His chuckle was making her bristle. “Stop laughing at me.”

“Jolie, how did you survive my i***t of a brother and still have such a sweet soul? Surely what he did made you want to plunge a dagger into his heart, put a bullet in his brain, plunge a steak knife in his jugular,” he made wide eyes and a rounded o shape with his mouth after the last one.

“No. I only wanted to be free and to never have anyone hurt me like he did again,” she admitted, staring into his brown eyes as he gave her a sad smile.

“You are too soft.”

“I’m not soft. I’m strong but being strong doesn’t mean I have to give up who I am.”

“If someone hurt Pia, what would you do?” He held her gaze seriously.

“Nobody would hurt her. I wouldn’t let them.”

“How would you stop them?”

“Brix,” she protested his words.

“You would kill for her. She is your family, your b***d, and your world. You would put a bullet in their head to keep her safe and do not lay there with her in your arms and tell me you wouldn’t. You have the luxury of only needing to be ruthless in such a way for your child but I have an entire family to protect. There will be no more judgement of me for the manner in which I have to do so. I will not tolerate patronizing or condescension from you on this matter. Am I understood?”

She nodded at his serious tone.

“Good. You also need to stop thinking of Pia’s temper as a risk for being like Val. She is allowed to feel all her emotions. Just because she smacked a bully for being a tiny little s**t doesn’t mean she’s going to kidnap a person and abuse them. She has more of you in her than any of him. Remember this.”

“Brix,” she questioned quietly, “are you going to make me give up my job?”

“Do you want to give up your job?”

“No. I love working for Mordecai and with Opal.”

“Then you keep working there.”

“Your home is in Vegas. I can’t go back there. It’s too full of bad memories and –”

“Hey,” he reached out and touched her shoulder softly, “I know Val made you believe I’m all kinds of brutal a*****e and I admit, I am but it is not my intention to cause you and Pia any more pain than you’ve already endured. I won’t tolerate disrespect, questioning the decisions I make about your safety or arguing with me in front of the staff but I also want you to continue to live your life as you have been with the only difference being you don’t have to hide. You are safe from now until the day I die, my singular purpose is keeping you safe.”

“And we get married and pretend to be a couple and it keeps me from getting murdered?”

“Yes. I promise I will keep you safe.” His hand slid up from her shoulder and touched her jaw softly. “I know it’s hard and a lot to take but I need you to trust me.”

She heard Malik’s laugh at something Elio must have said in the other room and she grimaced, “and you’re a package deal?”

He chuckled, replaceing it odd how he couldn’t keep his hands to himself where she was concerned. He wasn’t lying in saying she was not his type but the need to touch her was becoming apparent. If he could replace a way to keep her at his side where he could keep her protected from the things, he knew she’d experienced he would do it. Her question about Malik made him smile knowing his best friend was also incredibly protective of the two he was with.

“Malik is my closest friend, Jolie. Rarely am I anywhere without him. He is my personal bodyguard and head of security and I consider him a brother. His father worked for my father and when his parents died, my father moved him right in with us. He will be living in our home with us. There is nobody I trust more than him.”

“Not even your dad?”

“Especially not my dad. Dad is great but if you think I’m confiding my greatest secrets to him, you’re out of your mind.”

“And you tell Malik your deepest secrets?”

He chuckled and motioned for her to get up, “yes. He knows me better than I know myself. Come now. Dad has a lot of questions and I have a feeling it’s going to be a long evening for you.” Before they reached the closed door he stopped and pulled her towards him, tilting her chin with his forefinger, “I have your back out there. If it gets too much, you tell me and I will put a stop to the entire conversation. Part of having me as your husband, Jolie, is me keeping you safe even from our own family. Understand?”

She nodded, “I understand.”

“Good,” he winked at her. “For the record, Malik is your champion. He has already told me he wants to put a bullet in my stepmother’s head on your behalf, even at the risk of my father’s wrath.”

“He can’t, Brix.” Her eyes widened in terror.

“We won’t have to. My father has a plan for her. It’s his wife and his problem. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“Okay.”

“You ready for this?”

“I am,” she nodded, closing her eyes when he pressed yet another soft k**s to her forehead. The man had kissed her forehead more times than she could count today and yet, not once did she feel grossed out by it the way she would be if any other man did it. From him, it felt comforting and gentle. Everything about him was a contradiction to her and yet for all the danger she knew he was, after the day they’d spent together, she knew nobody would keep her protected the way he and Malik would.

Taking a deep breath, she let him drop a hand over her shoulder and guide her away from the safety of Pia and into the nightmares of her memories.