Chasing His Brother's Bride
Chasing His Brother’s Bride – Chapter 30

Jolie was pissed. How dare Brix get angry with her for being upset? He was all kinds of an a*****e and completely missed the fact he had completely usurped her life and then dumped her in the house all alone with Pia and a bunch of strange men she didn’t know. She was terrified to go downstairs.

Pia looked around her new bedroom with the four-poster canopy bed, her goldfish swimming delightedly in his bowl on perfectly placed desk which was filled with every crafting supply known to man a five-year-old would love and the big shaggy pink area rug. She suddenly shrugged carelessly as if bored and looked at her mother, “I’m hungry.”

It meant she had to go to the kitchen to feed her and Pia. Where the men were. In the house with no familiar faces, only strangers and silence.

“Do you not want to play in your new room?”

“No. I want dinner. We can watch a movie after on the tablet in your bed.” Pia leaned past her mother to look back in the direction of the room they had vacated. She grabbed her mother’s hand and pulled her out of the room.

“Do you like your new big girl room?”

“I don’t want a new room. I want to sleep with you, always.”

She gave a shrug similar to the one Pia had given when she first looked in the room and then she let the child lead her down the stairs. Pia was huffing and puffing by the time they got to the bottom.

“Lots of stairs.” Jolie commented.

“If we had the kitchen by your bedroom, we could stay upstairs,” Pia offered her solution.

Jolie found the silence of the mansion stifling and despite the fact all the lights were lit and the house had plenty of windows and daylight was still streaming in, she felt it cold. All the warmth of the sunshine and lights were not improving the feel of the house. She suddenly wished a kitchenette were upstairs so she could have avoided coming down. Pia might have been onto something.

She caught sight of a man coming up the stairs and instinctively she pushed Pia behind her and then exhaled slowly when she recognized the man Malik had introduced her to the evening before as her personal bodyguard. “Trey.” She nodded once. “We’re going to the kitchen.”

“Sounds good,” he had a thick accent and a ragged scar which zigzagged down his cheek. “The cameras,” he motioned to the one over the stairs, “let me know you had come downstairs. The boss said if you wanted to go through the things the guys are bringing in soon from your other place, we are to help you with it.”

“Maybe after dinner?” she questioned the man fighting her irritation Brix had passed the chore to his guys. He had said he’d do it with her.

“I’ve let them know to put all your stuff in order of rooms to make it easier to sort through. I’ll help you when you’re ready.” He walked away and headed back down the stairs.

“What things Mommy?” Pia frowned up at her.

“We brought all the stuff from our other place here.”

“Even my bedroom stuff?”

“Yes.” She nodded as she led her to the kitchen. Lifting her up and setting her in the middle of the gigantic marble island, she tapped Pia’s nose, “now, what should we have for dinner?”

“A grilled cheese.”

“I can do that.”

“I don’t like it with the black stuff on it, Mommy. Can you make it without the black stuff?”

Jolie tried not to react. One time she had burned the grilled cheese to oblivion and her child never let her forget it. Of course, it had been the last cheese slice they’d had in the house and no other bread and it had been late in the evening. They hadn’t stopped for items at the store on the way home and in the end, Pia had ended up eating plain boiled macaroni noodles with butter instead but she still never let Jolie forget ruining her sandwich. “I’ll try my best,” she promised as she dug through the very well stocked fridge for food.

“Can we have tomato soup with it?” Pia asked as she lay on her tummy on the island, her chin resting in her hands and her elbows propping her up.

“I don’t see why not,” she looked around for a pantry to see if she could replace canned tomato soup.

“Pia. Are you using the island as a bed?” a deep gravelly voice called from the far end of the dining room and Jolie looked up in terror.

This man was massive, bald, with an eye patch over one eye, and dressed completely in black. She had a feeling when enemies of the Cacciola saw this man coming at them, they pissed themselves. She was sure she had just peed herself. He was bigger than Malik. Easily six foot six or seven and as broad as small car. She immediately moved protectively to Pia who had jumped up on the island excitedly.

“Uncle Rizio! You came back!”

Before she could stop the girl, her daughter launched herself at the man who had moved far faster than a man his size should have been capable and was caught in mid-flight.

“Pia, that was dangerous. You need to wait for me to be ready to catch you.” Even his voice was hoarse and raspy as if he’d smoked ten packs a day since the day of his birth.

“You said you would always catch me Uncle Rizio.”

The man was cuddling Pia in his arms as if she were made of the finest porcelain and staring at her with adoration. It definitely threw Jolie for a loop. He looked up to her with a strange expression on his face and she c****d her head at him. His eye patch triggered a fleeting memory which escaped her as quickly as it appeared. “Have we met?”

“I have met you but you likely don’t recall any of it.” He gave her a sad smile. “My name is Fabrizio Muni. I am Elio’s head of security. Like Malik for Brix.”

She had a funny feeling this man did not do the same things with Elio, Brix did with his number two. She stifled a smirk. “Where did we meet?”

“I was with Elio when Val was discovered. It was me who took you to hospital.” He said simply, “you look much better today than you did that morning.”

“You?” she paused as her breath caught in her throat. She suddenly remembered looking at him through swollen eyes and seeing the eye patch as he whispered to her in Italian to hold on. He’d carried her out.

“Yes. I have a daughter a bit older than you by a year or so. I think you’ve met her.”

“I’ve met your daughter?”

“Keely. She works for Brix.”

“Oh yes,” she was stunned the pretty brunette who worked for Brix was the offspring of this man. He was creepy as hell yet she felt a strange pull towards him. He was standing here telling her he had seen her naked battered body. She blushed with the realization. He had found her after Val had raped her. He had seen everything.

“I made sure you were covered the instant we stepped foot in the room, Jolie and you remained this way until you were admitted in the hospital.”

The man was a damn mind reader. She looked everywhere but at him as his words sunk in.

“Mommy, you had to go to the hospital?” Pia enquired from where she was wrapped around the behemoth of a man.

“A long time ago. Mommy got hurt and she had a broken arm and a bad headache,” she shot Fabrizio a warning look but it seemed it was unnecessary.

He hoisted Pia up on his shoulders as a distraction. “You have a very strong mommy, Pia. You never have to worry about her. She is the strongest person I ever met.”

“You’re way stronger than mommy,” Pia told him as she squealed clutching his bald head.

“No. This is where you are wrong,” he said tilting his head upwards to Pia. “There is more strength in being a mom, especially to a little girl such as yourself, than you will ever know. She is a gift and you must always remember how much she loves you because her love will give you strength unlike anything you will ever know.”

Jolie blinked back tears at the profound words coming from the giant. He was damn near poetic. She cleared her throat. “We were going to have dinner. Pia is hungry. Do you happen to know which of these cupboards is the pantry?”

“No but I am certain between us, we can figure it out.” He kept Pia on his shoulders. “I have two daughters you know. No sons. Keely is a good girl. My other daughter is Kelsey. They are twins. As different as night and day but they are the most important things in my life, apart from my beautiful wife. The women in our family need to be protected at all costs. When one forgets this, the rest of us are responsible to make things right.” He looked to Jolie and then grinned. “My wife reminded me of this today. She is tiny like you.”

“I’m not tiny. Five foot five isn’t tiny.”

“You are five foot four and maybe a quarter inch,” he retorted with a smirk. “Because it’s a fraction over five-four doesn’t make it five-five.”

She pursed her lips annoyed at the fact he caught her in her rounding up lie. She’d been telling it since she was a teen girl. Nobody had ever called her out on it before and this man was blatant and in her face about it. She yanked a cupboard door open and was surprised to see it was more a closet door. It acted as a blended door to the rest of the cabinetry but it walked into a full-on pantry stocked to the hilt with more dry goods than she imagined the grocery store could stock. “There’s a lot of food.” She began to look for canned tomato soup. She found canned tomatoes. She found tomato paste. She found no soup. She threw her hands up and looked to Pia who was still contentedly holding the bald man by the chin. “No tomato soup, Pia. Looks like it’s only grilled cheese.”

Fabrizio frowned at her. “You are Italian, no?”

“Yes.” She scowled at him.

“Yet you can’t make a simple tomato soup?”

Pia leaned over and whispered loudly, “Uncle Rizio she can’t make grilled cheese either. She makes them black and crunchy. She doesn’t make good spaghetti either.”

“Pia!” Jolie frowned at her child for throwing her under the bus.

“How is this possible? Did your mother forget to teach you to cook?”

“My mother was a wonderful cook. I however was better at reading the recipe than implementing it.”

She began digging through the refrigerator for the things to make Pia’s dinner. She found the plastic covered American cheese slices and pursed her lips as she looked for a loaf of bread. The only thing she could replace was whole wheat and she knew Pia would not eat it.

She jumped when she felt a large hand on her shoulder and folded inward towards the countertop, the cheese slices hitting the floor along with the dish of butter she’d grabbed.

“My apologies, Jolie,” Fabrizio whispered as he stepped back. “I did not mean to startle you. Why don’t you and Pia go sit at the island and I will make you a tomato soup and grilled cheese. Is this what you wanted for dinner?”

She felt foolish as her heart thundered. This man had probably saved her life and yet she was terrified of him. It made no sense and yet there it was, her fear and terror as brazen and big as the man in front of her. He felt it as sure as if it touched him and he had stepped back completely to give her all the space she could need.

He spoke softly, as if mollifying her mood. “Jolie. Take deep breaths. I am here to protect you. Not hurt you. Please take a seat and I will make your dinner.”

She gave a nod as she backed away from him, unable to turn her back and put her trembling body on the high-backed stool next to the one he’d put Pia on. Pia was looking at her curiously and she clutched her trembling fingers on her lap. For the most part, Jolie steered clear of any man and so Pia hadn’t ever had the chance to see her mother in flight or fight from an exposure to a member of the male species, especially one which easily towered over her by a full foot and then some.

“Mommy?” Pia whispered like Fabrizio did.

She knew her eyes were probably glassy but Fabrizio ran interception with far more finesse than he should have given her fear was likely insulting to him.

“Pia, would you like to help me squish the tomatoes for the soup?” He held up a device, hit a button and it made a whirring noise. “This will take all the chunky tomatoes and turn it into the yummiest soup you ever tasted. Would you like to help me?” He put a kettle on the stove, “I think Mommy might have a bit of a headache so we should make her tea and speak quietly until it settles a bit.”

Pia touched her hands to Jolie’s cheeks, “Mommy do you have a headache?” When Jolie nodded, Pia kissed her forehead. “All better?”

She blinked back the tears at the sweet gesture. “It’s getting better for sure.”

She couldn’t help the giggle when Pia pulled away and said to Fabrizio, “mommy always k****s my booboos better, even if they’re bloody and gross like when I scraped my knees.”

“See, moms are strong,” Fabrizio pointed at her tellingly and Pia giggled.

Jolie felt badly as the man continued to keep a solid distance between them as he instructed Pia on how to use the little hand blender to mash up all the tomatoes he’d put into the large pot. Pia was having a great time, laughing when she lifted the still rotating blender in the air and coating the three of them in tomato juice. He then had her ladle it through a colander and removed all the seeds.

When he’d found a giant loaf of crusty bread to make sandwiches with, she’d been mesmerized with his fluid movements. He knew his way around the kitchen, the knives and the tools effortlessly manipulated by his knowledgeable hands.

Jolie watched as he effortlessly and with the precision of a master chef chopped onions, garlic and then began sautéing them in a pan. Soon the kitchen was scented in the tell-tale aroma of a cook who knew what they were doing. She had a warm cup of chamomile tea in her hands, which had been placed about a foot in front of her on the island. It had been set close enough for her to reach but far enough Fabrizio was not in her space.

She was so grateful of his very mindful approach to her boundaries, aware unlike Brix and Malik who pushed her to the limits by constantly having their hands upon and near her, hugging her and putting k****s to her, he was treating her with kid gloves. No, she realized, he was treating her the way he would his daughters, Keely, and Kelsey, had they been through what she had. It felt familiar, warm, and respectful.

When he set the warm bowl of soup in front of her with a thick cut grilled cheese, she reached out and tugged his hand. He looked to her in surprise. She held his giant hand in between her much smaller ones. “Thank you.” She met his eyes directly. “For everything.”

His one eye watered slightly and he nodded and patted her hands. “Eat.” He ordered with a stern nod before motioning to Pia and instructing her to do the same.

Jolie was aware of two very important pieces of information as the trio sat down to eat together. One; her daughter wasn’t as fussy about food when it was well-prepared and cooked properly without black singe marks on it. Pia even picked up her bowl to drink the bits her spoon couldn’t reach and her entire face was rimmed with the outline of the soup. Two; Fabrizio, as big and scary as he was on the outside, was a gentle giant and despite the initial onset of fear she’d had not an hour before, he felt as safe to her as when she was with Elio. She adjusted her chair closer to his and caught his small smile at the movement. She rested her head on his shoulder and for the first time since stepping into the mansion, felt she was home.