Chasing His Brother's Bride
Chasing His Brother’s Bride – Chapter 37

Brix stared at his mother as he heard Trey’s rush of footsteps going past.

“Why did Jolie hit you mom?” He was stunned. He couldn’t picture Jolie even raising a hand in anger let alone striking another human being with it.

“She’s crazy! I was in here with Pia. Your father needed to use the washroom and he asked me to watch her while he went. I wasn’t in here two minutes alone with the child and Jolie came in and attacked me.” His mother rubbed her face angrily. “She is not worthy of you, Brix. She is using you to get your money and your power.”

“Is this why you got snippy with her in front of my staff today?” Brix folded his arms over his chest.

“Are you kidding me?” She pulled herself upright. “The b***h slapped me in the face and you’re standing here defending her?”

Brix rubbed his forehead and for the hundredth time since his mother and stepfather had arrived earlier this week, wondered where the hell Malik was. The man was uncharacteristically absent for the bulk of the day and evenings, stopping in only to check in on the girls or to talk to the guards. Then he’d seen the way his mother had glowered at Malik in the meeting today and wondered whether they had words. She had always treated Malik like a second son but the way they she had grimaced today made him wonder what was going on.

Elio put his hand on Flavia’s arms, “Flavia, I am sure there is a reasonable explanation.”

“What’s going on?” Will asked as he entered the kitchen. His tone changed when he saw Flavia’s face, “Who hit you?”

“Jolie did. I told you she was crazy. None of you believed me. She’s here to use Brix for her own nefarious schemes and I called her out and she hit me.”

“Wait,” Brix held his hand up. “You said you were here with Pia and said nothing and she hit you. Now your story is changing. What really happened?”

“Brix,” Trey’s voice cut in behind him.

“Not now Trey.”

“Boss,” Trey changed his tone, “it’s important.”

He looked to his mother, “give me a minute.”

“Just take off then,” she waved at him angrily.

He followed Trey down the stairs to the security bunker and noted five guys all leaned against the wall with their arms over their chests, staring at him angrily. What the f**k happened now? He moved to where Trey held a seat and then watched the security footage from the kitchen.

His mother’s voice the minute his father left the room was easily picked up by the security.

“You might look like your father in some ways but I see your mother all over that face of yours,” his mother’s fingers circled around Pia’s cheeks. “You’re going to grow up short and chubby like her, aren’t you?”

““I’m telling my daddy you’re being mean.” Pia’s voice was squeaky and Brix felt his heart clench tight in his chest at the tone.

“He’s not your daddy. He’s your uncle, half-uncle. Stop calling him daddy. He doesn’t like it.”

He felt his breath catch as he heard the venom in his mother’s words. Who was she?

“Yes, he does.”

“He only let’s you say it to be kind. He’s a nice man. Your mom is using him and you are a pawn in her little game but I’m not going to let her win. For your own sake, you should grow up fast and stop calling him Daddy because you aren’t going to be here long. You’ll be back on the street where you both belong. If I hear you call him daddy again, I’ll spank your bottom until it’s cherry red.”

Two seconds later, Jolie was at his mother, smacking her solid across the face with such force he could see the spittle flying from his mother’s mouth. He watched until he entered the kitchen.

He motioned to Trey to rewind it and replay it and he closed his eyes as he listened to the tiny voice call for her mommy seconds before Jolie smacked his mother. His mother. His own mother had tormented a child, a child he was claiming as his own.

“Send this to me via email now. I’ll deal with this in my office. If Malik comes home, please send him in. I want to know what else she has said to him. It seems my mother has taken her overprotective spirit much too far.”

He took the stairs back up two at a time and went looking for his parents. He found them in the living room, an ice pack being held to his mother’s face by Will while Elio looked on cooly. “The three of you in my office now.”

“What’s going on?”

“Office. Now.” He ignored her question, moved to his office, and took a seat behind his desk, holding his temper in check. Never had he been so disappointed in the woman who had given him life. He opened his email and found the video and then prepared the television in his office to accept the pairing of his computer. “May as well watch it on the big screen,” he thought sarcastically.

“When Jolie left the kitchen, mom, do you remember what she said?” he didn’t look up from his monitor as the trio came in and sat down on the chairs.

“No. I was stuck on the fact the b***h hit me.”

“She told Dad to check the video.” He looked to her then to see if it registered and he saw the surprise when it did. “See, mom, Jolie’s life is in danger because she kept secrets for the Cacciola family. She has Val’s guys who feel they owe him wanting her dead. She has the FBI wanting her to spill secrets. She has a drug cartel Val was f*****g over while he kept her kidnapped in his house for eight months. During those eight months, he beat, raped, and tortured her every single day.” He saw his mother sneer, “now for whatever your reasons are, you don’t believe this happened. I happen to know for a fact it did. We have corroborated her story with so many eyewitness accounts, retrieval of surveillance on the day Val snuck her into the condo complex, the fact Fabrizio and Dad,” he motioned to his father who was suddenly very tense, “carried her battered body out of the complex when they found Val dead next to her nearly comatose figure and most importantly, I have personally verified the scars which cover her body. Many of them as wide as my thumb.” He saw his mother pale now. “None of it is a hoax. She is not out to get my money. She tried to make me take it back. She is, for all intents and purposes the kindest person I have ever met and my daughter is the spitting image of her personality. Spirited and funny and despite living in terror, able to see the good in most things.”

“Brix,” she swallowed.

“Now see mom, because so many people are after Jolie, I’m taking extra precautions. We’re at war with a family from Columbia. A bad one. Val, my drug addled pathetic excuse of a human being for a brother, stole from them and in retaliation they want his wife and kid. We can’t let this happen so we’ve upped our security, including camera and surveillance in all the common areas of the house.”

He looked up as Malik entered the room and he motioned for him to come stand behind him. He watched his mother’s facial expressions as she looked to Malik and then froze with a sneer. There was absolutely an issue between his best friend and his mother and he was surprised Malik hadn’t reported it to him yet.

He hit play, “perhaps Mom, you can explain this little conversation.”

He wondered if his ears could bleed from the pain he heard in Pia’s voice. She was heart broken and it was killing him.

“She isn’t your child! You shouldn’t have to pay for your brother’s f**k ups by taking on his w***e and his child. It’s ludicrous.”

Elio got up from the chair, “I cannot believe you spoke to a child like this. Who the f**k are you?” He was pacing furiously.

Will moved to stand between his wife and Elio, “I’m sure she has an explanation.”

“To verbally assault a child?” his father roared his temper snapping as he shoved Will across the room and into a chair. “How do you dare to insult my granddaughter in her own home? Who the f**k do you think you are?”

Brix considered his father’s temper was about on par with his. He was barely holding on by a tether and the only thing keeping him in his seat was the reassuring squeeze of his best friend’s hand on his shoulder.

“I’m his mother,” Flavia jumped up her hands flailing, “and I will do what it takes to keep him safe from making the biggest mistake of his life. I saw through her the very first moment I stepped inside this house!”

Something in her tone made Brix c**k his head curiously, “what did you see?”

Her chest was heaving with unchecked emotions as if not wanting to speak.

“Mom. Now. What did you see?”

“Fine. I saw your so-called best friend with his tongue down her throat on Tuesday morning. You and Will went to the car first and he kissed her. I know Malik would never do anything to hurt you purposefully so I know it has to be her. She has him drugged or …” she stopped speaking as Brix suddenly started laughing. “This is not funny. I know what I saw.”

“You saw,” he took a breath, “Malik k**s Jolie and your impulse wasn’t to be a grown up and ask about it, but instead make Jolie upset at every turn and then attack our daughter?”

“She is not your daughter!”

“She is my f*****g daughter!” Brix yelled with his voice unused to ever being raised in anger echoing off the walls. “She is mine. Jolie is mine. Do you know who else is mine, mom?” He felt the warning squeeze on his shoulder, “Malik is mine. The three of them are mine. I told Jolie we are a package deal. If you saw Malik kissing her, it is because slowly but surely, she is warming up to the idea we both want her. Between us, we are seducing the hell out of her and convincing her to be ours. She will be our wife. While legally, she will hold my name, she will be our wife. Ours.”

His mother flopped down in her chair in stunned silence. He noted Will’s mouth opening and closing. He looked to his father for a reaction but his father’s countenance was a smug smirk.

“You’re not gay,” his mother said in a hoarse gasp after at least a minute of quiet.

“Why? Because it goes against your religious beliefs?” he didn’t back away from her wide eyes. “Who I choose to be with, who I love, who I f**k,” he watched his mother’s eyes water at his crudeness, “is none of your business. There isn’t a person in our entire family who doesn’t know you are homophobic mom. We implement a don’t ask don’t tell when around Flavia but at the end of the day, you’re a bigot and you either accept me as I am or f**k off.”

“Brix, you can’t talk to your mother like this,” Will spoke up.

“The same goes for you, Will. Your wife made a five-year-old cry. I have to say it’s not the proudest I’ve felt to call her mom. I’m not going to tolerate hatred and animosity around my child.”

“You’ll be a couple with Malik and this girl?” Will asked frowning, “it’s not going to look good for the company.”

“Will,” Brix shook his head angrily, “it’s my company. Mine. I bought you out. You have no say in what I do with it. If I want to run an international campaign featuring me and Malik in leather assless chaps with a Pride flag waving in the background, I will do so.”

Elio snickered catching Flavia’s attention.

“Do you think this is funny? Do you think your men are going to follow a gay man and his gay lover and the woman they share between them?”

Brix watched as his father took his seat across from his mother and schooled his features. He put his hands to his knees as if struggling to keep from wrapping them around her neck and eyed her carefully, “Flavia, I do not care who my son loves, so long as he loves. I have caught Brix and Malik more than once sharing a girl between them. I’m quite certain they took the same girl to prom and they date the same woman all the time. If you are asking if the men in this family are going to follow Brix if he’s in a polyamorous relationship, then the answer is a resounding yes. They will. Without question. Where he likes to put his d**k does not have influence on any of them. One of the men in the basement right now is gay, and he and his partner have two sons. If anyone wants to question Brix’ masculinity, they can come to his face and do so. I relish watching him remind whoever dares question he is the boss.” He shook his head, “I told our son this week how special you are and I hate to admit, all I feel right now is shame at being in your presence. You are a disgrace.”

Brix should have known his father knew he and Malik had threesomes. He felt a wave of support he didn’t know he needed cover him.

“Are you in love with him?” Flavia looked to Malik with a frown.

“Deeply,” Brix held his mother’s gaze. He heard Malik’s snicker and he looked up. “Too much?”

“No but you’re about to give Jolie her reward without cashing in first,” he laughed as he reminded Brix of him telling her earlier in the week he’d make out with Malik in her presence.

“What reward,” his mother jumped into their conversation.

“Private joke,” Brix cut her off and shook his head at Malik. “Why have you been avoiding mom all this week? Did she say something to you?”

“She told me she knew my secrets and I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. I’ve been monitoring her emails and text messages all week trying to replace out what she was going to try to blackmail me with.” He blatantly winked at Flavia, “I thought you found out about the bodies I buried. Turns out, you only saw me k**s our girl. If I had known you were watching, I would have had Brix help me with her.”

“Speaking of our girl,” Brix looked to him. “We need to do damage control here. The wedding is tomorrow. I don’t want her taking off. I need your help.”

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. “Come,” Brix called out.

Trey stepped in holding a big brown paper bag. “Jolie ordered dinner for her and Pia. Did you want to check it before I take it up?”

“No. Leave it here. Malik and I will take it up to her.”

“She’s in Pia’s room,” Trey said. “I’ve been keeping an eye on her in case she needs anything.” He shot an angry glare at Flavia.

“Thank you, Trey.” He chuckled as he considered his soldier was quite protective of his charge. In fact, all the guys working downstairs were. He considered his mother might want to sleep with one eye open in case one of them decided to exact vengeance on the girls’ behalf.

He waved him off and watched as the man set the bag on the table by the door and then closed it behind him after shooting one last annoyed glance at his mom. He motioned to Malik, “take her supper up to her and tell her I’ll be right up.”

Malik leaned down and kissed his cheek deliberately taunting his mother and Brix chuckled with his actions. On a whim he grabbed his head and kissed him full on the mouth, making sure his mother saw their tongues touching and relishing the horror in his mother’s shriek. He had to admit, Malik could k**s.

“If you’re going to do it, Malik, do it right.” His voice was husky as he stared into his eyes.

Malik straightened, his eyes shocked as he beelined to the door and then as he grabbed the paper bag spoke loud enough for the room to hear, “cold shower number two for the day coming up.”

He chuckled as he looked to his father who was grinning like a fool and then to his mother who was pale. His smile evaporated as he looked in disappointment at his mom. “Now, let’s talk about punishment for making my daughter cry.”