Chasing His Brother's Bride
Chasing His Brother’s Bride – Chapter 58

Jolie woke up and immediately reached for the usual warmth of Brix in his spot next to her and found it empty. She reached for Malik behind her and found the spot cold.

She sat up with a start, angry. They had promised Sundays were for sleeping in and spending time cuddling. Brix was injured. He should still be in bed. Checking her phone, she noted the time was six-forty.

She stomped off to the bathroom and slammed things around as she showered. She was mumbling under her breath about lies and respect when Pia pushed the bathroom door open.

“Where are my daddies?”

“I don’t know,” she shot back. “I’m sure they’re in the house somewhere.” She was standing in the water with her eyes closed and frustrated they both had left her without a word. Even if they had to meet to discuss the events which happened the evening before, they could have woken her and let her know. She jumped when Pia’s cold hands touched her legs.

“I want a shower too.” Pia was naked and jumping up to try to turn the second showerhead on. Jolie adjusted the water and Pia sang songs and bounced around in the water, never touching any soap or shampoo, simply providing the musical score to Jolie’s angry scrubbing of her own body.

She wrapped them both up in towels and then carried Pia to Jolie’s closet. “Mommy will get dressed first and then we’ll get you dressed.”

“I want to replace Axl.”

“I am sure Axl does not want you to replace him,” she considered it was far too early for a teenage boy to want to get out of bed. “Let’s leave him to rest and go replace breakfast.”

“Can we have cereal?” Pia eyeballed her mother as the woman shimmied into a pair of yoga pants and then a baggy t-shirt. “Not the cooked kind.”

“I can make you pancakes.”

“I don’t want pancakes.”

“Fine. Get dressed and we’ll go get breakfast.”

“Cereal.” Pia reminded her with a sideways glance.

Jolie rolled her eyes, “fine, you can have cereal. You can put bananas in it or strawberries.”

By the time they were heading downstairs it was nearly seven thirty. She could hear clanging in the kitchen and was surprised to see Rosa there already. “Good morning, Rosa. You’re up early.”

“I came over with Elio,” she looked to Pia. “Would you like pancakes this morning my little princess?”

“Yes please!” Pia was climbing onto a stool excitedly.

Jolie frowned at her, “you said cereal.”

“I don’t like when you make pancakes,” she said bluntly.

Rosa chuckled while Jolie’s hissed at the bold insult her child had delivered. “Jolie, Brix asked when you came down to let you know he wanted you to join him, Malik, and Elio in the office. I’ll watch her and work on breakfast.”

“Okay,” she shot one more annoyed look at her child who had no remorse on her expression before she made her way to the office. She knocked once and waited for the command to enter and folded her arms impatiently. She was still pissed off about being left alone in bed on a Sunday morning. Making her wait outside the office was adding to her irritation.

Finally, the door opened and Elio motioned for her to enter the room. Brix was seated behind the desk and she grimaced at the sight of him. He was dressed in his usual attire of a suit, and it was clear he had showered. He didn’t look any different to her than he had before he’d left the house the morning before. You would never know he’d been shot from the way he sat at his desk staring at his computer.

She looked to Malik who was standing behind him and followed Elio who motioned for her to sit in one of the chairs immediately opposite the desk. He took the other one.

“You look angry, Jolie.” Elio said suddenly making it so both men turned their gazes to her.

“My husbands are liars,” she shrugged.

Malik’s eyebrows lifted in his forehead turning his attention to her, “excuse me?”

“It’s Sunday. Did you two forget the conversation we had yesterday morning?”

“We had things which needed to be taken care of this morning.” Brix commented finally looking up from his screen to train his eyes on her. “Surely you can understand the need to assess the situation from last night?”

“I don’t understand how you think spending one hour in bed with me this morning, keeping your promise, would have had significant impact on resolving whatever issues you think remain from yesterday. An hour of a delay would not have altered anything. You gave me your words and you broke them.” She heard Elio cough and looked to him to see he was covering his head and looking away from her. Was he trying not to laugh? She shot him an irritated look. “Don’t think I don’t know who dragged them down here, Dad.”

“Not me, child. Brix was messaging me at five this morning.” He appeared chuffed at her calling him dad.

“You should be resting. Did you forget yesterday you were shot and needed a b***d transfusion?” She turned her attention to Brix.

“I’m fine.” He shot her an annoyed glare.

She crossed her arms over her chest and kicked her foot impatiently, “well, what did you want me for in here? I’m missing out on Rosa’s pancakes.”

“Well, we figured since you insisted you were the boss with the men last night you should be part of our discussions this morning,” Brix said as he leaned forward in his chair, resting his forearm on the desktop.

Jolie frowned at the movement, “your shoulder hurts. Stop being such an a*****e and pretending it doesn’t.” At his surprised expression she motioned to his arm, “you barely lifted it to the desk and you keep the rest of your shoulder tight. It hurts. The only people in this room are the ones who love you unconditionally. We’re not going to berate you for feeling pain.”

“Jolie, this isn’t about me. This is about you, giving orders to the men. You ordered Macey’s execution. Do you realize the ramifications of this?”

“Is she dead?”

“She is,” Brix stared at her. “You ordered a woman in police custody to be killed.”

“No,” she shook her finger, “I ordered the woman who tried to kill my husband and the Don of our family to be executed for her crimes and to make sure it was done in a way it wouldn’t come back to the family, like a heart attack or suicide or the likes thereof.” Now she was sure she heard Elio snicker and she shot him another glance but he held his hand over his mouth as if hiding another cough. She frowned at his antics.

“Why?”

“I watched the video.”

“Who gave you authorization to go to the basement and order the men to put the video on?” Brix demanded of her.

“I did.” She watched as Malik turned his head away and then turned his entire body to look out the window behind Brix’s desk.

“You did?” Brix glared at her. “You think you have the right to give the men orders?”

“You’re the Don. I’m your wife. I run this house,” she waved around her, “and everything in it. If you don’t want me in the basement, then get the men out of my basement.”

Elio pushed out of his chair and walked behind her and she turned her head, craning her neck to see what he was doing but he had his back to her and was staring at a collection of books on a shelf. His shoulders shook. He was laughing. Why?

“Not a month ago you were terrified of all the men in this house me and Malik included. Now you are giving the soldiers orders to execute a woman.”

“She shot you and if she hadn’t been such a shitty shot, she would have killed you. She missed her mark by only a couple of inches. She’s lucky she was in police custody where she could die by suicide because now, I know of the cellar thing, I would have ordered her brought there instead. Besides, you would have let her off because she has a v****a. I did what needed to be done.”

“f**k,” Malik grunted as he rested his head against the window.

Elio spoke from behind her, “Jolie, the women in this family do not usually participate in the running of the business. It is only we are surprised you, of all people with your anti-violence stance, made a call which usually only one of the senior members of the family would make.”

“Your beliefs women can’t be part of the business is archaic. Women can be as terrible as men. We don’t need to be mollycoddled or pat on the head. I can make a decision as well as, if not better than Brix. My anti-violence stance remains. I don’t think every situation requires our family to go in guns blazing, however, Brix once told me I had the luxury of only needing to protect one person. Unfortunately, it’s not the case any longer.”

“How so?” Brix’s face was as stoic as ever.

“Because I love my family. I love you. I love Malik. I love Pia. I love Elio and Rosa and Fabrizio and Kendall and Keely. I love Trey and the guys who put their lives on the line for me every single day. They are my family. I no longer have the luxury of only having to worry about one person.”

“You need to let me worry about them. I cannot have you feeling distraught over such things. Sweetheart, you cried over smacking my mother. You ordered a hit on a work colleague last night. Do you see why I might be concerned about your change in tactics?”

“First,” she held up a finger, “don’t sweetheart me when you’re trying to reprimand me. It’s misogynistic at best. Secondly, yes, I felt bad for striking your mom. I do not like hitting anyone. It makes me feel as if I should have more control over my emotions. She is also family and while she is my least favorite of this family, she is family and hitting my own family makes me feel awful. However, she needed to know I wasn’t going to stand by and let her hurt my child. I felt bad for striking your mom because she is your mom but I didn’t feel bad for how I handled the situation and if I had a do-over, I would likely still smack her face.”

“You’re saying if it had been anyone other than Brix’s mom, you wouldn’t have shed a tear?” Elio questioned as he retook his seat. “You only felt bad for hitting a family member.”

“Yes.” She met his gaze directly and noted the smile tugging on his lips. “What is so funny?”

“You surprise me more and more every day, my darling daughter. I think we underestimated your strength.”

“Not the first time,” she reminded him of the first day they had met when he’d called her weak.

“It is the last, I think,” he reached out and patted her arm.

“Jolie, you can’t go around giving commands to execute a person unless you yourself would be willing to pull the trigger.”

“Okay,” she shrugged. “Malik, teach me to fire a weapon with better accuracy than that b***h did and should the situation ever arise again, I’ll do it myself.”

Now she knew the sound coming from Elio was a snicker and she looked to him again, “what is so funny?”

“Your husband was worried you were going to feel immense amounts of guilt because the men carried out your order last night. He thought perhaps you had made a decision on a whim and would regret it today. Alfonso didn’t think you did anything thoughtlessly and he shared with us the way the conversation went down but Brix is quite concerned for your mental health.”

“This is an intervention of some sort,” she looked to the three men in the room.

“Jolie, you went from grounding Pia for punching another child in the nose a little over a month ago to ordering a hit.” Brix tried to explain to her. “It’s a big jump in your behavior. It makes me concerned.”

“If someone shot me?” She didn’t look away from his gaze.

“They’d be dead but I have given such orders before and I have carried out such things before. I have not vocalized a strong abhorrence of violence and I have not been through the violent things you have endured. You have refused therapy from us and your behavior has changed so drastically from when we met.”

“No,” she denied his words. “I am the same, Brix. Do you think I didn’t try every single day of the eight months I was held captive to replace a way to murder Val or Chiara and gain my freedom? I am not incapable of violence, Brix. My entire stance on anti-violence isn’t because I’m a weak female with the inability to take action when I needed to. I don’t like violence because it makes me feel out of control. Reacting in anger and striking another human being makes me feel like I have lost control. I also firmly believe most situations can be handled appropriately without fists. A simple conversation can solve most misunderstandings. However, last night, I felt very much in control. I knew what I was saying and I stand by my directives. If we are done with you psychoanalyzing of me, can I go?”

“Go?” Malik frowned at her words.

“Yes. I am hungry and unless I’m going to be punished for what I did, then I want to go spend time with my daughter. It’s clear my husbands do not value their time with me because as I pointed out earlier, they broke their promise to me, and I want to go spend time with the people who want to be with me.”

“For f***s’ sake, Jolie.” Brix snapped, “we only want to know you’re okay.”

“I am fine.” She stared back at him and then questioned him, “am I excused?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you can’t!” Brix clenched his fingers on the desk. “Tell me what you told the men to do with Jax?”

“I said legal could push hard, sue him for harassment. I hate him. He’s a slug. He has no limits to the ways he tried to torture me to give information. Showed me battered images of my own body, threatened me all the time, threatened Pia, showed up at places I worked to stare me down and never say anything. I want him to know what it’s like to have people coming at you all the f*****g time and see if he’s man enough to handle it the way I did.” She shifted at Brix’ sigh, “seriously, I’m starving.” Her stomach growled and Elio chuckled beside her. She looked at him, “we missed dinner last night and Rosa is making pancakes. You know she’ll make sausages. Please can I go?”

Brix sighed, “you gave other orders last night.” When she frowned, “you ordered a clean-up of my office and intercept of the evidence the police collected why?”

“Oh,” she waved at him, “Rosa mentioned you never go to hospitals in case they get your DNA. I realized it could potentially tie you to other activities anywhere in the world so I asked Luiz to make sure any b***d evidence collected from the scene or the ambulance was retrieved.”

Malik gave a chuckle, “you thought of everything. Watched the video. Figured out Macey. Ordered her to be discretely taken care of so it doesn’t come back on the family. Ordered the FBI agent to be publicly humiliated and ruin his career and he’ll off himself when the time comes, with coaxing from our team. You ordered a site clean-up.” He rounded the desk to approach her. “Sorry man, I know you’re pissed she gave an execution order but our wife is badass. I want to take her upstairs and keep her in bed for the day.”

She snorted, “as if I’d let you.”

“What? Why not?”

She got out of the chair and walked past him and put her hands on her h**s and stared at the two men who had pissed her off this morning. “You had your chance, Malik. You are his best friend, his counsel, his husband and for all intents and purposes he loves you more than me. If you had truly wanted to stay in bed with me this morning, he would have listened to you and you both would have been there when I woke.”

“Jolie. You think he loves me more than you?”

“He’s known you longer. I always knew I’d be the third wheel in this relationship. It’s why I explained I wanted one-on-one time and together time and to build our relationship as a throuple. Yet, the first time something went sideways, you both excluded me. You didn’t call me, Malik. Elio did. You didn’t bring me to wait with you. He had his husband waiting at the clinic for him while he underwent surgery but not his wife. Elio left but nobody thought I might want to be there. If he had died, I wouldn’t have gotten to say goodbye.”

“Sweetheart,” Malik tried again but she waved him off.

“You excluded me last night, Malik. This morning, Brix, you two,” she waved her finger between them, “got up and engaged in your morning routine which typically excludes me. Instead of considering I might need to be reassured this morning, Brix made the decision to get out of bed before me. You have probably worked out, showered, got dressed around each other and didn’t bother to even say good morning before sneaking out of our bedroom. The only reason I’m in this office right now is because one of the guys told you of my order on Macey. You had already gotten up and were at hard at work when you were told what I’d done. If it weren’t for my transgressions, you two would be locked up in here and I would be out there, excluded from what the two of you have going on.”

Elio cleared his throat as if uncomfortable and she felt badly for him having to witness this s**t show.

“Don’t worry Brix. I won’t cross any more lines. Moving forward, if you choose to get shot, I will mind my own business and let you the pair of you deal with it yourselves. I don’t know why I bothered in the first place. Lesson learned. I know my place.” She turned on her heel and before either man could stop her, she walked out of the office and closed the door behind her with a quiet click, feeling very much like she had closed the door on their relationship as well.