Chasing His Brother's Bride

Midnight Arguments

Pia woke up crying in the middle of the night, her earache causing her discomfort and Jolie was holding her in her arms, walking in small circles in the middle of the unfamiliar room praying they didn’t wake Brixton up.

True to his word, he’d let her put Pia to bed and then stay with her in the closed bedroom without any further discussion about the situation they were in. She’d heard quiet murmurs of the two men late into the evening while she’d watched the television in the room quietly but they hadn’t been interrupted. He’d even given her back her cell phone though it had come with a warning if she tried anything stupid there would be hell to pay.

As a result, she had left it on the nightstand untouched. The only person she ever messaged was Opal and rarely on a Friday night. She wasn’t likely to call a cop to tell them she was being held against her will when she knew deep down the trouble it would cause her and Pia.

Pia had surprised her this evening, she considered, as she whispered soothing words to the little girl. She was typically a very shy little girl, rarely speaking even when spoken to. Her temper with the boy in school was an anomaly likely due to her ear infection and she typically hid from everything and everyone. Yet, she had gravitated to Brixton and Malik as if they were long time friends and even her actions with Elio, wanting to talk to him on the phone and asking him for a toy were a far stretch from her normal behavior. It made no sense but somehow, the child had intuitively known these two men would lay down their lives for her and had deemed them worthy.

Jolie wasn’t so trusting. While they would die for Pia, they would murder Jolie for the same reason. She had taken a Cacciola away from her family and regardless of the reasons for it, she was likely going to suffer a form of punishment. They were cold and ruthless and she wasn’t stupid enough to think she was getting away scot-free simply because she knew where Val had hidden a bunch of gold.

“Mommy!” Pia screamed and held her ear as if wanting to pull it off.

“I know baby, I know. The pain medication will help soon.” She had woken her to give her the dose of antibiotics but the child had been sleepy and getting one medication and ear drops into her had been enough of a battle and so she had skipped the pain reliever. It was a mistake her child was paying for now. She recalled Opal telling her once motherhood was nothing but series of regretful decisions and in this moment she was feeling the statement to her soul.

A gentle knock on the door and a stream of light from the outer rooms filtered through the crack as it opened, “can I help?”

“Uncle Brix, it hurts!” Pia wailed and reached for him.

“I gave her the medication but it’s taking time to kick in. I’m sorry if we woke you.”

“I wasn’t sleeping,” he took the child from Jolie’s arms and rubbed her back gently.

Jolie noted his tousled hair and the t shirt and silk pyjama bottoms and wondered if he were lying. For the first time she noticed both of his arms were covered in tattoos. She hadn’t seen them in the evening because he had worn his suit jacket the entire time, they had been together but as she looked at him now, casually dressed for bed, the man had ink which disappeared under the arms of his shirt and if her eyes weren’t deceiving her, even on his collar almost to his throat. He was fit and strong by the way his muscles bunched as he easily carried the small child in his arms towards the outer rooms. His shoulders were broad and his waist was tapered and she had to admit the man was attractive as hell.

She checked herself before her eyes went lower than his waist to his buttocks. The last thing she needed was to ogle the brother of the man who had tortured her. He had effectively captured her tonight, bringing her back into the fold of a family she wanted no part of.

“Where is the stuffy thing you put hot water in?” he asked over his shoulder as he moved to the kitchenette.

“It’s in the living room.” She answered. “I didn’t want to wake you so I didn’t –”

He cut her off, “Pia comes first and foremost above anything else. Next time, just let me know. I was sitting up in bed working but even if I had been asleep, you come get me. I’ll put the kettle on. You get the stuffy.”

She felt chastised by his words and slunk off to the bedroom grabbing the item before turning back to the room. She wanted to hold her own child but instead he was commandeering the situation and was singing what she presumed was a lullaby she had never heard in Italian to the child while Pia’s sobs gently subsided.

“Sing it again,” Pia demanded when his tune drew to a close.

He graciously obliged his demanding niece and Jolie considered he had a good singing voice but more importantly, he was really good with Pia. In only a few hours of knowing him, she was under his spell and now she was happily snuggled into his chest, both her arms folded between them, sniffling softly, as he danced her softly around the kitchenette.

When the hot water was ready, he took the bear from Jolie’s fingers and carried the little one back in the direction of the bedroom she was sharing and wordlessly, like a dog on a leash, Jolie followed him. It was beginning to grate on her nerves how bossy he was without even trying. Worse, she was bowing down to his every snap of the finger like a doormat.

He nestled Pia into the bed and rested her against the pillow with the warm bottle at her ear and she sniffed and refused to relinquish her grip on his neck.

“You need to sleep, little one,” he stroked her cheek softly, his dark eyes smiling as she pouted.

“Don’t go,” she begged.

Jolie rolled her eyes at the child’s behavior. Seriously, it had been less than seven hours since they’d met and she was clinging to him like plastic wrap. “Pia, he has to go to his own bedroom. Mommy will stay with you and cuddle you until you fall asleep.”

“I want my Uncle Brix,” she began wailing in earnest again and he lifted her up in his arms, settled onto the bed with her and put her right up to his chest.

He looked to Jolie and motioned to the bed. “Climb in. I’ll tuck her in when she falls asleep.”

“I am not getting into a bed with you in it,” she knew her eyes were likely popping out of her head but the man was evidently insane.

He looked her up and down, “as adorable as the flannel pjs are, you’re not my type and I’m not remotely interested. You’re safe. All I want is to make sure she settles down and goes to sleep.”

His words irked and she didn’t know why. She folded her arms angrily at him. “I don’t care if I am or am not your type. You disgust me and I’d sooner take the bullet to the head. I’m not getting in the bed if you’re in it.”

“Then stand there like an i***t, for all I care. I’m not leaving simply because you have an aversion to me. Suck it up. I told you. Pia comes first. She is my niece and she is sick and crying and I will not leave her so long as she asks me to stay.”

“What happens when you’re not here and she begs for you? Then what? You’re creating an unrealistic expectation for her.”

“You are creating scenarios in your head and I promise you, she will always be where I am. She is my blood.”

“She is –”

“Enough.”

His quiet word barely broke a whisper but it was enough to send a frisson of fear down her spine as it snapped her like a whip and she swallowed the suddenly formed lump and sat on the edge of the bed. Pia’s sniffling was now reduced to the occasional huff but her eyes were still wide open and her bottom lip still trembling. She closed her eyes and took a breath before opening them again with purpose. She got into the sheets and lifted a hand to Pia’s cheeks. “Hey sweetie, are you feeling any better?”

She shook her head, “still hurts.”

“I bet it does. What can Mommy do to help?”

“Tell me a story about a Martian Princess.” Pia’s dark eyes were limpid and her cheeks rosy.

She smiled and began, “Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl named Princess Pia who was in fact, a Martian. She had two big antennae and giant fairy wings to help her fly all over her lonely planet. One day,” she continued making up a story as Pia listened attentively. Eventually Pia’s eyelids grew heavier and heavier and her breathing evened out. She stroked the dark hair off her forehead and sighed.

“Is she asleep?” Brix’s voice was rumbly as he whispered.

“She is, I think.” Jolie didn’t look at him as he slid himself sideways off the bed.

“Lift the blankets and I’ll slide her in with you.”

She did as commanded and leaned her head backwards instinctively when he lowered his head to kiss Pia’s cheek as she nestled into her mother’s arms.

He stood up and regarded her coolly. “The next time I tell you to do something you will not argue with me, especially in front of Pia. Am I understood?”

“Yes sir,” she whispered as she almost trembled with fear. Something about being in a bed with a man towering over her, angry and giving instructions was playing havoc with her mind and she was desperately trying not to succumb to the terror. He was large, larger than Valentin had been and intuitively she knew he was far superior to his brother in everything from temper to strength to self-control. If he wanted to hurt her it wouldn’t be the bruises, she would have to fear but the emotional damage this ruthless man could do. As she pulled Pia closer to her, she felt she was using her own child the way Pia did a stuffed animal. She closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of her little girl, annoyed it was now mixed with the smell of his body wash. He must have showered and with Pia in his arms, the scent was interrupting her baby’s delicious aroma. She forced herself to forget it and looked back up to see him watching her.

“What?”

“You’re a good mother, Jolie but don’t think for one minute it excuses the fact you kept her from us. Do you know you were the only one my father ever sent me after I didn’t find?”

She almost whimpered at his glare.

“Do you know what they call me in our family?” At her slow shake of her head he spoke, “the bounty hunter. I never miss my target and I bring everyone my father wants home back to him, dead or alive. It never occurred to me you would be so far from home. I knew of the lady in Nebraska and I knew of the bus trip from Lincoln back to Idaho, then to Spokane. We lost track of you in Spokane Washington. How the hell you got from there to Boston is beyond me, especially with the injuries your medical records documented. All I know is, I found you now and if it means shackling you to my wrist,” he leaned with two hands on the bed glaring at her as she shook with her arms around Pia, “in order to protect her from the stupidity of her mother I have no problem. You deliberately put her life at risk by not coming to us for protection. Never again will you be so foolish. From now on, when I say jump you say how high, like a good little girl.”

She felt the fury bubbling up at his insults but then he gripped her chin and stared into her eyes and she recoiled at his touch but he held her fast.

“Do you understand?” his words were cryptic and icy.

“Yes.”

“Good. I will see you in the morning unless she wakes up again in which case come find me.”

As he walked away, closing the bedroom door with a gentleness which did not match his demeanor she wondered what the hell she had been thinking by not running the minute she had seen him in board room. She could have had a head start.

She smirked as she considered she was the only one he’d ever been assigned to catch and didn’t. It dawned on her how she had done it once before but before she could talk herself into thinking she could do it again, she stopped herself. She had bested him once and it felt good. He hadn’t even caught her. He had stumbled across her. She would always be the one he didn’t catch and she was going to make sure to remind him of this every single day for the rest of her life.

As she lay in bed holding her daughter, a plan began to formulate in her head. She might not ever be able to get away from the Cacciola family and she might have to spend the rest of her life listening to the stupid macho arrogance of Brixton Beckwith but he was going to be stuck with her too. If there was one thing, she had learned in eight months of being his brother’s tortured bride, she could survive a Cacciola. While she might not be dumb enough to snitch to the feds, she could make Brixton’s life a living hell.

She smiled smugly as she considered all the ways she was going to make him and his family pay. f**k him. f**k them all.