Chasing His Brother's Bride

Tiger Stripes

Jolie was in a towel, after she and Pia had showered together, and she was rifling through the suitcase of clothes. While the child had thoroughly enjoyed the giant-sized shower and had run circles around her while they were in there, Jolie had been too preoccupied with what was going to happen today. Now the child was bouncing happily on the bed, dressed in a little tunic and tights with her hair a black mess of tangles sopping wet and dampening the back of her dress, while again Jolie was lost in her thoughts.

If Elio was coming today, it was entirely possible today was her last day on earth with her daughter. She knew better than to trust a single word coming out of Brixton’s mouth. He was second in command to the most powerful mafia family this side of Italy. He didn’t run hundreds of legal and illegal businesses by practicing what he preached. His bullshit about disliking liars was the height of hypocrisy for his family.

Grabbing a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, Jolie tossed them with her bra and panties which she’d left on the bed. A hard knock on the door made her clutch her towel tightly and hiss at Pia not to open the door but the child was fast and she leapt off the bed and flung the door wide, exposing Jolie in the towel to the raised eyebrow of her uncle.

“Pia, close the door!”

“Mommy’s naked,” Pia giggled loudly, “we had a shower.”

“I see that,” he let his eyes rake over her body as he leaned against the door wearing a pair of trousers.

“Can you leave?” she gave a glare over her shoulder at the way he took her all in. Bold bastard.

“I could,” he grinned, “but I find I really like watching you squirm.”

She boldly held up a finger at him, not missing the way his easy smile slipped at the insolence. Turning her back to him, she shimmied into her underwear, forcing herself not to let him know how much his presence while she was almost naked made her ill. Her towel slipped down her back and she heard the very real hiss of him as it fell. She pulled it back up and grabbed the bra, jeans and shirt and stormed off to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Like his brother, propriety was not in his vocabulary.

She had just put her bra on when the door flung open again and he stepped into the room. In her white cotton bra and panties, annoyed they did indeed have pretty little flowers on them and he probably didn’t miss it, she crossed her arms over her chest, “what the hell are you doing?”

“Turn around,” he ordered, spinning his index finger downward. “Now.”

The tone in his voice did not allow her to argue, fear settling deep in her belly. She was shaking like a leaf when she did and she could see him approaching her from behind in the mirror and she admitted the dark hair and eyes of the man coming near her immediately had her thinking of Valentin and her knees shook and she grabbed the counter of sink. She repeated in her head over and over “Val is dead, he can’t hurt you,” while the measured footsteps of his black shoes clicked on the flooring. She watched him come to a complete stop only a foot or so behind her. He was so close she could feel his body heat.

He was standing directly behind her, his breath ragged. God help her if this was another Cacciola who decided her body was going to be his to toy with.

Pia burst in, “those are mama’s tiger stripes! They prove she’s as strong as a tiger.”

He met her eyes in the mirror and it dawned on her it was the scars he was looking at. He’d caught a glimpse of them when the towel had slipped. He wasn’t in the room to try to force himself on her. He wasn’t going to attack her. He wanted to see the physical damages his brother had done. She kept her hands to her chest and lifted her chin defiantly. “That’s right,” her voice shook as she addressed Pia, “they are my stripes.”

“Mommy has stripes on her back and her bum and her belly and her legs,” Pia was explaining excitedly as she danced all around Jolie. “Uncle Brix, there’s one on her butt as wide as two of my fingers! Sometimes in the bathtub Mommy lets me use my bathtub fingerpaints and color them in. Not the one on her butt though because we don’t touch people’s private spots.”

He squatted down, “Pia, Uncle Malik is out in the other room setting up breakfast. Can you please go see if he needs help? I don’t know if he knows how to set a table.”

“Yes!” she skipped away happily calling out for Malik excitedly.

“Val did this?” he questioned the minute the child was out of hearing range, rising again behind her.

She nodded and decided to give him the full details of her marks, “yes. Some he did with a whip, others with a cane he had which had barbs on it. His favorite one though, the one which left the two-inch-wide ones across my buttocks were from a cat-o-nine tail he beat me with until I bled. I wasn’t excited enough about the prospect of marrying him and it embarrassed him. They took forever to heal because Val’s favorite thing to do was watch me bleed. He liked to mix our blood so he would cut his own hands or arm and then swirl it all together on my skin,” she felt a grim satisfaction as the man turned a putrid shade of grey at her words.

“Jolie,” his voice was hoarse and he cleared his throat and lifted a hand behind her as if he wanted to touch her and was restraining himself. He looked away and Jolie wondered if she was imagining the watery appearance of his dark eyes and he blinked rapidly as he stared in the direction of the shower stall. He stepped backwards dropping his hand to his side, “Malik brought breakfast up. Please get dressed and come out.”

His rapid collection of his emotions made her consider she had misread him as his cold tone echoed in the tiled bathroom.

She quickly got dressed and flung her hair into a ponytail and then followed Pia’s laughter to the small kitchenette. She found Malik and Pia sitting at the table but no sign of Brixton anywhere. She took a seat opposite Malik and noted her daughter was eating the banana out of a fruit salad.

“Mia Pia,” she made big eyes at her, “you should eat the grapes and watermelons.”

“They’re yucky mommy.” She pouted.

“What about the yoghurt or cheese?” Malik motioned to several dishes on the table.

“I don’t like yoghurt and I only like cheese slices wrapped in plastic,” she frowned at Malik. “Mommy knows.”

“What do you usually eat for breakfast Pia?” Malik asked her. “I can order it for you.”

“No, you can’t,” Jolie shut him down hard with his suggestion. “She eats what is on her plate or she doesn’t eat. What she doesn’t eat can go into the fridge for a snack later when she’s hungry. Breakfast is in front of you, Pia. Take it or leave it.” She squared off against the little girl who was batting her lashes at Malik.

“Uncle Malik, I want rainbow pancakes.” She ignored her mother and grasped at Malik’s offer.

“You don’t like pancakes, Pia. You’ll be wasting money on food you’re not going to eat. We don’t waste money or food in this family. Eat your breakfast.” Jolie denied her request outright.

Pia sighed, “can I have water?”

“After you drink the milk. At least four sips of the milk.” Pia loved milk normally. She was being contrary and Jolie was not in the mood.

“Mommy, can we go to the park today?” she asked over the rim of the glass of milk.

“It will be up to Uncle Brixton,” Jolie looked to Malik. “Where is he?”

“He went to the roof,” Malik frowned at her. “He needed a minute.”

“Why did he need a minute?” Pia asked as she put a piece of banana in her mouth and smacked it loudly. “It’s too squishy.”

“It’s not too squishy and I’m sure Uncle Brixton must have had something he needed to do.” Jolie met Malik’s eyes and saw the pity there and felt the anger rising in her chest. She plucked a grape out of Pia’s bowl, “don’t.” She heard the door of the suite open and she looked over her shoulder and noted the cool expression on Brixton’s face. “Pia is asking if we can go to the park today.”

“Can she go outside with an ear infection when it’s cold out?”

“She can wear her hat and mitts and be warm. Fresh air might do her well.”

“We can go for an hour after breakfast. We have an appointment at eleven.” He grabbed an envelope off the counter and set it in front of her, sitting immediately beside her. “Pia, eat your fruit bowl please.”

“What is this?” she tentatively took the envelope from him. She wanted to rage at her child as the little girl put watermelon in her mouth and said how yummy it was. She heard Malik’s chuckle and wanted to throttle him. She opened and frowned. “I have a bank account.”

“Now so does Pia and yours has the balance reflective of the mother of a Cacciola.”

“I don’t want your money.” She felt her chest heaving as she gasped for breath. It was banking documentation with her and Pia’s names on it. There were far too many zeroes for her to feel she wasn’t being paid off.

“It’s not my money. It’s yours. The equivalent of six years of child support and the reimbursement of all your medical bills.” He waved at the documentation, “the trust fund for Pia is the same as the ones Malik’s sister’s children have in their names. When she turns twenty-one, she will be quite wealthy in her own right.”

“I don’t want your money,” she repeated furiously. “I already told you I’m not going to say anything. I don’t need hush money.” Her fingers were trembling as they flipped through multiple documents with Pia’s full legal name on them. He had not wasted time making sure he had all their details now. He even had Jolie’s social security number. She wondered how deep the pockets were that he had to pad to get such personal information. Was this what he was working on when she’d been awake with Pia after midnight? Did the entire world simply do what he wanted when he wanted?

“It is not hush-money,” he took a fork off the table, speared a strawberry, and held it out to feed Pia who opened her mouth willingly and happily chewed the berry. He motioned to a foam container, “eat your breakfast as well Jolie. You’re both too thin.”

“I am not too thin! I’m heavier now than I ever was in my life.” His words immediately had her fuming. She was a solid size ten.

“Jolie, we have a busy day today and I am not going to spend it arguing with the pair of you,” he waved Pia’s fork between her and her child, “over food. You will eat. You will stop arguing over the accounts and you will do well to remember who is in charge.”

Malik’s snort made Jolie angrier. Even her own child was doing this man’s bidding without even the slightest hesitation as he motioned to the milk and she drank it to the bottom, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and a big grin.

“I do not want to spend the day with you, arguing or otherwise,” she retorted.

“Jolie, you, and I had a conversation last night. Do you recall the conversation? When I say jump?” his eyes were dark and furious as he held her gaze.

“How high?” she queried and shoved the documents into the envelope and grabbed the black credit card he held extended towards her between his two fingers. “What are we doing today?”

“Pia wants to go to the park therefore we’ll go to the park. Then we’ll be meeting someone at eleven. We will be going clothing shopping at one. My father will be in the city for five. We will meet him here and we will have a family dinner here with him and my stepmother.”

Jolie felt her lungs crushing at the words. “Stepmother? Chiara is coming?” Chiara, the mother of the man who had ruthlessly brutalized her for months on end who had once told her the best thing she could do was to die and be done with it, was going to be here and be around Pia. The need to grab the little girl and run was immeasurable.

Brixton and Malik both immediately noted the trembling in her hands had become spastic and violent and Brixton took her chin and forced her to look at him. “Did she know?” his question was pointed and she knew what he was asking.

With a slow nod, and a single tear running down her cheek, she felt Pia slide onto her lap.

“Mommy, why are you crying?”

He slid her chair around the table and wrapped them both in his arms, Jolie stiffening against the movement. He whispered in her hair, “pull it together. Your child is watching. You have nothing to fear from Chiara.”

“Let me go,” she whispered back.

“Not in a million years,” he stroked her shoulder. “You fall under my protection now, Jolie. Nobody will ever hurt either of you again or they deal with me.”

She felt a second set of hands on her head and then the gentlest of kisses placed to her crown.

Malik whispered to Brixton in Italian and she realized they didn’t know she was fluent.

“I’ll call Dad and let him know. He’s going to be pissed.”

Brixton responded, “he’ll want proof.”

Jolie took a deep breath and answered them both, speaking their language “in the bathroom, behind the painting of the vase with the flowers, there is another safe. Same combination. The proof is in there.”

The silence was eventually filled by a low rumbling laugh from Malik. “I like her,” he shook his head.

Brixton leaned away from her and met her gaze, “are there any other safes or hidden compartments in the house.”

“In the nightstand on the left-hand side of the bed, there is a hidden drop box in the drawer. In the walk-in closet, under the shoe drawer there is a button which will pop a panel on the back closet. It’s where he kept all his toys.” She knew most of them were stained with her blood.

Brixton’s gentle kiss to her forehead surprised her and Pia didn’t miss it.

“Uncle Brix, I want one too!” She demanded in Italian and leaned her head forward demanding a kiss.

“You taught her Italian?”

“My parents are both Italian, Brixton. It’s what we speak at home for the most part but because she needs English for school we flip back and forth.”

He wrestled Pia from Jolie’s hands and planted a noisy kiss to her head and tossed her into the air, catching her. “Eat,” he instructed Jolie. “We need to get a move on to enjoy the rest of the day. No more thinking of bad things for the rest of the morning. No arguing, fighting, reminiscing. Today, is going to be the best day.”

“Why Uncle Brix,” Pia was breathless as she hugged him tight around the neck. “Is it your birthday?”

“No. It’s the best day because I get to spend it with you Pia!” he kissed her cheek again and then casually tugged Jolie’s ponytail. “I finally found you, and nobody will ever take you from me.”

At his words, Jolie was torn between hysterical laughter and a full-blown melt down.