Chasing His Brother's Bride
Chasing His Brother’s Bride – Chapter 32

Brix leaned against the table off to the side of the abandoned warehouse and c****d his head as he watched his father deliver a brutal beating on Juan Rueda’s second in command, Miguel Acevedo.

Despite approaching his seventies, Elio Cacciola was physically fit, strong, and based on the state of Acevedo’s face, destructive. Where mob movies often depicted the Don of the family as an older, man sitting behind a desk giving orders, his father was not the type. He led by example.

“Tell me again, what it was you called my wife?” Brix called out from his position knowing it would set his father off if the man repeated it.

Acevedo, to his credit, was demonstrating why he was Rueda’s second in command. He’d taken the beating like a pro and had kept his mouth shut other than to call Jolie a w***e and to say the Cacciola family would regret protecting her over their treaty with Rueda.

Brix smirked when his father brought his knee up and smashed it into the other man’s face. “Dad, I don’t think he’s willing to tell us more. Perhaps we need to be a bit more convincing.” He lifted his favorite tool from the rolled-up leather kit he had and walked back to the center of the room. “If he’s not going to talk, let’s loosen his tongue.”

The man tied to the chair spit a glob of b***d in his direction and Brix laughed at him.

“Here’s the thing Miguel,” he looked to the man with a smirk, “your boss has sent you on jobs with me twice. You know the things I’ve done and what I’m capable of. I know the things you’ve done. Unfortunately for you, you and Juan messed up this time going after what is mine.”

“Yours? You mean your brother’s thieving w***e?” the man glowered at him.

“Hold him,” Brix motioned to Malik who easily gripped the man’s head and forced his mouth open. Using the pliers in his hand, specially crafted for what he was about to do, he clicked them, “perhaps the teeth in your mouth are crowding your tongue and it’s why you can’t speak for yourself.” With effort, he pulled the two front upper teeth from the man’s screaming mouth while Malik and his father held him as still as they could. Brix c****d his head and admired his handy work. “There’s enough space there now with this little gap you can go back and suck your boss’ d**k the way you like to do. The tiny thing will slide through here quite nice,” he shoved the pliers into the man’s mouth and opened them. “Should we send a video to Juan?”

“You’re disgusting,” Miguel whimpered as unbidden tears streamed down his face, mixing with the coagulating b***d spewing from his mouth.

“Why does Juan want my girl? Do not give me the s**t he thinks she was in on the theft. She didn’t take a dime. You put devices in her house and in her car. Why?”

When the man said nothing but stared back defiantly, Brix proceeded to remove six more teeth, including two molars, tossing each tooth into a bowl. “We’ll send your teeth back to Rueda but I think we’ll keep you for ourselves. I haven’t had a plaything in a while. You know,” he leaned close to Miguel’s ear, “once when I was a boy, my father gave me one of his enemies to practice my torture skills on. I kept him alive sixty-three days.” He drew the pliers down the man’s now swollen mouth, “do you know how I ended up killing him? I choked him with his own tongue. Cut it off and shoved it down his gullet and watched him turn blue.” He stood up and looked to his father, “how old was I dad?”

“Sixteen,” Elio was smug. “You remember? I gave him to you as a birthday present.”

“Right. My sweet sixteen. Some boys get cars. I got a torture doll.”

“Sick f*****g family,” Miguel managed to hiss out.

“We are,” Brix agreed, “but even as sick as we are, we have rules and one of those rules is to keep our women and children safe. Now, Jolie has been compliant with us. She raised my little girl and she has been nothing short of,” he looked to Malik, “what is the word I’m searching for?”

“Angelic, amazing, incredible,” Malik threw out the adjectives.

“I was thinking more,” Brix tapped the pliers against Miguel’s forehead, “ah yes, loyal. She was loyal. She didn’t take a single penny of our money. She kept her mouth shut. She raised our b***d. She was loyal, Miguel. Loyal. I reward loyalty in our family.”

“She has the feds following her,” Miguel spat his words heavily lisped. “She had one of them following her this morning.”

“And she called it in,” Brix told him and noted the surprise on his face. “Oh, did you not know? She called it in. She let me know the minute she caught sight of the officer assigned to her case and alerted me and her guards. She’s not working for the feds. She hates them. Do you know why she hates them?”

Malik spoke up, “I bet he doesn’t know why. He’s stupid.”

“He’s not very smart. It’s why he’s only Juan’s number two and Juan is going to leave his operations to his son. His son is stupid but I wouldn’t have guessed Miguel is even less intelligent than his kid. I mean the kid is dumb.” Elio tossed in.

“I imagine it’s what happens when you f**k your sister and make her give you a son,” Brix commented. “Though, it’s not nearly as disgusting as his daughter giving him a son. How old is the youngest inbred bastard? Ten, twelve? You do know, I have to kill them all now, right?” He saw the flicker in Miguel’s eyes, “and your offspring too. Can’t have them coming back for revenge now, can we? We have to take them all out. All the boys. Any of the girls who fight us. They all die. I’m wiping the family out.”

Miguel started to protest now in earnest.

“If I didn’t know better,” Malik commented dryly, “I’d say he was panicking a bit. Do you think he actually might love his son? He only has the one.” Malik held up his phone, “this is him coming from school today.” He pointed to the car, “I had a bomb put right in this car. All I have to do is hit a button and boom, no more son. No more wife. Kablooey.”

Miguel was squirming and squealing trying to get out of the seat.

“I think he thought he had them well hidden,” Elio commented with a laugh. “Juan thinks he runs a good organization but my stupid little friend, nobody runs an organization like the Cacciola family does. Your enemies are my friends. Your friends are my friends. Your acquaintances also are my friends. The government officials you think you have in your pocket, are in my pocket. What do you know?”

Miguel looked to Malik with the phone, “I want my son safe. You keep him safe.”

“I’m not making promises,” Elio interrupted.

“He’s an innocent. You are all about protecting innocents.”

“Is he? In Rueda’s house, the boys start killing as young as four or five. What makes your son so innocent?”

“Juan doesn’t know I have him,” Miguel admitted in a whisper. “He would train him. I kept him quiet and away. My last wife, Juan used her as his own and then put a bullet in her head when she gave him a daughter instead of a son. I kept this one hidden from him.”

“Why does he want Jolie?”

Miguel looked to Brix and shook his head, “he is convinced she was part of it.”

“Why?”

He looked away, “his brother-in-law.”

“What?”

“His brother-in-law is a federal agent.”

“We knew this. It’s his guy on the inside. What about it.”

“When Elio called Juan Friday night and made the comment Brix found her using an alternate name, his brother-in-law dug into the FBI data base and found her two interviews. They brought her in twice here in Boston. Both times her story was unchanged. She was kidnapped, tied to a bed, and never let out of the room. What kind of woman who has the information she has on your family, your son,” Miguel sneered, “and doesn’t tell the police what she’s seen unless she was part of it and afraid to get arrested?”

“A smart one,” Brix commented dryly. “You’re stupid. You know this right? You and your boss are stupid. Jolie saw lots. She heard even more. She also,” he patted the man’s puffy cheeks, “heard all the stories Valentin told her about how brutal we are. Drug fueled orgies. Beating women to death. Raping, pillaging and murder for shits and giggles. She even knew the story of me killing a man at my father’s supper table at fifteen.” He heard his father chuckle behind him. It was a family classic. “Basically, she believes with all her heart, I am a thousand times worse than Val. She isn’t wrong. I am a miserable a*****e. She knew if she opened her mouth to the feds and I found her, nobody would ever find her again. She also has a very damn good reason to keep living.”

“The kid.” Miguel whispered as if the puzzle was coming together in his head.

“The kid,” Brix agreed with him. “The kid is why she kept her mouth shut. She knew crossing us meant she would die and not see her kid grow up.” He gave a shake of his head, “and, unlike your family who willy-nilly puts bullets in each other’s heads, our family protects our own and Jolie knew this intuitively. She knew better than to mouth off about her daughter’s family. She kept her mouth shut. She will keep her mouth shut. She will never say anything to anyone. She is now my wife. Mine. Juan was warned not to go after her. You very stupidly gave your card to the landlord. I almost think you wanted to be caught.”

“I didn’t think the landlord would call her.” He admitted, spitting out a glob of b***d onto his own shirt. “I told him to wait until she came back to the house and then call me. I actually told him to keep his mouth shut so she didn’t run.”

The three men exchanged glances and Malik gave a laugh, “do you think he called Jolie to tip her off?”

Brix chuckled and shook his head, “I bet he did. Tried to protect her by telling her the cops were looking for her and she couldn’t stay there anymore.”

“Miguel, here’s what is going to happen.” Elio tossed a saw to Malik, “you aren’t leaving here alive. We will send a team to assess whether or not your son is truly innocent and if he is, we’ll arrange for him and your wife a life away from the cartel. The cartel however is going to burn. I’m going to personally end Juan Rueda’s life for f*****g with my daughter.”

He looked away, resignation at his fate resting on his now swollen features. “Juan was certain you would not be upset if she died. You could have the kid to yourself.”

“That’s where your boss is wrong,” Brix shook his head. “I am quite partial to my petite bride. I will keep her safe and your boss was warned we would go to war for her. Yet, you were careless. You got caught and now your own family is in jeopardy.” He walked behind the man and shook his head in disgust.

“You would go to war over a woman?” Miguel hissed angrily unable to see Brix behind him.

“This woman? A hundred times yes.” Brix didn’t hesitate with his response. “But I’ve been wanting a reason to put Juan Rueda down like a dog for years. I hate the guy. I know my father and his have done business a long time but it is time for our association to end. We will be sending a message to your boss, in the form of your teeth. He will know who got you and he will know why.”

He looked to Elio and Malik, “let’s end this. I want to go home and see my girls.” He twisted a silencer onto his gun and without a second thought put the gun to the back of the man’s head and pulled the trigger execution style.

Malik grimaced as the man’s head dropped forward without any further excitement. “That felt anticlimactic.”

“Sounds like your s*x life,” Brix taunted him, “or at least the complaints of your women.” He snickered as Malik held up a middle finger. “Let’s get our crew in here. Send the message to Rueda express post.”

Elio was washing his hands in a sink, “I’m disappointed in Juan. I would have thought he put more value on our longstanding business association than this.” He pursed his lips. “I want to know more about this brother-in-law is working for the FBI. We had asked him for intel before and he was low level. What is he doing now?”

Malik nodded, “I will find out and take care of it.”

“Good. I want to make sure the girls are settled and situated by the weekend,” Elio continued. “If we have to go to Columbia, I want them in a routine and comfortable with their soldiers in the house. I felt bad leaving poor Jolie with a bunch of strange men she didn’t know. She’s probably had thirty panic attacks and has locked herself in her room by now.”

Brix froze as he considered his father’s words and then g*****d, “f**k.”

“What?”

“It’s why she was pissed with me for leaving. I thought she was playing domestic housewife and moaning because I had to go out.”

“She doesn’t like you that much, Brix,” his father shook his head. “You need to check your ego.”

“I left a woman suffering from PTSD and terrified of men in a house full of eleven strange men all bigger and scarier than Val. No wonder she wanted to carve my balls.” He tossed the gun to one of the guys coming into the room. “Get rid of it. Melt it down. Put the metal on a ship to Europe.”

The man nodded as he tucked the gun into his waistband and began helping Malik dismembering the body. Brix stood there watching the scene unfold and then looked to his watch before removing his apron and tossing it over a chair. “It’s after ten. I’m going home to the girls.” He gave a whistle at Malik who was really going to town with the saw. When they locked eyes, he saw the coldness in Malik’s expression. Compartmentalize. “Do not go to the kids’ house tonight. You are not in the right headspace and I don’t want to have to explain to Jolie why you made the parents of our daughter’s bully disappear.”

“Understood.”

“Dad, are you coming?”

Elio looked up from his phone and nodded, “I got a message from Fabrizio. He made them supper. He said Jolie kissed his cheek.”

Malik looked up incredulously and Brix pulled his head back in surprise. “What? He’s a creepy motherfucker and she put her lips on him?” Malik laughed at Brix, “might be hope for you yet.”

Elio chuckled, “he said and I’m quoting, she is a very special woman and you don’t deserve her.” He smiled, “she also took a good teasing about her cooking. I guess the boys found one of her pans with a hole in it. There isn’t a single one of the security team at the house who wouldn’t take a bullet for her after an hour or two with her. She is special, our Jolie.”

“Pia told me she makes meatballs like asteroids. Real asteroids. Made of rock,” Malik started hacking off a body part.

“We’ll have to hire a housekeeper to cook our meals.” Brix said.

“Have your parents move in,” Malik offered. “They’ll be here tomorrow anyway.”

Elio clapped his hands excitedly, “your mom and Will are coming? Oh, this is great.”

“You are not going to make Will upset.” Brix chastised him. His father’s desire to get under Will’s skin was second to nothing else Elio did.

“I’m a mob boss and he married the love of my life. Of course, I am going to make him upset. It’s my favorite past time. Like when I send her red roses on her birthday. Makes him nuts. Maybe I’ll walk around in my underwear and let her see me. I know I look better than Will naked.”

Brix rolled his eyes and reminded his father, “you have Rose in Italy.”

“I love her too. Your mom is special though. She gave me you.”

“Brix thinks Jolie is like her. Tough and hides Cacciola kids.” Malik threw him under the bus.

“Don’t lose her then, Brix.” Elio said with a frown. “Women like your mom are special and a rare find. I should have divorced Chiara and married your mom when I had the chance. Hold onto her. Make her fall in love with you and never let her leave.”

“It’s the plan, Dad.” His words were far more confident than he felt inside. As they exited the building and started on their way back to the Boston suburb where he had bought their home, Brix was aware he’d messed up in a big way with Jolie this evening and he needed to make it right. The question was, how?