Chasing His Brother's Bride
Chasing His Brother’s Bride – Chapter 46

Jolie sat in the kitchen with Opal, Axl, and Pia while Keely argued with Trey over what an acceptable breakfast was. Trey had been hanging around since the guys had left the night before and she had a funny feeling it had nothing to do with providing her security.

Despite Trey being his stoic-self and the epitome of professional, he was keeping as close an eye on Opal and Axl as he was her and Pia. He was interested in the woman and Jolie would have bet her left arm when he wasn’t on the floor with them, he was in the basement with the camera zoomed up tight to Opal and the a*s he had checked out more than once.

Now Trey was in the kitchen insisting he was cooking breakfast for the group and Keely was putting her two cents in.

“If you don’t swirl the water, how are the eggs going to poach?”

He held up an egg with the shell on it. “Does this look like I’m poaching eggs? The boy said boiled. I’m making him boiled.”

“What about me?”

“I don’t give a f**k what you eat.”

“I’m a guest.”

“You’re a damn Cacciola in a Cacciola house. You’re not a guest.” He pointed to Opal and Axl, “guests.” He pointed to her, “family. Big f*****g difference.”

“Are you two really related?” Axl laughed giggling in his high-pitched voice at their antics.

“I would rather shoot myself in the face than admit such things,” Trey deadpanned, his facial expression as stoney as ever.

“Second cousins,” Keely shoved him with her h*p and not budging him an inch. She was hopping up and down over his shoulder as he put the eggs in the water. “You’re doing it wrong.”

“Trey, I only like chocolate eggs,” Pia threw her two cents in.

He looked to her, “I talked to your daddies this morning and they told me to tell you if you didn’t eat your breakfast, the presents they bring back for you tomorrow will be put away indefinitely.”

“You talked to them?” Jolie asked and couldn’t help but feel disappointed. She had not expected a traditional wedding night and yet but going to bed without them last night had hurt in a weird way. She let Pia climb over her lap onto the island and into Axl’s arms. Jolie frowned when she whispered in a way only a five-year-old could, loud enough for the entire room to hear, asking him if he would eat her eggs in secret so she could get presents. Axl whispered in her ear and she knew he was agreeing to whatever Pia was asking him. Spoiled brat. She wasn’t upset as Axl danced her away from the grown-ups.

“They called me just before five for an update. I let them know everyone was fine. Brix said they would call you and Pia later this morning.”

Trey frowned at her, not that anyone would have been able to tell the difference between his frown and resting face, she supposed. “They will be home tomorrow, Jolie. Don’t worry too much about them. They have each other’s backs.”

“I know. They are together.” And I’m here alone, she added to herself mentally. They were out being the couple of their throuple. She knew she was being absurd. They were working not off having s*x and parties but she found herself being jealous of them being alone and it was an odd feeling.

Trey rounded the counter and keeping his usual one-foot distance cleared his throat so she looked at him.

“They were meeting with the accountant this morning and then had another issue to take care of. They are missing their wife and daughter. I am sure of it.”

Her oversized bodyguard was already in tune to her moods and she exhaled and nodded, “I’m being silly.”

“They left you on your wedding day. I’m surprised you didn’t pull my gun and shoot them both in the a*s. I would have done it for you if I weren’t aware of what they were going to sort out.”

“I don’t want to know.”

“You don’t need to know.”

She froze as his words suddenly caught up in her brain, “the accountant?”

“Yes.”

“They went to meet with the accountant?”

“They want answers.”

“Oh.” She shifted uncomfortably.

Opal leaned sideways, openly eavesdropping. “Who is the accountant?”

“My father apparently,” she couldn’t look up. Would they hurt him?

“I met him once,” Keely said as she sat next to Jolie. “He’s a bit weird, isn’t he?”

Considering Jolie had watched Keely the night before shred cheese on top of her popcorn and then drizzle it with ketchup, she thought it funny Keely found anyone else weird. “Um, weird how?”

“I touched his desk in his office and he didn’t like it.”

“He’s particular. He always liked order and method. It’s what makes him good with numbers.”

“Was he a good dad? Before all of this?”

“He was,” Jolie nodded and exhaled a shaky breath, “before my mom died, he was good. He was strict and was disappointed I didn’t want to become an accountant like him but he also said he didn’t care what I did so long as I was happy doing it. He changed a lot when mom got sick. He used to laugh and tease us both but the minute she was diagnosed, he was different.”

“Maybe I met him after she was sick?” Keely offered.

“Maybe.” She sighed. “I hope they don’t go overboard.”

Trey snickered and the sound was funny coming from him. “Overboard? Those two? Never.”

Keely smacked his shoulder, “not in front of the guests.”

He looked to Jolie and then to Opal, “pretty sure Opal has a great big giant idea of what goes on in this family.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I promised Brix I knew how to keep my mouth shut and I do.”

“I bet I could make you talk,” he said to her, c*****g his head slightly at Opal.

“Maybe scream,” Jolie giggled as he turned his attention to her and then caught her innuendo. He pointed at her and shook his head turning back to his eggs. She didn’t miss the slight upturn at his mouth. She nudged Opal who was glaring at her furiously. “I can take the kids into the back yard and show Axl Pia’s new treehouse if you want to see all the ways Trey can make you scream.”

“Jolie!” Opal hissed at her as she g*****d and dropped her face into the counter.

“I’m working right now, Jolie,” Trey said without turning around, “however when more of the guys are up and around, I’ll be happy to give Opal the demonstration she’s looking for.”

“Ha-ha,” Keely roared with laughter as Opal slipped off the stool she was on and then bounced back up on it. “Oh, it’s too much. Opal, it’s funny when you’re on the receiving end instead of the dishing end.”

“Don’t you have anywhere else to be,” Opal m****d at Keely who was making kissy noises behind Opal.

“Nope. My girlfriend and I ended things a couple weeks back. I’m a free spirit and she was a dark cloud.”

“What happened?”

“Life,” Keely shrugged. “She’s from London and she’s as gloomy as the weather there. If the s*x hadn’t been so good, I would have bailed long ago. But she does this thing with her tongue,” she jumped when Trey smacked her with the hot spatula he was using on the bacon. “Ouch!”

“Children in the room don’t need to hear about your escapades,” Trey shot meaningful glances towards the little girl being spun around in circles in the young teenager’s arms.

“How will you keep Opal quiet when he’s around?” Keely teased him in a whisper.

Opal shrieked at the question and Trey shrugged and made wide eyes whispering back, “it’s what gags are for. I have an entire collection.”

Opal hopped off her stool and raced off to the powder room while Jolie and Keely roared with laughter. Trey looked to Jolie, “too much?”

“Nope. Just the right amount, I bet. I can take over the bacon.”

“No.” Keely and Trey said at the same time.

“I can cook bacon.”

“We want to eat it after, Jolie, not use it as a weapon.” Trey shot back.

“Not funny.” She frowned. Her phone rang in her back pocket and she grimaced and answered it. “Hello?”

“Hey sweetheart,” Brix’s voice came over the line. “How’s my wife?”

“Taking shots about my cooking skills. Trey won’t let me watch the bacon.”

“It’s for the best until we get the new sprinkler system installed.”

“Hey!” she protested his teasing but smiling widely. “Is Malik there too?”

“He’s talking to Fabrizio about something. Can you go to my office and facetime me love?”

“Sure.” She looked to Keely and Trey, “can you guys watch Pia? Brix wants me to go to his office.”

She went to the office, closed the door, and sat on the arm of the sofa and switched the audio call to video. His face was right there and she immediately felt a sense of calm looking into his expressive brown eyes. She tried to remain nonchalant with him, “What’s up?”

“Well, first, we both miss you a lot and we can’t wait to come home and finish what we started yesterday in the car.”

She blushed at his words and then whispered, “I would like this very much.”

“Good. I want to bury my face in your p***y and eat you raw. You tasted so good yesterday, sweetheart.”

“Brix!” the phone tumbled in her hands with his husky laugh.

“I can’t wait to see you. Malik has been talking non-stop about how good you taste and I know he wants the same thing.”

“Sleeping alone last night sucked.” She admitted quietly.

“One more night.”

“Are you two sharing a bed?”

“No. Actually,” he laughed, “we haven’t been to bed yet. It’s been a busy bit. Speaking of, I saw your father this morning, Jolie.”

“How was he?”

“Bad,” he admitted bluntly.

“Is he alive? Did you hurt him?”

“Dad might have given a bit of a smackdown but nothing he didn’t deserve. It seems the day after Val took you, Chiara paid your father a visit. Led him to believe she and Dad knew Val had taken you and had agreed to the payment of you in exchange of half of the debt. She ordered him to continue working the other half and to keep his mouth shut. She apparently told him she had no problem putting a bullet in your head if he even mentioned your name in front of Dad. Made it seem like Dad had met you and found you disgusting and a reminder of the betrayal of their friendship. She told him he had left Chiara and Val in charge of your father’s punishment. She would pop up randomly when he was working or at his house and remind him of what was at stake.”

She moved to sit on the sofa, the lump in her throat growing exponentially. “She did what?”

“He had a full-on panic attack, Jolie, thinking about Chiara’s guys finding you. When you were brought to hospital, Chiara cornered your father at the hospital when Dad was busy with Fabrizio trying to sort out what the f**k had happened and told him he better keep his mouth shut or she’d have a sniper put holes in both of your heads. He lied to the feds to protect you from her.”

“She threatened him?”

“We’re finding out Chiara covered up for Val a lot. A lot, Jolie. It seems she encouraged his insanity. The reason we didn’t know about half of the stuff he was pulling was because she hid it all and ordered his team to keep things quiet. Half of his guys were loyal to him to a fault and the other half of his team had family members who were threatened by Chiara. Apparently one of his soldiers argued with Val and Chiara broke his toddler’s arm right in front of him and told him she’d murder the kid right then and there along with the kids’ mother. They did this about a month before they took you. Right in his living room.”

“How did you find this out?”

“Val recorded everything which happened in his apartment.”

“Really?” she was surprised. “He often set up a camera on me but if he had more than the portable on in the condo, I had no idea.”

“He was paranoid. There’s an entire ten-minute rant of him going off in a camera about a week before he died about his mother and how he was sure she was slipping him poison in the water she had delivered to him. We’re working our way backwards with the tapes.”

“Does this mean you have video of who killed him?” She leaned forward towards the camera curiosity getting the better of her.

Brix shook his head, “In a weird coincidence he purposefully disconnected his own surveillance the night he died and the last thing it recorded was him saying he thought I found a way to hack the cameras and telling me to go f**k myself. I had no idea he even had the cameras there, Jolie. I hadn’t set foot in his condo since the day he moved into it. It caught his rant about me and he suddenly flaked and went to his computer system and shut the entire camera program down. I don’t know if you knew his background was technology or not. He could be useful but since he was so damn violent, Dad used him other ways. He kept the cameras hidden really well and none of us found the program until we took the place to the studs this week. Had he not been buzzed out of his mind and had he not disconnected it, he would have provided us the evidence of who killed him. Instead, we still don’t know. He had a safe you didn’t know about and it was where he stored all the hard drives of the surveillance. There had to be two hundred of them in there. He was a paranoid fucker. The only reason we found the safe was because as I said we tore the apartment down to the studs.”

“Chiara threatened my dad,” she whispered as she suddenly felt all the anger at her father melting away.

“She did, honey and he was still terrified of her. It was only when we told him she was dead did he finally stop weeping about you being in danger.”

“She’s dead?” she blinked in surprise.

“According to the world, she and Dad divorced this morning and she boarded a plane to Italy. However, it needed to be done, Jolie. The video from Val’s show she was even more f****d up than he was. I’m sorry, honey. I know you hate this.”

She felt as if he were wanting to touch her through the screen. His concern almost tactile and she couldn’t stop herself and touched her lips and put the k**s to the camera. “I’ll be okay. I’m glad she can’t hurt me or Pia any longer.”

She frowned as she noted the tan leather behind him. “Are you in a plane?”

“Mm,” he nodded, “two down. One to go.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re going after Rueda. It’s why Malik is with Fabrizio solidifying a plan. He declared war by sending Miguel after you. He recanted and asked for a truce meeting. We’ll meet with him and then go back to Vegas. Dad is going to fly to Italy tomorrow to get Rosa. We’ll be home tomorrow. Dad and Rosa should be back to us next week.” He took a breath, “I told your dad I would speak to you. He would very much like to hug you and explain himself why he kept quiet. He knew you were alive Jolie and for him it was all which mattered. If he kept quiet, Chiara wouldn’t kill you. He should have known the man he called his friend for six decades would not have done as she said but his mind was clouded between losing your mom, the theft, the way you had been taken and Chiara in his face routinely. It seems she continued threatening him right up until Dad locked her up last week. Dad gave him a smackdown for not trusting in him and coming to him. Your dad took it like a champ but honey he really wants to see you.”

She nodded, “okay. You’ll be with me, right?”

“Malik and I will both be there.” He took a breath and appeared distracted for a moment and then nodded to someone off camera, “looks like we’re getting ready to touchdown. I’ll see you tomorrow. If I can, I’ll try to call you tonight but there’s such a time difference, I’m not sure. Be good and listen to Trey.”

She nodded and smiled, “come home in one piece, okay?”

“I will.”

“Also,” she almost yelled as he appeared ready to hang up, “can you give Malik a hug and k**s from me? I miss you both a lot.”

“I can do that,” he winked at her. “See you soon.”

He ended the call and she curled up on the sofa and let the tears fall. Her daddy hadn’t betrayed her. He’d done what he thought he had to do to keep her safe. The relief coursing through her brought on a full sobbing and when Opal came into the room and wrapped her in her arms, she let it all out while her best friend hugged her tight.