Wildflower (Chapter 11)

Chapter 11

 

            “I should not be out tonight,” Wildflower said while Brooke pulled her into the bar. “We have to work tomorrow, you know that right?”

            “Hush, you have to dish on the snobs,” Brooke told her.

            “Not much to tell, half of them hate me, a quarter are scared of me and the rest want to be my best friend,” she said.

            “And how are things with the family?”

            “Katrina really hates me right now and his mother hates me and apparently his brother is a rapist,” she sighed. Brooke stared at her like she hoped she was joking, she seriously wished she did.

            “What do you mean he is a rapist?”

            “Yeah that’s what I said, and I don’t know Nick has been so weird. He said he would kill his brother if he ever touched me and he was 100% serious about it.”

            “So? If his brother is a rapist I can see why he would feel that way, he’s just protective. Miss I-have-nine-brothers you should know when someone wants to protect you. I seriously doubt Jay would kill for me,” Brooke said. She made it seem like it wasn’t a big deal, maybe it really wasn’t.

            “Jay loves you; I still think its gross you go out with my brother but whatever.”

            “Could be worse I could be with Ivan which would be like being with you only male,” she said and they both laughed.

            “Ladies,” Christina greeted when she came to sit at their table.

            “Oh Mama Chris got out the house and without Isaiah following you. It is a miracle,” Brooke said.

            “Yeah it is, he drives me crazy! ‘Why are you going to the bar?’ ‘Do you really need to be drinking?’ It goes on forever; can I not have a life? And I bet he talked one of the boys into watching Ariela so he could go out. If he comes here I swear I’ll knife him,” Christina sighed.

            “Sounds like you need a shot,” Brooke said. Without another word she got up and went to the bar.

            “So I guess Isaiah is being a pain?” Wildflower asked.

            “Yeah he like thinks I shouldn’t go out if he doesn’t,” Christina shook her head. “If he wants to act like we’re an old married couple maybe he should ask me to marry him. But no we’ve only been together for three and a half years. You get engaged after four months and I get nothing.”

            “Honey, you know how Isaiah is. But if you want me to talk to him or kick his a*s I’m all for it,” Wildflower offered.

            “I’ll be taking you up on that soon.”

            “Ok Ladies I got us some shots,” Brooke announced. She was carrying a tray with six shots on it.

            “Brooke, we have to work tomorrow.”

            “So? You translate one thing you’ve translated them all, it’s always the same s**t,” Brooke said dismissively.

            “Where is Cody tonight?” Christina asked before she took her first shot.

            “She said she had a date or something,” Brooke said.

            “I still haven’t told her I’m engaged,” Wildflower admitted.

            “That doesn’t surprise me,” Christina said. “She was such a b***h to you last week. All she’s going to do is b***h and complain.”

            “Yeah and you know once she gets started she will never shut up. Let’s hope she gets some tonight so she’ll be nicer,” Brooke said.

            “So Wildflower you are planning to get married but I haven’t heard you ask us to be your bridesmaids yet.”

            “Do I really have to ask? Of course my only friends would be my bridesmaids.”

            “Does that mean you’re going to ask Cody?” Brooke asked.

            “Don’t do it, she’ll ruin your wedding, you shouldn’t even invite her,” Christina said. “Your wedding is about you and Nicolas and not Cody.”

            “If I don’t ask her she’s going to be offended, maybe she’ll say no?”

            “Or she’ll say yes and ruin everything,” Christina said. “Hey I’m just telling the truth and both of you have been friends with her longer than me but you know how she is. I bet she’ll have a conspiracy theory about why he asked you to marry him.”

            “You’re right,” she sighed. “Oh Brooke do not say anything about Delanoz to her I want to forget I know, but she will turn it into something.”

            “I’m out of the loop, include me please,” Christina said.

            “Nick’s brother is a rapist,” Wildflower said. She took her second shot at that, talking about Cody and Delanoz was definitely shot worthy.

            “So what has he ever been arrested?” Brooke asked while Christina stared at her.

            “Don’t think so, Nick said it was all kept quiet and money went around. Though I’m thinking I don’t want him in my house,” she shook her head.

            “Your house is it?” Brooke asked.

            “Actually it is, Nick had his lawyer put me on the deed to the house. His family doesn’t know that yet, when they find out you will know cause there will definitely be cops called out. His dad is backing us so far but he is going to flip out when he finds out about it,” she sighed again and took Christina’s other shot from her and drank it.

            “Wait get back to the his brother is a rapist thing,” Christina said.

            “Oh he told me that Delanoz has a problem when it comes to women but that was obvious since he has 11 kids with 9 different baby mamas. Basically he didn’t go into details but the man is a serial rapist. So if you ever want to come over again, don’t ever be alone with him,” Wildflower explained. “Oh and Carmen wants everybody to come over on Friday I think so our families can get to know each other.”

            “Wow ok I think they are officially more dysfunctional than our family,” Christina said.

            “Oh yeah and I forgot to mention how last night Katrina thought she could talk to me anyway she wanted. I called her out on all that crap that goes on in her house and with Sugar. Nick is pissed at her.”

            “I feel bad for that poor girl, Sugar is so wild,” Brooke shook her head. “She’s way worse than you Wildflower.”

            “Yeah and I blame it all on Katrina,” she said bitterly. “Is it bad if I want to tell her I own their family’s house just to give her a heart attack?”

            “Not really, but don’t play that card until you need to,” Christina suggested.

            “My lips are sealed, they are already having issued with Nick’s prenup refusal. And his mother asked Evan how much it would take for me to leave, if I hurt the woman its not my fault. Nick and I never discussed that type of thing and I guess we never will because he won’t do it. He said he’s not willing to put a price on me.”

            “So if you divorce him you could have part of their business right?” Brooke asked. “And the house and billions of dollars.”

            “Pretty much so there’s no way she can afford to pay me off. Nick told me to always go for the bigger payday. I told him I’ll take him for everything her has and he said good. He’s so weird sometimes,” she shook her head.

            The past few days of her life felt more like months when it had just been days. Thursday the mother-in-law from hell came in and she got engaged and had movie night with the kids, Friday dinner with the parents, Saturday that party and today bunch. The bunch was with a few women Carmen thought she would like, they happened to be her new fan club. Nobody knew what was said between her and Katrina but everybody knew they had a confrontation. As she learned Katrina was a total b***h to everybody and a lot of people didn’t like her. Carmen thought it was a good start that she had women that wanted to follow her around, Nick called them minions. It was just like high school and apparently she was the new Regina George and everybody wanted to be her best friend, even if they hated her.

            Being poor and from an obscenely large family Wildflower was definitely not a popular girl in school. Most of the girls hated her and some wanted to be her friend to get to her brothers. Daisy was the friendly one and the sweet one and she was a cheerleader. Wildflower was the smoking behind the school type of girl who mostly hung out with guys and might have had sex in the backseat of a few cars during school hours. Now she was the girl all the other girls wanted to be, she could admit it made her feel powerful. But this wasn’t high school so she was very resistant to be a part of this. Didn’t girls eventually grow out of this sort of thing? She had a bad feeling that the rest of her life was going to be a mix between Mean Girls and Gossip Girl. At least she had two and a half good real friends to keep her sane.

 

 

            “Let me buy you a car,” Nicolas was saying while driving her to work.

            “What part of ‘no’ didn’t you get? Are you tired of me driving your cars?” She asked while trying to bush her hair and make it stay in a clip. It was another day where she was running late and it wasn’t because she was out until 1 in the morning. Today she actually woke up early but somehow she never got out of bed.

            “No, I don’t care, except when you want the one I want, but you should have your own car. Isn’t there any car you might want?” He asked, it wasn’t the first or last time.

            “You know if you quit trying to have sex with me in the morning I could make it to work on time,” she said changing the subject.

            “Maybe we could have had sex last night if you weren’t out late,” he replied.

            “I bet your mom was hoping I would never come home.”

            “Probably but I don’t care what she wants if I did we wouldn’t be together.”

            “Anyway I think you have become a sex addict and we shouldn’t have sex for awhile,” she said watching him closely.

            “You want me to wreck, don’t you?”

            “What? We waited three months; maybe we need to wait until we get married.”

            “How bout no? Better yet hell no. Why should we stop? Are you not being pleasured properly? If not I will gladly take as long as it takes to find a way to please you,” he said with a lusty look in his eyes.

            “Oh I bet you would love that and I’m betting that would involve me tied to our bed. I didn’t say I wasn’t pleasured I’m just saying lots of couples wait till they are married to have sex,” she said.

            “Why did I bother waiting? I should have just gave in and did what I wanted the night we met, do you know how hard that was? Three months of holding you and touching you and watching you shower and get dressed and I wanted you badly. But I was crazy to think that waiting would make it more meaningful,” he shook his head.

            “Oh it did but I’m just saying it can be even more meaningful if we are celibate for a year,” she said smiling at him. He parked in front of her job but locked the door so she couldn’t get out.

            “You are really not funny,” he told her. He slid his hand behind her neck and guided her to face him. “I waited long enough for you; we are not going to be celibate. Every time is meaningful with you. I will be picking you up for lunch and maybe then we will discuss the car I am buying you.” Before she could say anything he kissed her and that meant the discussion was over.

            “I hate it when you’re like this,” she whispered.

            “No you don’t, you love it,” he said.

            “Maybe but I can do it too, and I don’t want a car I’ll take the bus to work.”

            “Like hell you will,” he said staring her in the eyes. “Let me do this.”

            “I’ll give you a maybe and that’s it, if I find something I like then maybe. Now I have to go to work I’m already late,” she said staring him in his eyes.

            “You are the only one that can always look me in the eyes, I don’t know if that’s a good thing,” he said then kissed her.

            “Honey, that means you can’t always get your way with me. And lunch I can do but I’m not serving sex for lunch.”

            “Ok I’ll get some food for lunch,” he nodded.

            “Good, love you,” she said and kissed him quick. Then she got out before he could make her any later.

           

            Wildflower ran through the list of reasons that could explain why her supervisor wanted to see her. She was late to work, again, and late back from lunch, again. But it wasn’t like she could say the reason she was late coming back from lunch was because she had to shower in Nicolas’ office because he thought it would be fun to lick things off of her for lunch. Or that the reason she kept coming in late was because he liked early morning sex. Maybe she needed to quit before she got fired. That was probably Nicolas the mastermind’s plan; he wanted her to lose her job. If she did she would either come work for him or not work at all, both of which meant she would be available to him whenever he wanted her.

            “Please have a seat,” Mrs. Rhonda Higgins told her when she entered the office. “It has come to my attention that you are engaged to Nicolas Capriani.” That was not what she expected her to say.

            “Oh um yeah that’s right,” she nodded absently.

            “It has also come to my attention that you have been late, a lot,” Mrs. Higgins said. “Are you happy here?”

            “Yeah, I like my job,” she said. Where was all this going?”

            “Do you intend to work once you are married?”

            “Yeah, I guess I hadn’t thought about it.”

            “You know the Caprianis do business with a lot of people.”

            “Um yeah I guess.”

            “They influence a lot of people.”

            “Am I being fired? I know I’ve been late a few times but-”

            “I don’t think it would be wise to fire you.”

            “What’s that supposed to mean?” She asked, now she felt like she needed to worry. What was all this?

            “Just that you are marrying into a very wealthy and powerful family,” Mrs. Higgins said with a tight smile.

            “Ok I’m getting married, what does that have to do with my job?”

            “It has everything to do with your job; if you are getting married you might need to take a lot of time off.”

            “I just got engaged I’m not getting married in a week. My personal life has nothing to do with working.”

            “Some people feel that the Caprianis make money off of other people’s suffering.”

            “What? Do you have some problem with the Caprianis?”

            “A lot of people have a problem with the Caprianis. I don’t think that you can devote yourself to work if you are busy planning a wedding. You might want to consider finding a less demanding job,” Mrs. Higgins said. She just stared at her dumbly for a minute, and then she was pissed.

            “You don’t like my fiancé’s family so you want me to quit?” She asked.

            “I just suggested that maybe you have more important things to devote you time to. I would never tell you that you have to quit.”

            “Oh but you just think I should? Fine, I quit,” she said and got up and left. 

            On the way back to her desk she was trying so hard not to punch a hole in the wall. She wasn’t going to cause she big scene that was what they wanted. It never once occurred to her that her relationship could affect other things in her life. After working here for three years everything came down to the last four months. The more she thought about it the more pissed off she was. What did she mean the Caprianis made money off of people’s suffering? They were a pharmaceutical and research company, maybe it had to do with some drug they made. It was then that she realized she didn’t know much about what they did; more specifically she had no idea what Nicolas did.

            “What happened?” Brooke asked when she got to her desk.

            “She has something against Nick’s family so it was suggested that I quit,” Wildflower said annoyed. She threw the pictures on her desk in her bag, she was tempted to break something but she didn’t.

            “Are you serious? They can’t do that,” Brooke said.

            “Nick wanted me to quit anyway, its whatever,” she shrugged.

            “You are just going to take this?”

            “I can’t make a big deal about anything because if I do I will hurt somebody and it will look really bad for Nick’s family. And I already have enough to deal with,” she sighed. “I just need to get out of here, I’ll call you later.”

            “Screw it, I quit to,” Brooke said. “And I’m not engaged to anybody so I can make huge scene.”

            “Please don’t,” Wildflower today her. “You don’t have to quit for me.”

            “I was bored here anyway,” Brooke shrugged. She grabbed her things and they left together.

            “Nick drove me to work today, I can’t even get us home,” Wildflower told her when they were outside.

            “Call Carmen, I haven’t met your new sister yet,” Brooke suggested.

            “This is so embarrassing,” she shook her head as she took out her cell phone.

 

 

            “What happened?” Nicolas asked into the phone.

            “Look, don’t worry about it ok? You got your wish and so did Carmen. I’ll just see you when you get home,” Wildflower said.          

            “Alright, I’ll see you soon,” he said and hung up the phone.

            He was use to people thinking certain things about him because of things they heard that may or may not have been true. It bothered him that Wildflower had to quit her job because she was going to marry him. While she could bow out gracefully and not cause any trouble, he was revenge minded. That was a problem he had, he just couldn’t let things go and he liked to punish people. So he would make sure his bride was avenged. If he told her that then she would tell him to leave it alone and forget about it.

            “Princess, is free to play with you?” Delanoz asked looked at him amused.

            “It’s not right,” he said.

            “Maybe you should have told her that being a part of this family means a lot of people hate you,” Delanoz said.

            “Now what can I do to rectify this situation?” He asked his brother.

            “Why don’t you let me handle it? Keep your hands clean so that our princess doesn’t know how crazy you are,” Delanoz said with a smile.

            “Fine have fun,” he shrugged. “Now, I was thinking that Katrina needs to learn how to listen when I tell her things.”

            “What are you going to do?” Delanoz asked, of course he was intrigued.

            “Well we’ve been wondering what we should do about that husband of hers for awhile. I say we do her a favor and teach her a lesson at the same time,” he said. He handed his brother the envelope that had arrived earlier that day.

            “How old is the girl in these pictures?”

            “Doesn’t look quite 18 does she?”

            “You realize this will ruin his political aspirations, right? And he’ll probably go to jail for this and be labeled as a sex offender,” Delanoz said.

            “Was there a point somewhere in that?”

            “No, I was just saying, I almost thought you were going to let him stick around. He was entertaining for awhile,” Delanoz said. “Then again puppies are entertaining. Who are we leaking this to first?”

            “Good question,” Nicolas said.

            For a long time Katrina’s husband had been a problem for them. He seemed to think that he was a lot more important than he was. And he cheated on Katrina regularly. They tolerated him because he was her husband. Nicolas knew his sister knew about her husband’s affairs, but now the world would. Maybe it was cruel to put his sister through a public scandal, but he warned her. Besides he was doing her a favor divorcing her senator husband would be a good thing for her. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been divorced before. From the start they knew he wasn’t a right fit for the family, so it was Nicolas’ job to find a way to get rid of him. That was why his father always kept a private investigator on the payroll.

            “The girl in the picture is like 17; think her parents would like to know what she’s been up to?” He asked his brother and Delanoz laughed.

            “How did you get to be so evil? Or maybe the better question is how does your girl not know how evil you are?”

            “I’m not evil, I just believe in giving people what they deserve and by dinner time his career will be over. As a plus mother can get out of my face and go take care of Katrina,” he said. With a click of his mouse the incriminating pictures were sent from his anonymous untraceable email address.

            “What was it Kat did to piss you off?”

            “She said some things I didn’t like and she didn’t listen when I advised her to behave herself at that charity party thing,” he said.

            “Funny you pick this girl over your own sister,” Delanoz said.

            “Katrina has had it coming for a long time and you know it. Besides why shouldn’t I chose my bride of my annoying meddling bitchy sister?”

            “Speaking of your bride, I know what you did,” he said and shook his head.

            “Which thing would that be?”

            “Oh I don’t know you put her name on the deed to the house and changed your will to give everything to her,” Delanoz said staring at him like he was crazy.

            “So? I’m going to marry her and she will be living in my house.”

            “The boy plays with fire, do you have any idea how crazy you’re being? It’s one thing for her to clean you out but why should the rest of us suffer when she leave you?”

            “She’s not leaving, I wouldn’t accept that. Wildflower is mine and I’ll take care of her as I see fit. The house is mine and 52% of this company is mine too,” Nicolas said thoughtfully. Nobody talked about that; of course they wouldn’t admit he controlled the family, both in business and otherwise.

            “And that is why the old man is afraid to piss you off,” Delanoz said. “It’s a shame that everybody in this family has to worry about what might happen if they piss off Nicky. Do you ever get tired of being the feared one?”

            “I’m a simple person, I don’t always react when people annoy me, if that was the case you would be dead and buried. Ands we probably wouldn’t have parents,” he shrugged. There was a really good reason his siblings called him a blue-eyed devil.

 

            When Nicolas got home from work he wasn’t surprised by the news about Katrina’s husband, it was on every news station. His mother had to dash over to Katrina’s house to check on her. A few of Delanoz’s kids had arrived that day so the kids took over the TV room. He found his bride in the kitchen talking to Carmen and Tammy. Carmen gave him a look; it meant she suspected what he did. Instead of saying anything he went of to Wildflower and kissed her.

            “Should I tell Tara you are available for lunch?” Carmen asked Wildflower.

            “Sure,” she sighed.

            “Ok, I’ll make the call,” Carmen said and she got up and left.

            “And I have to get the other rooms ready,” Tammy said rushing away.

            “I’m sorry,” he told her when they were alone.

            “Why are you sorry?”

            “Because you lost your job because of me, I wish you would have let me pick you up,” he said sitting beside her at the table.

            “It’s not your fault and if I would have called you then I knew you would have done something. It’s whatever, you wanted me home so I’m home,” she sighed.

            “I can buy the company and fire all the people you don’t like,” he said and she laughed. He hated that she was so upset and he wanted to make her feel better.

            “No need honey, I will devote my time to planning our wedding and spending time with the kids,” she said. Her eyes gave away how upset she really was but she wouldn’t complain and he knew that.

            “Maybe in a week or two we can take a trip somewhere, anywhere in the world.”

            “That is so tempting but your family is all coming in, how can we just sneak away?” She asked, he could tell she wanted to go.

            “We could spend a few days at the hotel, just the two of us,” he suggested.

            “Why do you still have the room? I thought we where moved here for good?”

            “What you think I’m picking up women and taking them back there when we are apart?” He asked, she actually was considering the question, he could tell by the look in her eyes. She wore her emotions in her eyes and for the most part he could always read her, he liked that.

            “Well if you were picking up other women then at least I have my grounds for divorce,” she said. “And there are so many things I could do with my house.”

            “I still have the room because I don’t know I’m just so use to having it. But for you my queen I will move out and this will be our permanent home. At least until you divorce me and take it,” he said. She smiled and then got up from her seat and sat in his lap, there was a wicked look in her eyes.

            “Maybe a night or two in the hotel would be good for us,” she said.

            “Yes and I can find ways to cheer you up,” he said suggestively. A night away from his family was what he needed, if it wasn’t for Wildflower he wouldn’t be in the house at all.

            “Do you have any opinions on how you want our wedding?”

            “That wasn’t what I wanted to talk about,” he said sliding his hand under her shirt. Her belly button was pierced; he traced his finger around the ring before walking his fingers upward.

            “I know what you want to talk about involves us naked, but you did have me for lunch,” she said.

            “Indeed I did, I can’t get enough of you,” he said. His fingers traced just below her bra and he could see the lust in her eyes.

            “Nick,” she purred. “We need to talk about wedding stuff, Carmen set up a meeting with some wedding planner for tomorrow.”

            “Do you really want to talk about wedding stuff?”

            “No, but Nick we really should at least go upstairs.”

            “Probably,” he said. He stood and picked her up and she giggled.

            “Why is it that we can’t be near each other without clothes coming off?”

            “Shouldn’t all couples be like this? In love and loving each other?”

            “Yes, think we will be like this after we’ve been married awhile?”

            “I’ll always want you this bad when we’re old,” he assured her. They were in the entrance hall and about to go up the stairs when the door opened. It was Marguerite. She looked pissed off as she stared at them.

            “Wildflower, I need to speak with you,” she said to her daughter.

            “Alright,” Wildflower said and he put her down.

            “I’ll be in my office,” he said trying to hide his annoyance. “Good to see you Marguerite.” He walked pass her and headed upstairs, it was time he finished digging into his soon to be mother-in-law’s past.

 

Reviews

[Katie]

I would also like to know what Nick does??!! And now what's going on with her mom? Can't stop reading!

[Maram157]

I'm still wondering about what Nick does. hmmmmmmmm....there's something very suspicious about this......

[MarkGMelvin]

Her house name on the deed as well,hmn?

[deeps]

Wow! Quite intense and wonderful.
Powerful chapter and full of wonderful detail.
Such amazing vivid imagery as well.
Passion in this as well, I like this.