Brash Boss Read online

  Copyright © 2020 by A. S. Roberts and Cocky Hero Club, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to actual persons, things, living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

  I am an English author and I write in British English. Except if a character is American, then I may use American slang.

  Editor: Karen J

  Proofreading: Freda Smith

  Beta Readers: Fireball Fillies

  Photo Credit: Eric Battershell photography.

  Model: Zeke Samples.

  Cover Design: JM Walker @justwritecreations

  Formatting: Leanne Clugston Irish Ink Publishing

  Brash Boss is a standalone story inspired by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward’s Playboy Pilot. It's published as part of the Cocky Hero Club world, a series of original works, written by various authors, and inspired by Keeland and Ward's New York Times bestselling series.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Baby, Let’s play house-

  Elvis Presley.

  Chapter One

  Nico (last summer)

  ‘I love it all, Nico. It complements the surroundings, which is something a villa this size wouldn’t normally do. The traditional flooring, the colours you’ve chosen, everything about it is beautiful. But you need to understand that I shouldn’t be the one moving in here.’

  ‘Have you seen the infinity pool?’ I added, knowing how much she loved to swim and realising she was going to take some persuading by the tone of her voice.

  ‘You know I have. The colour of the water is the exact same colour of the water in the bay, it’s all very clever,’ she sighed.

  I watched her as she moved away from the floor to ceiling window that looked out over her beloved Mirabello Bay. It had been deliberate that I’d chosen to build the home I’d designed with my brother Cade’s help here, near her place of birth. I knew what made her happy in life. This place was one of those things and us, her only grandsons, were the other. Crete was the place she had been born and had lived until she’d met my Italian grandfather. They had then left for a new life in America, leaving behind everything she had once known.

  So, with her in mind, and because of the fact that I too had fallen in love with Crete, I’d had the new villa built deep into the hills above Agios Nikolaos, in the rust and grey coloured local stones that the builders had used around here for centuries. The large building sat nestled into the hillside and if it wasn’t for the way the sunlight occasionally hit the large panes of glass, you could have been excused for not even realising it was there at all. Honestly, that was just the way I liked it. I appreciated the way it looked so much that I’d shipped over the same stone for my home in Vegas and I’d used much of the same footprint for the two builds. Call me an arrogant bastard, but always having what I wanted and what I knew worked for me was how I lived my life.

  I crossed my arms over my shirt-covered chest and leant against the wall, waiting for the next argument to leave her mouth.

  ‘You need a wife. You need children, Nico.’

  I didn’t need to bother working out a response to her argument, it was the same conversation we’d been rehashing ever since I’d told her of my plans to build a home on her native island of Crete.

  I let out what I hoped was a quiet sigh. If she’d have been anyone else, I’d have let my feelings be audibly heard, but out of the few things my father had taught me of any use in this life, respect towards my elders was one.

  ‘You need a family.’ She spun back around to face me to add emphasis to what she’d just voiced.

  I looked at her petite frame just in time to see her wave her right hand high in the air with all her fingers pinched together. It was a typical hot-blooded, Mediterranean way of making sure the words were emphasised enough to make you actually feel them.

  I stopped a smile from breaking out on my face and looked at her as seriously as I could.

  ‘Nonna, we’ve spoken about this over and over… I don’t need a wife and I definitely don’t want the responsibility of children, I’m happy with my life just the way it is.’

  ‘You don’t know what’s good for you… you’re a man, you need looking after.’

  ‘I have staff to do that.’ A smile was twitching at the corners of my mouth.

  The argument I knew we were on the cusp of falling back into, for at least the hundredth time, was so pointless it was comical.

  ‘Staff? Staff don’t anchor you to this life and give you something to look forward to coming home to.’

  ‘I don’t need anyone to anchor me,’ I tried to reason with her, even though I knew any argument I put up would be futile.

  ‘Men like you need reminding to come home.’

  ‘Men like me, hmmm… I’m sure my secretary would remind me.’ I stifled a laugh.

  ‘There you go again!’ The volume of her voice rose. ‘They are just people paid to like you. They share your home or your life because you pay them, not because they want to be with you.’

  ‘But I have you, and you want to be with me… Nonna, I’d like you to share my home.’

  ‘Ahhh, Nico this house is so very beautiful…’ I could see I was starting to appeal to the side of my grandmother that loved a little flattery, when her cheeks pinked in colour. Then she added a little, ‘But…’

  ‘But, what?’ Again, I stopped myself from sighing out loud.

  Why I couldn’t deal with family like I dealt with business I’d never know. I was able to read anyone in business, because I cared nothing about them whatsoever, but family, I struggled to comprehend at all.

  Perhaps I’ve made it that way? I pondered this for a few seconds, knowing it was probably true. It had definitely been an easier way to live, not allowing myself to be close to the only two members of my family that I had left, until a couple of years ago when I decided the time was right to re-enter their lives.

  I’d inherited a nightmare, and the man I’d had to become to allow me to sort out everything my father had destroyed, in his depraved need to obliterate everyone and everything he’d come into contact with, had extinguished the good inside of me. I’d had to embrace the parts of me that I hated and that I knew came directly from him. I’d had to give life to the diablo that I knew would always reside inside in me, meaning I not only looked like my bastard of a father, but I
’d had to become him. But there was no way in hell I would have ever unleashed that on my family. They’d already suffered at his hands, there was no way they were going to suffer at mine.

  Building this house and the one in Vegas had heralded the start of something different for me.

  A new beginning maybe?

  In my head I’d already gone over all the objections I thought my grandmother would possibly use a thousand times. I wanted her safe, I wanted her comfortable, I wanted her looked after and I was prepared for anything.

  ‘I cannot be the mistress of this house.’

  Okay, I wasn’t prepared for that.

  ‘All you have to do is to live here, Nonna, that’s all.’

  ‘I will not be mistress of your house.’

  ‘Nonna, over half the year I’ll still be in Vegas… I’m not old enough to retire just yet. You can be the mistress of my house, because it will be your own home for most of the year.’ I offered her a small smile, hoping she would just give in and accept what I wanted.

  ‘Nico you could retire, and you could walk away, just as easily as…’ She snapped her fingers together.

  ‘Does anyone in our family business just retire?’ My eyes flicked back to hers as I asked the question.

  ‘No, they don’t. But that doesn’t make it right.’

  I saw the pain flicker across her face. She was a stunning lady even now. Having seen photographs of her as a sixteen-year-old bride, I could see what my twenty-year-old, Sicilian grandfather, who was out to make his way in the world, had seen in her. He had wanted a strong, resilient woman and he had found it in her. He’d struck gold, because she was all of that and so very much more. She was beautiful inside and out and they had remained happily married until my grandfather had been struck down with a fatal heart attack.

  ‘I want you to change the fortunes of this family, Nico.’

  I looked at her quizzically and moved myself away from the wall as I straightened up, mentally preparing myself for what she was going to say next. This wasn’t the way this argument normally went.

  ‘I want you to take a wife.’

  ‘I’m not getting married.’ I said the words gently, but shook my head at her hoping she’d get the message.

  ‘Your mamma always used to say that you were going to be a man who needed a wife.’

  ‘So you’ve said before.’ I tried not to show how her words were stirring up the hurt inside me.

  ‘Help me keep my promise to her, Nico. Find a wife and make your home here, away from Vegas, and raise a family with her. Money and business are one thing, family and blood ties are another.’

  ‘I don’t need a woman in my life, Nonna.’

  ‘How can you say that?’ She opened hers arms wide as she pleaded with me.

  I crossed the floor in between us and taking hold of her elbow, I gently steered her towards the large couch that was positioned near to the window and guided her to sit down next to me. Then I turned my body to face hers.

  ‘This branch of our family, Nonna… It needs to end with me. I’m too much like him to dare to breed another generation.’

  ‘Don’t you dare say that, you’re nothing like him.’

  She may have been petite, but the anger that ran through her hot-blooded veins took hold of her temper. The slap I felt to my left cheek stung, even though her hand was only half the size of my cheek and the power behind it let me know how much she hated my statement.

  ‘You forget, I knew him even better than you did.’ Tears filled her eyes and the sudden pain I’d subjected her to was evident on her face. I felt myself grimace at once again causing her so much agony. ‘You and Cade are not your father; you are both nothing like the only child that God allowed me to keep.’

  ‘I wasn’t talking about Cade… only me.’

  ‘You’re wrong, Nico…So, so wrong about what you see in yourself.’

  I could see the pain in her eyes, and still hear the disbelief in her voice that her only surviving child could grow up to be such a heartless, depraved bastard.

  I had heard her tell the stories time after time of how she and my grandfather had struggled at first, in the country they had chosen to make their new home. The new country they had chosen in which to raise a large family. But God had never seen fit to let them have that large family, so instead they’d worked hard to make a better life for themselves and my father. My grandfather had worked so hard he’d risen in stature in the local area, making a name for himself, until eventually he’d been so prominent in New York that he’d decided to move the family business out to Vegas. The family had become mafia royalty in one of the main gambling cities of the U.S. and, until my father’s time, had held the respect of everyone around us.

  My father had ruined every single belief I had about family life.

  ‘You deserve more, Nico. Promise me you’ll allow yourself to have more.’

  ‘I’ll think on it.’ I wasn’t going to do anything of the kind. But I wanted her to move in here and I also wanted the direction of the conversation changed, fast.

  ‘No, Nico… I want your promise here and now that you will find a wife who can love and care for you. Your mamma was right, God rest her soul. Do it for her, do it for me, but most of all do it for yourself and allow yourself to live.’ The hand that she’d only minutes before slapped me with, started to gently stroke my cheek that was still burning.

  ‘I…I don’t know.’

  ‘I cannot and will not rest until you swear on your mamma’s grave that you will look for a wife.’

  My spine stiffened at what she was demanding.

  ‘Using her is uncalled for.’ I stood up quickly and moved to stand in front of the windows. I pushed my hands deep into the pockets of my pants and exhaled loudly. Using the calm of the sea in my vision, as it gently swayed backwards and forwards, I cleared the picture of my beautiful mamma hanging dead from the mezzanine level of her bedroom. Then imagining the noise of the waves crashing against the rocks below us, I tried to erase the screams of my younger brother as we’d tried to save her.

  She’d taken her life to escape our father and all the depravity he had forced onto her and us. I sure as hell wouldn’t ever bring another woman or child into my life, not one I cared for or could love. I’d steered clear of those. I’d had many relationships with women, but the minute they’d declared they needed more from me than to accompany me out to functions or to spend the night in my bed, I’d deposited an amount of money into their bank account and sent them something diamond encrusted from Cartier’s and cast them aside.

  ‘I use whatever’s necessary, Nico. You need a wife. Your mamma wanted you and Cade to marry and to experience what life has to offer with a family around you. I’m here to look after you, now she can no longer do so. I’m here to do her bidding for her. Take a year, Nico, but find yourself a wife by the end of it… Now, I want you to swear to me on her grave, Nico.’

  I wasn’t shocked at what she was asking. It was fairly common for a passionate, God-fearing Catholic woman, to ask you to swear on the grave of someone you loved, to get their way. But I could manipulate with the best of them and that included my grandmother. I wanted her agreement to move into the villa, so I agreed to her demands, knowing I would do her bidding on my terms only.

  ‘You’re a formidable adversary… I swear, on mamma’s grave, Nonna.’ I placed my hand on top of hers and smiled at her.

  Chapter Two

  Barbara (present day)

  The porch door flexed on its spring, and banged itself shut behind me.

  ‘Pearl,’ I shouted out, trying to make myself loud enough to be heard above the radio that was constantly on twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in her small condo.

  I got it, seriously I did.

  She was in her early seventies and retired. Having spent her whole life as a croupier in some of Las Vegas’s top casinos, fitting in falling in love and having a family just hadn’t happened. Looking after me and the sounds from he
r radio filled a void in her life. At thirty-three and with the way my life was going, I wondered if I would be in the exact same situation or even worse when I was her age.

  ‘I’m in here, Bee,’ she called out from the small second bedroom, which she had recently turned into her sewing room.

  I walked through the kitchen, into the square hallway and peered around the door frame to find her. With her soft pink hair, which needed retouching at the roots, long false eyelashes and a garishly bright green, crushed velvet tracksuit, she would attract more than a passing glance from a stranger. But I was used to her strange dress sense and I could see past it all, to the warm-hearted woman inside.

  ‘What are you making?’ I smiled my question at her, taking in the small, floral patterned fabric she was measuring.

  Her eyes found mine and then a guilty look shot over her features.

  ‘Now, don’t call me overbearing, but I just figured that it’s been a long time since the drapes in your home had been changed.’

  I looked down at my hands, they were holding the glass dish that I’d come around to return. She had once again provided tonight’s dinner and tears pricked the back of my eyes.

  ‘You do know how much I appreciate everything you do for me, don’t you?’

  ‘Mmmmhmmm.’

  When she didn’t reply with actual words, I looked at her again. With some expert planning on her part, her mouth was now full of pins and she had effectively found her way out of the conversation.