Initiate Me (26 page)

"I wasn't listening in, princess; I was reading between the lines. There's a difference, you know?" Max explained. "It's not easy knowing my best mate has hooked up with my little sister. I just can't wrap my head around it. I know what Zane's like; he's a kinky motherfucker."

"Well, that's tough luck, because you're just going to have to get used to the fact that I'm a big girl and can make my own decisions without you interfering." First Brandon warned me off and I was sick of Max's constant watchful eye at the office and Marco's continuous interruptions whenever Zane and I had some alone time.

Jada laughed as she hooked her arm around Max's and steered him toward the door. "Go get a head-start for lunch down at the pub and we will come later, once Mia gives her statement to the police. I'm sure your mum would want to see you." Jada affectionately stroked Max's arm up and down, instantly soothing him. She had Max twisted around her little finger.

"But Zane said he'd be here in five minutes. I need him to be here when I make my statement," I commented.

"Oh, is that right? A minute ago you're saying
I'm a big girl,
but all of a sudden, you need someone to hold your hand. I'll call Zane and tell him not to drive over because my sister is all grown up and can make her own decisions. I'll head on down to the pub; I need to talk to Zane about Miccah anyway. You both stay here; I'm sure the two of you can find lots to talk about."

With that, he first kissed me goodbye on the cheek and then gave his wife a long and erotic kiss that made me feel embarrassed. "I'll see the both of you later."

"Max Brunetti, don't you dare lay one finger on Zane or interrogate him or I'll personally..." He slammed the door shut with a smirk on his face and winked at me. God, my brother could be so infuriating.

***

"H
oly Hell, Mia; I can’t believe you didn’t tell me Zane was kinky. Jesus, how could you totally hold out on that piece of information?"

Jada screeched it so loudly that I felt heat creep up my neck. Damn it, I hated it when I blushed.

“I am not sharing things like that with you, Jada. Uh...ah. I'm not comfortable talking about it." No way was I going to tell Jada how I loved it when Zane whipped me with a slapper while I was blindfolded and tied up. God, I loved it when he blindfolded me; it made all my other senses come alive.

"Okay, okay. But damn, I never would have thought him to be kinky. Wow, honey, you’ve got a winner here; he sounds so hot. My God.” Jada's grin made it impossible for me not to grin back.

Like that was news? The man messed with my head and made me break all my rules.

He was like a tornado in my life.

MIA

A
fter reporting and filing a police report against Jessica, Jada and I made our way over to The Barossa Barrels for lunch. We were late and everyone was seated outside in the beer garden enjoying their lunch. I was nervous not knowing how to act around Zane in front of my family knowing our relationship was out in the open. I scanned the room to look for him but he was nowhere to be found; neither was Max or Marco. My father had texted me to say Marco would be arriving in time for lunch, which only caused horrible thoughts to flash through my mind. Both my brothers were probably having it out with Zane somewhere. Good God, I'd be mortified if they did that. That was one of the major issues Zane had about our relationship, me being his best friend’s little sister.

Before I could regain my thoughts, I saw Max, Marco and Zane enter the beer garden from Zane’s office. Their faces looked grim. Instinct told me it had nothing to do with me and Zane being together; it had to be something far worse.

My father stood and approached all three of them, and silence filled the room. "What's wrong? Who called that all three of you had to rush out of here and go missing for almost half an hour?"

The blood drained from my face and my stomach dropped as if I'd swallowed a stone. “Zane." I called his name instinctively instead of either one of my two brothers. "What's happened?"

He walked toward me, took me in his arms and brushed my forehead with a tender kiss. The comfort of his warm, bulky frame was just what I needed after the morning I had endured. I
don't think I could live with any more bad news today.

After a long, awkward silence, Max spoke. "The Australian Government called."

"Oh, sweet Jesus.” My mother’s gasp echoed through the eating area. Letting go of Zane, I raced over to her, hugged her and held onto her shoulders to let her know I was there. Everyone was gravely silent as we waited for Max to continue. He didn't. Jada appeared by his side and they hugged.

What were only minutes of silence actually felt like hours.

Marco was the one to move forward and face us all. His eyes zeroed in on Milan for the briefest of seconds. He was probably checking to see if she was with Blake. She wasn't; they had stopped dating a couple of weeks before, both of them realising it wasn't going anywhere. They still remained friends, though.

“They've found Miccah,” Marco announced with sadness in his voice.

“Oh, thank God. That is good news, isn’t it? Why are you all looking so sad? Is he okay?” my father queried.

“No. He’s...fu—screwed up. Bad. Seriously bad. He had surgery two days ago, right after they found him. He was barely alive. Somehow, the army couldn’t make contact with us until now to let us know what had happened.”

“Surgery? For what? I need more information, son. Spit it out.”

Marco let out a huge sigh as he swore again. His hands were balled into fists at his sides and his jaw was clenched so tightly, I wasn’t sure he’d be able to answer.

“Surgery, to repair his mangled left leg. They are still not sure if he will make it or not. Evidently, he’s lost a couple of fingers on his left hand and has suffered from shrapnel wounds all over the lower half of his body. He has burns to his chest and legs and part of his face, too. As far as the doctors could tell, he has no brain damage. Considering he was missing in action, he is lucky none of his internal organs were hit. That is a positive, at least. We need to keep positive through all this.”

I was shocked as much as I was relieved. At least he was alive. “Can he come home then? I mean, to a hospital closer to home so we can be there for him while he recovers?”

Marco nodded. “As soon as he’s stable, they’re transporting him to The Royal Adelaide Hospital. He’ll be there for some time before he’s discharged. They have no idea when that could be.”

“But it’s good news.” My father turned to my mother. “Rosa, did you hear them; our son is coming home. He will make it. I have faith in him, he’s a Brunetti. He will pull through, I know it. My God, my son is alive!”

I released my mother so she could go and hug my father. She sagged against him, crying silently as he stroked her hair. I sat on the chair my mother had vacated in her urgent rush to get to my dad. I wrapped my arms around my chest and closed my eyes, letting my tears fall.

I could sense Zane next to me but he didn’t touch me or try to talk to me. He just stood there with his hands jammed in his back pockets and let me cry. Knowing he was beside me made me cry even more for some stupid reason.

I needed to cry. My heart was aching.

***

ZANE

D
amn, I sure wasn’t expecting my contacts to call so soon with information about Miccah. I thought it would take weeks, possibly months and by then it would probably be too late. With lunch over, everyone headed off home and it was just the rest of us hanging around, talking and offering each other comfort.

Pep Brunetti gave me one of those ‘
I’m watching you’
looks as he left, but at the same time, he shook my hand so hard, thanking me for all I had done to find Miccah. I’m sure if he knew what I wanted to do to his daughter, he would’ve broken my hand.

After the announcement about Miccah, Mia, Jada and Milan cried together but it was great to hear them all smiling and laughing together over some crazy woman doing a floorshow to ‘Ballroom Blitz’ on the dance floor. I couldn’t help but laugh as I played pool with Max and Marco until Winter entered the pub with none other than Brandon.
Fucking great! Like I need more shit to go down today.
Marco came to stand beside me and held onto my arm. Max wasn’t far behind him. It looked like they were both ready to pounce on me if I so much as touched Brandon.

“Hey, keep it cool, buddy. Brandon is a good kid and a good worker. You just stole his girl, that’s all. How would you feel if it was the other way around?” Marco had a point. I’d be furious if Mia ended up dating Brandon.

Both brothers stared at me long and hard and I stared right back, neither one of us backing down. Max spoke first. “If you really care about our sister, and it’s what you really want, then we are happy for you. I just don’t want you to hurt her.”

My voice came out as a warning to Marco and Max. “Your sister is mine. I won’t let anyone hurt what is mine.”

“So, you’re saying you love her?” Marco questioned. “Have you told her? You haven’t told her yet, have you?”

“What’s with the twenty fucking questions, dickhead?” I said through gritted teeth. Fuck, Marco pissed me off. Why would I tell him I love his sister when I haven’t even told her myself? Hell, I was still getting used to that realisation myself. I was supposed to love her the way a guy loved his little sister, to watch over her, to make sure she was safe and happy. I was meant to be oblivious to the way she had filled out over the years. Mia was meant to find a nice, easy-going guy, not an arsehole like me. I should have just left her alone and never taken her up on her offer to teach her about sex. Why couldn’t she have left me alone? Why couldn’t she have let me love her from a distance forever and keep her safe from me and my baggage?

Winter snapped me out of my trance as she scooted past me and pecked me on the cheek before going to see what all the commotion was about with the girls and why they were all in hysterics. Marco and Max had retreated back to the pool table, which left me standing there with Brandon.

He spoke first. “It seems I owe you an apology.” He nodded his head toward Mia and then back to me. “I admit I was jealous, but I want Mia to be happy and if you make her happy, I’m good with that.” He held out his hand and offered it to me. Shit, Marco was right; he was a good kid. If it was me, I probably would’ve punched his lights out. Mia sauntered over to us, probably thinking we were going to get into a fight.

“I’m sorry for my behaviour the other day, Mia, and the things I said about Zane were uncalled for. I hope the two of us can still be friends.”

“You will always be my friend, Brandon,” Mia said, hugging him.

Max and Marco were watching me to see if I’d rip the poor guy to shreds. I didn’t, of course. There was no need to; Mia was mine.
I fucking love her. No man or woman alive will take her away from me. I’ll make sure of that.
I slipped my arms around her waist and caressed the curve of her arse, just in case he still didn’t understand.

“I think we need to celebrate, don’t you think? I’ll go grab us a bottle of that vintage Brunetti wine in the cellar. I think my day is getting better by the minute,” Mia announced.

“Great idea, angel. I’ll come with you. It’s pretty dark in there, remember? I don’t need you falling over or getting hurt.”

“What the fuck; where are you going, Zane? It’s your turn, dickhead,” Marco yelled at me from the other side of the pool table. “Or are you such a sore loser you need to run away when the going gets tough?”

‘I’ll take Zane’s shot, Brunetti,” Milan said from where she was sitting with Jada and Winter. “Then we will see who is a sore loser.”

“Are you fucking joking me?” Marco looked like he was about to eat the cue stick. The veins in his neck were about to pop; he was so angry. “Come on, Zane; Mia will be fine on her own to go get the wine. It’s not like it’s at the winery or anything.”

“Milan, give it a rest. Marco has had a lot to deal with today. He’s flown up from Melbourne to be here with his family; the least you can do is be respectful with what he has been through today,” Jada scolded her.

Milan pouted and went back to sit down with Winter on the couch, but not before she sent a look of pure evil Marco’s way.

“I’ll escort Mia down to the cellar,” Brandon offered. Holding up his hands in defence, he continued, “I promise I won’t try anything on her. I’ll just wait outside the doors.”

“You better not try anything,” I cautioned Brandon.

Mia laughed as she linked her arms with Brandon and headed off toward the wine cellar.

***

MIA

I
was so busy laughing that I almost missed the first step for the cellar. It was an old traditional one, which was just off the kitchen. Brandon was following close behind me.

“So, why do you need to get this wine? What are we celebrating?” he asked.

“Well, I’m not sure if you know, but I have another brother. He is younger than Max and Marco. He’s in the military. We found out he was missing in action and today we got the most awesome news–-he was found, along with all his team. He...he...ah...is injured and there is a possibility he may not make it. But you don’t know my brother; if anyone can survive this, it’s Miccah.”

“Shit, that’s a lot to digest. I never knew there was another Brunetti brother. I only ever thought there was just the three of you,” Brandon admitted, holding on to the rail as he descended the steps to the cellar. “Christ Almighty, this is one fine wine cellar. It’s state of the art. Not that I’ve been in many, but this is amazing. Everything is so well ordered and so carefully labelled; it looks like something right out of a magazine.”

“Yeah, Zane has spent a lot of money upgrading the pub,” I mumbled as I tried to work out the damn lights. There were just too many buttons to choose from. “Brandon, are you still up there, near the landing?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I can’t get this stupid light switch to work and I can’t see which vintage wine I need. Is there a light switch up there by any chance?” He didn’t answer me. “Brandon! Are you there?”
Where the hell could he have gone? He just answered me a few seconds ago.