Fate Interrupted: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel (Moonstone Cove Book 3) Read online

  Chapter 4

  Hours later, Drew Bisset and his team left, and Megan finally walked out of her office. There had been three police cars that drove up to the winery making lots of noise, Nico and Drew had been locked in the main office for a solid two hours, and officers had been wandering around the house and the winery, taking pictures, talking to people, and generally trying to look very serious about missing grape vines.

  She leaned against the barn door, staring as Drew and Nico spoke outside his office and talking on her phone. “Drew looks like he’s taking it really seriously.”

  Katherine was on the other end of the line. “What Henry and Nico were doing was essentially trade research and development. Their product was stolen from them after three years of work, so I would hope the police would take it very seriously. It’s estimated that over two hundred billion dollars is lost by domestic businesses every year to intellectual property theft.”

  “Good Lord, that much?” Megan didn’t think Henry’s vines were worth two hundred billion, but she knew what kind of numbers most wineries put out. It was an expensive business, and promotion took up a very large part of the budget because attracting new customers was so vital.

  She’d done a little research—as much as she could—and had found no other California wineries selling Poulsard wine. If Dusi Heritage became the only place bottling it, that would be a huge promotional opportunity, even if the market for the wine itself was niche.

  “Henry says he would have given their new vines over a fifty percent chance of succeeding. Which seems low to me, but I don’t know grapevines.”

  “I don’t know about grapevines specifically, but I suspect that for an experimental vine, that’s very good.”

  Megan must have been missing something. As far as she was concerned, you didn’t take risks with your money for a fifty percent chance of success. She might not have the funding for her own business yet, but she’d drawn up a detailed business plan for the day that she did.

  Fifty percent? Oh no. When her business took off, she’d have every reason to count on it with far more than fifty percent confidence.

  “How do you go about finding a vine thief?” Megan asked. “That’s got to be a complicated case.”

  “It’s really more of a kidnapping than a theft.”

  “What do you mean?” Megan saw Nico waving at her. “Hey, Katherine, let me call you back. Nico’s asking for me.”

  “Okay.”

  Megan’s phone went dead. Katherine wasn’t one for the polite, Southern “long goodbye,” and that afternoon she was grateful for it. She walked to Nico, resisting the urge to give the man a hug. Lord, he looked like he needed it.

  She walked over and held out her hands. “What can I do? Do you want to do some kind of press release? Do I need to clear things from your schedule? Or help Danielle with anything? Do you need any help with the kids so you can be free to—”

  “Let’s go to your office.” He pointed with his chin. “You still have that coffee maker in there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. I don’t think I could handle break-room coffee right now.”

  “You look like you could use a shot of bourbon in that too.”

  “I wouldn’t turn it down.” Nico pulled the door open and waited for Megan to walk through. “Don’t suppose you have a bottle?”

  She looked over her shoulder. “You asking as my boss or a friend?”

  “Megan, you work in a winery. You really think I frown on drinking at work?” He shrugged. “Within reason.”

  They walked into her office, and Nico shut the door behind him before he collapsed into one of the upholstered chairs on the other side of her desk and dragged both his hands down either side of his face.

  “Three years of work. Gone.”

  Megan walked behind her desk, reached down, and pulled a bottle of Savannah 88 Bourbon & Honey from her bottom desk drawer. She set it on her desk and grabbed two coffee cups from the table behind her.

  “Bourbon and honey?” Nico was clearly suspicious.

  “Bourbon and honey, honey.” Megan poured two fingers in the bottom of a coffee mug. “I had to mail order this bottle, so say thank you, Ms. Alston.”

  The corner of his mouth turned up, and it was the first time she’d seen his expression soften that day. “Thank you, Ms. Alston.”

  “You’re so very welcome!” She grabbed her favorite coffee cup. It was a gentle spring pink and in fancy gold calligraphy it said Southern Women: Burying the Bodies and Baking the Casseroles.

  She saw Nico struggling to read it, but she held her mug out to clink his. “To finding the rat bastards who stole your grapevines.”

  “I’ll toast to that.” He took a sip. “Okay, that’s way better than it ought to be.”

  Megan sipped her bourbon and rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me you’ve bought into the ridiculous ‘if it doesn’t sear your throat, it’s not real bourbon’ crap. Good bourbon should be smooth as silk going down. It pairs perfectly with honey.”

  He raised his mug. “I bow to your superior bourbon knowledge.”

  “As you should.” She took another sip and reminded herself to order another bottle from Savannah Bourbon. Or have her daddy ship one. “What do you think are the chances they’ll be able to find who did it?”

  “Probably not good.” He shook his head. “We’ve got cameras all over the place, but because the old greenhouse is up at the house, we’ve got nothing. I think Drew took castings and pictures of the tire tracks. That’s about the only lead he has.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Okay, I don’t know where we’re talking about.”

  “Where we were growing the vines,” Nico said. “It’s not on the farm, it’s behind my house. My grandmother used to grow orchids. She was an absolute pro at them, used to give them as gifts to everyone. She even has one named after her. She was pretty well known for it. My grandfather built her a greenhouse at the back of the garden with all the bells and whistles. Retractable roof, lots of shelving, even a sheltered area for hardening off plants.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “You can’t just throw a plant that’s been started indoors into the outdoors. You need to gradually get them used to the environment. That’s where we were with the vines. There’s a section of the greenhouse that can be opened up to expose the plants to the elements.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It was going so damn well.”

  “If it was open like you said, could anyone walking by have seen—?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “When I say an elaborate greenhouse, I mean elaborate. It has an interior courtyard. From the outside, it’s all obscured. The vines were in the middle. You’d really have to be sneaking around my house to…” His eyes went wide. “Sneaking around.”

  “What?”

  “Beth has a new boyfriend.”

  Beth was Nico’s daughter, and she was inches away from graduating high school. “And? That’s pretty normal for a girl her—”

  “The kid is Charles Baur’s son.”

  “Baur? Like Baur Cellars?”

  Nico nodded. “What if Justin Baur saw the vines while he was sneaking around my house?”

  “Why would he be sneaking around your house? Haven’t you invited this boy in and said hello?”

  Nico shot her a dirty look. “He’s dating my daughter; I don’t like him.”

  “As the mother of a teenage boy, I resent that whole macho nonsense about overprotective fathers. It’s ridiculous and insulting to your daughter and to this young man.”

  “I have a teenage boy too. And I was a teenage boy.” He took another sip of whiskey. “Therefore, I do not like any teenage boy dating my daughter. I’m not going to clean my shotgun on the coffee table when he comes over, but I don’t have to like him.”

  Megan rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I very much doubt that if he’s sneaking around your house, he’s thinking about grapevines. He’s probably thinking about Beth.”
>
  Nico muttered something under his breath.

  “What was that?”

  “I’m going to tell Drew he should look into Charles Baur anyway.”

  “Whatever you want to do. I’m sure Drew is taking this very seriously.”

  “He’s not.”

  Apparently having his supersecret project sabotaged turned Nico Dusi into Negative Norman. “Nico, they must have had a dozen cops out here earlier, taking pictures and talking to people and looking at surveillance. You said they took castings of the truck tires.”

  “Yeah, and they’re gonna give it their full attention until there’s a drug case or a hit-and-run or something more important than plants,” Nico said. “Trust me, I could see it in his eyes. I’m not saying Drew’s a bad guy or a lazy cop. I know he’s not. But he does not understand how serious this is.” The man set down his mug but shook his head when Megan lifted the bottle.

  “You sure?”

  “I better not.”

  Nico stretched his neck, and Megan tried not to notice the lean line of muscle that stretched from his jaw to his shoulder. His skin was tanned from working in the sun, and the deep olive tones contrasted with his vivid smile and silver-flecked beard.

  His mouth would taste like bourbon and honey if you kissed him.

  Lord, she really needed to get laid. Her mind was a one-way street right now. She’d had an active sex life with Rodney despite his assholery. Going from sixty to zero was not her style. She needed her back stretched out something awful.

  She could have a fling with Nico…

  Wow, that was such a bad idea.

  Focus on the vine theft, Megan. Grapes. Detective Drew finding Nico’s grapes.

  “Not that we planned it or anything,” Megan started, “but Katherine, Toni, and I have gotten to know Drew pretty well the past couple of years. I think he’ll be able to find your vines.”

  “That’s the problem though, isn’t it?” Nico’s smile was rueful. “You see it the same way Drew does. It’s the same for everyone, you know? To most people, it’s missing grapevines. But to me it’s three years of work, Henry’s family legacy, and potentially thousands of dollars in sales and a hell of a lot of personal pride and accomplishment.”

  Well, Megan could definitely relate to losing something she’d poured her heart into. Her marriage. Her business in Atlanta. “It was your passion project.”

  “It was a challenge and we were winning,” Nico said. “They were going to produce. We could have made something amazing.”

  “I don’t like to hear you just give up like this. You have to give Drew some time.”

  “We don’t have much time. These are young plants. Unless they’re going to someone who knows how to take care of them, they’re going to die.”

  Megan blinked as Katherine’s earlier words clicked into place. “It’s not a theft. That’s what she meant.”

  “What?” Nico looked exhausted.

  “I was on the phone with Katherine—who gets this, by the way. She was very clear on that. She sounded like someone had kidnapped one of her octopuses… octopi?”

  “I think it’s octopuses.” He narrowed his eyes. “Why are we talking about this?”

  “Right before I got off the phone with her, Katherine said it wasn’t really a theft, it was a kidnapping. Or… I guess a vine napping. The point I’m making is, these are living things that need certain things to survive. Like a person or an animal was taken. Like a kidnapping.”

  “You’re assuming that whoever stole the vines wants to grow them,” Nico said. “What if they just wanted to keep me from growing them?”

  “Then why not just tear them up? Pour poison on them or something, you know? That would have to be less trouble than stealing them from the greenhouse and risk getting caught. I’m assuming they would have had to break in and they’d need a truck or something to transport them. All that must have taken planning and money. So they must not have wanted to damage the vines.”

  He nodded. “Okay. So whoever took them must want to grow them.”

  “Which means that you need someone who knows just as much about plants as you and Henry do. And they’ll need the right environment to harden them. Did I get that right? Hardening the vines?”

  “Yes.” His eyes turned from frustrated to focused. “That narrows things down. There are only a few people who know about Poulsard grapes. Most people would have no idea what they are or why they’re even significant. So it has to be someone who recognized them. Someone…” He huffed out a breath. “I keep coming back to who? No one but me and Henry even know about these vines.”

  “Well, someone knows, you just don’t know who. Maybe it was a note you forgot or someone overheard something. But someone knew those grapes were special. This is the kind of thing you need to tell Drew if you haven’t already. He needs to know.”

  Nico was staring at her, his eyes riveted on her lips.

  Was there something on her mouth? She glanced at the mirrored picture frame she’d strategically placed on her desk. Sure, it held a particularly cute picture of her, Katherine, and Toni at the beach, but it was also useful for quick lipstick checks.

  Her MAC Velvet Teddy nude lip was still on point. What was Nico staring at?

  “You.” He pointed at her and nodded. “That’s what we need.”

  Yes! Sugar started doing the Electric Slide.

  “I…” Megan blinked. “Pardon me? You need—”

  “You. And Katherine and Toni. All of your…” He waved a hand. “You know, the psychic friends. The girl squad. The Super Friends. The—”

  “I get it.” Calm down, Sugar. “Nico, I’m flattered you think we can find your grapevines, but I really don’t think—” A knock at the door cut her off. “Come in.”

  Henry poked his head in the door. “Nico, there’s something at the greenhouse I wanted to show you.”

  “Cool.” Nico sounded distinctly more upbeat. “And I’m hiring the girls to find out who took the vines. We’re not leaving it up to the cops.” He rose and walked to the door.

  Henry frowned. “What girls? We’re hiring who?”

  “The girls.” Nico nodded at her. “Megan, Toni, and the professor. If anyone can find those grapes, they can.”

  Henry’s face went from concerned and friendly to “try me” in a split second. “Are you talking about hiring my very pregnant girlfriend to find a criminal? You’re joking, right?”

  “Toni’ll be fine,” Nico said. “Dusi women are tough. She’s probably bored out of her mind right now, not being able to work a normal schedule. This problem—”

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me” —Henry looked like he was about one step away from losing his shit— “if you think I’m going to be okay with this little scheme. You’re out of your damn mind.”

  Chapter 5

  Henry and Nico were still arguing on the walk to the greenhouse.

  “It’s not up to you,” Nico was saying. “I’m not hiring you, I’m hiring Toni. And Megan and Katherine. They’re the ones with the psychic abilities, so they’re the ones—”

  “Yeah, do you know what those psychic abilities are doing to her right now?” Henry asked. “Her filters are completely out of whack. She can feel everyone. She’s got, like, no walls. Every sad or angry or pissed-off person she runs into sends her into a tailspin, and you want to throw her into a crime investigation?”

  “She didn’t tell us that.” Megan put her hand on Henry’s arm. “When did that start happening?”

  He shook his head. “Like, in the past month or so. Right around the time she started feeling the baby’s emotions. She didn’t want me to tell anyone she’s having a hard time, but she cannot do this.”

  Nico hadn’t stopped walking to the greenhouse, so they had to rush to catch up with him.

  “Nico,” Megan said. “I’ll ask Katherine and see if she’s willing to help, okay? But we don’t need to ask Toni—”

  “Listen.” He spun around with a s
mall smile on his face. “You two seem to forget that I have known my cousin way longer than either of you. I think it’s adorable that you’re trying to protect her. It’s sweet. But if you don’t include her in this” —he looked at Megan— “she will be pissed. Like, very pissed.” He looked at Henry. “I fucking love how much you love that woman, Henry, but if you try to put a fence around her, she’ll throw your fucking balls in a grape crusher, and you know I’m right.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Now tell me what I’m supposed to be seeing out here.”

  Henry pointed to a pane of glass next to the frosted glass door. “Push that in.”

  “That panel?” Nico pushed it, and with only a slight nudge, the plate of glass fell in and landed on a rag sitting on the workbench.

  “I’ll be damned.” Nico easily reached his hand inside and opened the door. “That’s how they got in.”

  “I almost didn’t spot it. We were looking for broken panes or smashed glass or something,” Henry told Megan. “But we weren’t finding anything, and the lock wasn’t jimmied, which made the police think that whoever broke in must have had a key.”

  “Which meant it would have had to be an inside job,” Megan said. “But they didn’t. They just had a glass cutter.”

  “They lucked out where the glass landed,” Henry said. “It would have been easy to push that glass in, open the door, then grab that piece on the way out and set it in with a little glue along the edges the way they did. Not enough to really conceal their steps, but enough so that the break-in wouldn’t be noticeable.”

  Nico was chewing on the side of his lip. “When was the last time you were in here?”

  “Sunday morning I came in to measure the humidity and open the doors. It was around six in the morning.”

  “And I came in about the same time on Monday,” Nico said. “We noticed the theft Tuesday morning.”

  Megan said, “So it happened between Monday morning and Tuesday morning. Is anyone in this area during the day?”

  Henry shrugged. “Not really, but it’s also not way off the beaten track, you know? You could cut across the back acreage with a truck, but it’d still be noticeable during the day.”