Once Tasted: A Silver Creek Novel (40 page)

“Oh Christ. Mia …” Reid tried to picture that piece of land without Mia working it. He couldn’t. It was as inconceivable as his family no longer raising their horses, cattle, and sheep on Silver Creek’s acres. “Thomas can’t sell the place off. Mia would be devastated if she had to leave. She should have the chance to prove what she can do with those grapes and that land.”

“I know, son. So what do you propose we do?”

It was suddenly clear. The challenge he’d been looking for: This was it. He’d found a challenge that, if he was very lucky, could last a lifetime, one where the rewards would mean so much more than adding zeroes to the balance in a bank account.

He leaned forward.

O
LD HABITS DID
indeed die hard. Mia had given herself the same advice she’d offered to Leo and Johnny, but, despite falling into her bed and into a dreamless sleep upon returning home the previous night, she’d awakened with the sun.

And now she had to face the void that was her life. Three lonely barrels lying in the cellar were her only chance to nurse the young wine to maturity. It would be one thing if the wine had undergone all the steps in the fermenting process without a glitch. But the contents of those three barrels had been compromised. She really didn’t know if it could come close to expressing the subtlety of the grape and its place of origin.

Many people didn’t understand the passion that drove a vintner. When Mia tried to explain it, the best she could do was compare it to the obsession that drove artists: the thrill of the painter whose composition captured a previously unrecognized truth using only color and line; the joy of the poet in the distilled purity of expression; the power of the opera singer who attained and held the perfect note.

Setbacks occurred in every life. It was the hatred behind
this loss—Jay’s corrosive malice—that threatened to paralyze Mia.

She knew she couldn’t let it. After her shower, she went downstairs to feed Vincent and herself. There was still the vineyard to tend, and though the pace of the work would be slower, the vines and the rows of earth still required her care.

She brought her coffee cup out onto the porch so that Vincent could sit with her and swish his tail imperially and track the birds that were crisscrossing the lightening sky. She hunched her shoulders against the bite of the wind and the gnawing ache in her heart. She missed Reid so.

Here was another thing she couldn’t allow Jay to destroy. Or, rather, attempt to destroy again. It didn’t matter whether Reid loved her in return or if they ever got back together—Mia was realistic enough to know how unlikely a prospect that was after everything that had happened.

But love was a gift, and Reid deserved to be given what she’d been keeping locked away in her heart. She had to stop holding the best part of herself back. If she succumbed to fear, then Jay had succeeded once again in diminishing her.

The question was how to tell Reid she loved him and then be strong enough to let him go, however painful that would be. She would simply have to find a way.

At peace with her decision, she carried her coffee cup back to the kitchen and filled a thermos with the remains of the pot to take with her into the vineyard. In the mudroom she grabbed her canvas carryall with her tools and put the thermos in it. She was grateful there was still work to be done in the vineyard, vines to be readied for the winter months. Otherwise she’d go crazy thinking about all the things she couldn’t do in the winery.

She stepped out the back door and was distracted by the sight of Vincent running with his tail straight up and puffed. “What spooked you, Vincent?” she asked.

He offered no clue but raced toward the other side of the house. Thinking to follow him and make sure he was okay, she turned, only to spin around when a hated voice reached her.

“Guess the kitty doesn’t like me much.”

She stared in shocked disbelief. Jay was leaning against the side of his car, his arms folded casually, one leg crossed over the other.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, silently damning herself for having again forgotten her cellphone in the kitchen.

“Thought I’d check up on my little cuz before I split this burg.”

“You won’t get very far. The police are looking for you.”

He scrunched his face in a mockery of concern. “The police? What do they want with me?”

“To find out where you were the night before last. But you and I know the answer to that already. You were here, emptying the tanks and the barrels.”

He bared his teeth. “Oh, but you’re mistaken. I wasn’t anywhere near here. I have a real hot lady who will vouch for me. Glo kept me up all night.”

Of course he had an alibi. She could see the satisfaction oozing from his large pores. “Why’d you do it, Jay?” she asked. “You wanted money, but then you went and flushed hundreds of thousands of dollars down the drain. You won’t see a cent now—not ever.”

“So you’re saying it’s all gone, huh? Well, ain’t that a shame? Your friends the Knowleses have lost quite a few of their pennies. I suppose they’ll pull out now. Ooh, I guess that means your boyfriend will, too. You’ll miss that, won’t you?” He tilted his head, studying her
with his cold gaze. “Aww, what’s the matter, Mia?” And then he laughed. Hard. “Oh my God, you really did think he’d marry you!”

“Get out of here, Jay.”

“Happy to. Course, you’ll be packing your bags soon enough, since the only way Thomas’ll be able to get the money he needs out of this place will be to unload it.”

The words were yet another verbal punch. “He won’t.” It was what Don Polk would advise, but she’d die before she admitted as much to Jay.

“You’re such a fool,” he said. Then, abruptly, he made a show of looking around. “Hey, where’s that fearsome dog of yours? Napping?”

“He got sick. I had to take him to the animal hospital.”

“Your poor doggie-woggie had a little tummy trouble?”

Everything inside her went still. “I didn’t say Bruno had anything wrong with his stomach.”

He gave a careless shrug. “Didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t, you sick bastard.” Suddenly it all made sense. Twisted, perverted sense. “You poisoned my dog, didn’t you?” Rabid rage propelling her, she launched herself without warning, charging and swinging her canvas bag with all her might. It struck his face with a resounding
whack
.

If only it had been filled with bricks rather than pruning shears, wire, and a metal thermos.

Still, she felt a vicious satisfaction as he bellowed in pain.

Then Jay shook his head, like a boxer in the ring. He looked at her, eyes narrowed with the promise of violence, and raised his fist as he advanced. “You fucking whore—”

She braced herself for the blow.

It never came. Instead, she heard the sudden pounding
of the earth. Then a whistling
whoosh
cut the air, and Jay cried out in surprise as his upraised arm was caught in a loop of rope. A loop that closed with a rough jerk. Thrown off balance, Jay stumbled and fell.

For a second he lay on the ground as if stunned. Then he raised his head and stared at Reid astride Sirrus. “What the fuck are you doing?” he yelled, his free hand scrabbling to untie the lasso.

Reid backed Sirrus up a few quick steps, so the rope tightened and Jay was dragged on his belly. He screamed.

“First lesson, Jay. You put your hand anywhere near that rope, and Sirrus is going to move and you’re going to go for a little ride. Second lesson, you scream and you’re going to spook Sirrus. He may take off really fast.”

“You son of a bitch,” he panted. “Let me go.”

“Then again, maybe I should just let Sirrus have a nice run. He’s feeling feisty with this cooler weather. I’d be fine with giving you a tour of our ranch, all two thousand acres of it. Course, you’d be dead by the end of it.” He shrugged his shoulders. “You know, it’s funny. I’m not into violence, but I’m totally cool with killing you, Jay. To tell you the truth, I really want to, for what you did to Mia.”

“She’s a goddamned lying bitch—” Jay’s curse ended on a high-pitched howl, as Sirrus moved into an elegant sidestepping trot, his dark-gray legs crisscrossing.

“Stop! Fuck, stop!” Jay was crying now. Dirt mixed with his agonized tears.

Reining Sirrus to a halt, Reid continued in the same conversational tone. “Here’s lesson number three. You say another word about Mia, and I won’t stop Sirrus until there’s no blood left in your carcass.”

“Fuck you, you can’t kill me.”

“Oh, it’d be easy. So easy,” Reid contradicted with a
smile. “I can think of any number of places where I could dump your body—what remained of it—and nobody, I mean nobody, would ever find it. But you know what? I kind of like the idea of you rotting in prison better. You’re going to be there for a long time, you slimy fuck.”

“I’ll get you for this.”

“I’d like you to try.”

For the first time, Reid looked over at Mia. “Hey, Mia, sweetheart.”

Her heart leapt at the smile—a real smile—that curved his lips. “Hi, Reid. I’m so happy to see you and Sirrus.”

“We were just passing by. Arrived in time to see you belt Jay with your tool bag. Nice job. You feel like giving Nick Armstrong a call?”

“I think I would. My cell’s in the kitchen, though.”

“Use mine. Here, catch,” he said, giving the phone an easy toss. “Scroll through the recent calls. Armstrong’s is the second one.”

“The cops will let me go. They don’t have jack shit on me.” In panic and fright, Jay fumbled with the knot around his wrist. To no avail. Sirrus merely skipped a few steps sideways. Jay shrieked as he was towed along. Sirrus ignored him, as did Mia and Reid.

When he finally brought Sirrus to a stop, Reid stared down at Jay’s panting form and shook his head. “You never were very smart, were you? You, know, we really don’t like litterbugs around here—especially the jerks who toss plastic nonbiodegradable bags on our roads. If you’d used the trash cans in town, I might not have found the d-CON and the package of hamburger. And damned if the bag didn’t have the store’s name on it, as did the sticker on the ground beef. Ever hear of video surveillance cameras, dickhead? Every grocery chain has them.”

Jay gave a forced laugh. “That’s pissant stuff. So I made a boo-boo and a little d-CON got into the treat I was giving the dog. No prosecutor can make the charges stick.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” Reid said easily. “I’ll let Lieutenant Armstrong fill you in on the evidence his team found in the winery. So glad you brought your car, too. You get out those wine stains? They can be such a bitch.”

Mia cleared her throat as Nick Armstrong’s voice sounded in her ear. “Hello, Lieutenant? My cousin Jay came to pay an unfriendly visit. Yes, he’s waiting for you here.”

The patrol cars’ sirens didn’t spook Sirrus. If Lieutenant Armstrong and his men were surprised to find Jay lassoed by the wrist and looking considerably worse for wear, they didn’t show it. Reid’s simple explanation of “He tried to hit Mia” was sufficient for all concerned.

Jay was read his Miranda rights and led away to one of the patrol cars, handcuffs now manacling both wrists.

Looping his lariat so it lay next to his saddle horn, Reid dismounted and made straight for Mia. He kissed her hard.

“You okay?” he whispered, cradling her face in his hands.

“Yes.” She nodded. “I’m so glad you stopped Jay for me, Reid.”

The lines bracketing his mouth deepened. “It’s something I should have done twelve years ago,” he replied. “We both hurt you back then. I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I should have beat the crap out of him—or tried to—for taking your diary. I’ve felt so damned guilty for slinking off to the showers while he read from—”

“You weren’t there—in the locker room?”

He shook his head. “No. I didn’t like to be anywhere near Jay. But that’s no excuse, and I should have done a better job apologizing about it. But I was embarrassed and couldn’t figure out how to apologize
and
get you to agree to go on a date.”

“A date? With you?” she said in disbelief.

His smile was crooked. “See? Not so easy.”

“Reid, I—” but her sentence was left unfinished when Lieutenant Armstrong approached.

“We’ll be taking your cousin in now, Miss Bodell. There’ll probably be some follow-up questions we’ll need to ask you and Mr. Knowles.”

“I understand. And thank you for coming so quickly.”

“We were already on our way. Mr. Knowles’s head of security called as soon as they spotted your cousin’s car heading your way on Bartlett Road. A tow truck will be along to impound the vehicle. We’ll run tests on it.”

“I’m sure you’ll find traces of wine in the interior. There’s no way Jay could have emptied the barrels and opened the tanks without getting soaked,” Reid said.

“That’s the hope. And we’ve sent the grocery bag to the lab. Thanks for contacting the vet who treated Miss Bodell’s dog and having her send us the lab analyses. The more charges we can pin on him—”

“—the better,” Reid finished with a nod. He stuck out his hand. Armstrong shook it and then Mia’s.

“I hope your vineyard can recover from this loss, Miss Bodell,” he said.