Read Online An Exquisite Challenge by Jennifer Hayward - Free Book Online

Frank. This afternoon he was getting rid of that particular problem. One way or another.
    Frank Thomas, a fifty-two-year-old cop–turned–private investigator, gave Gabe’s hand a hearty shake and made himself at home on the leather sofa. Gabe followed and stood opposite him, too restless to sit down.
    “The rumors are true,” Thomas announced. “Jordan Lane is developing a Devil’s Peak look-alike.”
    His heart dropped. “How do you know?”
    “A source in the restaurant industry. He’s been chatting it up, apparently.”
    “How close is it?”
    The investigator shook his head. “Talking’s all he’s doing. But I hear close.”
    Gabe shoved his hands in his pockets and paced to the window. “It doesn’t fit with his current strategy. I don’t get it.”
    “I think that’s the point. It isn’t about strategy. He’s after you. ”
    A sense of foreboding settled over him, an uneasy feeling pulling deep down in his gut. The Devil’s Peak wasn’t your run-of-the-mill, ordinary blend. A great deal of proprietary processes and ingredients had gone into it that hadn’t been done in a Californian wine before.
    He looked at Thomas. “He’s got someone on the inside.”
    “My thoughts exactly.” The wily investigator cocked a brow at him. “Any idea who it could be?”
    No. He thought about Pedro, his head winemaker, whom he’d brought with him from the Tuscan De Campo vineyard after the older man’s wife had died. The men and women he’d handpicked to work alongside Pedro. “No—I trust them all implicitly.”
    Thomas pursed his lips. “Someone in the office? Suppliers, distributors, customers?”
    Gabe shook his head. “They wouldn’t have the knowledge. You can’t copy the structure, the composition of a wine without knowing what you’re doing.”
    “Then you’ve got to go through your people again. Take a closer look. See if you’ve missed something.”
    He nodded. The uneasy feeling in his gut tightened. He was close, so close to achieving what he’d set out to do eight years ago—to put De Campo in the upper echelon of Californian winemakers. So close he could almost taste it. He would not, could not allow a disloyal team member to destroy his dream. There was another wine, a far more important wine, in the works, too. The wine only he and Pedro knew about.
    He had to find the bad apple before whoever it was found out about that wine as well. The game changer. If it wasn’t too late.
    “Give me an hour and I’ll get a list to you,” he said to Thomas. “We’ve done background checks on everyone, but dig deeper. See what you can find. Meanwhile, I’ll go through them all with Pedro. See if anyone sticks out.”
    Thomas nodded. “If there’s something there I’ll find it.”
    * * *
    Gabe got back to the vineyard at two and went directly into another meeting. Alex waited until she saw one of the men leave at three-fifteen, tucked the folder with the approvals she needed under her arm and marched into the house, determination fueling her every step. Down the gleaming hallway to Gabe’s office she went, a closed door greeting her. She knocked and reached for the handle. Elena held up a hand. “I wouldn’t—”
    “Bother him,” Alex finished. “I know.” She turned the handle and swung the door open, her legs planted wide in a fighting stance. “This time your guard dogs aren’t going to work. I need y—”
    Two men were seated near the window, staring at her. She did a double take. Oh. Only one had left.
    “Whoops,” she muttered. “I thought you were done.”
    The room was silent. Gabe said nothing, his gaze resting on her with a stillness that drew her attention to the furious gleam in those spectacular green eyes. “We’re almost done,” he said in a deadly quiet voice. “Would you wait for us in the living room?”
    She backed out, thinking she really might have done it this time, but past caring because he was impossible and she had to get her job done.