Shattered by Olga Bicos

Author:Olga Bicos
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-11-12T22:00:00+00:00

18

Ryan turned the glass in his hand, painting the sides with the Syrah. Pale legs of red ran down, showing a nice consistency and weight. He’d used the wine thief to extract a pitcherful from the barrel for the staff. They got a kick out of tasting the vintage, guessing it would be his best. He nosed the wine and tasted. It wouldn’t be much longer before they bottled.

Viña Dorada was primarily known for its sparkling wines made in the Spanish tradition. Expanding into other wines had been one of the first changes he’d made. In the United States, consumers bought sparkling wine primarily for weddings and New Year celebrations. Before Ryan took over, ninety percent of the product at Viña Dorada had sold in the month of December.

The reality was that they could only make so many changes in consumer habits through marketing. He’d explained to Gil and Marta that Viña Dorada needed to evolve. Now the label had a name outside of the sparkling wines where it once dominated and won medals at top competitions.

He put the glass down, flipping through a couple of messages on his desk. The lab again. He’d call tomorrow. He needed to keep a tab on the carbon dioxide levels. They might need to blow some nitrogen.

He realized he was moving things around the desk—the glass, his papers, the phone—like one of those plastic puzzles where the trick was to slide the pieces around until the picture made sense.

You sent me an invitation.

Or maybe he was trying to rub out the picture altogether—Holly looking so dismayed and so hurt.

Ryan walked over to the window. The house sat atop a knoll like the castle keep it mimicked, looking over the hills of the vineyard. That’s why he’d chosen this room for his office. The timeless view gave him perspective.

Inside his head, the plastic pieces shifted again. Twelve years after her death, he could still see Nina right there in front of him. Laughing at him. She always did enjoy a good laugh. He had this one memory of Nina laughing beside him in bed.

They’d broken into a house in Pacific Heights. The home belonged to one of his “godmothers,” so he’d known the code to the alarm. Nina always thought it was hilarious how Vanessa had only one child to share with her many society friends, hence the multiple uncles and aunties.

The house had been empty, the occupants gone on vacation to Hawaii. With his help, Nina had broken the door to the wine vault. He’d been pretty far gone already from a night of partying or he never would have agreed to open the Lafite-Rothschild, 1982. The wine was worth about a thousand dollars a bottle and they both knew it. But that wasn’t enough for Nina.

They’d been naked on the bed in the master bedroom, the wine almost gone. Nina had tried to give him some pills she’d found in the medicine cabinet. She was a year younger than Ryan, but she’d always been the more daring.

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