Naught turned his back to Maddox, and rubbed the back of his neck. It was a tell. All his brothers did it when they were stressed.
“Naught?”
“I can’t answer that.”
“What the hell? Kade’s dead. The decision whether to tell me or not was yours.”
When Naughton turned back around, Maddox saw the sadness in his brother’s eyes. “It’s the way he wanted it, Maddox. I’m sorry.”
8
Two more days and Alex could escape. The walls of the small seaside village where she lived and worked were closing in on her. Butler Ranch seemed to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue. If it wasn’t tourists talking about their fabulous wines, it was locals wanting to know what she and Peyton knew about the Old Creek Road property.
If one more person asked her about it, she’d scream. The whole thing pissed her off. Every time someone asked, she was reminded that Maddox hadn’t told her anything about it.
“I’m gonna take a break.”
Peyton was sitting in the office, and waved when Alex went past. “Have a good walk.”
The sidewalks of the village were crowded with tourists, so Alex went behind the buildings to the end of Main Street, and cut through the tall grasses until she came to the highway.
Further south it was known as Pacific Coast Highway, but this stretch was known as Cabrillo Highway. It ran parallel to the coast from Santa Barbara to San Francisco, straight through Big Sur.
A massive rock slide closed the highway north of Cambria months ago, and there was no word on when it might reopen. The only other way to get to Big Sur was to drive inland, take Highway 101 north, and then go back out to the coast near Carmel.
It was a shame, because her favorite escape, Post Ranch Inn, was in Big Sur. With only two days off, driving the long way would eat up too much of her time. The only other way to get there was by helicopter.
Damn, Maddox. If he only wanted her the way she wanted him, if only he could love her, they could have such a wonderful life. She’d work by his side through the busiest times of the year at the winery. From harvest to crush to fermentation to bottling, they’d be together, doing something they were both born to do. And then when things quieted down, he could fly them to the inn where they’d spend a relaxing and romantic week.
She’d talk him into doing yoga with her at dawn, and then they’d swim in the infinity pool that looked as though they could swim right out into the ocean. They’d get massages, and at night, gaze at the stars. In between they’d ravish each other’s bodies like no one else could.
Maddox taught her how to experience pleasure like many didn’t know existed. He knew every inch of her body, where she was ticklish, and the places that made her body hum.
No other lover she’d had came close to bringing her the pleasure Maddox did. Not that there were many. What was the point when she knew she’d only end up frustrated, wanting Maddox more than ever?
How could she find someone like him? Place an ad? Experienced lover wanted. Must strike the perfect balance between rough and gentle. Know the edge of pain, the kind that brings pleasure. Willing to learn what every gasp or breath means. To learn the very moment she reached the crescendo, and softly play her back down. She doubted any such man existed.
Traffic was heavy on the highway, so it took her a few minutes to cross to where she could catch the trail that would lead her down to Moonstone Beach. There was someone there she needed to talk to.
“Where do they end?”
Maddox and Naughton had been exploring the caves carved into the side of the hills for over an hour. Each time they turned a corner, thinking they’d come to the end, the pathway would make another turn, and lead to more rooms.
There was no mistaking the rooms that were used to store barrels. The smell of the wine-soaked wood permeated the air, and lingered, with no way to escape. It was a smell not all found pleasant, but Maddox loved it.
He loved everything about wine barrels—their smell, their texture, the flavors different types or ages of barrels imparted in the wine.
When Alex and Peyton got the okay from Peyton’s father to expand the Wolf Family Vintners tasting room into something that would showcase all the westside wineries, they talked to him about a name.
“How many wineries are in the collaborative?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
Alex thought about it for a minute, and then smiled. “It’s perfect.”
“Thirty-one?” Peyton asked.
“How many staves in a barrel?” Alex grinned.
“Oh. It is perfect.”
An average barrel had thirty-one staves, or strips of wood. The collaborative may grow or shrink, but Stave would always represent each strip of wood that made the barrel whole.
The smell of wine-soaked wood grew stronger, and Maddox followed the scent. Around the next corner was a door, many of the rooms had them. This door was locked, but he knew damn well there were barrels of wine inside. How many, what was in them, and where they came from was a mystery.
What he wouldn’t do was break the door down. If he had to bring a locksmith all the way out here, he would, but first he’d ask Lena. Maybe she knew about the wine in the caves, and if she didn’t, maybe she’d seen keys laying around and didn’t know what they were for.
Maddox had asked Naughton at least three times if their latest discovery was what Kade had alluded to in his letter. This time, Naught beat him to it.
“This isn’t it either, but look.” Not far from the locked door, there was a key sitting on a ledge.
His hands shook as he tried the key, almost too excited to go inside the room. The key turned and he heard the click. Naughton shown the light from his phone into the room, and it was nearly full of barrels.
How anyone had gotten that many barrels in here was confounding. There had to be another entrance. Transporting this number of barrels would’ve been treacherous the way they came in.
Maddox made his way around the crowded room. Off to the side was a shelf that held the exact thing he was hoping to find—a thin glass tube, known as a thief, which would allow him to taste what was in the barrels.
He gently removed the bung plug from the top of the barrel, and lowered the thief into the wine. Maddox didn’t need to see what he was tasting. In fact, he preferred not to. This would be all about taste, and he couldn’t wait.
The aroma wafting from the barrel gave him his first clue. If this was what he thought it was, it meant there were vines somewhere on this property that were priceless.
Alex sat on the beach and let the sand run through her fingers. Her papa was here, in this sand. This was where she and her brothers brought his ashes.
When they were growing up, he brought her and her brothers here a lot. When the weather was warm, he’d bring them here to play in the water. When one of them was faced with a big decision, he’d bring them here to walk on the beach, and let the endless waves crashing on shore help them figure things out. Sometimes they’d just sit and watch the otters play.
When he died, she’d turned to Maddox. He held her when she cried, and when he did, she could feel her father’s arms around her.
Maddox had been the one responsible for the truce that ended the bitter feud between their families. If only it could have happened while her papa was still alive.
He and Laird Butler had so much in common. Instead of shunning one another, what could they have accomplished if they’d worked together?
Her oldest brother took over the winery when their father passed, but it was the Butler family who made sure the harvest was brought in, the grapes were crushed, the wine was made, and bottled. Without their help, they would have lost a year’s production, or more.
She’d walked the vineyard then, talking to her papa up in Heaven. “Can you see what they’ve done for us? They saved us.”
She wished so often then that her father had known Maddox, and what a fine man he was. What a shame that his pride stood in the way of wha
t might have been.
If he were still alive, would the feud have ended? Would Maddox have found a way to bring their two families together?
“Is it my fate to be alone, because no man will ever mean as much to me as Maddox? I think I love him, Papa. ”
She looked at her phone and realized she’d been gone a lot longer than she meant to be. Time to brush away her tears, stand up straight, and show the world strong-Alex, not falling-apart-because-she’s-heartbroken-Alex.
Maddox closed his eyes and let the wine linger on his palate. It exuded power and elegance. It was dense, yet focused with bright, fresh characters. There was plenty of ripe blue and red fruit accompanied by what? The flavors overwhelmed him—mocha, carob, butterscotch, and toast. There were even hints of dried herb and rose petal.
The wine’s lengthy tannins complemented the underlying intense fruit. This was a wine that could age for years, and still exhibit youthful characteristics. It may very well be the best Cabernet Sauvignon he’d ever tasted.
Something was wrong, though. This wine wasn’t very old. It couldn’t be. It also couldn’t have been made from fruit grown in the vineyards outside these caves. Those vines had been dormant far too long. Where had this wine come from, and who made it?
“This isn’t it either,” Naught said before Maddox took another taste of the mystery wine.
Each thing he discovered was more fascinating, and yet none of it was what Kade alluded to in his letter. What else could there be?
Alex hadn’t been back at Stave fifteen minutes when Gabe threw the back door open. “Where’s Maddox?
“Hi, Gabe, how are you?”
“Cut the crap, Alex. Where’s Maddox?”
She folded her arms. “I don’t know. Why?”
“I need to find him, or Naughton. Either one.”
“What’s your problem?”
“I need to talk to him. That’s it. Where is he?”
Peyton motioned toward the tasting room, where Sam was helping customers.
“Come with me.” Alex pulled Gabe out the back door, and stood with her hands on her hips. “Tell me why.”
“Do you know where he is or not?”
“Stop yelling at me.”
“For Christ’s sake, Alex. I’m not yelling at you.”
Alex looked left and right. “I’m the only one here, and you’re yelling. Which means you’re yelling at me. If you don’t stop, I’m not going to tell you a damn thing about Maddox Butler.”
Gabe paced in the parking lot, running his hand through his thick head of dark hair. Like Cristobal, his was peppered with more gray than she remembered. Gabe was forty, and Cristobal was thirty-eight. Wasn’t that early to turn gray?
“You need to relax.” Alex tried to put her hand on Gabe’s shoulder, but he swatted it away.
Alex spun around to go back inside, but Gabe caught her arm.
“Wait.” He lowered his voice, but the grip he had on her arm made her uncomfortable.
“Let go of me,” she seethed.
He let go, leaned up against his truck, and looked at the ground. “I’m sorry. If you talk to him or Naughton, can you ask one of them to get in touch with me?”
“Tell me why it’s so important.”
“None of your concern.”
“I’ll be right back. I’ll let Peyton know I’m leaving, and then you can tell me what’s going on.”
Peyton was waiting when Alex came inside. “What’s up?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Gabe is acting so weird. He just keeps saying he needs to talk to Maddox, if not him, Naughton.”
“Hmm.”
Alex nodded, and opened the back door.
“Shit. He’s gone.”
Alex called Gabe’s cell, and it went straight to voicemail. She called Eli, and it went straight to voicemail too. The same thing happened with Joaquin. She didn’t expect him to answer though. JQ, as everyone called him, handled sales for Los Caballeros, and at this time of year was quite busy. The only person she hadn’t called was Maddox.
Peyton called Brodie, who had no idea why Gabe would need to talk to his brothers.
“I don’t want to call Maddox.”
“Brodie said he couldn’t reach him anyway, or Naughton. He tried, but neither answered.”
“It’s seems like Gabe is mad about something. Is it me, or did you get that impression too?”
“Maybe. Whatever it is, it’s odd.”
She’d hoped she was making more of it than it was, but if Peyton was getting a vibe too, then something was up.
So much for escaping for a couple days.
9
This was feeling too familiar. Alex was a little girl when the feud between her father and Laird Butler started. The stories she heard about how it started didn’t make sense to her.
She’d always believed her father to be an honorable, good, and decent man. His accusing Laird Butler of paying off wine judges just because her family’s wine hadn’t medaled didn’t sound like him. There had to have been more to the story. Maybe he had proof of his accusation, and that was why he was intransigent about reconciling with the Butler family.
When Alex was growing up, her older brothers warned her and their younger siblings not to mention the Butler name in front of their father. She respected her parents, so she never did, not even to ask her mother what had happened.
It wasn’t until she and her cousin Bianca started high school that she paid any attention to the Butler boys, or any boys, for that matter.
Alex grew up with six brothers, and she was one of them. Everything they did, she did. It didn’t matter whether it was riding their horses, fishing, playing sports, or playing cards—Alex was one of the guys. The summer before her freshman year, her mother encouraged her to spend more time with Bianca, and less time trailing after her brothers.
Bianca had two older sisters, and no brothers. She encouraged Alex to dress more femininely, which she had no interest in doing.
“You don’t have to go all girly-girly, but how about somewhere between that and how you are now?”
“How am I now?” Alex asked.
“With your short hair and flat chest, most people think you’re a boy. No guy will ever ask you out, Alex.”
Alex didn’t care—until she saw Maddox Butler for the first time. She and Bianca went to the county fair, and there he was. He took her breath away, and when he looked at her, he didn’t even see her.
Between that summer and the next, Bianca helped her pick out clothes that would flatter her figure, and Alex let her hair grow longer.
Peyton went to a private school in San Luis Obispo, but in the summer she and Alex were almost inseparable. Bianca took the two best friends shopping, showed them how to use makeup, and encouraged them to wear clothes that were more flattering.
Fortunately for her, that same summer, her body decided to play along. Alex was still tall and thin, but she was no longer flat-chested.
By the next summer, she noticed more guys checking her out, and had even been asked out a couple times. She turned them down, though. There was only one guy she was interested in.
Alex had seen him at school last year, but not very often. He was a senior, and she was a freshman, and when she passed him in the hall, he still looked right through her.
She became obsessed with getting him to take notice, knowing full well that if he did, there were only two possible outcomes. He might not want anything to do with her once he knew she was an Avila. And if he was interested in her, and her brothers found out, Maddox might not live to see his first day of college.
Opening night of the county fair, Alex and Bianca were standing near the entrance waiting for friends, when she saw Maddox walk in with his brother. For the next two hours, they followed the brothers everywhere they went, until he finally noticed her.
Every dream of him she’d had came true that night. He not only kissed her, he kept kissing her—for two hours.
Maddox ignited feelings
in Alex she didn’t know existed. Every part of her tingled when his lips met hers.
“Give me your mouth,” he demanded.
She had no idea what he meant until he grasped her chin and ran his tongue over her lips. She gasped when his tongue met hers.
“That’s my girl,” he moaned. His hands ran over her body, and gripped her behind, pulling her closer to him.
“You feel me, Alex Avila?” he’d asked.
She had, and it excited and terrified her equally. He backed off then, but didn’t stop kissing her. It was the best night of her life, and after it was over, she didn’t see or speak to him for another three years.
Maddox went to UC Davis, she knew that much, but it wasn’t until the summer after she graduated from high school, that she’d heard he was home for the summer. She saw him a lot, but neither acknowledged the other if they were with their family.
On a particularly hot day in June, Alex and Bianca spent the day at Lake Naco. She was walking into the water when she saw him on a boat that was pulling up to the dock. Their eyes were riveted until Maddox jumped into the water from the side of the boat. He swam underwater, and slid up her body to the water’s surface.
“You feel me, Alex?” he said again that day.
A few weeks later, Maddox took her virginity. She’d been determined he would since the day at the lake. In the same way he taught her to kiss, he taught her body how to respond to his.
Sex with him was incendiary. Every touch lit her on fire. He was demanding, and she loved it. He knew exactly how to set her off, like no one had since.
Alex doubted she’d ever find a man who did it for her like Maddox. But she needed more than mind-blowing sex. She needed love, and that wasn’t something Maddox would ever be able to give her.
It took Maddox and Naughton an hour to make their way out of the caves. They went back and checked other rooms they’d passed with closed doors, but they didn’t find any more barrels of wine. There was evidence that someone had been in the caves recently, though.
The Truce (Butler Ranch Book 2) Page 8