Dutch took the opportunity to put his arm around Malin and draw her body closer to his. What was it about her that made his first thought always about her comfort and safety? He was powerless to fight against it too. His reaction was as rote as breathing.
As they went deeper into the cave, Burns and Sorcha pointed out the various rooms used for wine barrel storage. Eventually they came to a large open space set up as a tasting area. Wine racks held hundreds of bottles on all four sides of the room, and were even built in above the archways that opened to offshoots on every side.
“How much more is there?” Malin asked.
“Oh, lass,” answered Sorcha. “Miles and miles at times it seems.”
“Care for a taste?” asked Burns, pulling the plug out of a bunghole in a barrel that sat under the racks of wine.
“Of course,” answered Dutch when Malin nodded.
“This is Bradley’s,” he said, pulling wine from the barrel through a long glass tube Dutch knew was called a thief from the other times he’d been here and they’d tasted from a barrel in the winery.
“Bradley is our daughter-in-law,” explained Sorcha. “Other than my Maddox, she is the best winemaker in all of California.”
“Some might argue that she’s even better than he is,” said a man coming in from the direction they had.
“I’m Naughton,” he said, introducing himself to Malin and Sofia. “Good to see you guys,” he added, shaking Dutch’s hand and then Onyx’s.
“Naughton manages all of the vineyards both here and at the Demetria Estate, which belongs to Maddox, one of our other sons as you may have gathered from Sorcha’s comment,” Burns told them.
Naughton took the thief from his father’s hand and put it back in the barrel, pulling out more wine.
“We’ll see after the harvest, but I’d be willing to bet that Bradley’s Butler Ranch Highland Zin takes gold and Maddox’s Demetria takes silver.”
* * *
After sampling from three other barrels, Laird and Sorcha led them back out to the cave’s entrance and then farther out into the vineyards.
“What do you think?” Dutch asked Malin as they walked the rolling hills.
“It’s incredible.”
“Better than Cokabow?”
“Nothing could be better than our island,” she answered, winking at him.
“Mmm, I like the sound of that,” he said, pulling her into his arms and holding her back while the rest of the group continued walking.
“We’re going to the winery,” he shouted when Burns turned around to look for them. The man waved behind him and continued walking with the group.
“We are?”
“We haven’t had a chance to talk, alone.”
Malin nodded.
Dutch pulled her over to a boulder that sat near one of the sloping vineyards, picked her up, and set her on it. He stood between her legs, putting his hands on either side of her hips.
“Talk to me, baby. Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“Mostly about whether Striker got Ghafor to talk, and how much he knows. If anything.”
“What about McTiernan?”
“I don’t know what to think. Like Striker, it’s hard to know which side he’s on.”
Dutch nodded. “If the agency is involved in the ambush, then they’ve upped their ante considerably.”