8
Jack McLachlan
After enjoying a very pleasant evening with Miss Beckett, I’m in bed no more than an hour when I get a call from my right-hand man at the Chalice Vineyard. I immediately sit up, knowing something serious has happened if he’s calling me at this hour. “Clyde, what’s happened?”
“I’m sorry to wake you at this hour, Jack, but there’s been a fire at Chalice tonight. It’s under control now, but there’s damage on the south side.”
Chalice is my favorite vineyard. My father owned it when I was growing up and I spent a lot of time there as a child with its workers, who are now my employees. As such, they are almost family—their safety is priority. “Was anyone injured?”
“No injuries.”
Thank God no one is hurt. “Have you been able to assess the damage?”
“It’s hard to tell because it’s still dark, but it appears to be minimal. We were lucky to catch it when we did. John was awake and saw the blaze from his bedroom window.” It helps that the vines are still green and there’s moisture from a rain we had a couple of days ago. At least we had that in our favor.
“Can you tell how it started?”
“The fire chief will be back to inspect it in the morning, but he told me he has reason to believe it was arson. He said he should be able to give us a definite answer tomorrow.”
Arson? That isn’t good.
I call Daniel to let him know I will be leaving for Sydney within the hour.
I don’t have Paige’s number, but I’ll need to let her know of the change in plans. I go into my library and take out the phone I’ve already chosen to give her. I write a quick note and insert it inside the package.
My next call is to my personal assistant, Jonathan. “It’s Jack. I’m sorry to call at this hour, but I have a job for you that must be done first thing in the morning. When you come into my office, you’ll find a small brown box on my desk. I need you to deliver it to the recipient by eight in the morning and not a minute later. It’s personal and very important to me.”
“Of course, sir. No later than eight.”
There’s little to no traffic on the road so I drive my black Fisker Karma coupe convertible faster than I should as I race toward Chalice. The businessman in me should use the drive to think about how I plan to handle the problem at Chalice, but I have something else on my mind. This something else has long brown hair, big golden-brown eyes, and a body that makes me hard just thinking about it.