Page 34 of A Sip of Sherry

The screen lit up with a number I knew all too well.No name, just a string of numbers that carried more weight than any contact in my phone.I sighed and snatched the phone from his hand.

“I know you love a flair for the dramatic, but you have my number.Did you really have to send your goons here?”I mouthed an apology to Mario.He wasn’t all that bad.Dad just had a lot of dirt on him, and because of that, he was able to make Mario do whatever Dad asked.

“Would you have answered?”

“Probably not.But that’s not the point.”

“The point?I’ll tell you the fucking point.It’s been half a year, and you still have shit for me.”

“I told you… This is going to take time.”

“Time I don’t have,” he snapped.“Every day you sit on your ass is a day closer to me getting fucked.I’m starting to think that’s what you want.”

“Why the hell would you think that?”He never, not once in my entire life, gave me the benefit of the doubt.Between that and his lack of trust, he was lucky I was even fucking here.

“You’re jealous.Jealous, I’m a success, and you’re nothing more than an impostor.”

My jaw clenched, my fingers digging into the phone while my others curled into a fist.“I’m not jealous of a man who can’t build a damn thing without burning everyone around him to the ground.”

A bitter laugh echoed through the phone.“Is that what you tell yourself?You had your chance to do it your way.I financed you, and you failed.Now you owe me.”

I closed my eyes, the familiar guilt gnawing at me.He wasn’t wrong.I had borrowed money.I had made mistakes.I had lost everything, including my pride.My dignity.My freedom.

Vine Valley wasn’t my idea.I had wanted nothing to do with his unethical business practices, but I lost my right to an opinion the minute my company had gone under, and I was sitting in the red line of debt.

“You think you’re better than me?”he snapped.“Newsflash.You’re nothing without my name, without my money.Now do what you’re told for once in your fucking life.”

I was on the brink of success without his damn name, and I almost had it until… it all fell apart.

The taste of blood filled my mouth as my teeth bit into my cheek to keep me from telling him to fuck off.I wanted to.Damn how I wanted to, but he only gave so many chances before he ruined you.My tally had been adding up for a long time.

“I’ll get you what you want,” I said, the words like jagged shards of glass in my throat.

“You better.I’m done waiting.You either bring me something by the end of the month, or you’ll wish you had.”

The line went dead.

With a sigh, I smacked the phone into Mario’s hand.He slipped it into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

“Always great to see you guys,” I said, not bothering to hide the sarcasm in my tone.

They didn’t say a word.Just walked out of my place as if breaking and entering was just another Thursday for them.Breaking and entering was a walk in the park compared to their other activities.

Dad’s words played over in my head.

You either bring me something by the end of the month, or you’ll wish you had.

He made it sound so easy.Find dirt.Burn Vine Valley Vineyard to the ground.Walk away clean.Get my life back.But it wasn’t that easy.Not anymore.

Not since her.

It was supposed to be an easy job.Get inside, find dirt, and get out.No attachments, no second thoughts.No messy complications.

Then one Halloween, sexy Alice in Wonderland walked into my life, flipped it upside down, making it impossible to walk away clean.Sharp-tongued, quick-witted, and stubborn as hell, and somehow, she’d slipped past every wall I ever erected within minutes.A lifetime of barriers stripped away with a single glance.

Every time I heard her laugh, saw her smile, more of my walls crumbled.Until the lines between duty and desire blurred into something I could no longer untangle.

I wasn’t just on the inside of Vine Valley Vineyards anymore.I was inside her world—inside a world I was tasked with destroying.

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