Fate Actually (Moonstone Cove #2) - Elizabeth Hunter Page 0,66

tell me more about the temperature? I was assuming it was more like beer, which I’ve studied extensively, but…”

As Katherine occupied Ruben, Megan and Toni hung back.

“We need to find his office,” Toni said.

“Will it be in the winery or in this building?”

“Ruben’s will be here, but I’m betting Fairfield’s office is in the main building. The pretty one.”

“Do you want to look for Ruben’s office or Fairfield’s?”

“I’d stick out like a sore thumb in the fancy building. You go snoop over there, and I’ll try to find Ruben’s office here.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Megan nodded decisively. “Now to create a distraction.”

Toni stood back and surveyed their surroundings. Megan, with her magnetic charm, blond hair, blue eyes, and telekinetic power was pretty much distraction personified.

“How disastrous do we want to go?” she asked.

“No one gets hurt,” Toni said. “Other than that?” She spotted a line that ran from the crush machine to the fermentation tanks. “Okay, you see that giant red hose with the silver fitting that runs from the crusher to the top of that tank?”

“Yeah.”

“How far away can you use your telekinesis?”

Megan’s eyes went wide. “This could be a challenge.”

Toni, Katherine, and Megan were leaning toward Ruben, listening to him explain how the red wine was pressed, when they heard the first shout.

Toni’s senses went wide when the first splash of wine hit the concrete floor of the fermentation room. Within a second, her senses were overwhelmed.

“Boss!”

All the workers started yelling at once as gallons and gallons of crushed grapes, along with the skins and seeds, splashed to the floor, spraying everything within fifty feet.

“What’s happening?” Megan yelled. “Oh my Lord!”

“Allen!” Ruben yelled. “What the hell?” He turned to them. “Ladies, I’m so sorry, but I’m going to need you to exit—”

“Ruben, I can’t shut it off! It’s stuck!”

Toni patted his shoulder. “We’ll find our way back! You go deal with this.”

“Thanks, Toni.” Ruben ran off, leaving Katherine, Megan, and Toni standing to the side of the fermentation room, their backs to the office, watching the chaos that Megan had wrought.

A mess of juice, grape skins, and seeds rained down around them, and the air was starting to feel sticky.

“How many hoses did you unhook?” Toni asked as they backed away.

“I think I maybe did all of them? It’s kind of hard to distinguish a single valve when they all look alike and I’m so far away.”

“That is a lot of crushed grapes.” Katherine was staring. “What a waste.”

“Come on.” Toni tugged her arm. “Megan, you good?”

She nodded. “I was scoping out the building when we walked in earlier. Pretty sure I know where the executive office will be.”

“Katherine and I will look at Ruben’s.” Toni walked into a dark hall, the winery a hive of chaos as they disappeared through the metal door.

As soon as they left, Toni turned and started peeking in the windows of the doors they passed. “He’s not going to be down here, I don’t think.”

Katherine said, “No. Look at the tone of his skin. He likes the sun.”

“Agreed.” Toni ran up a set of stairs and onto the second floor that looked over the top of the tank room. She paused at the top. Which side of the building would Ruben pick for his office? “Sunrise or sunset?”

Katherine thought for only a second. “Sunrise—he’s a farmer.”

“Agreed.” She ran to the right, headed toward the east end of the warehouse. They passed one person on the walkway who barely glanced at them as he rushed toward the stairs.

Looking in the rooms, Toni saw familiar activities. There was what looked like break room, one gal entering something on the computer with a set of headphones blocking the noise, and another office with two women chatting over manila folders.

At the end of the walkway, Toni saw his name on the door.

Ruben Montenegro, General Manager.

She pushed open the door, which wasn’t locked, and walked straight to his desk.

“Okay, where would you put those plans?” she muttered. Toni sat in his seat and pulled out the top shelf directly to her left.

It jammed.

She tugged on each of the drawers in turn, hoping to trigger the catch for the top left drawer while Katherine moved to the standing file drawers across the room.

“I’d say the plans are probably on the computer, but that seems to be the one thing that people still want paper for,” Katherine said. “If I go to the geology department, I always see massive pieces of paper the size of old maps spread out