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with ever-so-brilliant Gabe. “I pretty much flunked out of high school. They only passed me to get rid of me. It was a relief for all of us, I think, to have me gone. And that’s as far as I went.”
    His gaze sharpened on her face. “I don’t get that. You have a razor-sharp brain. You must not have applied yourself.”
    She recoiled at the rebuke. “It’s clear I’m not approaching the level of perfection you are, Gabe. But I did apply myself to work my way to the top of the PR industry.”
    “That’s not what I meant.” Ruddy color dusted his cheekbones. “I was merely trying to understand how such an intelligent woman would have almost flunked out of school.”
    “I was a bad girl,” she said sharply. “Let’s leave it at that, shall we?”
    He gave her a long look. She stared him down until he started moving again, leading the way into the room across the hall. “Apparently the Courtlands’ party was something else. Boatloads of Champagne, British royalty, a famous Vegas singer...” He leaned down and poured a glass from one of the barrels, this wine a light magenta. “Dionysus is known for instigating a frenzied madness among the celebrants. He’s all about extreme self-gratification and things can and do go very wrong.”
    She and Dionysus would have been best buddies when she was younger, she was pretty sure. “And...things went wrong, I presume?”
    He leaned down to pour a second glass. “Apparently Janine was in love with the Courtlands’ head winemaker, not her husband. During the celebration they lost their heads and were found down here in flagrante delicto by Ralf.”
    Her jaw dropped. “No way.”
    He nodded. “Ralf stabbed the winemaker and his wife to death with an ornate dagger.”
    Oh, my God. Her huge mistake with Jordan Lane fresh in her mind, she stood there gaping at him. “That’s awful.”
    He shrugged. “Some would say Janine Courtland got her due.”
    A buzzing sound filled her ears. “Sometimes things aren’t so black-and-white.”
    “And sometimes they are.” His voice had taken on a dark intensity, his gaze on hers. “Wouldn’t you put cheating in that category?”
    Obviously yes. Watching her father destroy her mother with his affair with a local farmer’s wife had been devastating for her entire family. But what had happened with Jordan had shaken her. He had lied to her and told her he was divorced. But should she have seen past the lies? Seen the signs?
    She licked suddenly dry lips, realized he was waiting for her response. “I agree,” she nodded. “There is no excuse for infidelity.”
    He led her to another room, where he poured two more glasses of a richer-looking red. Alex tried to shake off the darkness that had invaded her. “Any particular reason the reds are down here?”
    He pointed to the gravel lining the earth floor. “They’re the premium wines. Keeping them down here, where the humidity is high and the barrels rest on the earth, preserves as much of the wine as we can.” He ran his hand over the smooth surface of the barrel. “If we get three hundred bottles from this one, we’ll still lose a liter and a half along the way.”
    “That much?”
    He nodded. “Winemakers like to call it the Angel’s Share.”
    She smiled. “I love that.”
    “Very apt, no?”
    They took the wine back to the dining room and sat at the ornately carved showpiece of a bar. “So where was she murdered?”
    His mouth tipped up on one side. “In the last barrel room we visited.”
    “And whose ghost is supposed to be down here?”
    “Janine’s. Apparently she paces the cellar demanding to be brought back to life. She considers the whole situation unjust.” He shrugged. “I say apparently, because I haven’t heard or seen her since I’ve been here.”
    Thank God for that. Her breath left her in a whoosh. “Time to drink.”
    “Alexandra Anderson,” Gabe drawled slowly, studying her face. “You aren’t afraid of ghosts, are you?”
    She waved