Wildest Hearts

ago, he went to work to find out exactly what had happened.”

    “It wouldn't have been all that hard for him to find out,” Oliver said. “Daniel and I kept quiet about it for business reasons, but we didn't go to the lengths of actually covering up the facts. There was no need.”

    Bolt nodded. “Gresham set out to get revenge. Got to give him credit for doing his homework. He studied the family and the situation at Lyncroft thoroughly before he made his move. Then he chose two weak points, Sybil and Barry Cork. He used them to get the information he needed.”

    Annie looked up at Oliver from the curve of his arm. “Our marriage must have thrown a real glitch into his original scheme.”

    “Yes.” Oliver tightened his arm around her. “Shortly after he met her, he learned there was no love lost between Sybil and myself. He decided she was the perfect one to take the rap for murder. Everyone would assume that she had killed me because I threatened to cut her off financially.”

    “And then Annie came on the scene,” Bolt said. “And Gresham realized he had an even better fall guy. Or fall lady.” Bolt looked at Oliver. “He figured the only reason you would have married her was to get control of Lyncroft Unlimited.”

    Oliver's mouth twisted. “No one gives me any credit for being a true romantic, do they?”

    Annie stirred uncomfortably against him. “Be fair, Oliver. How could Gresham or anyone else know that I was the one who pushed for a marriage of convenience? Everyone assumed the idea of marriage was yours. And they also assumed you had your reasons. Business reasons.”

    Bolt's brows rose, but he made no comment. He closed the notebook in his hand with a snap and stuck it into his pocket. “That's about it. Cork is awake, by the way, and willing to talk.”

    Annie brightened. “Barry's going to be all right?”

    “Looks like it.”

    “I'm glad.” She wrinkled her nose. “I mean, the guy is a complete sleaze, but he isn't a killer. I guess Thorpe wasn't so lucky.”

    “No,” Bolt said. “Thorpe wasn't so lucky. When Gresham confessed to the authorities two hours ago he told them where to find Thorpe's body. It's buried somewhere on Bainbridge Island.”

    “Poor Sybil,” Annie said quietly. “She really cares about Jonathan Grace. Who's going to tell her the truth?”

    “I will,” Oliver said.

    The telephone rang. Bolt got up to answer it.

    “Rain residence.” Bolt's normally blank features formed themselves into an oddly intense expression. “Visitors? Are you certain? Give me a second to turn on the video.” He reached out to switch on the small screen near the phone.

    Annie watched curiously as the video picture snapped into focus. She saw two people standing in the lobby talking to the doorman. One of them was Joanna.

    It took her a few seconds to realize who was with Joanna. When the image finally registered, Annie leaped to her feet.

    “Daniel!” she yelled at the screen. “Oliver, look, it's Daniel. He's back. He's back! I knew he was safe.”

    “Send them up,” Bolt instructed the doorman.

    It was nearly four in the morning before Oliver finally got Annie to himself. He wasted no time taking her straight to bed.

    He had no self-control at all the first time. Driven by a raging, ungovernable need, he laid siege to her body and stormed the soft, warm citadel. It was as if he had to assure himself in some primitive fashion that she was safe and that he still possessed her on this most fundamental of levels.

    Annie did not seem to mind the hot, wild assault. She clung to him, giving herself generously, allowing him to sink deeply into her.

    When Oliver drove into her one last time, shuddering with the force of his climax, Annie joined him in the shattering release. She held him close and whispered to him of her love over and over again.

    Oliver collapsed along the length of her, exhausted and yet oddly refreshed. Everything was going to be all right. She was safe. She was his. She loved him.

    “Did you see the look on Joanna's face?” Annie asked after a while. “She was so happy.”

    “You had the same look on your face,” Oliver said.

    “I probably did.” Annie smiled in the shadows. “I told you Daniel was alive.”

    “Yes.”

    “Picked up by a foreign freighter and carried off to the next port of call. Can you believe it?”

    “Yes.” Oliver recalled the tale that Daniel had given them earlier.

    He had gotten himself