Wildest Hearts

what he had done to me. He was supposed to have been my friend, damn it. I trusted him.”

    “Let's drop this right now,” Oliver rasped.

    Shore ignored him. “I couldn't get my hands on him, so I lashed out at you. I thought I was ruined. I never expected you to come up with the cash within six months. How the hell did you do it, anyway? You never told me.”

    “It was none of your damned business,” Oliver said through his teeth.

    “I know. But you must understand. Deep down, I've always wondered how you got that money so quickly. I've wondered if I drove you to some desperate act.”

    Annie frowned. “Oliver didn't rob any banks to get that money, if that's what's worrying you, Mr. Shore.”

    “Then where did it come from?” Shore demanded.

    Annie's eyes widened. “I don't know.” She looked at Oliver inquiringly.

    Somehow Oliver managed to get control of his rage. “I played the commodities market for six months.”

    “Jesus.” Shore looked awed. “I didn't think anyone except the dealers made that kind of money in commodities.”

    “I got lucky,” Oliver said roughly.

    “I doubt if it was luck,” Annie said in tones of boundless admiration. “More like sheer brilliance.”

    Oliver impaled her with a look he knew must have reflected a fair portion of the frustration and anger he was feeling.

    Annie did not flinch. She turned back to Shore. “Well, I'm glad that's all out in the open. The thing to remember, as Aunt Madeline said, is that neither of you is responsible for what your relatives did. No matter how much it hurt you or your families, you aren't to blame.”

    “Is that a fact?” Oliver asked grimly.

    “Yes, and as for what happened afterward, you were both victims of circumstances beyond your control. But you both survived and flourished and that's the bottom line, isn't it?”

    Oliver closed his eyes in disgust.

    Shore spoke quietly. “That doesn't mean your husband can't do a great deal of damage to my family if he wishes to, Mrs. Rain.”

    “He won't,” Annie said gently.

    Oliver opened his eyes and stared at her.

    Annie swallowed and looked away. “By the way, this halibut is really very good. You two had better eat it before it gets cold.”

    “What about my son?” Shore asked quietly.

    Oliver switched his gaze back to Shore's anxious face and knew the bitter frustration of the predator deprived of its prey. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Annie smile encouragingly at him. He could feel her willing him to do what she thought was the right thing.

    In that moment Oliver knew he had lost the battle. For some totally incomprehensible reason he could not bring himself to go through with his plans to crush Shore. At least not with Annie sitting there, glowing with such serene faith in his integrity.

    It was one thing to avenge himself on Paul Shore. Oliver knew he could have gone through with that without a qualm. But disappointing Annie was another matter.

    “Forget Hammond,” Oliver muttered. “Forget the whole damn thing.”

    Shore's relief was painful to behold. “Thank you, Rain. If it's any consolation, I think I know what you're feeling right now. I owe you.”

    Shore was going to go free, and there was every possibility that the Rain family would soon be related by marriage to the Shore family. Oliver wondered if he had lost his mind when he had married Annie.

    “Carson and Valerie are such a perfect couple,” Annie said with a cheerfulness that grated on Oliver's raw nerve endings. “You know, this whole thing sort of reminds me of Romeo and Juliet.”

15

    Annie knew something was wrong the minute she opened the front door of Oliver's penthouse that evening. The silence was deafening, but the heavy brooding quality that permeated the atmosphere told her someone else was already home.

    Home. It struck her that she was starting to think of Oliver's apartment as her home.

    She shook the last drops of rain off of her umbrella, slowly removed her raincoat, and hung it in the closet. The uneasiness that had been growing in her all afternoon blossomed into a dark flower of dismay as she wandered across the marble foyer.

    She had known there might be problems tonight after the scene with Paul Shore. She had sensed the churning emotion deep inside Oliver when he had walked her out of the club. On the surface, of course, he was as calm and controlled as always, but she had not been fooled. He had not said a single word until they were