Flash (42 page)

She swept out a hand and hit a row of switches on the control panel.

Martial music swelled suddenly, surging through the speakers on either side of the stage. Drums thundered. Horns blared. The exhilarating strains of a hundred-voice chorus filled the warehouse.

—
Sweet land of liberty

The roaring music shattered Eleanor's focused determination for an instant. She flinched.

“Shut that off.” Her gaze shifted wildly toward the nearest speaker.

Olivia dove off the back of the stage. She landed heavily on a tangle of electrical cords.

“Damn you, this country needed me,” Eleanor screamed.

Red, white, and blue light blazed in the cavernous gloom of the warehouse. Sprawled on the nest of cords, Olivia looked up and saw the huge flag unfurl in all its glowing majesty.

—
Land of the pilgrims' pride

Eleanor came to stand at the edge of the stage. She peered down, searching the gloom for her target.

Olivia rolled off the pile of cords and threw herself headlong beneath the stage. The lights of the flag created a dazzling glare that cast her hiding place into dense shadow. She could crawl out on the opposite side near the steps.

She paused when her hand touched a length of metal on the floor. One of the structural pieces left over from the construction of the some-assembly-required platform overhead. She picked it up.

Another scream, this one of fear rather than rage echoed through the warehouse. Eleanor must have finally looked up and seen the descending flag, Olivia thought.

But it was too late. There was a shuddering crash
on the floor of the stage as Eleanor, scrambling to get out of the way, lost her balance and fell.

Olivia crawled out from under the stage, metal bar in hand. This would be her only chance to try to get the gun away from Eleanor.

But when she stood upright and whirled around to survey the situation she saw that there was no great need to grab the pistol.

Eleanor was trapped unmoving beneath the heavy flag. She had dropped the gun when she put out her hands to break her fall.

The blazing flag lit up the warehouse, and the majestic strains of the music continued to blare forth a moment later when the warehouse door slammed open.

Olivia stood in front of the glowing flag and watched Jasper and Todd rush toward her. She was trembling so violently that when Jasper reached her, she fell into his arms.

“It's about time you got here, partner,” she whispered.

His arms tightened around her so violently that she could not say anything else for a long while.

It took some doing, but Jasper made certain that they caught the six-fifteen ferry to Bainbridge that evening. They both needed the tranquillity of the island after the endless interviews with the police, phone calls, and demands for interviews. He was certain that the phone in Olivia's condo would be ringing all evening.

As far as he knew, neither the media nor any of Olivia's relatives had his unlisted island number.

They walked on board and stood at the rail as the ferry pulled away from the dock. The summer sun was still high in the evening sky. A warm, golden light glinted on the windows of the downtown highrises.
Jasper put his arm around Olivia and pinned her close against his side.

“She sent him to kill you.” Olivia gripped the rail very tightly. “She thought that if she got rid of you in a sort of preemptive strike, it would be easier to control Glow.”

Jasper felt the shudder that went through her. “What did she plan to do after Todd told her he did not want to marry her?”

“She expected Todd to stay with the campaign. She probably thought that he wouldn't be able to resist the chance to influence the national political agenda for the next few years. She thought she could manage and control everyone.”

“She was living in a fantasy world.”

“Yes.” Olivia looked at him with huge eyes. “She intended to make another attempt to kill you. She was only biding her time until after the election. She was nervous about risking a second murder attempt while the campaign was under such intense media scrutiny.”

He pulled her into his arms. “And when it all fell apart with Dixon's arrest, she came after you for revenge. You don't know what I went through this morning when I finally realized that it had to be Eleanor who had sent Haggard to Pelapili Island. It meant she was probably behind everything.”

“How did you know she would try to kill me before she left town?”

“I knew she would be furious because all of her plans had gone down the toilet. She was a very driven woman. I was afraid that she would not be able to walk away without striking out at the one person she could blame for all that had gone wrong. Todd told me that
she admired you, saw you as a kindred spirit. A reflection of herself. It was logical that she would turn on you when she, herself, failed.”

Olivia smiled tremulously. “For a corporate type, you did a pretty good job of analyzing the psychology of her motivations.”

“Trust me, there wasn't anything real deep about Eleanor's motivations.”

“Very goal-oriented, would you say?”

He shook his head. “She was more than goal-oriented. She was a predator. And also nuttier than a fruitcake.”

Olivia leaned her head against his shoulder. “I can't believe we actually got through the whole thing without anyone finding out that Melwood Gill was blackmailing us as well as Dixon Haggard.”

“Just goes to show the value of good teamwork.”

“Uh-huh. So what happens if the information leaks out again sometime in the future?”

“I doubt if it will, but if it does, we'll handle it. Hell, we can handle anything together.”

“You may, just possibly, be right about that.”

The snapping breeze loosened her hair. A few tendrils curled around his neck. He savored the silky feel of it as he watched the glowing city recede across the waters of Elliott Bay.

“You scared the living hell out of me today.” He kept his voice very even, very flat, because there was no other way to control the anger and fear that still stormed inside him. “If you hadn't saved yourself by distracting her with the music and that business with the flag …”

“You would have saved me, instead. You and Todd.”

“We were about two minutes too late.” He heard
her suck in her breath and realized that he squeezed her a little too tightly. “Two damned minutes.”

She put her arms around his waist and hugged him back hard enough to remind him of the ribs that had gotten bruised in the fight with Dixon. “I'll make a deal with you. If you promise not to dwell on those two minutes, I'll try not to have nightmares about what almost happened on Pelapili Island.”

He thought about that. He didn't think he could keep his end of the bargain. The memory of how he had very nearly lost her might fade a little with time, but he would never entirely forget that surge of panic that had sent him running from Lancaster headquarters.

But he also knew that neither he nor Olivia had any choice but to try to put the close brushes with death behind them. Businesspeople are natural optimists. They look to the future, not the past.

“Deal,” he said finally.

She raised her head. Her eyes were brilliant in the long, gentle light. “Look at it this way. From now on, if either of us wakes up from a nightmare about what nearly happened to the other person, we'll have each other to hold on to until we go back to sleep.”

Something tight within him was eased by that thought. “Good point.”

They stayed that way, wrapped in each others' arms, for a while. And then Jasper kissed her.

Two days later the door to Olivia's office opened. She looked up from the stack of invoices spread out on her desk and watched a half dozen of her relatives march into the room. Bolivar was in the lead. Rose,
Zara, Percy, Quincy, and Barry trailed after him with obvious reluctance. No one smiled.

She sighed, put down her pen, and leaned back in her chair. “Is this about the Glow picnic? Because if it is, I promise you that it will be the best one yet. We're talking a live band, a new caterer, and fireworks.”

Rose stepped forward. “This is not about the picnic. We're here to ask you if the rumors are true.”

“Would those be the rumors concerning my secret dinosaur-cloning experiments or the ones regarding my decision to go into the astronaut training program?”

Bolivar planted his hands on the desk. “This is not a joke, cuz. Todd says you and Jasper Sloan are going to announce your engagement at the Glow annual picnic. True or false?”

“True.”

Zara gave a small shriek. “Oh, my God, you're doing it for the sake of the family, aren't you? You're planning to sacrifice yourself to protect Glow. How incredibly noble of you, dear. I understand perfectly, of course. It's just the sort of thing Sybil would have done on
Crystal Cove.”

Quincy stirred uneasily. He exchanged a glance with Percy and straightened his shoulders.

“We're here to tell you that you don't have to do it, Olivia.” He paused hopefully. “Unless you really want to, that is.”

Bolivar threw him a glare and then switched his attention back to Olivia. “What Quincy means is, we don't want you to do it for us. Isn't that right, everyone?”

Percy cleared his throat and shuffled uncomfortably.
“Yeah. Right. You don't have to marry the guy unless you want to.”

Quincy brightened. “Right. But, like, if you love Sloan, or think he's really good in bed or something, it's fine by us.”

“We wouldn't want to stand in the way of true love, of course,” Zara said smoothly.

“Yeah, right,” Barry added on a rising note of optimism. “Nothing like true love.”

Bolivar quelled them all with another glowering look. “But we definitely do not want Olivia to marry Sloan for our sakes. Right, everyone?”

“Uh-huh,” Quincy muttered.

“We don't want you to feel pressured,” Bolivar elaborated firmly.

“Yeah, sure.” Percy grimaced. “Right. No pressure.”

Rose coughed slightly. “We certainly don't want you to endure another unhappy marriage. However, I would like to point out that there's something to be said for a relationship based on mutual interests, and there's nothing like sharing ownership of a large company such as Glow to provide a strong bond of mutual—”

“You do seem rather attracted to him, dear.” Zara beamed at her. “And if that's the case, of course, then you must follow your heart.”

“Thank you.” Olivia gave everyone in the small group a benign smile. “I appreciate your concern for my happiness.”

“On the other hand,” Percy said quickly, “a sense of family responsibility is a wonderful thing.”

“Sure is,” Quincy added. “Uncle Rollie would have been real proud of you.”

Olivia smiled blandly. “I can't tell you what it means to me to have the full support of my family in this matter.”

“Hey, that's what family's for,” Quincy assured her.

Olivia got to her feet and narrowed her eyes. “Let's get something clear here. I am not going to marry Jasper Sloan for the sake of my beloved family. Nor am I marrying him because Uncle Rollie would have wanted me to do it. I am not marrying him to protect Glow, Inc.”

The crowd in front of the desk stared at her, fascinated.

Rose blinked. “But you do intend to marry him?”

“Yes, I do.”

Barry looked at her blankly. “How come?”

“Good question.” Jasper materialized in the doorway. He regarded Olivia across the heads of the gathered Chantrys. “Why are you going to marry him?”

An acute silence fell. Like a small school of fish, the members of the Chantry delegation turned to stare at Jasper. Then, without a word, they all swiveled back to Olivia.

She smiled at Jasper. “I'm going to marry him because I love him.”

The jaws of the various and assorted Chantrys standing in front of her dropped simultaneously as if on cue.

Jasper ignored them. He did not take his gaze off Olivia. The unfathomable expression in his eyes vanished. A steady heat burned there.

“Nice to hear that,” he said. “Because I'm marrying you for a very similar reason. I love you.”