Chapter 7

"Candy? Candy can you hear me?"

Drew's young blonde wife began to writhe as if in a nightmare as the tall, distinguished man began to shake gently on her shoulder, trying to wake her. The pianist's bride tried to pull away from his hand, mumbling words of protest and fear. Then suddenly her eyes flew open, a look of anxiety in the depths of them, and she sat up, drawing the cover to hide her naked breasts.

"No ... no ... stay away from me," she cried, still half-groggy from her heavy sleep, trying to focus her eyes wildly.

"It's all right, Candy. You don't have to worry. You're safe now."

Gradually Drew's wife began to think clearly, and glancing around she realized she was on the huge circular bed of Haver's suite. Sun was filtering through the windows. How long had she been asleep? Suddenly she remembered what had taken place the evening before; her nakedly abused body ached all over and there was a searing pain up between her thighs. Then, as her vision clearly focused, she saw who had awakened her. A handsome man with black hair streaked with silver at the crown and temples. Walter Haver!

"Oh ... Mr. Haver," she gasped, not knowing whether to laugh or cry or run away. In the next moment she burst into tears and buried her face in the pillow, ashamed of what had happened to her and frightened of the legendary man in the room with her.

"Go ahead and cry, Candy," Haver said gently. Then he turned to another man by the door. "Bill, get some coffee, will you? There's a fresh pot in the other room. And maybe put a little brandy in it." The friendly, sandy-haired bartender glanced with concern at the weeping blonde girl, then went into the other room. "It's all right now, nobody's going to hurt you," Haver said softly to her as she wept. "Go ahead and let it out."

Moments later Bill returned with a steaming cup of coffee.

"Here, Candy, drink this," the bartender said.

Hearing his voice, Candy stopped crying and slowly sat up, brushing strands of her platinum blonde hair from her eyes.

"Thanks," she said in a quiet voice, accepting the cup. She drank slowly, and as she did her consciousness seemed to return. Finally she sat up fully in the bed, drawing up her knees to protect her nakedness, and glanced at Bill and Haver who stood nearby.

"Candy, you don't have to talk now if you don't want to," the distinguished club owner said. "I know what happened; Bill explained it all to me, and a few other things besides. I'm sorry you had to go through what you did; believe me if I'd have known about what Grady was doing, you wouldn't have had this problem."

"Then ... then you know ... everything?" Drew's wife inquired.

"Candy," the bartender said, "I've been doing a little investigating around the club. I knew there was something wrong between you and Drew and Lou, and I asked Adele and a couple of the other girls and they filled me in."

"It's a terrible story, Candy," Haver offered, "but I want you to know that you're out of danger now. Lou Grady and his boys won't hurt you ever again."

"Oh, I'm so glad to hear you say that," the young blonde said with relief. "I ... I had to do what I did because Grady threatened ... he threatened...."

"He threatened to break Drew's hands, I know," the club owner remarked. "He's a cheap hoodlum. Frankly, I don't know why I was so blind to what he was doing before this, but I guess it's my fault for not keeping closer tabs on this place. Maybe I've got more interests than I can really handle. Anyway, you can thank Bill for helping you out. If he hadn't come to me, I wouldn't be here now."

"Thanks Bill ... thanks a million."

"Oh, it's nothin'." The sandy haired bartender smiled sheepishly. "That guy just made my blood boil."

"I ... I should go home and tell Drew," Candy offered, starting to rise from the bed.

Haver and the bartender exchanged quick looks.

"Candy," the club owner said, pushing her gently back, "I think you should wait here a little before you get up. You still need your rest. And there's a few more things I have to tell you."

As Candy tried to get up she felt a throbbing ache in the back of her head, and she didn't resist Haver's suggestion to stay in bed for awhile.

"Maybe you're right. I feel a little dizzy ... and my head aches."

"Probably from that goddamn stuff in the drinks," Bill said contemptuously. "Christ that stuff's enough to get a stone elephant horny."

"You mean ... the drinks were drugged?" the young blonde asked incredulously."

"I'll say," the bartender remarked sarcastically. "And you got a double dose."

"I hate him ... I hate that man," Candy hissed, thinking of Grady.

"You're not the only one," Haver said. "But I've seen to it that he's been taken care of."

"Hey boss, I've got to get downstairs. Okay if I check out?"

"Sure, Bill, go ahead. And thanks for the help."

"No trouble. You'll take care of Candy?"

"I will. I'll see you later."

"Right." With a friendly wink, the genial man left the room, closing the door behind him."

Haver and Candy glanced at each other. It was the first time they had been alone together, and once more there seemed to be an electric current that passed between them as their eyes met. Then Haver turned away and walked to the window. Standing with his back to the young blonde wife, he began to speak.

"You know, Candy, when I found out what Grady had been doing here, I felt like a damned fool. I never wanted to hire him in the first place. Unfortunately, as you know, the Star Club has some ... well, shall we say questionable activities ... activities that sometimes require consorting with a shadier element of society. When I was a younger man, I had hoped to do everything properly. Oh, I was very moral, you know. I knew what was right and wrong, and I was determined to be successful without doing anything ... anything immoral or shall we say ... shady. But I soon found out that there is no such thing as success without a little dirty business. I think you would be surprised to find out how much dirty business goes on even in the most sacred of our institutions here in America.

"So I thought to myself, well, then I'll have to play along with the game, won't I? But at least I can stay as far enough away from the dirty business as I can. You know the Star Club exists primarily for the Annex and my private parties. Without it I wouldn't have any place to entertain my important clients. Chicago is an important city for me, and I've always been able to make many business friends here by having a place for them to let off a little steam. So there's gambling, and girls. The best of everything. They stay happy, and my profits soar.

But naturally I preferred staying in cleaner waters, myself, and so I let Lou Grady run the place for me. A poor judgment on my part, I think. But useful in that it points out a flaw in my way of working. You can be sure it won't happen again.

"I'm just sorry that you became his victim. It reflects badly on me, and I hate that most of all. I don't want you to think badly of me. It's strange, I know, for me to be saying this. We hardly know each other. But somehow ... from the first moment I knew there was something special about you. You know, I'm not an emotional man, but when I found out what Grady was doing to you ... I exploded. Frankly, I was surprised by that reaction. As I say, I am not easily given to emotional states or feelings like that. Well, in any case, I just want you to know that I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry. Honestly, Mr. Haver...."

"Please ... call me Walt."

"Walt." Candy smiled at him warmly, grateful for his humanity and his concern. "Walt, maybe we've both learned something out of all this. Anyway I'm grateful to you for what you've done, really. And ... when Drew finds out I'm sure he'll be grateful too."

Haver turned to look at her directly, then, his brow furrowing with concern; he began to pace around the large room.

"Candy, there's something I have to tell you about Drew. He does know what's happened. I told him about it earlier today."

"You've seen him? At the hotel?"

"No. I called him here. Actually I wanted to find out what he knew about Grady. And also ... I wanted to find out how much he was responsible for what happened to you. Frankly, I wanted to see if he had encouraged Grady into using you to get himself out of the jam he was in."

"You ... you what?" For the first time Candy felt herself growing angry with the wealthy man. "Walt, you don't have to worry about Drew. He loves me, I know it."

The tall man looked pensive for a moment, then took out a gold cigarette case, withdrew a cigarette and lit it, replacing the case in his jacket pocket, "Candy ... I had to find that out for myself. So I tested him."

"You ... you tested him? How?"

"I gave him an offer. I told him that if he wanted, he could stay here with you and keep playing at the Star Club at a raise, or he could have the contract with Arcade Records, providing he went immediately to New York, leaving you with me."

Candy stared at the tall man with anxious eyes.

"What ... what did he choose?"

"He's halfway to New York right now."

For a moment the betrayed young wife couldn't believe her ears. Then suddenly the reality of what her young husband had done, and what he was, hit her with the force of an exploding bomb. Tears suddenly poured out of her sea-green eyes.

"No ... no ... no!" she cried. "How could he do it ... how could he do that to me? Oh, Goddamn him! Goddamn him!"

"I'm sorry Candy ... but at least you know now."

"Yes ... at least I know. I might have gone on for years giving everything I had for the sake of his career ... for his talent." . "Nobody could play "Harbor Lights" like he did."

"Yes ... well ... it's done now. Finished. I ... I think I'd better go."

"As you wish, Candy."

The shattered young blonde rose wearily from the bed and wrapped the sheet around her aching body, on her way to the bathroom. She started to move past Haver when all of a sudden tears once more came pouring from her eyes. With a moan of unhappiness she began to sway, dropping the sheet from around her whitely sculpted body. Haver reached out to support her and she fell into his arms, burying her head on his chest and weeping uncontrollably.

"There, there," Haver said, stroking her hair, "it's going to be all right."

"What am I going to do?" she sobbed. "I have no place to go ... no one to turn to."

"No, Candy, that's not true." The tall, muscular millionaire lifted her chin so that he could look in her sparkling, tear-dimmed eyes. "You have me. You can stay here with me."

The young blonde couldn't believe her ears. It was like a dream, to have Walter Haver saying that to her.

"I ... I couldn't...."

"Yes you could. You can ... and you will. At least I hope you will. Candy, I'm a lonely man. I ... I need somebody to take the edge off my loneliness when I'm in Chicago-somebody like you. Maybe this is the wrong time to ask ... but ... well, for what it's worth I'm asking you to stay here with me ... for as long as you want. I ... can't ask you to be my wife; I have one on the West Coast. But ... will you be my woman?"

Candy looked away from his deep brown eyes for a moment. The sun was pouring radiant beams through the windows, filling the elegant bedroom with brilliant fight. For a moment she gazed as if hypnotized into the sunlight, then turned back to the handsome man. Why not, she thought. Why not? "Yes ... oh, yes Walt ... I will."

"Oh Carlos, thank you for picking me up," Candy said as she came out of the beauty salon and the dark-skinned chauffeur opened the rear door of the Chrysler Imperial for her. "Take me to the suite. I should have been back hours ago."

"At your service," the handsome Latin bodyguard grinned.

Soon they were driving through the busy streets of Chicago, the air-conditioned car protecting them from the summer heat. Candy still found it hard to believe that her life had changed so suddenly. After the darkest hour of her life, everything had become wonderful again, absolutely wonderful. She had been living with Walter Haver for a month now, the most fantastic month of her life. He had showered her with clothes, jewels, anything she wanted, and gave her incredible nights of lovemaking. She still found it all hard to believed.

At that moment an image of her husband, Drew, flashed into her mind. It was as if she could see him playing, not at the Star Club, but before that, at Luci's Hideaway, when he just sat at an old upright, playing the songs the customers called for. Those had been happy times, the only happy time of their marriage. A touch of success had changed Drew totally, so much so that he had been willing to sacrifice his wife for his career. She knew that he had cut a record for Arcade in New York, and the rumor was that he was going to be a hot property very soon, nationally known. He had already appeared on a couple of talk shows and the response was good.

Well, let him go his own way, she thought to herself. The divorce is underway now, thanks to Walt. Soon Drew will be another memory, a rather unpleasant memory at that.

Carlos let her out at the entrance to the Star Club, and, walking inside, she saw Bill sitting at a table and she decided to join him.

"Hello, Candy," he smiled as she sat across from him.

"Hi. How's everything going?"

"Great. I never thought Haver would make me the boss. That's fate, I guess. Anyway, I'm enjoying the work. Haver seems satisfied too."

"Oh, Walt loves how you're handling the job. Bill, it's wonderful the way everything has worked out, isn't it? We all seem to have gotten what we really wanted."

"Guess so. Life is funny sometimes, isn't it?"

"Yes. Funny and wonderful."

"Want a drink?"

"No ... I've got to go upstairs and change. Walt should be coming back soon and I want to be ready for him."

"See you later then."

"Fine."

Moments later she waited for the small, private elevator to take her up to the suite, the suite she'd come to love, the place she'd learned to call home. Inserting the key into the door she thought she heard music.

Oh, no, he's home already. And I wasn't there to meet him.

She stepped into the softly lighted living room and looked around for him.

"Walt! Walt? I'm home." Hearing the shower, she decided to fix them both a drink while he was in the bathroom. She iced the glasses while she made martinis and then took them into the bedroom.

She put the glasses and the shaker into the ice bucket by the bed and then smiled at an inspiration that came to her. She quickly went into the other bathroom, her private bathroom, and turned on the shower. Moments later she felt the sting of the warm water falling sensuously over her body, and she hummed happily as she washed herself with a thick washcloth.

The happy young blonde thought briefly of Grady and of Schlessinger and the humiliation she had suffered at their hands. That was all a thing of the past now, she knew, yet she still shuddered slightly remembering the red-haired, pudgy agent, the eccentric businessman, and then that obscene orgy Lou had blackmailed her into.

Candy, you were one lucky girl to have Walter Haver walk into your life.

A few minutes later she stepped out of the bath, dried herself with a thick towel, brushed her platinum hair into place, dusted and powdered the milk-whiteness of her firm young body. Finally, after touching up her makeup, she slipped into a black lace negligee that gave revealing glimpses of her curvaceous body beneath the clinging folds. Then, satisfied that she looked just right she went back into the bedroom.

She was disappointed to find that Walt wasn't yet out of the bathroom, but she could hear the clinking of bottles of cologne and aftershave, so she knew he must be preparing for exactly the same thing she was. Smiling happily to herself, she moved the ice bucket closer to the bed and poured herself a martini. She knew that he'd be out any minute, so she hurriedly jumped under the covers, then, jumped out again to lower the lighting until it was soft and romantic. She had barely climbed once again under the silken sheets when she heard the bathroom door open. Smiling slyly, she turned and held the glass out to him.

"Good evening darling," she whispered.

Candy smiled to herself, knowing the happiness Walt would bring her tonight ... and always.