Through the Night

by Janelle Denison

  He hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Okay, but if there’s anything at all that makes you feel uncomfortable once we get there, tell me and we’ll leave immediately.”

  “Fair enough.” She thought about their previous conversation, and how ungrateful she must have come across because of her own personal issues. “By the way, I want to apologize for snapping at you earlier. I want you to know that I do appreciate everything you did for me yesterday and last night.” She smiled and decided he deserved a big compliment. “You, Chase Pierson, are a really good guy.”

  “Shhh,” he said, as if she’d just exposed a big secret. “Don’t tell anyone, or else you’ll ruin my reputation as a heartless womanizer.” He winked at her.

  She laughed, knowing that was the farthest thing from the truth about Chase. The man might be ruthless when it came to business dealings, but the man obviously had a heart. But what scared her the most was the possibility of losing her heart, and to him.

  Chapter Eight

  Chase rented a car for the drive to Pleasanton so they wouldn’t have to rely on a taxi to shuttle them around. Valerie sat in the passenger seat of the luxury sedan, watching the passing scenery, the silence between them comfortable and natural and punctuated by an occasional comment about the area.

  She’d showered and changed into formfitting jeans and a casual blouse, and she left her hair down so it fell in soft, loose curls over her shoulders—just how he liked it best. Sitting on her lap was a pink bakery box filled with an assortment of freshly made cookies that she’d insisted they pick up for Stanley. She looked refreshed, rested, and a helluva lot better than she had after their trip to Alcatraz yesterday.

  Hell, that brazen kiss she’d laid on him earlier that morning proved she was feeling more than fine, while he still wasn’t sure what to make of her bold advance. All he cared about was that she’d kissed him of her own free will, no pressure or cornering from him, and he’d liked all that feminine confidence she’d exuded. A whole lot.

  It marked a huge change in her, one that promised all sorts of sensual surprises, and he was game for whatever she had in mind. He was dying to see her naked, to touch and taste her everywhere until she cried out his name and begged him for more. And he’d be more than happy to oblige, giving her body exactly what it wanted, what it needed.

  Fuck. The erotic, heady thought caused the blood in his brain to rush to his groin, and he shifted in his seat to ease the growing discomfort in his jeans just as the automated voice of the navigation system that came with the rental car instructed him to turn off the freeway in Pleasanton. Refocusing his attention, he followed the GPS directions to the Hidden Creek assisted-living retirement facility, which was more like an upscale apartment complex than an old folks’ home and parked the vehicle in the visitors’ lot. As the two of them walked toward the main lobby of the community center where they were scheduled to meet Stanley, the cell phone in his front pocket vibrated.

  He pulled out his BlackBerry as the device vibrated again, and checked the lighted display to see who was calling. Angie. Again.

  “Shit,” he muttered, beyond annoyed at her persistence when he had absolutely no interest in a conversation with her. Or at least, not the kind of discussion she wanted to have with him.

  “Something wrong?” Valerie asked, glancing his way and squinting against the glare of the early afternoon sun.

  He clenched his jaw in frustration as the phone buzzed again in his hand. “No, just a very insistent caller I can’t seem to get rid of.”

  Valerie adjusted the strap of her purse over her shoulder and switched the bakery box to her free hand. “Do you want to take the call and I’ll meet you inside?”

  “Nope. It’s not important.” To prove his point, he tucked his BlackBerry back into the front pocket of his jeans. “The message can go to voice mail.” Just as all Angie’s other calls had.

  Chase had ignored every attempt Angie made to contact him since they’d run into each other in the lobby two days ago, and she wasn’t taking the hint. She wanted to see him again on the sly, without Russ or Valerie, one last rendezvous for old times’ sake, she’d said. Every message and text she’d sent to him so far had been filled with sexual suggestions and provocative promises that most guys wouldn’t hesitate to jump on and take advantage of.

  But not only did Chase not trust Angie, he wasn’t the least bit interested in what she was offering either. And she certainly hadn’t been shy about describing, in explicit depth via those texts and voice messages, precisely what she wanted him to do to her.

  Problem was, the only woman Chase wanted to tie to his bed, fuck hard and deep, and make scream in pleasure was Valerie. Every creative scenario Angie came up with to entice him had him putting Valerie in the starring role instead, and those were thoughts he couldn’t get out of his head, especially when the simplest touch increased the sexual tension that was always simmering between them.

  They walked through the sliding glass doors into a warm, welcoming lobby and checked in with a young receptionist by the name of Jeremy, who’d been expecting them. After signing them into the visitors’ log, Jeremy led them through the recreation room filled with older residents who were relaxing and enjoying a broad range of activities, from arts and crafts to a knitting circle to tables set up for mah-jongg, Scrabble, and various card games.

  Jeremy brought them to a stop at a table with two men playing a game of checkers, just as one of the seniors let out a gleeful, “Gotcha again, old man!”

  The other man who’d lost glared at his partner and stood up. “You cheated.”

  “I don’t cheat,” the winner said in an affronted tone. “And no one likes a sniveler, Tom.”

  Chase exchanged an amused glance with Valerie and had to bite back a chuckle at the old guy’s feisty attitude.

  “Okay, you two, stop fussing or I’m going to put you both in a time out,” Jeremy said, breaking up the argument before placing a hand on the winner’s shoulder to address him. “Stanley, you have some visitors here to see you, and you need to behave.”

  “That’s not possible,” Tom said; then with an exaggerated huff, he grabbed his walker and hobbled away to join a nearby card game.

  “Spoilsport,” Stanley said, getting in the last word.

  Jeremy rolled his eyes and shook his head, making it clear to Chase that this kind of rivalry was a normal occurrence between the two men. Then he made the introductions. “Stan, this is Chase Pierson and Valerie Downing. They’d like to visit with you for a while, if that’s okay?”

  Stanley glanced from Chase to Valerie, his pale blue eyes lighting up with pleasure when he saw her. “Be still my aging heart,” he said, placing a hand on his chest. “Someone answered my prayers and sent me the angel I’ve been asking for. You, my dear, sit right here next to me and be my good luck charm.” He patted the vacant seat to his left.

  “Watch out for that one,” Jeremy said good-naturedly. “He’s a shameless flirt.”

  Valerie set the bakery box on the table and sat down next to Stanley, her gaze briefly meeting Chase’s. “Not to worry. That’s something I’m very familiar with.”

  “I might be ninety-four, but I’m not dead. And I’m not blind either. This one’s a beauty.” He smoothed a hand over his gray, balding head to tame the few unruly hairs he had left and flashed some impressively white dentures.

  Even at Stanley’s advanced age, he was still a nice-looking man, and Chase imagined that back in his early years he’d been quite the ladies’ man.

  Stanley redirected his gaze to Chase with more scrutiny. “Do I know you, or are you one of those volunteers who comes around to make us old folks feel good?”

  Feisty and direct, Chase thought. “You don’t know me personally. I was hoping we could talk about the time you spent on Alcatraz as an orderly.”

  “Sure.” The older man shrugged. “But only if you’ll play a game of checkers with me.”

  “I’d like that,” Chase said, and sat
across from Stanley and the checkerboard set up in the middle of the table.

  Stanley cleared the board from his previous game with Tom and began separating the black and red checker pieces. “I’m just warning you: I’m the undisputed checkers champion around here, and I want to be sure that you’re not going to be a sissy like Tom when you lose.”

  “I swear I’ll take the loss like a man.” Chase grinned at Stanley’s presumption of victory as he helped him set up the board for a new game, with Stanley claiming the red disks for his pawns.

  Stanley smiled at Valerie, then eyed the pink container on the table, his gaze curious. “What’s in the box?” he asked, trying not to act too eager.

  Valerie opened the lid and moved the box closer to Stanley for him to see the goodies inside. “I thought you might like some fresh baked cookies. There’s chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and snickerdoodle.”

  He helped himself to an oatmeal raisin cookie and savored the first bite. “Ahhh, these are almost as good as my Joanie made.”

  “Your wife?” Valerie guessed.

  “Yes. The one and only love of my life. She gave me the best sixty-five years of my life and six wonderful children.” He sighed, the soft sound filled with so much emotion and sentiment. “She passed away five years ago.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Valerie said compassionately.

  “No need to be.” Stanley’s tone was sincere, despite the melancholy in his gaze. “We had a good life together, and I’ll be with her someday soon.”

  Stanley finished his cookie, and Chase finished setting up the game. “You go first,” he told the other man.

  Stanley studied the board for a long moment, as if he hadn’t played checkers a hundred times before, then finally moved one of his red disks toward Chase’s side of the table. “So, what do you want to know about Alcatraz?”

  Without thinking, Chase slid a black checker forward one square. “I’m interested in Al Capone and the time he spent in the hospital ward. Do you remember much about his time there?”

  “I’m old, but I’m not senile. My mind is still sharp and alert.” Stanley frowned as if Chase had insulted him, and reached for another cookie while making another move on the board with his free hand. “I was Al’s nurse for a good amount of the time, and we even became good friends.”

  Valerie gently placed her hand on Stanley’s bare arm, and Chase knew her touch was a deliberate one. “Can you think about him in the infirmary?” she asked, giving the older man a sweet smile. “Maybe remember a conversation you had about a special ivory cane he had made for himself?”

  “A cane?” His brows furrowed as he mulled that over. “That’s pretty specific.”

  More interested in Stanley’s comments and his relationship to Capone than in the game they were playing, Chase absently moved another disk. “I know it’s a long shot that you’d remember anything regarding a cane—”

  “Now, wait a minute. You didn’t even give me a chance to think about it.” Click, click, click. Stanley jumped over three of Chase’s checkers and cleared them off the board, trying but failing to hide his smirk.

  Chase blinked in surprise. Even though he hadn’t been paying that much attention to the game, Chase was fairly certain that a triple jump hadn’t been possible. He glanced at Valerie, who was biting the corner of her lip, as if she was trying not to laugh.

  “I wrote a lot of journal entries about my time in Alcatraz, and even published some articles about what I learned from the inmates,” Stanley said as he finished off his second cookie. “Al and I talked about a lot of things, and something about a cane does ring a bell. But from what I recall, he was so delirious at the time that a lot of what he said didn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

  Valerie kept her palm on Stanley’s arm, which the older man didn’t seem to mind, since he was so smitten with her. “Can you think about that discussion you had with Capone?” she asked, directing his thoughts to get the vision she needed from him. “Is there anything at all you might be able to recall relating to a cane or walking stick?”

  Stanley stared off into the distance, seemingly immersing himself in the past. “He did ramble on a few times about an ivory cane top, and how valuable it was. Something about it leading to a rare, priceless treasure, and how he didn’t want anyone to find it because it was worth millions.”

  An adrenaline rush of excitement surged through Chase and kicked up the beat of his heart. “Anything else?” he asked anxiously.

  The old man cut his gaze back to Chase. “I’m thinking,” he said, his tone cantankerous. “Are you always so gosh darn impatient?”

  “He’s a little high-strung,” Valerie said, placating Stanley by gently patting his arm in a soothing gesture. “Take your time, Stanley.”

  Stanley beamed a smile at Valerie. “Thank you, my dear.”

  He did the deep-in-thought thing again, and this time Chase sat back in his chair and waited for Stanley to share any revelations that came to mind while Valerie attempted to read the man’s past memories. The older man’s face was a study in concentration, but out of the corner of Chase’s eye he saw Stanley’s hand slowly slide forward on the table and nudge one of his own checkers forward on the board, then another, when it wasn’t even his turn.

  Chase opened his mouth to say something, and Valerie gave her head a quick shake, stopping him. She was also trying very hard not to laugh, and then it hit him. Jesus, the wily old man really did cheat. Chase didn’t say a word as he made his next play as if Stanley hadn’t just tried to dupe him.

  Stanley scratched at the slight stubble on his cheek and finally looked back at Chase. “From what I can remember, when Al mentioned the cane, he also went on about a piece of it that belonged to a secretary in Florida, and he wanted me to go and get it for him because he was afraid someone else would find it.” He tipped his head, frowning thoughtfully. “Or maybe he said it’s with my secretary or something similar to that.”

  Valerie gasped softly, her eyes widening as her fingers flexed on Stanley’s arm. “It’s in my secretary,” she said on a rush of breath.

  “Yeah, that was it!” Stanley snapped his fingers and stared at Valerie in awe. “I remember thinking at the time that Al didn’t know what the heck he was talking about, because whatever this valuable piece was, it couldn’t possibly be inside his secretary. Unless the person swallowed it.”

  Stanley chuckled at his own joke and made another on-the-sly play that put a few more of Chase’s checkers in jeopardy. “The man was a little cuckoo towards the end, and it was hard to make any sense of his blathering.”

  This time, knowing what the old man was up to, Chase moved one of his checkers to give Stanley an even better advantage to win.

  All the talk of Capone’s secretary didn’t make much sense to Chase. In all his Internet research on the gangster, he’d never come across any information on Capone having a personal secretary. He had bodyguards and many disposable thugs who executed all his dirty work for him, and even a few close advisers and a consigliere, but no one he specifically referred to as his secretary. So while the information Stanley had given them wasn’t anything concrete, it was more than Chase had before walking into the retirement home.

  He was also hoping that Valerie had picked up on a lot more than just that one line of vague dialogue between Capone and Stanley. If not, then they were back to square one, and that wasn’t a place he wanted to be.

  “Ha! Look at this,” Stanley said gleefully as he jumped over another three of Chase’s checkers, making it all the way across the board to the last row. “King me!”

  Grinning, Chase crowned Stanley’s checker piece, resigned to the fact that he really was going to lose. They spent another forty minutes with Stanley, who regaled them with interesting tales of Alcatraz, the eccentricities of the inmates who’d been imprisoned at the Rock, and his experiences there as an orderly. He shared other stories about Capone, but nothing else pertaining to the cane.

  After Stanley had w
on two games of checkers, Jeremy came back up to their table and announced that it was time for Stanley’s medication, and Chase decided that it was a good time for them to leave. He thanked Stanley for talking to them, and Valerie even gave the older man a hug good-bye.

  “What a sweet guy,” Valerie said as they walked back toward the visitors’ lot.

  “Sweet?” Chase injected an incredulous note into his voice. “Maybe to you he was all charm, but he was a little on the crusty side with me. And his buddy Tom was right: He does cheat at checkers.”

  She laughed, the sound light and melodious, telling Chase she’d had a good time with Stanley—and there were no negative lingering effects after using her psychic gift on the older man. “I’ll admit he was a bit of a rascal, but he really did seem to enjoy talking to us about his time at Alcatraz.”

  Chase waited until they were in the car and back on the road to San Francisco before he broached the subject of the cane. “So what do you make of Stanley’s recollections?” he asked. “Did you get any good impressions?”

  “The visions I saw were definitely interesting,” she said, glancing at him. “When Stanley started focusing on the past and the conversation he had with Capone about the cane, I heard what Capone actually said and saw their interaction.”

  Chase’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel in anticipation. “And?”

  A smile tugged up the corners of her lips. “You really are impatient, aren’t you?”

  “So sue me,” he said, and laughed. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for a break like this. I’m finally getting some kind of lead to the other cane pieces, and that’s huge. So tell me what you know already, and please give me something valuable that doesn’t lead to a dead end.”

  “I’ll certainly try.” She turned in her seat toward him as much as her seat belt would allow. “I saw Stanley with Capone in the infirmary, and Capone was in a manic state and was carrying on about the staff part of his cane, and how he wanted Stanley to get it for him because he didn’t want anyone else to find it.”