Heller (22 page)

Hayek nodded,
pushing Lily away so that he could see her face. She hung her head.
“I was in meetings all day. What have you been doing, Lily?”

Heller refused
to cover for her. “We don’t know. I’m sure she can explain that to
you herself later. Fortunately for her though, Ms Chalmers happened
to spot her walking around the city by herself. She rang me for
advice and we agreed that I would join her and we would bring Mrs
Hayek back to her hotel room. Ms Chalmers continued to follow your
wife discreetly.”

Mr Hayek now
pushed Lily right away and went to sit down on the sofa. I joined
him by sitting on a nearby armchair without being invited, unsure
that I could keep standing on my wobbly legs. I leaned against the
back of the chair, faint with pain.

“Unfortunately, Mrs Hayek wandered into a very disreputable part of
town and was attacked by a group of men. They roughed her up,
tearing her clothes and robbing her of her valuables. Ms Chalmers
ran to her rescue and was quite injured during the ensuing scuffle.
I’m not sure what would have happened then, but happily my men and
I turned up and were able to scare away the attackers.”

Mr Hayek’s
eyes flew to me and he took in my paler-than-normal, pinched
appearance, emerging bruising, red-rimmed eyes and the blood on my
arm. He then silently absorbed Heller’s cuts and bruises as well. I
noticed that he avoided looking at Lily.

“Your wife is
very lucky that she was only mugged and that nothing worse happened
to her today. The outcome could have been much more serious, I’m
sure you’d agree,” Heller finished reprovingly. My Hayek stood up
and shook Heller’s hand, thanking him gratefully, and then did the
same to me, apologising for his wife’s deceit. He wasn’t the type
of man who appreciated being told how to manage his own wife, but
accepted Heller’s brutal honesty and directness without
complaint.

“Now that your
wife has been delivered back safely to you, I must see that Ms
Chalmers gets some medical attention. So if you will excuse us?” We
took our leave, Mr Hayek’s voice raised in anger before we even
closed the door. I tried to find some scrap of pity for Lily inside
myself, but there was nothing.

Back in his
vehicle, I slumped against the door in the front seat as we drove
back to the Warehouse. Heller rang Daniel to have Dr Kincaid on
hand for our arrival. He glanced over at me a few times during the
ride, but I didn’t engage with him. I wasn’t ready to talk about
what had happened today. There was a lot to think about, and I
wasn’t sure how I felt about anything at that moment. And in any
case, the pain was overwhelming all my thought processes.

In my flat I
had to have my wound restitched, the doctor tutting at me for my
carelessness in letting the stitches split, warning me about
scarring. I bore his rebuke silently. Daniel sat with me, averting
his eyes again. Heller stood at a distance, arms folded across his
chest, watching, his face expressionless. The doctor made me
undress down to my underwear so he could examine my other wounds
and I didn’t even care that the other two men were in the room.

He told me
that I had strong bruising developing already on my back and legs
where that thug had kicked me and on my jaw where Bourbon-Breath
had punched me. After much poking and prodding he finally
pronounced that I would live, but with my current level of pain
that seemed a highly unfavourable prognosis to me. He ensured I had
enough painkillers to get through the next few days and left.

I chased
everyone else from my flat, made some toast and warmed up some
frozen leftover soup. I took a long, hot shower, struggling with
only one operational arm again, but managed to cope and felt much
better afterwards. I ruefully viewed another ruined outfit lying
crushed on the bathroom floor.
I’ll deal with that tomorrow
,
I thought wearily, kicking it into the corner. I brushed my teeth,
popped another two painkillers, grabbed my phone and hopped into
bed. I rang Dixie and we talked for an hour. She had almost
recovered her equanimity with the assistance of a couple of glasses
of cheap red wine.

“I nearly peed
myself when Heller broke that dude’s arm!” she confided. “You’ve
got to get out of there, Tilly. It’s not safe to be around him.
He’s terrifying!”

“I’m not
scared of him,” I said, and then backtracked. “No, I mean that I am
scared of him in general, but I’m not afraid he’s going to hurt me.
I don’t personally feel threatened by him. In some ways it’s kind
of nice to know that there’s someone who is willing to come along
and kick butt for me.”

“Tilly!” she
protested. “He didn’t kick someone’s butt! He smashed that guy’s
head into a wall until his nose broke and then broke his arm. It’s
not the same thing. And God only knows what he did to that man in
the bar.”

“Hey, are you
feeling sorry for those thugs? They were going to rape Lily! That
jerk punched me and kicked me
four times
! That other guy
punched me in the jaw twice and he groped me everywhere. I’m in
agony here because of him. Heller saved my life. God only knows
what that man was going to do to me.”

“But your life
was only in danger because you work for him. He owes it to you to
save your life,” Dixie argued.

“Dixie, what
do you think either of those men would have done to him? They would
have killed him. What was he supposed to do?”

“I guess,” she
admitted, reluctantly. “But you’re starting to go hard, Tilly. You
better be careful. Men don’t like hard babes.”

I sighed. “I’m
not going hard. I’m just really glad that Heller was there today,
that’s all.”

“Yeah, me too,
I guess. After you sprayed us all we weren’t much use to
anybody.”

“I
said
I’m sorry.”

“We made a
pretty good team though, didn’t we?”

I smiled, in
painkiller nirvana. “We sure did.”

“Do you think
Heller has another vacancy coming up? I think I might be good at
that kind of work.”

I laughed. “I
thought you just told me I should get away from him?”

“Well, you
don’t want to look like a pussy either.”

I laughed
again wearily. “Okay Dixie. These painkillers are starting to knock
me out. You enjoy dreaming about Heller tonight.”

She laughed.
“You too.”

I hung up the
phone and fell asleep immediately.

It was night,
or more accurately, early morning when I woke up. My bedside
clock’s red digits read 2:23 AM. I rolled over, my body screaming
in pain. Unbearably stiff, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back to
sleep for a while.
Hot tub
, I thought. That might relax my
stiff muscles and make me sleepy. I fumbled around for some
swimwear, discarding my bikini as impossible to put on with one arm
and settled instead for a pair of boardies and a t-shirt. I
contorted myself into them, grabbed a towel and, after some rough
calculations regarding my painkillers, also grabbed half a bottle
of pinot grigio from the fridge.

I climbed the
stairs to the roof-top slowly and carefully, not wanting to wake
anyone, but also because it was incredibly painful to move. There
was bright moonlight that night and I padded over to the
kitchenette to find a wine glass, bringing the bottle with me to
perch on the edge. Once I was in, I didn’t want to get out to pour
myself another glass. But as I approached the hot tub, I noticed a
shadow already sitting in it. I recognised the silhouette.
Oh
shit!
It was the very last person on earth I wanted to talk to
right then. I froze, wanting to turn around and go back to bed,
unsure if I’d been seen. I hadn’t exactly been silent. I
half-turned.

“Don’t go,
Matilda,” Heller said quietly. “We need to talk.”

“Are you
decent?” I demanded, hoping that he would say no so I would have an
excuse to leave.

He laughed
softly. “Is that a philosophical question? If so, the answer is
definitely no. If however, you’re asking me if I am clothed, then
the answer is yes. I’m practicing for you being around now.”

I debated in
my mind the advisability of getting into the hot tub with him, but
in the end my screaming muscles won out. I carefully placed the
wine bottle and my glass on its wide edge, and gingerly lifted my
legs over the rim. I eased down into the warm, steaming water,
being careful to keep my injured arm out, and gave an enormous
groan of mixed pain and pleasure. I poured a large glass of wine
and drank half of it in one gulp.

“You shouldn’t
be drinking while you’re taking those painkillers,” he scolded
gently.

“I know, but
it’s been long enough since I took them to be okay.” I think.

“Would you
like the jets on?”

“Yes, please.”
He pushed the button and my body was assailed by powerful bursts of
water. It was agonisingly blissful. I rested my head back on the
edge and closed my eyes. The wine was already starting to take
effect and I could feel my muscles relaxing.

“You have to
go back to Mrs Hayek tomorrow,” he ordered casually, completely
ruining my mellow.

“No way!”

“Mr Hayek rang
me late this afternoon and said he was still occupied with
business, and that his wife refused to have any other chaperone
except you.”

“I don’t
care.”

“It will be
pure babysitting. I will ask Daniel to book you both into a show
and restaurant and you will take her to the gallery and maybe some
more shopping. Mr Hayek advised that he would like his servant to
accompany you both at all times.”

I opened one
eye and smiled. “Really? How interesting. Lily won’t like
that.”

“There won’t
be any more problems with Mrs Hayek. He told me how much they were
both looking forward to returning to Jordan to start their
family.”

“Poor
Lily.”

“There are
worse fates for a woman than being a wife and mother.”

“That’s your
opinion. As a man.”

“She lives a
privileged life.”

“She’s under
his control.”

I relaxed my
head back again and enjoyed the pummelling from the jets.

“Both of my
men with me today have fallen in love with you,” he said, his smile
shadowed in his voice.

I kept my eyes
closed, refusing to rise to his bait. “Stop teasing. I didn’t even
speak to one of them and I threw up all over the other one.”

“Clive told me
that they couldn’t stop talking about you this afternoon. They were
telling all the other men about what you’d done. You made a real
impression.”

“A woman
usually does when she’s covered in vomit, blood and snot,” I said
dryly.

“They’re
calling you The Capsicum Kid.” I tried to kick him under the water.
He captured my foot, rested it on his lap and started to massage
it. I made a feeble attempt to pull it away but he kept a tight
hold. I gave up and let him rub it. In fact, it felt so nice that I
plonked my other foot in his lap too, as a huge hint.

“Thank you for
turning up when you did today, Heller. That man in the bar, he was
strangling me. I couldn’t breathe. I’ve never been so afraid in my
life. He said I had ruined his party, but that I could be his next
playmate. He would have raped me if you hadn’t turned up. He
touched me . . .” I took a deep, shuddery breath. “Oh God! He
touched me everywhere. It was just awful.” I fought my emotions for
a minute on remembering, blinking away the tears.

In the
moonlight, his face turned stony with anger. “He got what he
deserved, but I should have been there earlier. Then you and Dixie
wouldn’t have been involved.”

“Lily was in
my charge. I felt responsible for her.”

“You’re in my
charge. I feel responsible for you.”

“I’m not in
your charge, I’m your employee. There’s a big difference. Oh, and
by the way, I am
not
your woman.”

“Those types
of animals only understand women as possessions. Just as the only
language they understand is violence. I hoped he would respect
ownership and not escalate matters more. But no, he had no respect
at all for the fact that you’re my woman.”

“I’m
not
your woman!”

“I know, but
he didn’t.” He swapped feet. I was beginning to feel so relaxed
that I was in danger of drowning. The jets stopped and he leaned
over to push the button again.

“What did Lily
say to you that made you slap her face?” I asked, yawning.

“Something
disgusting about you. She has a filthy mouth.”

“I know. I
haven’t heard so much swearing since my last family gathering,” I
joked tiredly.

He stopped
rubbing my feet. “Are you afraid of me, Matilda?”

My eyes sprang
open and I sat up, taking my feet off his lap. “Well, you’re
physically powerful and authoritative,” I said hesitantly, “and I
saw today that you’re pretty ruthless and willing to be violent
too. So yes, I’m afraid of you in that respect. But as I told Dixie
earlier, I’m not afraid of my own personal safety with you. I’m not
afraid to be alone with you. Like now.”

His voice was
quiet. “Thank you for saying that.” A brief silence. “I’m going to
move over and sit next to you. Okay?”

“I guess.” He
moved around to my side and sat close to me, slipping his arm
around my shoulders, drawing me into his chest. I didn’t bother
resisting because I didn’t want to and I leaned against him,
listening to the steady strong beat of his heart, my uninjured arm
resting across his bare chest. He slid his other arm around me as
well and I felt him kissing the top of my head gently.

“There’s
something about you that’s very soothing, Matilda. I feel calmer
when you’re around. I can’t work out why, but maybe it’s because
you’re the only person in this place without demons.”

“You have
demons?” I murmured into his chest, half-asleep.