Heller’s Decision (16 page)

The space between the back of the booths
was claustrophobic and they loomed over
me, intimidating in their height and size. I hated
feeling so immotile and, to be honest, more than a little
afraid.

The other man said, “Listen up, girl. We
have a message for your friends. Tell them to back the fuck off.
Maybe they might even like to consider not turning up here
tomorrow.” Somehow I suspected that was more of an order than a
suggestion. “For their own protection, naturally. Got
it?”

I glared at one, then the other with
forced bravado. “Go fuck yourselves,” I mumbled indistinctly
through the man’s hand. “They’re not going anywhere till this
expo’s over.”

“
Ooh, she has big, pretty eyes and a dirty
mouth. I love the feisty ones. They’re more fun to break in,”
laughed the first lunk.

“
What do you reckon?” asked the second
lunk, contemplating me. “We could take this one with us. She’s
pretty hot. Look at the tits on her.” He cupped one of my breasts,
jiggling it and pinching my nipple. “That’s quality flesh there.
And all real by the feel of it. Lots of guys like these meaty
ones.” I almost gagged with repulsion and fear. I kicked out at
him, connecting sharply with his shin. He slapped me hard across
the face. “Behave yourself, bitch.” He resumed his conversation
with his colleague. “It wouldn’t take too much effort to bundle her
out of here. One jab of the good stuff would keep her quiet. I
think she’d be worth something to someone. She’s not too old. There
are still a few good years in her.”

“
Always people out there ready for new
fodder. I don’t imagine for a second she’s pristine, not at her age
and with tits like that, but fodder with experience can be useful
to us too.”

“It would send a strong message to those
do-gooders not to fuck with us again.”

“Not to mention give us a bit of fun
tonight.”

“Par-tay time!”

“
You bring the booze. I already have the
entertainment.” They shared another dirty laugh
together.

“
Hey
, you guys in there!” a nervous voice called from the
entrance to the aisle. “Leave her alone!”

They turned, puzzled by the silhouette of
a giant penis lumbering towards them. Still restrained, I took the
opportunity of their distraction to kick out at the second man,
giving it everything I had and catching him squarely in the nuts.
It forced him backwards into the rear of one of the booths, its
canvas material straining under the impact. From the sound of it,
he’d upset a display of something fragile inside the booth. Angry
voices rose immediately and it wouldn’t be long before someone came
out the back here to investigate. The suits soon realised that
wonderful fact too and released me, scramming in haste. The first
man pushed me violently towards Benjy as he left and I stumbled,
unable to right myself. I knocked Benjy over, both of us falling in
a tumble to the concrete floor.

We sorted through our
tangle
d limbs and I
sprang up to chase the men. Though what I would do with them if I
caught up, I hadn’t quite thought through. Benjy followed me
gamely, but slowly, in his ridiculous outfit, becoming trapped on
all the wires and power cords strung between the booths. I found
the going difficult as well, but so did the big men and I slowly
gained on them. The aisle narrowed the further we went, and I
started to realise that we were all heading for a dead end. They
must have also seen that, but still they blundered
forward.

Momentarily t
hrilled that they considered me threatening enough
to flee in blind panic, it didn’t take much longer to work out it
wasn’t me they were afraid of and running from, but the two men
clamouring after me – Farrell and Bick. The
Heller’s
men unceremoniously pushed Benjy and me to one
side in their chase. Panicked, and almost at the point of becoming
trapped, the PRON men pushed through a flap at the rear of one of
the booths, terrifying the sexual behaviour therapist and her
client inside, and bolting out the front flap. Farrell and Bick
lost them in the crowd, left coping with the resultant anger,
clean-up, and apologies, the PRON men having made their
escape.

Benjy and I dusted ourselves off,
trying not to mind that we’d
been cast aside like unhelpful obstructions. I assisted Benjy to
make his awkward way to the entrance, his costume quite an obstacle
in navigating the narrow space. We stumbled out into the main
corridor again, dishevelled and wild-eyed, blinking in the light,
to the amusement of passers-by. They probably thought we’d been
getting it off in one of the few private space available in the
whole centre.

“
Thank you, Benjy. You saved me from those
brutes,” I gushed, hugging him. Well, hugging his costume really,
which was a disagreeably odd sensation and not something I’d want a
photo of for my parents to display on their mantelpiece.

“
Really? Did I really?” he asked, his
self-esteem rising faster than a thermometer in a sauna.

“
Y
ou were so brave to challenge them,” I said with genuine
admiration.

“
I saw them dragging you into that alley
and nobody else noticed. Your own team didn’t even notice. They
just kept on walking. I even heard you screaming. I knew I had to
be a man.”

He swallowed hard with emotion.
It was at that point I
understood just how freaked out he’d been by the whole experience
and how much of an effort he’d made to be so brave. He was just a
young hopeful dancer in a ridiculous penis costume, not some kind
of fighting machine like Heller. I spared him another quick hug and
took off at a trot back to the HUMP Productions booth, my pulse
still dancing a salsa.

Heller was insid
e the booth, pacing up and down – a caged wild
animal. Barb and Roger continue to work, watching him uncertainly
as they did. He probably had a negative effect on sales, their
customers not hanging around to chat to them after one look at him.
He stopped when I hesitated at the entry and stepped over to me
immediately. His hands landed heavily on my shoulders, gripping
them fiercely, his eyes icy and angry.

“
What happened? Where were you? I turned
around and you’d disappeared. I had to send Farrell and Barnes out
to look for you while I stayed here with the clients.” His fingers
dug painfully into my flesh as he articulated each word carefully,
his accent strong. He was clearly enraged. “Don’t ever disappear on
me like that, Matilda. I need to know where you are at all
times.”

I shook his hands off.
“I didn’t disappear. Two of the PRON men
grabbed me and bundled me into an aisle between two rows of booths.
And they did it right in front of everyone! It all happened in
seconds. They had a message for Barb and Roger.”

“
For Ms Biggen and Mr Harder to stay away
from them?”

“
Yes. And for them not to come back
tomorrow.”

“
Did you see Farrell and
Barnes?”

“
Yes. They chased after them.” I raised my
eyes to his, not able to hide how much the recent events upset and
angered me. My voice might have even wobbled a little, though I was
trying to be tough. “I didn’t know what they were going to do to
me, Heller. They discussed taking me with them. I think they
planned on
selling
me, like
I was some piece of meat. They groped me.”

His face grew even grimmer and had anyone
asked, I would have said that wasn’t remotely possible.

“
Benjy distracted them and I was able to
break away. Then they ran off. The last I saw of everyone was
Farrell and Bick chasing them.”

“And who is Benjy?”

“The boy in that horrible costume. He’s the
only one who saw it happen.”

Heller looked down at me with an emotion
on his face I didn’t recognise. He gently brushed some concrete
dust from my forehead. “Are you okay, my sweet? Apart from being
badly frightened?”

“I kicked the one who groped me in the
nuts.”

“
It’s not even close to what he deserves
for daring to touch you.”

“There’s been some property damage.”

“
I’m not paying for it. The centre
management can,” he said, and his voice was harsh again. “They
should never have invited people like that to their
expo.”

“
I agree,” said Roger, finding his voice at
last. “Everything that’s happened has been their fault, not ours.
I’m going to insist that either they remove PRON from the expo, or
Barb and I won’t return tomorrow. It’s as simple as that. We’ll get
on a plane and go home. We no longer feel safe here with them
around.” There was such resolve in his voice it was apparent nobody
would be able to talk him out of that position, and frankly, why
would they even want to try?

Farrell and Bick turned up, pissed off at
missing their quarry and infuriated by the efforts they’d had to
make to smooth things down with the owners of ruined
merchandise.

“
They escaped. But I think they returned to
their own booth,” Farrell surmised. “Do you want us to go after
them there.”

“I’m not doing anything in public,” Heller
said coldly. “I have my business’ reputation to think about.”

“
T
here are a lot of very irate stallholders wanting our
blood,” Bick told him.

“
I’m not paying a cent for any of this,”
Heller reiterated. “It’s not my fault, nor my team’s
fault.”

Barb slinked up to him and took his hands
in hers, casting her lovely topaz eyes upwards to his face. He
immediately paid attention to her, as would any man with a pulse.
The sudden sharp stab of jealousy that jolted through me shocked
me. I busied myself checking my email on my tablet, trying to crush
that green-eyed monster inside me.

“
Mr Heller,” she said, rubbing her fingers
seductively over his hands, because everything she did was
seductive. I couldn’t even say for sure that she was consciously
aware of that annoying little fact. “Roger and I agree with you
completely. You have our total support on this. None of us should
pay for PRON’s anti-social activities at this expo.”

“
Thank you for your solidarity in this
matter, Ms Biggen,” he said politely, pulling his hands free from
hers. He turned to us, eyes hard. “Matilda. Farrell. Let’s walk for
a while. Barnes, stay here.”

We walked without speaking, passing all
the booths displaying their various sexual wares. I wouldn’t have
minded browsing
again,
but Heller didn’t look as though he was in a shopping mood. He
strode along determinedly, heading towards the PRON Productions
booth. As we skirted the booth, the group of suits huddled at the
back earnestly discussing something looked up with hostility. Not
particularly trying to hide their interest in them, Heller and
Farrell stood close by, staring them down, arms crossed with equal
hostility. I hovered between them, definitely not wanting to move
any closer.

“
Do a
ny of those men look familiar to you, Matilda?” Heller
asked me in a low voice, keeping me slightly behind him. I pointed
out the two who had abducted me.

I jabbed my finger angrily
towards the shorter one. “He
grabbed my boob,” I told him.

“
Farrell, do you agree
those are the two men you
chased?”

“Positive. You don’t forget ugliness like
that in a hurry.”

“What are you lot looking at?” sneered one of
the PRON men, swaggering to the front of their booth.

“
Stay away from my people
, especially my woman. Just accept that as
a word of advice for the future from me, though it’s already too
late for some of you,” Heller said with calm coolness. He turned on
his heel, striding away, Farrell in his wake, me jogging to catch
up behind them. Farrell and I exchanged guarded glances, neither of
us willing to say a word, Heller’s profile stony and not inviting
any discussion on the matter. Back at the booth, Bick’s eyebrows
knitted together when he saw our expressions.

“
Sorted them out, Heller?” he asked
quietly.

Heller’s eyes flicked my way.
“As I told Matilda before, I
don’t have the resources to deal with that company in public,” he
said flatly in return, which I realised much later wasn’t an answer
at all.

Noticing all the huge, hefty men in the
vicinity of the booth, Mr Hairpiece rushed over to make sure all
was well. Barb and Roger closed the booth for the day and there was
a heated argument between them and Mr Hairpiece over their refusal
to return the next day unless PRON Productions and the suits were
banned from entry.

“
You can’t guarantee our safety while
they’re here,” Roger maintained in a reasonable tone as Mr
Hairpiece insisted they would remain perfectly safe during the
final day of
Seductively Sextravagant
. Not willing to lose his star attraction, he finally
agreed to ban PRON and it was hard to miss Barb and Roger visibly
loosening in relief. That made me worried that Heller had been
correct and they weren’t really prepared to deal with PRON in
person. And maybe it was easy to be a crusader against evil
companies when you didn’t have to come face-to-face with the goons
they hired to protect their interests.