Heller's Girlfriend (3 page)

“Don’t spray me! I promise I’ll
behave,” whimpered Ancient Elvis, a tremulous waver in his voice
that I’d never heard up until now. “And please don’t let
him
kick me in the goolies like he threatened.” He shot a scared look
in Ben’s direction.

“I’m not going to kick you in
the goolies!” protested Ben, turning to the organiser in
supplication. “
He’s
the one who wants to do that all the
time, not me! I don’t do that to old people.”

“Oh, so now I’m
old
! Is
there no end to the insults?” wailed Ancient Elvis. “That’s
discrimination!”

“No, no, no, sir,” soothed the
organiser, panicking. “There’s no discrimination here. Not in my
competition. Here, let me help you up.” His eyes on me were
lava-hot with anger. “If this young lady will allow . . .?”

I sprang to my feet. “Of course.
Let me help as well.”

“No!” shrank back our wrinkled
little trouble-maker. “Not her! You saw her crushing me with her
gigantic weight.”

“Hey!” I complained.

“My hips,” he moaned, hands
rubbing up and down them.

“He’s trembling!” spat out the
organiser. “You people are savages!”

“No –” started Ben.

“We’re not –” I tried.

“I’ll be asking for a new
security team tomorrow, be assured of that!” he promised over his
shoulder as he led Ancient Elvis away, asking, “Is there
anything
we can do to make this up for you?”

“Well,” Ancient Elvis said
weakly. “You
could
find me a small spot in the final. Just
as a sop to my incredibly hurt, and possibly litigious,
feelings.”

“Of course, of course. You’d be
more than welcome. Yours was a most . . . er . . . entertaining
performance. How about first billing?”

“That would be nice.”

“Let me call you a taxi. We’ll
pay, of course.”

As he was led away by the
concerned organiser, Ancient Elvis looked back over his shoulder
and winked at the pair of us.

Ben groaned and I palm-faced
myself.

“We’ve been played,” rued
Ben.

“Oh yeah,” I agreed. “Like a
string section.”

We looked at each other and
laughed regretfully.

“But now we have one hell of a
problem,” he said.

“What’s that?”

“What’s Heller going to
say?”

Chapter 2

We didn’t have to wait long to
find out. As we drove off in a black Toyota 4WD, one of the
Heller’s
fleet cars, my phone rang.

“Matilda.” Heller always called
me by my full first name even though he knew I disliked it.

“Heller, it’s not what it
seems.”

“It never is with you.”

“We didn’t hurt him. He made
fools of us so he could get his own way. Honestly!
We’re
the
patsies, not him. We’d never hurt an old man.”

Silence for a while, then a
heavy sigh. “It has that unmistakable ring of Matilda-truthiness
about it. But still, I’ve been asked to replace you both on the job
and that doesn’t reflect well on any of us.”

I groaned in disappointment.
“But I was having fun.”

“I don’t pay you to have
fun.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes it just
happens spontaneously.”

“So you enjoyed it?”

“I laughed my arse off!” I
giggled into the phone.

“Oh, how unfortunate for you.
Was there any other trouble?”

“A minor scuffle. I was
flattened by a tubby Elvis and knocked over by an angry Elvis.
Nothing we couldn’t handle. Although I have to say that my back’s a
bit sore now.”

“I’m not even going to ask,” he
said, sighing again. “Would you like me to give you a massage when
you get home?” And he laughed in that low, growly sexy way of his
that always made my stomach feel funny.

“Very tempting, Heller,” I said
honestly, “but I’m going to Will’s place tonight.” I’d sweet-talked
Ben into dropping me there directly.

“I’ll pick you up at the normal
time.”

“Okay. See you then.”

“Have fun, my sweet.”

“I plan to, believe me. Bye.”
And I hung up.

Ben turned to me. “The Boss
checks in with you after every job?”

“Yep. I have to let him know
what I’m up to every second of the day.” And I was only
half-joking.

His sideways glance was curious.
“I’m surprised to hear that you have a boyfriend. I always thought
you and Heller were . . . you know. That’s the word around the
office anyway.”

My voice was cool in response.
“Everybody thinks that, but it’s not true and never has been.”

He persisted. “But don’t you
spend the night at his place a lot? That’s what the other guys
say.”

I refused to discuss the matter
with him any further, cursing the gossip that continually buzzed in
the security section about my love life. Those big, burly men were
worse than any woman when it came to tattling about each other and
me. I didn’t want to explain my complicated relationship with
Heller, a relationship that wasn’t quite platonic, but not yet
consummated.

The fact was that I
couldn’t
explain it to Ben – I couldn’t even explain it to
myself. And it was true that I frequently spent the night with
Heller, sleeping in his bed, occasionally fooling around with him
even though I had a boyfriend. But I guess some relationships only
make sense to the people in them. Heller and I cared about each
other and simply liked to be together.

But I could tell that Ben wasn’t
convinced with my denial. Those rumours were pretty pervasive
around the office. I shrugged to myself with resignation and
dismissed the topic from my mind. After all, there was nothing I
could really do about it.

We pulled up out the front of
Will’s place.

“It was fun working with you,
Tilly,” Ben said, idling the 4WD. “I hope we work together again
soon.”

“Me too, Ben. Thanks for the
lift.”

“Viva Las Vegas, hey?” he
grinned and drove off, tooting the horn jauntily as he did, and
scoring the last point in our Elvis game as a bonus.

Will met me at the door, his
wild, curly brown hair particularly unruly, but his soft brown eyes
welcoming. It wasn’t long before we were naked in his bed, sharing
a very pleasurable experience. Afterwards, we laid back, bodies
entwined and chatted a little.

“I suppose you’re running off at
midnight as usual,” he sulked, running his fingers through my long
wavy, dark brown hair.

I suppressed an impatient sigh.
It was a longstanding complaint of his that we didn’t spend enough
time together. While I appreciated his viewpoint and had promised
to find more time, it just wasn’t possible for me to spend every
second of my spare time with him. I had other people who were very
important to me that I needed to spend time with as well, and the
more time I spent with him only robbed me of time with them. It was
a difficult balancing act, and I wasn’t sure I was doing it all
that well. But instead of arguing with him, knowing I could never
win that battle, I distracted him with my body again.

He stopped complaining – for a
while at least.

When time came for me to leave,
to my surprise it wasn’t Heller who picked me up as he normally
did, but Sid. He was a massive, intimidating man who managed
Heller’s surveillance section, while his identical twin, Clive,
managed Heller’s security section. I lived with all three men at
Heller’s warehouse-like office/accommodation building that I’d
dubbed the Warehouse for obvious reasons. Living there with us as
well were Heller’s office manager, sensitive, scarred Daniel; Niq,
the small, androgynous teenage Goth-boy; and the never-seen Victor,
Heller’s valet. Heller had a sumptuous flat on the fifth floor (as
did Victor, allegedly), Daniel and I each had a flat on the fourth
floor and Sid and Clive shared a flat on the third floor,
neighbouring the family gym. Niq ostensibly lived with Heller, but
in fact slept wherever he felt like it, mostly at Daniel’s or the
twins’, sometimes at Heller’s, but rarely at my place. My flat is
the smallest of them all, a snug self-contained one-bedroom place,
full of light and brightness. I loved it and could not now imagine
living anywhere else.

“Hey, Sid!” I exclaimed with
pleasure, not having caught up with him for a while.

“Hey, Tilly. So that’s the
boyfriend, huh?” he asked with vaguely menacing curiosity, slowly
eyeballing Will as he stood on his veranda, sadly waving
goodbye.

Will wasn’t particularly popular
with the guys I work with, mostly because it ruined everyone’s cosy
perception of me as Heller’s woman. I did question my sanity on
occasion for not wanting to be Heller’s woman, him being over two
metres of sexy Scandinavian manliness, all muscle, stunningly
beautiful model looks, attractive accent, piercing blue eyes and
spiky blond hair.

Sid’s bulk filled the driver’s
seat. He was powerfully built, he and Clive owning craggy,
unforgiving faces, heavy eyebrows, and black slick-backed hair.
When I’d buckled up, he sped off before I even had a chance to wave
back to Will. I sighed to myself knowing that he’d be in a snit
about that when I next spoke to him.

We drove in companionable
silence for a few minutes.

“Sid?”

“Hmm?”

“How did you and Clive come to
live with Heller?”

I’d always wanted to know and
now seemed as good a time as any to ask. Daniel and Niq had already
told me their touching stories about being rescued from
heartbreakingly terrible lives by Heller. I’d often wondered if the
twins had a similar story.

Sid laughed. He was by far the
more congenial of the pair, Clive much more taciturn and not one of
my biggest admirers.

“Believe it or not, we were sent
to teach him a lesson.”

My mouth flew open in surprise.
“Get out of here!”

“True story,” he affirmed,
smiling as he shot me a quick sideways glance. “You’ll never
believe who sent us either.”

“Who?” I had no idea.

“Chris Kirnin.”

“Oh.” I was silent for a moment,
digesting that interesting little nugget. Chris Kirnin was not a
man I’d ever be including on my Christmas card list. In fact, the
last time I’d seen him, I’d deservedly backhanded him across his
ugly face. He’d changed my life forever, and not for the better. “I
suppose that makes sense. But obviously their feud has been going
on for a lot longer than I ever suspected.”

“Sure has. Kirnin wasn’t running
Select Security then though. He owned a small debt collection
agency. Clive and I worked for him as his enforcers.”

“Heller owed money?” That seemed
very unlikely to me. Heller wasn’t the type of man to let himself
be under anyone’s control or in anyone’s debt.

“Nah, of course not. Not
Heller.” He swerved slightly to avoid a pothole. “Kirnin also did
‘favours’ for some of his more dodgy clients. And one of
them
had a grudge against Heller.”

“Do you know why?”

Sid laughed again. “It seemed
that Heller not only slept with guy’s wife and two daughters, but
also with his mistress, his sister and his step-mother.” He flashed
his surprisingly small teeth in amusement. “And possibly his
grandmother too.”

I snortled with laughter. That
was so typical of Heller. He had a voracious appetite for one-night
stands with multitudes of women. It was the main reason I hadn’t
slept with him yet myself. I wasn’t too keen on being just one of
the crowd.

“Geez, he was putting it about
freely in those days, wasn’t he?” I laughed.

Sid chuckled as he negotiated a
roundabout. “He sure was.”

“I thought he was bad enough
now. How old was he then?”

Sid shrugged. “Dunno exactly.
About the same age we were, in his early twenties. He’s settled
down a lot in the time since we’ve known him. He was such a
hell-raiser when we first met him – fighting all the time and
screwing every woman he could. He was so wild then, looking for
trouble everywhere he went, provoking it. He’s much calmer these
days. Doesn’t go out on the prowl as often now.” His eyes shifted
to me again. “Especially since you’ve arrived in his life. You’ve
been good for him, Tilly.”

I squirmed in my seat, for some
reason desperately needing to change the subject. “What happened
when you went to teach him a lesson?”

“Clive and I planned it to the
last second. We knew Heller was working as a security officer for
one of the big nationwide companies. You know, the ones with the
armoured vans who transport all the money around.” I nodded to show
that I knew what he was talking about. “This wasn’t long after he
arrived in the country from wherever he lived before. But it didn’t
take much time for him to start seriously annoying people. And not
just any kind of people, the wrong kind of people.”

Sid’s phone chirped, indicating
a text message. He checked the screen and smiled, but placed it
back in the console without responding. “Heller was on a late shift
that day, the last to leave the depot because he pulled a lot of
overtime, working hard. He wasn’t living far from there, so tended
to walk home most of the time. Incidentally, that’s how he found
Niq – walking home from work one evening.”

I nodded again, already having
heard that story and Sid continued. “We picked a dark spot, a
neglected, empty overgrown lot that Heller used as a shortcut.
There was no street lighting, no house windows overlooking it.
Perfect for our needs. We took a side each and when he approached,
we rushed him.”

“What happened?” I asked
breathlessly.

“He grinned at us and then it
was on. We fought and fought for ages. It was brutal. Clive and I
had thought it would be a picnic; that we’d knock him over quickly.
Two against one. But we hadn’t counted on Heller. He never gave in.
We couldn’t stop him. He was like some kind of robot, just kept
fighting no matter what we dished up. It was unbelievable . . . and
a little frightening. It was as if he was in a trance or
something.”