Heller's Punishment (37 page)

“Of course I
would.”

His eyes ran
over my face as he contemplated my proposition. “It
would
send a very strong message to the men. And a message to my clients
that I maintain a disciplined staff. It’s a good idea.”

I hadn’t
expected him to take to the idea of suspending me that quickly. I’d
presumed that he’d need time to think about it. “You don’t have to
be so enthusiastic about it,” I complained.

“I’m
considering the advantages. You’re safe in an office job, and I’m
not worrying about you every second of the day. I don’t lose my
temper over your reckless actions, so there’s peace at home. I
don’t have to keep sending you away on assignments. But best of all
. . .”

“Yes?
What?”

“I won’t be
your boss anymore, so we can finally make it happen between us.” I
rolled my eyes – was that all he thought about? “Consider yourself
suspended as of now, Matilda.”

My face fell.
“I thought I’d be okay about it, but now I’m upset.”

“It’s a hard
punishment. The men aren’t going to be happy about it. They’ll
think I’m being very unfair.”

“You are.”

He shrugged. “I
have to make tough decisions sometimes.”

The next day he
called a staff meeting, and Sid, Clive, Daniel and I trooped into
his office. Without showing any emotion, he advised them that he’d
decided to discipline me for the debacle of my last assignment by
suspending me from duty with his business for a year. I assumed an
expression of being suitably chastened and downcast, but to be
honest, there wasn’t much acting involved in it. I felt pretty
miserable.

The three men
stared at Heller with varying levels of shock. Sid and Daniel both
spoke up immediately, objecting to the severity of the punishment.
Heller thumped his fist on the table, clattering the coffee mugs,
and raked us all with cold, hard eyes.

“I won’t be
argued with about this matter. I have made a decision and that is
final,” he snapped, his voice steely. Sid and Daniel didn’t argue
any further. “Matilda, hand over your staff card to Clive.” I
nodded, squirming in my seat. He was doing an exceptional job of
appearing angry with me. Perhaps part of him still was. “Now we
need to discuss the negative publicity we’ve had and the impact
it’s having on the business. I’ve been offered a possible solution
but want to discuss it with you all first.” He turned his icy eyes
to me again. “You can leave now, Matilda. You no longer work for me
and I won’t discuss business in front of you. In fact, I don’t want
you to come into this office again until I tell you otherwise. You
can clean out your desk and go.”

That hit me
like a punch, and I could feel real tears pricking at my eyelids.
Heller was taking all this very seriously. I guess I’d thought that
life would carry on the same way, but I just wouldn’t do any more
jobs for him. I’d never considered that I’d be banned from the
office. I assumed that meant that I would no longer be welcome in
the security section either.

Feeling quite
low, I didn’t delay but left the room quickly. I went straight to
my desk and collected the few personal belongings I kept there,
including a timed-capture photo I’d taken of the six of us. It was
my favourite photo in the world, mostly because of how good Heller
looked in it, standing tall in the middle of us, his arms crossed,
eyes directly staring into the lens, a superior, amused smile on
his face.

Niq looked up
from his schoolwork and asked me what I was doing.
Oh boy, this
was going to be tough
, I thought, dreading the next few
minutes. I sat next to him at his desk, taking one of his hands in
mine.

“Niq sweetie,
Heller’s suspended me for a year because I stuffed up my last job
and the business received loads of bad publicity. That means I
don’t work for him any more and he doesn’t want me here in the
office again until my suspension is finished.”

The expression
that filled Niq’s face was one I’d never seen him wear before and
never wanted to see again. He was crushed, devastated, as if his
entire safe and secure world had been yanked out from under him. He
stood, his chair tumbling backwards to the floor.

“No. No. He
can’t do that. He’s not taking you away from me,” he said, his
voice breaking, the tears in his eyes matched by the tears in mine.
He stalked towards Heller’s office, a determined little bundle of
teenage anger and emotions, ready for a confrontation. “It’s not
fair, Tilly. You didn’t do anything wrong. He can’t do that.”

I hurried to
stop him, realising I hadn’t explained myself well enough. “Niq,
sweetie, please! It’s going to be okay. I’ll still live here and we
can still see each other every day.”

His big blue
eyes were shiny with tears. “You promise me you’ll still live here?
You’re not going to move out?”

“Of course I’m
not! How could I ever leave you?” I drew him to me and hugged him
tightly. “Not even Heller wanted me to leave here. It just means
that I won’t work for him for the next twelve months.”

“How are you
going to survive without money?” he started worrying. “I’ll give
you my pocket money every week. That will help you buy some food at
least.”

I laughed.
“That’s very sweet of you, Niq. But Heller will still let me use
his pantry.”
Wouldn’t he?
Doubts crept into my mind. Maybe
this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. “Anyway, I better go.
I don’t want to be here when their meeting finishes. I don’t want
to make Heller angry.”

I was at a
loose end for the rest of the day with nothing to do. It brought
back unpleasant memories of the utter boredom of being unemployed.
I rang Trent and casually mentioned that I was interested in his
job if it was still available. He didn’t need to know that I had my
fingers and toes crossed hoping that it was. I breathed a sigh of
relief when he assured me with delight that it was, but couldn’t
believe Heller had let me go that easily.

“He’s suspended
me from duty for a year.”

“A year, huh?
Well, isn’t that convenient?”

“Isn’t it just?
When do you want me to start?”

“Is tomorrow
too soon? You can meet my researcher before she leaves and have a
handover with her. Come to the network offices.” I jotted down the
address that he gave me.

After sorting
that out, I trudged down to the ground floor to the security
section to hand over my staff card to Clive. The support the men
offered me as I walked over to Clive’s office overwhelmed me –
encouraging words, a pat on the back, a hand slap, a sympathetic
glance. Ozanne was particularly distressed, genuinely upset that I
was being punished so harshly, having himself received a severe
reprimand and a permanent black mark against his name.

Clive took my
card, his features as grim as usual. “Heller was hard on you,
Tilly. All the men think so,” he said gruffly. I was touched. It
was probably the nicest thing he’d ever said to me.

On my way out,
Farrell grabbed my arm as I walked past him and pulled me to one
side, instantly garnering inquisitive glances from the other men.
Our circumstances were well known and it was no secret that Heller
had warned Farrell off me in uncertain and horribly violent terms.
Farrell was being irresponsible.

“I can’t
believe he’d do this to you. He’s such a bastard,” he whispered
fiercely. “I’m going up there to say something.”

“God, please
don’t, Hugh! Promise me you won’t say anything to him,” I pleaded
with him in a low voice, genuinely concerned but peering around me
at the other men anxiously. Heller wouldn’t tolerate any criticism
from his men and Farrell would lose his job at the very least.

“The chance to
work with you on a job is the only thing I look forward to here.
Now he’s taking that away from me too.”

“Don’t say
that!” I hissed, shaking off his arm and walking away, my heart
thumping. I hoped he wouldn’t say or do anything foolish. I’d
noticed Clive watching us closely from his office and knew that
Heller would soon hear that Farrell and I had spoken together.

Heller rang me
early the next morning, just as I’d cracked open my eyelids to the
new day. I lazed back on the pillows as I spoke to him. I had some
time to spare before I needed to leave for work.

“Have you
organised your new job with Dawson.”

“Yes. I’m
starting today.”

“You should
have taken a few days off.”

“He wants me to
meet his current researcher before she leaves to have her
baby.”

“Have you
cleared out your desk? I’m thinking of replacing you and I’ll need
that space.”

“Oh, are you?
Was it necessary to ban me from the office? That’s very harsh.”

“Yes, it was.
You don’t work for me any more.”

“What did you
decide to do about that story with Trent?”

“Tell him yes,
but only on the condition that I retain control over the story’s
content and images.”

“I’ll tell him
when I see him,” I said yawning.

“How are you
planning on getting to your new job today?”

“I’ll drive.
How else?”

“What will you
drive?”

What a weird
question. “My little car.”

“
My
little car, Matilda.”

“What? You’re
not going to let me use my car?”

“No. My
insurance doesn’t cover non-employees. You’ll have to find your own
way to work from now on.”

“Oh boy! I
didn’t think this suspension through very well, did I?”

“You’ll have to
start paying rent as well and no more visits to the pantry or
library.”

“Heller!”

“I’m running a
business, Matilda, not a charity. You’re non-productive. I’m not
supporting you so you can make money for someone else.” A low, sexy
chuckle. “Although we could come to some alternative arrangement if
you prefer.”

“What? I sleep
with you in return for free rent? There’s a term for that, you
know.”

“Yes – a very
happy Matilda.”

“You have an
ego the size of a planet! And not one of the small planets either,”
I snapped. “I’d rather pay my own way, thanks all the same.”

“Pity.” The
smile in his voice annoyed me. I hung up on him.

I logged onto
the public transport website and checked out the bus routes,
groaning in frustration when I realised that travel to the network
office from here would involve three buses. Shit! I was missing all
the perks of my
Heller’s
job already. If I wanted to catch
the first bus, I’d have to be out of here in ten minutes. I took a
one-minute shower, skipped breakfast, threw on the first clothes I
found, sprinted down the stairs and out the door, almost bowling
over some men arriving for work.

“Sorry!” I
yelled over my shoulder as I ran up the road, making it to the bus
stop just as the bus pulled up. It was already jam-packed and I had
to stand with the other unlucky commuters who didn’t have a seat.
Crammed in like sardines, I held on desperately as the bus driver
braked suddenly and for no apparent reason every few metres, our
bodies crushed together, my nose firmly planted in a sweaty
university student’s hairy armpit. I groped blindly in my handbag
for my iPod to relieve the sheer awfulness of the situation, only
to remember that I’d left it charging on my kitchen bench.
No!
I could have cried with disappointment.

My second bus
was twenty minutes late and even more packed than the first. By the
end of the third crowded bus trip, I’d seriously decided that I was
going to sleep with Heller tonight just to get my job back. It was
degrading, but ultimately less undignified than the whole public
transport experience in this city.

Consequently, I
was in a very bad mood when I arrived at the network office
building to find that Trent hadn’t advised security that I would be
starting work for him today. Network security consisted of two big,
brawny men with no necks and no brains, who looked me up and down
in an insultingly carnal manner, even after I explained my
situation.

“Shove off,
sweetheart,” said Brawny One. “Nobody gets in to see Mr Dawson
unless we’ve been told.”

“Can you two
meatheads please just ring him and tell him I’ve arrived?” I asked
again for the fourth time, rapidly losing the tiny portion of
patience I still possessed.

“He’s not
interested in groupies, understand?” Brawny Two told me. “He’s not
even here, so obviously he’s
not
expecting you. So do
yourself a favour and fuck off before things turn ugly.”

“Things already
have turned ugly with you two standing around,” I spat out
imprudently.

“Look bitch,
I’m not saying it again. Go flog your holes somewhere else. Mr
Dawson’s not interested in a slag like you.”

“What’s Mr
Dawson not interested in?” he asked cheerfully, strolling up to us,
swinging his car keys in his hand. “Morning, men. Morning, Tilly.
Dressed to impress on your first day, I see.”

I looked down
at my casual outfit, now ashamed of my runners, jeans and t-shirt.
I didn’t have any makeup on and couldn’t remember if I’d even
brushed my hair. I certainly hadn’t brushed my teeth.

“Sorry, Trent.
I left in a bit of a rush this morning, and just put on the first
things I found.”

“You know her,
Mr Dawson?” Brawny One asked in disbelief.

“Of course
guys, this is Tilly Chalmers. She’s starting work for me today.” I
really had to fight an overpowering urge to childishly poke my
tongue out at them. “And I’ve no doubt you’ll both be very pleased
to welcome her into the network family. Always nice to have another
pretty woman around, hey fellows?”

The two
Brawnies regarded me with the same expression you’d give that
stinky brown stuff on the bottom of your shoe after a walk in the
park, and Brawny Two even snorted in derision. I admit I probably
wasn’t looking my best at that moment, flushed and crumpled from
the bus trips, but there was no call for that level of rudeness.
Just because I’d implied that they were both stupid and
unattractive.