Heller's Revenge (36 page)

I grasped his hands and tears
flooded my cheeks. “What about you?”

“Just a few scratches and burns.
Your leg?”

Heller spoke up in a cold
accusatory tone aimed at Meili. “She received a deep gash on her
outer right thigh that required thirty stitches.”

“I’m so sorry for your injury,
Tilly.”

“I’m so sorry for the loss of
your friends, Meili. They were lovely people.”

“They were the best.” He paused
sadly. “I’ve decided that I’m still doing the lecture tonight.”

“Then I’ll be there with you.”
Heller protested immediately. I glared at him. “I have an important
job to do, Heller. That you assigned me to, remember? Don’t try to
stop me.” Then back to Meili. “Who’s with you now?”

“Nobody.”

“Well, let’s get out of here and
back to the hotel to rest before the lecture.”

And against the advice of the
doctor and the wishes of Heller, I discharged myself.

Heller drove us back to the
hotel after I had changed into the fresh clothes he’d brought me. I
sat in the back of Heller’s Mercedes holding hands with Niq while I
regaled him with my tall tales of catching the fish, brazenly
enhancing my skills and my reactions. Meili supplied what I thought
was some unnecessarily truthful and embarrassing extra detail about
the tuna’s revenge, but he made Niq snort with uncontrolled
laughter and that earned him even more brownie points with me.
Heller was very quiet, not saying a word and I caught his eye in
the rear view mirror a few times, throwing me a searching
glance.

At the hotel, Meili detoured to
reception to request a couple of replacement swipe cards, using
enough charm to leave the counter staff flustered and not asking
awkward questions about how we happened to have lost our other
ones. Everything we had taken on board with us had been destroyed.
Fortunately for me, I hadn’t taken my handbag with me, so still had
my purse, driver’s licence and credit cards stored securely in the
safe in our room. But sadly, I had lost my runners, not to mention
yet another mobile phone. Heller assisted me upstairs, his arm
clamped firmly around my waist, subtly intercepting Meili anytime
he even appeared as though he was going to offer to help. Meili and
I exchanged a quietly resigned glance – when Heller wasn’t looking
our way, of course.

Heller settled me on my bed and
sat down heavily next to me.

“You shouldn’t be walking around
on that injured leg,” he lectured. “I want you to come home with me
now and I’ll replace you with one of the men. Gather your
things.”

“
No!
” I shot out, a
little too hastily, wincing at the responding iciness in his eyes.
“Besides, it’s only for a few more days. I won’t do any more
rollerblading, I promise,” I cajoled teasingly, trying to lighten
up his mood. But there was no humouring him – he remained
relentlessly stony-faced.

He handed me a new phone. “It
has the same number as your other one and I’ve entered all your
important numbers for you.”

I checked to find his the only
number in the phone’s contact list.

“Heller!” I protested and
finally received a faint smile from him in return. I threw the
phone to Niq and asked him to enter his and Daniel’s numbers as
well. Everyone else would just have to wait. I hoped that Will
wasn’t expecting me to contact him anytime soon. I was hopeless at
remembering numbers, accustomed to everything being pre-programmed
for me.

After enduring an uncomfortably
tight hug from both Heller and Niq as they left, I flopped back
onto my bed and looked over at Meili, distraught at the desolate
expression on his face.

“I’m so sorry about Alex and
Sali. It’s just so . . . so terrible.”

Once again, the tears coursed
down my cheeks as I thought of Alex and Sali’s obvious love for
each other and their happy expectation of having their first child
together. Meili sat on my bed and slid his arms around me, letting
me sob onto his shoulder for a good while. And I don’t know why I
was crying when they’d been
his
good friends, but since my
accident I seemed to have become a little more aware of the
precious fragility of both love and life. Meili stretched out next
to me and I lay quietly in his arms for a long time, neither of us
speaking, but each taking comfort from the other.

Chapter 23

“We’ll have to head off soon,
Tilly,” he murmured eventually, reluctantly rousing. “I’ve told
Maria that we don’t want to go to dinner with her tonight. She
understands.”

“Thank you,” I said gratefully.
I couldn’t imagine anything worse than trying to make polite
conversation with strangers after what we’d been through.

We made slow progress to the
university, my leg stiff and painful. I clung to his arm for
support. At the lecture theatre, Maria was there to greet us; her
own eyes red with freshly shed tears. She hugged Meili and then
hugged me.

“You could have cancelled.
Everybody would have understood,” she said to him in a subdued
voice.

“No!” he insisted, fire in his
eyes. “That’s exactly what they want me to do!”

And he proceeded to give
possibly the most painful public talk of his life, dedicating it to
his dear friends, Alex and Sali. He almost broke down a few times
as he spoke. Our story, including embarrassing footage of us being
hauled onboard the Search and Rescue boat, had been on the news and
everyone was aware of what had happened over the last awful
twenty-four hours. The lecture theatre was jammed to standing-only
capacity, people spilling out of every door. I sat to one side of
the podium, not able to compete for a seat in the audience with my
bad leg.

When he’d finished, he received
a standing ovation that lasted a couple of clamorous minutes. He
declined to stay afterwards to answer questions, begging everyone’s
indulgence. We made our slow way back to the hotel room, his arm
around my waist for support. He ordered room service for us that
night for dinner, both of us too drained to eat in public. After we
picked at our food with little hunger, he placed the tray outside
and we lay on his bed, hands clasped. We watched the news footage
from the rescue and the accompanying story about his friends’
deaths.

“It’s all my fault,” he said,
forlorn once more. “Just as with Inge. They all die because of
me.”

He was ready to speak, so I
turned off the TV, turned out the light and climbed painfully back
into his bed again. I held his hand and listened while he quietly
spoke of his deep love for Inge; how beautiful she was; how much
fun they had together; how he had planned to pop the question just
before someone popped a bullet into her brain. He told me of his
absolute despair and guilt at her death and how much he’d wanted to
die when she died.

He cried and I cried, and he
talked for ages, remembering funny and sweet stories about Inge and
about Alex and Sali. But before long, I fell asleep with sheer
fatigue and emotional exhaustion, still holding his hand.

I woke near dawn to somehow find
myself wrapped in his arms. Meili was awake, his eyes on me.

“Morning,” I murmured sleepily,
reluctantly blinking my eyes open.

“Morning Tilly. It’s been a long
time since I’ve held a woman in my arms at night. I’d forgotten how
wonderful it is.”

“How long?”

“Since Inge died. I made a
promise to myself that I wouldn’t sleep with another woman until
her murderers were brought to justice.”

“That’s a great promise,” I said
drowsily, closing my eyes, ready to drift off back to sleep
again.

But the feel of his lips
pressing on mine chased all thoughts of that away. My eyes flew
open in surprise. He pulled away and stared at me intently with
those lovely light gray eyes.

“Was it a great promise? I’m not
so sure anymore.”

He pressed his lips onto mine
again and I not only let him, but I responded as well, as I also
did when his tongue came gently exploring into my mouth.
Oh
God!
I had a boyfriend and he had a promise to his dead
girlfriend. But we were together, having survived a murderous and
traumatic attempt on our lives and one day he was going to be
murdered too. I no longer had any doubt about it, not after what
had happened to us on the boat. It might even be today. And that
had to count for something.

“Yes, it was a great promise. I
think,” I said uncertainly, my breathing growing rather ragged.

He stroked my cheek and traced
around my lips with his finger, his eyes following its path. “I’ve
never wanted to break that promise before and I suspect it will be
a while before I want to break it again, but I really want to break
it now. With you, Tilly. And I think Inge would understand,
considering what we’ve just been through,” he said, running his
hand up and down my arm, then over my shoulder blades, down my
back, to rest on my butt.

“Oh God, Meili, you know I have
a massive crush on you. You’re not playing fair,” I breathed
weakly, my body betraying me even as I spoke by arching towards
his. He helped by pulling me closer with his hand on my butt, until
our hips were pressed together.

“No, I didn’t know that, Tilly.
But you’re not playing fair either with those big beautiful eyes or
with you being so brave and sweet.”

Well, what could a woman
possibly say to that? He kissed me again, more urgently, his body
straining against mine. I knew that he was sincere in his desire at
least, feeling it pressing hard into me.

“I don’t do one-nighters,” I
gasped when he released my mouth.

“Neither do I,” he said, looking
down at me and stroking my hair. “You’re lovely in every way,
Tilly. I think I’m halfway in love with you already and it hasn’t
even been a week since I met you yet.”

And then he got busy with his
lips again and I was gone, offering up my lips, my body, all of me,
without any hesitation or any guilt.

He was gentle and considerate of
my painful leg. The feel of his hands, lips and tongue on my skin
was divine. I know he felt the same about mine from his groans and
great gasps of pleasure when I touched him and kissed him and
tasted him. It was loving and despairing, and when he finally
entered me, we both cried out with bitter bliss. My orgasm burst
through me powerfully and judging by the exhilarant shout he gave
when he came, so did his. He didn’t roll off me straight away but
remained on top of me, kissing and caressing me. We slept again,
naked and snuggled together.

I was slowly woken a few hours
later by the very thrilling sensation of having my breasts gently
stroked, my nipples teased by his fingertips. He leaned over to
kiss my neck and whispered in my ear, “I want you again, Tilly.
Urgently,” and I could feel the truth of that statement pressing
into my back. And if there’s a nicer way to wake up, then I haven’t
discovered it yet.

And to underline his need, he
didn’t even wait for me to turn around, but slipped into me from
behind, my back nestled against his chest. The disadvantage was
that it was impossible to kiss him without twisting around; the
advantage was that he was able to rub his fingers on me intimately
as we moved together. He showered my neck and shoulders with
burning kisses, whispering Norwegian endearments in my ear. The
sensations built up inside me quickly, soon reaching an unbearable
level. I couldn’t cry out when I climaxed because I had momentarily
stopped breathing. A minute later after a frenzy of thrusting he
gave an enormous shudder and cried in my ear with pleasure, pulling
me around to face him, kissing me frantically.

We lay on the bed together for
twenty minutes afterwards, not speaking, dozing lazily, arms and
legs loosely entwined.

“Can I see you again next time I
return, Tilly? I’m usually over here two or three times each year
during the whaling season.”

“I’d be heartbroken if you
didn’t, Meili,” I said, leaning on his chest and kissing him.

“What about your boyfriend?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve
cheated on him with you, but I don’t understand why I don’t feel
guilty or ashamed. It felt so right to sleep with you.”

He laughed. “It sure did to me!
But now I’ve broken Heller’s number one rule. Twice. What do you
think he’ll do to me if he finds out?”

“Well, let’s just say you’d
better put him at the top of your list of people who want to kill
you.” He didn’t seem bothered by that, and I suppose that after
years of your life being threatened, you might grow a little
laid-back about it.

We showered, dressed and went
down to the buffet for a late breakfast. Today he wore a
gold-coloured Fred Hollow’s Foundation t-shirt and black jeans.
When we’d eaten, we walked to the police station to make our
statements, only to find another media pack waiting for us outside.
We looked at each other and he shrugged, silently denying that he
had tipped them off. Maybe someone in the police had?

The reporters were even more
feral than they’d been at the courthouse and he slid his arms
around me protectively as we were pushed and jostled, no care taken
for our injuries. We struggled slowly through the press. A
microphone whacked me on the head and some jerk trod on my foot.
One of the camera guys shoved against my leg wound and I cried out
in pain, shoving him back viciously. It began to get out of hand
when a couple of uniformed police, returning to the station from a
job, asserted some order and cleared a path for us. With their
solid bulk and officious faces flanking us, Meili turned to the
media and gave a short but poignant statement, paying respect to
his lost friends. He answered a few questions before we made our
way into the station, ignoring the other questions the reporters
shouted out.

I hoped, with my toes and
fingers crossed, that it wouldn’t be my brother Brian who
interviewed us. I presumed the cops were treating this case as
homicide and he was a homicide detective, but it would be more than
awkward considering my role in his marriage breakup. Thankfully my
prayer was answered and a short, gray-haired, practical, stocky
woman and a lanky, dark-skinned man introduced themselves as the
lead detectives on the case.