Heller's Revenge (41 page)

Gayle arrived in a flurry not
long afterwards and to my disgust, I could see her eyes light up as
she took in the two injured men. She immediately jumped to the
conclusion that they’d had a fight over her. She was just the type
of woman who would find two men almost beating each other to death
as a romantic gesture and something to be cherished, rather than
the abhorrent act of brutality it really was. I threw her a sour
look, and in return she smiled at me in a sweet, but catty, way as
if she was the victor in some imaginary competition between us.

She sat next to Brian and fussed
over his injuries, showing cloying, and almost verging on
inappropriate, affection towards him. I think she would have
screwed him right there and then if they hadn’t been in public. He
lapped it up though, perhaps thinking that he’d proven himself a
man to her by fighting with Heller. And after a couple of hours, it
was obvious to everyone that there would be a rapprochement between
them in the near future. I only hoped Brian made her beg for it
like the bitch she was.

Just as the dawn sunlight weakly
streamed through the windows of the waiting room, a doctor emerged
to tell us that Dad had been given the all-clear, but that he would
need to be careful in the future and avoid any unnecessary shocks.
Her gaze travelled slowly and inquisitively over our bruised faces
as she spoke. Nobody bothered to explain, but she was probably
thinking that we looked like a family in which Dad would be exposed
to unnecessary shocks every day of his life.

Mum, Brian, Sean and I were
allowed in to visit him and I was shocked at how gray he appeared.
But he was breathing steadily and all his vital signs were
satisfactory. There was nothing we could do for him and the doctor
advised that he needed to rest but would be released later in the
day. Sean left separately. Gayle said she’d drive Mum and Brian
home in her car. I hugged Mum tightly.

“I simply don’t understand what
happened today, Tilly,” she confessed. “Why would Brian attack Mr
Heller like that? And the language! I hope Mr Heller doesn’t think
we are all insane. I just don’t understand.”

Maybe one day Brian would tell
her, but I certainly wasn’t going to. We waved them off and Gayle,
her arm solicitously around Brian’s waist, gave Heller a
surreptitious wink on the way out. He didn’t even notice, but I did
and glared at her so ferociously that she averted her eyes and
scurried out without glancing back. We returned wearily to Heller’s
vehicle.

“When do you want to talk about
this?” he asked me.

“Never. I want to forget the
whole thing ever happened,” I replied with a sigh, closing my
eyes.

“I’m sorry I hit you,
Matilda.”

“I shouldn’t have stepped in
between the two of you. But you were going to kill him. I could see
it in your face. You really frighten me sometimes, Heller.” I
opened my eyes and looked at him. “Would you have stopped if I
hadn’t interrupted you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is it over now between you and
him?”

“As far as I’m concerned it
is.”

“You wanted to fight him, didn’t
you? You provoked him on purpose.”

“Yes.”

And I knew then that there was
nothing more to say on the matter.

Our appearance caused a stir
back at the Warehouse. Well, maybe not mine so much because I was
covered in bruises every second week, but I gathered from the small
commotion that erupted at the sight of him, that Heller wasn’t
often seen in such a beaten-up state.

“Geez, Boss!” exclaimed one of
his men. “What does the other bloke look like?”

“Worse,” was all he would say,
striding up to my flat with me. I tried to shut the door in his
face, but he pushed his foot in the gap, and it didn’t take much
muscle from him to push it open. I gave up and let him come in.

“I want to make sure you’re
okay,” he insisted, gently feeling my face again. I stayed still
and let his long, slender fingers probe my facial bones, staring at
him accusingly and biting my tongue mightily to stop myself from
complaining about the pain he was causing. “Nothing’s broken, but
you’re going to be sore. And then there’ll be the bruising too.
Hope you weren’t planning on any more media appearances for a
while.”

I stared at him some more, not
amused.

“Matilda, don’t look at me like
that, please. I’m sorry. It was an accident.”

I pulled an icepack from the
freezer and flopped down on my lounge, placing it on my face and
closing my eyes. He took the hint and left.

Heller was on the receiving end
of a lot of stick from his men when they discovered that he was
responsible for my latest bout of facial bruising. He endured the
jibes with silent patience and didn’t try to deny it or to explain
or excuse himself, or to blame me for getting in the way. On the
other hand, I bragged to everybody that I was responsible for his
injuries and that I’d give him even worse next time if he ever
dared to raise his hand to me again, which drew a reluctant smile
from him. I found his eyes on me frequently after that day,
regarding me with grave regret and sincere remorse.

The following Saturday on his
way out himself, he dropped me off at Will’s place. It was the
first time I’d seen him since I’d started the assignment with Meili
and I was as nervous as hell, not sure of my feelings towards him
anymore. But as soon as he opened his door and leaned on the
doorway, smiling at me with affection, his brown eyes warm and
welcoming, I knew my feelings hadn’t changed. He opened his arms
and I stepped right into them. He led me by the hand down the
hallway to his bedroom where he left me in no doubt that his
feelings for me were also as strong as ever.

Afterwards, muscles relaxed and
soft with pleasure, I rolled on my side to face him. “Will, we’ve
never really talked about it before, but do we have an exclusive
relationship?”

My question made him
uncomfortable and he sat up, leaning against the bed head, pulling
the sheet up to cover himself.

“Will?” I looked up at him
questioningly.

“I’ve had some other dates while
we’ve been together, Tilly. We just don’t see each other often
enough for me to consider us to be in a proper relationship. We’re
lucky to see each other once a week. And you’re on assignment for
long periods. And even when I do see you, there are so many rules
about it that it’s like dating at high school again.”

Well, that was news to me. I sat
up then as well. “How many other dates? And by dates do you mean
that, or is that just a euphemism?”

He squirmed under my
inquisition. “I’ve slept with some other women.”

I couldn’t have been more
shocked. “
When?
While I was working for that IT guy? Just
now when I’ve been on assignment? When I was in hospital after the
accident?”

Anger rose up in me. There I’d
been, feeling guilty about my short fling with Meili when Will had
been putting it about liberally the whole time I’d been seeing him.
I was incredibly hurt.

He looked down at his hands, not
answering, which was answer enough. “I thought you were sleeping
with Heller. I thought it would be okay with you.”

I looked at him sharply. “I’ve
never
slept with Heller, I told you. He’s my boss.”

He shrugged unapologetically.
“You’re very close to him. He’s an extremely good-looking man. He
loves you. What’s a man to think?”

“I think he should believe that
what his girlfriend tells him is the truth.” I couldn’t hide the
snarkiness from my tone.

“I’m sorry, Tilly.”

“Do you really love me, Will? Or
are you just using me for sex?” I asked him bluntly. “Because I
believed you when you told me that you loved me.”

“I do love you! I do want you to
move in with me so we can have a proper relationship. I want to be
in an exclusive relationship with you.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Can we be exclusive from now on
then? I’ve always thought of you as my boyfriend, right from the
beginning when we started going out. I’ve always thought we were
exclusive.”

“Of course we can, Tilly. But
are we able to spend more time together? That’s the big issue. I
mean, the sex is hot, but we can’t have a real relationship if we
never see each other. For me, it has to be more than sex. I’m ready
to settle down.”

“I’ll try as hard as I can, I
promise.”

“Okay, consider yourself an
official girlfriend then.” And he kissed me. It was as though he
was bestowing some kind of honour on me. I didn’t appreciate the
gesture because I’d always thought I’d had that honour in the first
place. “Let’s organise that weekend away. Soon.”

I agreed and laid back and let
him screw me again, losing myself in the pleasure. But the whole
conversation had rubbed some of the shine off our relationship. I
know I wasn’t really in a position to criticise him about sleeping
with other women, but I meant it when I said we’d be exclusive from
now on. I did want to be his girlfriend. I did have feelings for
him.

Chapter 27

“Had a nice time?” Heller
enquired as I did up my seatbelt. He had picked me up from Will’s
place as usual.

“Yeah, it was nice,” I said in a
subdued voice.

“Something the matter, my
sweet?”

I thought about telling him what
had happened between Will and me, but my phone rang before I could
answer him. It was Brian, almost cheerful with suppressed
excitement.

“We’ve caught him, Tilly!”

“Oh my God, that’s wonderful
news! How did you catch him?”

“He went underground pretty
effectively and nobody was telling us anything. It was so
frustrating. But he stupidly ran a red light this afternoon, was
pulled over by a traffic cop who called it in and got the red
alert. The fucker realised he was in trouble and took off,
abandoning his car and his girlfriend and little daughter. The
traffic cop gave chase and brought him down.”

“I’m so happy, Brian.”

“Me too. We’re interviewing the
bastard as soon as he’s processed for the traffic violation. Can
you come down to ID him?”

“Now?” It was very early in the
morning.

“Sure, if you’re free.”

“We’ll be there as soon as
possible.” I hung up and turned to Heller. “They’ve caught Meili’s
murderer. Brian wants me to make an ID on him. Can we head there
now, please?”

He did a u-turn and sped off
towards the police station without a word, lucky enough to find a
car vacating a street parking spot. He skilfully manoeuvred the
Mercedes into the space and we alighted. I asked for Brian at the
counter and he came out after a while, smiling from ear to ear. I
had almost forgotten just what a sweet smile he had, it had been so
long since I’d seen it. I wondered if it was capturing Meili’s
murderer or his reconciliation with Gayle that caused it. He
ushered us to the back offices, Heller making it perfectly clear
that he was going to accompany me, whether Brian liked it or not.
The two men ignored each other, a crackle of hostility still
apparent between them.

The suspect was being held in
one of the interview rooms with film equipment for recording
interviews. There was a pane of one-way glass between it and a
small viewing room. Brian ushered us into the viewing room and we
could see clearly into the interview room. A man with curly brown
hair sat at the table drinking a can of Coke, alone in the room
except for a uniformed cop guarding him.

“It’s him,” I said straight
away, not even the slightest bit of doubt crossing my mind. “I had
a good look at him when I was chasing him. He turned around to
check on me and then I saw his face again when we tussled on the
ground. Also, it’s definitely the same man that’s in my
photos.”

And I gave Brian a huge hug,
feeling very emotional again. “Thank you so much for catching him,
Brian. I feel now that I’ve done everything I possibly could to
bring Meili’s murderer to justice.”

Heller handed me his hankie
without a word and slid his arm around me, pulling me close and
kissing me on the forehead. I smiled up at him gratefully and
leaned against him, taking comfort from him as usual, dabbing my
eyes and hoping my mascara wasn’t running everywhere.

“He’s denying everything of
course, but the evidence is fairly overwhelming. Don’t forget about
the court case, Tilly. You’ll have to testify,” Brian said, eyeing
off Heller’s affection towards me with distrust and disapproval. He
addressed him for the first time, in a patently hostile tone. “Why
don’t you keep your sleazy hands off my sister?”

“Why don’t you mind your own
business?” Heller responded in a cool, amused voice. “Do you hear
Matilda complaining about my hands?” And deliberately provocative,
he ran his hand up and down my arm caressingly, possessively,
leaning forward to kiss me on the forehead again, his eyes locked
on Brian, a taunting smile playing on his lips.

I shrugged Heller’s arm off
angrily, not appreciating being used for his own cruel amusement
and heaved a weary inner sigh. Two alpha males together – it was
never going to be a comfortable relationship, especially now they
had some history. But this was entirely the wrong time for rivalry
to flare up again. Heller merely smiled at me. He’s so arrogant
sometimes.

“Can I stay to watch you
interview him?” I asked Brian, wanting to change the topic and
reduce the antagonism in the room.

“No, you fucking can’t,” he
snapped, back to his usual self. “It’s not public entertainment,
it’s police work. What you can do now is leave.”

And he pushed us out of the room
and out to the reception area again. We took the hint and left,
heading back home again.

“Matilda, you did a very good
job on that assignment. You did everything short of actually
catching the man for the police, and I know you almost did that as
well. I’m very proud of you,” Heller said as we drove.