Heller's Punishment (25 page)

“It’s all
right. It’s only stinging a little.”

“You’re an
endless worry.” He turned to the men. “Listen up. This next run is
the dangerous part. We have a lot of open territory to cover and
we’re right in the line of fire. Chalmers, you’re not wearing any
bulletproofs, so I want someone running beside you.”

One of the men
volunteered and I smiled at him gratefully.

“We’re heading
for that building over there. Everybody ready? Good, let’s go.”

We moved out
into the open again. The man running with me had his arm through
mine to ensure I kept up with his pace. Fortunately this time, no
gunfire aimed in our direction.

We passed the
point where we were closest to the office building, the danger spot
for us, when there was an enormous explosion that knocked us all
flying in different directions. I lay on the ground, dazed and
disoriented, covered in dust and wreckage, my ears ringing with the
noise of the blast.

A swarm of men,
some
Heller’s
, some cops, rushed forward from their cover
behind a building to pull us to safety. I wasn’t given a chance to
stand. The man-mountain who helped me just scooped me up in his
arms and ran back behind the building, gently placing me on the
ground. When my hearing cleared, I noticed distant gunfire at the
back of the ruined office and some faint shouts.

I anxiously
looked through the crowd of
Heller’s
men and spotted Simon
rousing from his unconsciousness, propped up against another wall.
I crawled slowly over to him.

“Dear God,” he
moaned, flinching when he touched his bump. “Oh, my head. What
happened? Who are all these men?”

“The cavalry
has arrived,” I said and sat next to him, holding his hand.

“Your
boss?”

“Yep, and some
cops too. Those bikies just blew up the office building. When we
were running past it. It knocked us off our feet.”

“I guess that
explains why we’re both covered in dirt and dust.”

“Yeah.” I
brushed ineffectually at my shift, wondering if my face was as
dirty as his.

There was a
sudden commotion near us. One of the bikies had made a desperate
break from the cops for freedom, not realising he was turning a
corner into a throng of testosterone. He was tackled, secured and
handed over to the cops within minutes, every man there wanting a
piece of him.

“Wow!” said
Simon, eyes huge. “I’ll make sure I don’t make a run for it around
here.”

“You’re safe.
You’re one of the good guys,” I said, and we smiled at each other.
I gently brushed some dust from his face and hair, before giving
up. We needed showers.

“I can’t
believe how many men are here,” said Simon.

“Looks like
Heller brought everyone with him. Hey!” I yelled out to the nearest
one. “There’s another bikie locked in the small shed over there.
Someone better get him too. I don’t think he’s armed. I took his
rifle.”

“Thanks, Miss,”
he said, before jostling with a crowd of other men to reach him
first. Faced with an army of big burly blokes, he didn’t put up any
fight and the men handed him over to cops as well. I overheard one
of the cops confirming that they’d now captured all five of them,
the other three bikies being caught at the back of the office after
a brief battle.

I stood up
shakily. “We have to get everyone out of the bunker. They’ll be
scared, hearing all that gunfire.” I approached the closest cop. He
shot me a wary look, taking in my dishevelled appearance. “Do you
want to speak to some people who are running a meth lab on this
property?”

His eyes lit
up. I drew him and his colleagues a mud map of where the bunker
was, and described the Head Farmer and Jye with as much detail as
possible. Simon anxiously reminded them that there were a number of
innocent Farmers and children in the bunker as well and we watched
after them as they left. I would have gone with them to show them
the way, but I was wobbly on my feet, and didn’t trust myself to
walk.

I was about to
sit back down again, feeling rather faint, when I spotted Heller
walking towards me, Clive following close behind him. He was hard
to miss, even in this crowd of gigantic men, with his great height
and spiky blond hair. He pushed through the men with single-minded
determination, his eyes locked on me. I stood there, staring at
him, and waited for him to reach me before stepping silently into
his open arms.

He crushed me
tightly and I forgot about everything that had happened, tuning out
everybody around us. I breathed in his scent, and focussed on his
heartbeat. I was too overwhelmed with emotion to speak. I didn’t
know for how long we hugged – it could have been minutes, it could
have been hours. When I trusted myself to speak, I pulled back and
looked up at him.

“Are you still
angry with me?”

“Oh, Matilda.
No, no, no. Of course I’m not. I stopped being angry with you about
five minutes after you left, when I realised how much I already
missed you.” He kissed me on the top of my dusty head, briefly
pressed his forehead against mine, and glanced down at me, his
gorgeous half-smile playing on his lips. “What on earth are you
wearing, my sweet? It’s hideous.”

I laughed,
looking down at my dress. “Isn’t it just? It’s homemade. My clothes
were confiscated.”

He stroked my
cheek gently. “You’ve lost so much weight and you look so
tired.”

“Communal
living doesn’t agree with me, I’m afraid.”

“What have you
done to your arm?”

“Farrell thinks
I was winged by a bullet. It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt very much.” He
called over one of his men who grabbed a first aid kit out of one
of the vehicles and temporarily patched me up. Then he hugged me
tightly again.

“I didn’t know
where you were, Matilda. They lied to me about everything. I’m so
angry with myself for letting you drive away with a complete
stranger. All alone here with a bunch of strangers.”

“Not all alone.
I had Simon for support. We went to university together.” And I
introduced them, Simon struggling to his feet and shaking Heller’s
hand, wincing at his strong grip.

“Thank you for
looking after Matilda for me,” said Heller sincerely.

“Matilda? I
don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call her that before. In fact,
if I remember correctly, she absolutely hates that name,” commented
Simon, shooting me an amused look. He was rapidly recovering from
his ordeal.

“I like it,”
said Heller, which was the closest he’d ever come to an explanation
for his stubborn refusal to call me Tilly.

The Farmers,
shaken and dismayed at the destruction of half of their beloved
compound, trickled over to us to check on Simon. He was obviously a
popular member of the community, and from what they said to him, it
appeared that there’d been more than a few Farmers upset about him
being refused entry to the bunker. Some of them went so far as to
jeer as the cops frogmarched the Head Farmer and Jye over to the
patrol cars to be taken in for questioning. Other cops prepared
themselves to search the property.

Heller stared
at the Head Farmer and Jye as they walked past us, his face a cold
mask. “I would have preferred to deal with them myself.” And though
his voice was neutral, I had no doubt for an instant about what
he’d do to them.

We watched
until they were driven away, then I turned to stare sadly at the
smouldering ruins of the office building.

“My iPod, phone
and tablet were blown to pieces in that blast,” I said sadly.

He smiled at
me. “I’ll buy you new ones, Matilda. Let’s go home. Daniel and Niq
have been frantic with worry about you.”

“I have to say
goodbye to Simon.” He was talking to a few Farmers, a happy smile
on his face. He turned to me when I approached and gave me a huge
hug.

“The other
senior Farmers have just asked me to take over as the Head Farmer
and to help rebuild our community. It’s such an honour for me. Of
course I agreed.”

“Simon, that’s
wonderful news! I’m so happy for you. You’ll do a fantastic job and
it’s just what this place needs after those two.”

“Tilly, I know
this was a difficult time for you, but I’m glad things finally came
to a head. Now The Farm can move forward into the future the way
that’s right for us.”

“Take care,
Simon. And good luck with everything. Maybe you should concentrate
on recruiting more young women?” I smiled.

“Maybe I
should. Maybe it’s time,” he smiled back. We hugged again. He spoke
into my ear. “It’s pretty obvious to me that your boss loves you. I
don’t know why you doubt it.”

I demurred, as
I usually did whenever anyone brought up that sticky issue.

Simon took my
chin in his hand and looked deeply into my eyes. “Don’t be afraid
of love, Tilly. And don’t be afraid
to
love.”

“I’m just
afraid of . . . Actually, I don’t know what I’m afraid of.”

“Matilda,”
Heller called. “Time to leave.”

“Bye, Simon.
And again, good luck with everything.”

“Come and visit
one day?”

“Sure, I’d love
to,” I said, genuinely pleased by the invitation. We hugged once
more and I left him to comfort and calm his Farmers. He had a long
and tiring night ahead of him.

“Farrell, you
can come with us too. You have that early morning job tomorrow,”
Heller ordered and handed over the clean up task to Clive. I
thought about going back to the dormitory to collect my belongings,
but as everything I really treasured had been confiscated and blown
up, I decided I didn’t have the energy to rescue a couple of pairs
of jeans and some t-shirts.

I glanced back
at Simon as I followed the two men to Heller’s Mercedes. He was
surrounded by Farmers, nodding and pointing over at the buildings,
as if he was already discussing the reconstruction of his
community. He looked up and smiled, giving me a last wave. I waved
in return, then resolutely turned around and climbed into the front
seat of Heller’s vehicle with no regrets.

Chapter
17

I used the long
trip home to tell the two men everything that had happened since
I’d driven from the Warehouse with Jye three weeks ago. I tried to
be professional about it, but almost broke down a few times when I
talked about the hot box and my total frustration when I saw them
driving away. His face grim, Heller’s hands clenched tightly on the
steering wheel until his knuckles were shiny white. It was probably
lucky for the Head Farmer and Jye that they were in police custody
tonight.

I couldn’t stop
yawning while I spoke, totally drained of energy. Nothing sounded
more like heaven to me than the thought of sleeping in my own soft
bed in my own lovely quiet flat, surrounded by people who cared
about me.

In return,
Heller told me how he’d soon calmed down and regretted my
departure. But by then I’d moved out of phone range and he hadn’t
been able to contact me – nobody had. The landline number Jye had
given him turned out to be false and he’d also given Heller a false
address for a property in entirely the opposite direction. After
investigating further, he’d discovered that even the licence plates
of the Kombi were faked.

He faltered
momentarily when he described his feelings on realising that he’d
sent me away with an unvetted stranger, with no idea of my location
and no idea what Jye’s real agenda had been. His worst nightmare
had come true – he didn’t know where I was.

When he rang
and emailed me repeatedly and received no reply, he went ballistic.
Niq and Daniel were beside themselves with worry, blaming Heller
for his lack of care. I gathered from his tone that things had been
tense at the Warehouse for the last few weeks. He told me that
Daniel had even cancelled his date with Anton because he was too
upset to go.

“
No!
” I
cried, disappointed.

“Matilda, he
didn’t care. None of us cared about anything, except finding
you.”

“I tried
everything to contact you. I had no phone reception, no internet
access, no vehicle, not even a bike. I was lucky to be able to send
that one email to you. Seriously, Simon and I had decided to walk a
hundred kilometres into the nearest town when the bikies arrived. I
would have left earlier, especially after the punishments, except
for Simon.”

“Really? He
kept you there?” he asked, and his voice held that bland tone that
masked his emotions.

“I couldn’t
leave him with them. They didn’t trust him and I worried what
they’d eventually do to him.”

“Your email
gave me the first clue. We were able to trace the IP address. I had
to ask your brother for help to force the internet provider to give
us the real address for The Farm.” I knew that would have been
difficult for him and cost him a lot of pride to ask Brian for help
about anything. “Matilda, I have to admit that when I received that
email from you, I was so touched.”

“Why?” I was
puzzled. It had been brief, incomprehensible and not intimate at
all.

“Because even
though you were in danger and in a hurry, you took the time to add
a couple of kisses at the end. That meant a lot to me. It was my
talisman that I’d be able to find you safe and sound.” He smiled at
me.

I laughed a
little. I couldn’t even remember doing that. “I really missed
talking to you, Heller. You were right. Sending me away made me
appreciate what I have. I missed you so much.”

“That was a
foolish thing for me to say. You’ve always appreciated what you
have,” he said quietly. “But I’m sure you didn’t miss me as much as
I missed you.”

He shot me a
glance that sent a thrill up my spine, deep into my core. I changed
the subject, only too aware of Farrell listening in the back seat.
And
that
was a whole awkward situation in itself.