Heller's Punishment (41 page)

“Come here.”
And with that, he pulled me close to him, where I eventually sank
into a dreamless sleep, my head resting on his chest.

At about three
in the morning I woke, my arms and neck aching. I needed more
painkillers, carefully easing myself out of bed so as not to wake
Heller. Despite my encroaching pain, I stood for a moment looking
down at his slumbering face. He slept deeply, everything about him
relaxed. That was testament to his complete trust in me because I
was sure he normally slept like a cat – one eye open and one ear
pricked.

I reached out
to stroke his spiky, but bed-rumpled, hair. His hand shot out to
capture my wrist with unnecessary force.

I gasped.
“Heller, you’re hurting me!”

He blinked
calmly, but his voice showed a little edginess. “I’m sorry, my
sweet. You should be more careful.”

“About
caressing you?”

Our eyes locked
together and we sent each other a hundred messages that neither of
us was equipped to interpret.

“I’m sorry,” he
repeated. “Why are you up?”

“I needed more
painkillers.”

“Go back to
bed. I’ll get them for you.” And when he’d done that, we settled
back in bed together.

He soon fell
asleep again, but sleep eluded me. Restless and waiting for the
painkillers to kick in, I slipped out of bed again and wandered
around my dark flat, not needing any lights. I thought of Daniel
and wondered how the party had gone. I walked across the hall to
his door and rapped quietly, hoping he’d be up, freshly home after
a great evening.

Nothing.

I knocked
louder. A sleepy Niq opened the door, trying to peer at me through
mostly-closed eyes.

“Sorry to wake
you up, sweetie. Is Daniel home yet?”

Niq nodded his
head and stumbled back to his bedroom, leaving the door open. He
probably wouldn’t even remember answering it in the morning. I
closed the door, thinking that must be a good sign. Daniel was
having such a great time that he didn’t want to come home.

Back in my
flat, I recommenced my wandering, spending a minute at each window,
staring out at the deserted streets and buildings the view offered.
When I reached the window that showcased the entire concreted front
yard of the Warehouse, I paused. Someone was sitting on the low
brick fence that delineated the Warehouse’s meagre front patch from
the footpath.

It was
Daniel.

The second I
noticed his slumped shoulders and curved spine, I flew down the
stairs to the entry.

“Daniel,” I
said from the front door, not wanting to startle him.

He half-turned
his head towards me in a listless motion that sent my alarms
racing.

“Danny
darling,” I said, approaching him. When I sat next to him on the
fence, it was all I could do not to exclaim loudly in shock.

He’d been
beaten. Badly beaten.

I placed my
hand on his arm. He didn’t look at me, kept his gaze ahead of him,
the blood on his face congealed into rivulets.

“Danny, wh-what
happened?” I breathed, not able to speak normally. Tears gathered
in my eyes already and I hadn’t even heard one word of his
story.

“The party,” he
said, his voice strangely unemotional, robotic. “Anton’s older
brother and cousins turned up uninvited. Not really the tolerant
types. Swaggering meatheads. They drank a lot and became obnoxious.
After a while they started in on Anton, calling him a fag, a
bum-boy, a limp-wrist, a pillow-biter, whatever. They pushed him
around. He took it passively, as if he was used to it. So did
everyone else. Nobody said anything. Nobody stuck up for him. And
he had this . . . weird submissive smile on his face. Like he was
trying to placate them by agreeing with them.”

He stopped and
stared ahead, not blinking. I squeezed his arm.

“I just
couldn’t stand by and watch, Tilly. Not after so many people did
that to me when I was a kid.”

“Danny.”

“So I stepped
up for him. Told them to leave Anton alone. That he was proud of
who he was. That he wasn’t ashamed to be gay.”

Another
silence.

“Danny?”

“Anton denied
it. Told them I was lying. Told them he wasn’t gay but I was and
that I’d come onto him. That I’d tried to . . . seduce him.”

“No.” My tears
were trickling in earnest down my cheeks now. I could only imagine
the end of this horrible story.

“That was smart
of him. It diverted their attention from him to me.” He stared
ahead for a while and then sighed sadly. “Nobody stepped up for me.
In fact, they all scrammed. I was left alone with . . . I don’t
know . . . eight, nine guys. All wanting a piece of the
deviant
who’d attacked their little punchbag, Anton.”

He was quiet
for so long, I thought he couldn’t continue. I prompted him.
“Daniel, what happened?”

“They all took
a piece of me, what else? Heller taught me to defend myself, but
not against so many men. They beat the shit out of me.”

“Let’s go get
them.” I could not believe those words tripped out of my mouth, but
I was angry. Burning with anger for Daniel, for this beautiful,
vulnerable, sensitive man who’d never hurt a soul in his life. A
man I loved so much.

“As they
punched me and kicked me, they reminded me just how ugly I am. What
a creep I am. That nobody would ever want me to touch them. That
Anton had only brought me along to the party for a laugh. That it
had been bring-along-a-freak-night.” He shrugged a careless
shoulder. “After the first five minutes of pummelling, I found it
hard to disagree with them.”

“No, Danny.
None of that is true.”

He stood up,
wincing as he did. “I’m so tired. I need to rest. For a long
time.”

There was
something about his tone that worried me. “Come to my place. You
can stay with me tonight.”

His crooked
smile was sad and bloodied. “I’ll be fine.” He cupped my cheek.
“You’ve always been a good friend, Tilly. I love you.” And he
leaned towards me to press his busted lips on my cheek.

And he sprinted
inside.

“
Daniel!
” I screamed. “What are you doing?”

I chased after
him. He bolted up the stairs, not stopping anywhere. At the fourth
floor, where our flats were located, he didn’t pause but kept
going. I detoured for one second to bang on my flat door, yelling,
“
Heller! The rooftop!
” I continued upstairs.

When I reached
the rooftop, chest heaving, Daniel was climbing onto the brick wall
surrounding our leisure space.

“No!” I shouted
and lunged towards him, wrapping my arms around the top of his
legs, furiously pulling him backwards off the edge. We landed in a
tangled heap on the floor.

He fought me
furiously. “Let me go. I can’t do this any more.”

“No, Daniel.
I’ll never let you go.”

The strain of
holding him was killing me, but I meant what I’d said. I’d never
let him go.

“Don’t make me
hurt you, Tilly darling,” he warned, tears in his eyes.

“Don’t make me
hurt you, Danny darling,” I replied, tears in mine.

“I don’t want
to do this, but you don’t give me any choice,” he said raggedly and
pressed his fingers down hard on terrible neck bruise I had. I
cried out in pain, loosening my grip on him.

He took
advantage of that to jump up and run towards the wall again. He was
climbing up on it, ready to plunge when Heller flew from the
doorway and flung his arms around Daniel’s waist, hauling him
off.

“No!” Daniel
shouted, kicking and struggling. “Let me go, Heller! Let me
go.”

Heller let
Daniel’s body slide down his until his feet hit the floor, grasping
him in a bear hug. Daniel fought furiously against his
restraints.

Apart from
Daniel’s cries of frustration, eventually slowing to sobs, all I
heard was Heller’s soothing voice as he hugged him back to
calmness. “Shh. It’s okay, my darling boy. It’s okay. Shh. We all
love you. You’re safe here. It’s okay. Shh.”

I watched on,
excluded from their closeness, feeling as though I’d been granted a
glimpse into their past when Daniel had been a troubled and
difficult teenager and Heller his patient rescuer. And right at
that moment I couldn’t have loved either of them more if I’d
tried.

When Daniel had
calmed down, we each took one of his hands and led him to Heller’s
bedroom. He lay still on the bed, emotionally and physically
exhausted.

“Matilda, we’ll
both stay here for the rest of the night with him,” Heller said,
his face tight and drawn. “You lie down with him now while I ring
the doctor.”

So I did, and
lay next to Daniel, wrapping my arms around him and moving closer
until we were pressed together.

“I’m sorry,” he
whispered, slipping his arms around me.

“I’m sorry
too,” I whispered back.

“What for?”

“That a
beautiful person like you has to live in such a world. I love you
so much, Danny. I don’t ever want to lose you.”

“I love you
too, Tilly. And please . . .” he faltered.

“And
please?”

“Don’t let go
of me tonight. Please. I don’t trust myself.”

“I’ll never let
go of you.” I started crying. I didn’t mean to, but couldn’t stop
myself. It had probably been one of the worst days of my life.

“Don’t cry,
sweetie,” Daniel said, rubbing my back, suddenly finding himself in
the role of comforter, murmuring soft words of consolation to
me.

Dr Kincaid,
who’d dressed in a hurry judging by his mismatched, misbuttoned,
crumpled clothes, burst into the room accompanied by Heller. Daniel
explained what had happened to the two men as the doctor patched
him up. Dr Kincaid made him take some painkillers laced with a
quick-acting sedative component. While that was happening, I went
back to my place to grab Heller’s and my phones. When the doctor
left, Heller and I lay on his bed, Daniel in the middle between us.
We all slept.

The loud
ringing of my phone rudely shattered my slumber. I fumbled around
for it, focussing my bleary eyes on the clock, the fact that it was
only six o’clock taking a while to sink into my befuddled
state.

I mumbled an
incomprehensible greeting.

“Is that Tilly
Chalmers?” asked a strident female voice.

I sat up.
“Yes.”

“My name is
Mada Grobetsky. I work for the same network as Trent Dawson. He’s
just advised the network head that he’s taking a month’s leave to
recover from his . . . accident. I’m taking over from him on his
show which means you’ll be working for me for the next month. I
need you here today to go over the stories planned for the coming
week. How soon can you meet me at the office?”

“I can’t today,
Mada.” I was too tired.

“Ms Grobetsky,
please! I’ll be your boss. Show some respect.”
Respect this!
I thought, flipping her the mental finger. She continued, “I don’t
do ‘can’t’, Tilly. I want to see you down here in thirty minutes or
you can start looking for another job.”

She hung up. I
sat there for a moment, reviewing my options. I could tell her to
drop dead, which meant that I would be out of a job and reliant on
Heller’s carnal appetites for my living. Or I could suck it up, go
to work and remember how bloody awful it is to slave away for a
bully. And wouldn’t
that
be a good life lesson reminder for
Tilly Chalmers who’d apparently grown a little too used to being
the boss’ pet? Plus there was still one very important
consideration and that was the puff story on
Heller’s
, which
was so crucial for the business’ survival. I couldn’t make Heller
suffer financially again because of me.

“Who was that,
Matilda?”

“My new boss.
Trent is taking some time off work.”

He glanced at
the clock. “Ringing you at six on a Sunday morning?”

“I have to be
there in thirty minutes or I’m sacked.”

“Impossible.
You need to rest.”

“Heller, I
don’t have a choice!” I started crying again. Why was everything so
horrible in my life lately?

He sighed.
“Don’t cry. I’ll drive you. Go get dressed. I’ll ask Sid or Clive
to stay with Daniel for the rest of the day.”

I smiled at him
through my tears. “Thank you so much.”

He shot me a
half-smile. “I expect to be amply rewarded later for such a good
deed though.”

“Goodness is
its own reward, Heller,” I said archly.

“Only
sometimes.” Our eyes fixed on each other’s and a lot was said
between us without one word being exchanged.

I scrambled out
of bed and downstairs, hobbling around on my sore feet. I dressed
casually as it was a Sunday, slipping on jeans, t-shirt and my
runners with pain. Heller rapped on my door five minutes later and
I limped after him to the basement.

“Do you think
Daniel will be okay?” I asked as we drove.

“No. How could
he possibly be? His trust has been abused time and time again by
people. I won’t let that happen to him any more.”

“What can we do
for him?”

“Keep him safe,
Matilda. Keep him away from the world.”

“I’m not sure
that’s the right thing to do.”

“It’s the only
thing to do.”

“Heller?”

“Hmm?”

“I’ll know
you’ll want to teach those men a lesson, including Anton. But
please don’t . . . go too far.”

He didn’t reply
for a while, his eyes on the road, his profile granite hard. “I’ll
do what Daniel wants me to do. It’s his grievance.”

“Please don’t
encourage him to seek revenge that way. It will darken his
soul.”

He turned and
regarded me coolly. “Is my soul dark?”

As dark as
midnight
, I thought, but was saved from answering by him
pulling up in front of the network office. He drew my mouth towards
his with a hand on the back of my neck, kissing me tenderly.