Heller's Regret (7 page)

“The phone we found was out of order. And I
guess things just got worse after that.”

“Never mind. You’re home now. How did you get
home anyway?”

Oh boy. I was hoping he wouldn’t ask that. “I
didn’t want to speak to Clive and I didn’t know who else would be
here, so I rang Farrell.”

I felt him stiffen. “You should have rung
me.”

“I didn’t know you were home, otherwise I
would have.”

“I will thank him later,” he said neutrally.
“It seems to be something I’m doing a lot lately.”

“Maybe you should be here more.”

He avoided responding to that. “I have to
work now. When you’re very hungry again, I’ve left you a sandwich
in the refrigerator.”

“Thank you.”

“I don’t want you thinking about work for a
few days. Take some time to recover, regain your strength, and to
rehydrate. “When I think you’re ready to start working again, I
have a nice little assignment coming up. It would be perfect for
you.”

“What is it?”

“I’ll tell you later. But I’ll think you’ll
enjoy it.”

Right
, I thought, mentally rolling my
eyes. I’d heard
that
before and usually I hadn’t enjoyed the
job at all. But I would take advantage of the unexpected leisure
time and not think about work.

I sat around his flat in my pyjamas, drinking
water and watching daytime TV, not very motivated to do much else.
I was munching on the sandwich when his front door clicked open and
Niq came in.

I abandoned my half-eaten sandwich to rush to
him, hugging him tightly. “I missed you so much, sweetie.”

“I thought you were never coming home again.”
He squeezed my waist and felt my ribs. “It looks like you only
brought half of you back.”

I laughed and released him, returning to my
sandwich. He joined me on the lounge and caught me up on everything
that had been going on at home since I’d been gone. When I asked,
he assured me he’d been devotedly attending to his school work,
making me more than a little sceptical. After ten minutes of
continual talking – quite a talent he had – he stopped to take a
breath.

“Tell me what happened to you?”

“I don’t really want to talk about it right
now, sweetie. Maybe in a couple of days. It was pretty awful and I
need to come to terms with that.”

“Okay,” he said easily, and that was the
thing I loved about teenagers. They didn’t prod and pry into your
life like adults did.

I finished my sandwich and he raided Heller’s
fridge for food.

“Look what I found hidden at the back,” he
smiled, tossing me something small.

I fumbled and dropped it, bending over to
retrieve it. It was a chocolate bar. I raised my eyebrows. “For
Heller?”

He snorted. “I doubt it. I think he’d hidden
it as a treat for you.”

“Aw.” Warmth flooded through me at the small
gesture. “That’s so sweet of him.” I opened it and started
eating.

“Shouldn’t you put it back and pretend you
didn’t see it?”

“Nah,” I said, my mouth full of chocolate and
peanuts. “If I eat it, he’ll have to buy me another one.”

He gave that some consideration as he bit
into an apple. “Makes sense to me.”

We watched some mildly amusing talk show and
chatted inconsequentially.

“Tilly, I guess I understand you not wanting
to talk about what happened. It took me a while to tell you about
my past.”

“Niq, speaking of that, you never told me
what happened that day when you rang and I went to pick you up, but
was taken by Kirnin’s men before I could. I wanted to ask, but I
honestly thought you’d tell me by now. I thought we were close,
sweetie.”

He suddenly found something fascinating about
the floor. “I was too embarrassed to tell anyone. I only told
Daniel about a month ago.”

“You told Heller straight away though, didn’t
you?”

He looked up. “Course I did! I can’t keep
things from Heller. Look what happens when I do.”

“So what did happen?”

His face assumed an expression of misery. “I
went to meet that girl, even though I wasn’t supposed to. But she
didn’t turn up. Instead, a couple of bigger, older boys did. They
pushed me around and stole my wallet and phone.”

“Oh, Niq.” I held his hand and pressed it in
sympathy. “That’s terrible.”

“I don’t think she ever meant to turn up.
I’ve deleted her as a friend everywhere. I never want to speak to
her again.” He looked up with his big eyes. “You were right, Tilly.
You can’t trust anyone on the internet. You can’t trust anyone in
life except the people in this building.”

“That’s not true. I don’t want you to think
that way. There are lots of lovely people in the world and there
are some scumbags who’ll take advantage of anyone. As you get
older, you’ll learn to tell them apart.” I hoped that happened,
because I wasn’t confident I’d reached that stage yet. “One day a
sweet and genuine girl will come into your life.”

“Maybe.” He didn’t sound convinced. I
couldn’t blame him. Nothing in his life so far had been good, apart
from Heller ‘kidnapping’ him and bringing him here to join his
family.

He jumped up to rummage through Heller’s
fridge again.

“You’re not still hungry?”

“I’m hoping I might find another chocolate
bar hidden away in here.”

“Good luck.”

He returned to the lounge empty-handed and
disappointed. “He must think you’re pretty special. He wouldn’t buy
me chocolate.”

I smiled. “He knows what makes me happy.”

“It would make me happy too.” We watched TV
some more. “This show’s boring,” he announced.

“It’s okay.”

“You’d watch anything.”

“That’s true. Even the horrible movies you
and Danny love.” I leaned over to tickle him and he squirmed
against me.

“Stop it!” He suddenly grinned at me. “I
heard you slapped Clive in front of everyone.”

“I did, and though he deserved it, I
shouldn’t have done it,” I lied. “He’s my supervisor and I should
have more respect.” I had to at least
try
to set a good
example.

“Heller was really angry with him. The guys
could hear him yelling even though he shut Clive’s door. He’s not
going to be happy about that. Heller
never
gets angry with
him.”

“I know. I’m dreading going back downstairs
again. Luckily Heller’s given me a few days off. Hopefully Clive is
over it by then.”
Fingers crossed.

“You should visit Daniel. He’s dying to see
you, but doesn’t want to come up because Heller hasn’t said it’s
okay.” He grinned again. “I didn’t let that stop me.”

“You sure didn’t.” I messed up his hair. He
pushed me away and jumped up, protesting.

“If you’re going to ruin my hair, I’m
leaving. It took me ages to get it this perfect this morning.”

I stretched out my legs. “Tell Danny I’ll be
down there soon.”

I wasn’t in any hurry, and was slow about
returning to my flat to eat again and shower. My jeans, which had
been a little snug last time I’d worn them, swum on me. I needed a
belt to hold them up.

It had been a long time since I’d officially
been allowed into the main office, so it made me happy to walk
through the door knowing I wasn’t going to get my butt kicked out
again.

“Danny,” I said simply when I saw him.

“Tilly.” He jumped up and we hugged, not
needing to say a word. He was my darling, the only man I could
count on in this place not to be overwhelmed with his own
alpha-ness to the detriment of everything else.

“You’re so skinny. I guess I can’t make
wisecracks about your butt anymore?”

“Sorry to spoil your fun,” I said, tweaking
his nose. “I’m sure I’ll put it all back on again.”

I sat down at my old desk, tutting at the
sickly state of the pot plant sitting on it. “Do you think I’ll be
using this again, or will I just be hanging out with the man
mountains downstairs from now on?”

He shrugged. “Heller hasn’t used it for
anything else since you were banished, so it’s free. I don’t think
he wants you hanging around with those other guys too much.”

I turned on the computer and fired up my
email, groaning when I saw the hundreds of messages waiting for me.
“I bet most of these are junk mail.”

Not many of the emails interested me, except
one from Dixie. She’d attached a photo and her message was a
simple:
Good times!
Dreading opening it, and making sure my
monitor was carefully angled away from Daniel, I took the
plunge.

The picture surprised me in a million
different ways. Instead of a nude pic of her latest conquest, it
was a photo of her and a guy, fully clothed and out in the
sunshine, their arms around each, both smiling. Most unexpected. I
peered at the guy, fairly sure he was the one with whom she was
occupied the last time I’d seen her when she’d pushed me out of her
flat.
But that was ages ago
, I thought. He should have been
history by now. I tried to ring her, but was diverted to voice
mail. I hung up without leaving a message.

While I was online, I created an anonymous
account on a free email provider and sent Trent’s team a tipoff
about the boot camp. He might not run a story on them, but he might
and it was worth that opportunity to try.

The next few days were peaceful. Corby popped
by to speak to me. Heller had filled him in about my boot camp
experience and he’d done some preliminary research into it and the
company behind it. We went over my story in greater detail, him
interrupting my narrative now and then to ask for clarification or
more information about something I’d said. I told him the first
names of the women who’d escaped with me. I couldn’t help him with
their last names, phone numbers or addresses, which made me realise
how little conversation I’d had with them. Most of us had been too
tired all the time to spare much energy for socialising.

“Doesn’t matter. Heller’s printed out the
database of attendees for me,” he assured with a wink. “It contains
all sorts of useful information.”

“I’m not even going to ask how he managed
that.”

“Most of the time with him it’s best not to
ask for more explanation than absolutely necessary. That’s my creed
in life.”

Before he left, he told me that the legal
process would move slowly, and to not expect any result in a hurry.
He’d now instruct his minion to organise statutory declarations
from the other ladies. Heller had arranged for his men to collect
our luggage, personal items and cars from the boot camp.

“You have a minion?”

“I am master of the staff in the legal
department at
Heller’s
.”

“All one of them,” I smiled.

“Hey, don’t knock it. A megalomaniac has to
start somewhere.”

I spent the rest of my free time catching up
with my parents, watching DVDs with Niq on Heller’s big TV, and
eating. My nights were spent making love with Heller.

Our relationship had evolved. As though he’d
satisfied the burning lust he’d shown during our first months
together, he’d mellowed and softened over time. It was as if,
finally assured I would be there for him every day and night, he no
longer had the need to take me so greedily and so often.

Our lovemaking had evolved too. He was much
more tender, content with slower, loving sex, taking his time.
These days we rarely had the rough, urgent sex that characterised
the earlier part of our relationship. Some nights we didn’t have
sex at all, satisfied to just hold each other and kiss. Other
nights, I slept in my own flat if I was very tired or if he was
working late and would disturb me when he came home.

Apart from his absences for his special jobs,
what we had felt more like a real relationship every day. I
couldn’t be happier about that.

Chapter 6

The next morning I rose early, ready to
return to work and start this mysterious job at which Heller had
hinted. I tried on my work uniform, gratified to find that not only
did the cargo pants fit me, they were now too big. I had to use a
belt to hold them up. Clive had nothing to complain about
today.

In the office, I hummed to myself as I made a
coffee. I drank it with enjoyment while I spent some time tidying
and dusting my desk, topping up my stationery, and watering the
office plants, picking off their dead leaves. I couldn’t believe
how neglected they’d been during my suspension.

When Heller arrived, he beckoned me into his
office. I sat opposite him. It felt like the old days sitting
there, half-dreading, half-anticipating my new assignment.

“How are you feeling today, my sweet? Are you
up to going to work?”

I smiled and did a fancy gesture with my hand
to bring his attention to my uniform – something I’m sure he hadn’t
missed. “I’m dressed and ready for action.”

“I don’t think there’s going to be too much
action in this job. It’s a perfect way to ease yourself back into
work.”

He sketched out the assignment for me. An
elderly lady wanted someone to look after her grandchild while she
was in hospital for a week.

“Why she doesn’t get a family member to help?
It’s a lot of money to pay for some babysitting,” I pondered. “The
kid’s not psycho or anything, is it?”

“She told me she doesn’t have any other
family. I guess that’s why she’s looking after the child herself.
She’s quite elderly, in her mid-eighties. The child is about ten
years old. A boy. She said he’s well-behaved and quiet.”

“Sounds too good to be true. Too simple.”

“Don’t be so cynical, Matilda. Not all of
your jobs have to be dangerous. This is a nice little job for you.”
And if I were honest with him, I’d have to admit to still being a
bit tired, despite my days of rest. An easy job was exactly what I
needed.

He was fully occupied today, not able to
drive me over to my assignment himself. I went down to the ground
floor to the security section to see if I could cadge a lift with
anyone, lugging my bag and my handbag over my shoulders.