Heller's Revenge (25 page)

I was very touched. These were
hard men, not usually willing to express their feelings.

“Thanks guys. That’s really
sweet.” I left and continued on down to the gym.

~~~~~

True to my word, I went back to
check on the boy after lunch. There were a different pair of men
with him this time. I was pleased to see that he was untied and
ungagged, hunched into a corner of my lounge, the remains of a meal
on the coffee table.

I pulled up a chair and sat in
front of him.

“What’s your name?”

“Marcus,” he said shyly, making
eye contact only briefly.

“Did you have enough to eat,
Marcus?” I spoke to him kindly, wanting him to relax for a few
moments.

He nodded.

“Would you like something to
read?”

He nodded again. I went upstairs
to Heller’s place to collect some of Niq’s books and comics,
thought for a minute, then made my slow way downstairs to Daniel’s
place to also grab some clean clothes, before bringing them
back.

“Thank you,” Marcus said
subdued.

“Do you want to take a shower? I
have some clean clothes for you to change into.”

He nodded gratefully. I asked
one of the men to clear the bathroom of everything, except soap, a
clean towel and face washer.

“You’ll have to leave the door
open though. There will be a man at the door, but he won’t be
looking at you. Don’t take too long.” I gave him Daniel’s clothes
and he went into the bathroom. I cleaned up his lunch plates. After
ten minutes he came out again, looking slightly less miserable.

He sat down again in the corner
of the lounge and observed me shyly. “What injuries did you get?”
he asked.

“I fractured my pelvis and broke
my arm and some ribs. I also had internal injuries that meant they
had to operate on me. I’ll never be able to have any children now.
You’re only young, but I’m sure you can understand what a big deal
that is for a woman, Marcus.”

He nodded gravely, blushing
slightly.

“Niq was shot in the hand, broke
his leg in five places and received a terrible hit on the head that
injured his brain. That’s a very serious injury, Marcus. We didn’t
know if he would ever come out of the coma he was in. How old are
you?”

“Sixteen.”

“Niq’s only fourteen. That’s too
young to have such terrible things happen, isn’t it?”

Another nod.

“Neither Niq nor I did anything
to your father, Marcus. I don’t know him. I’ve never met him. I
don’t even know his name. But he was willing to kill me and Niq,
just to force my boss out of business in this city. Does that sound
fair to you?”

He shook his head, his eyes
fixed on mine.

“Well, now you know why we are
all so angry at your father. I hope you can understand that a
little better.” He nodded again.

I left him to the men, promising
to come back before I went to bed. I carefully and slowly made my
way upstairs to Heller’s place and spent the afternoon lying in
bed, talking to people on the phone, letting them know I was out of
hospital and updating them on my recovery. I had a long talk with
Will and he apologised profusely for making me so angry, and
confessed that his greatest fear had been that I wouldn’t pull
through and we had parted so acrimoniously.

“The whole thing has made me
determined to never waste a minute with you again. So when can I
see you again, Tilly?”

“I don’t know, Will. Heller’s
not going to let me go anywhere for a while.”

A short but meaningful silence.
“He’s in love with you, you know.”

“No, he isn’t,” I scorned.
“Don’t be ridiculous. He’s too cold-blooded to love people.”

“I have no doubt about it at
all. You didn’t see him when you were in hospital. He was
absolutely shattered, as if everything that ever mattered to him
was being ripped away. He only left your bedside to go to
Niq’s.”

“How did you find out I was in
hospital?” I asked, changing the subject. I was always
uncomfortable talking with other people about Heller’s and my
relationship.

“Heller rang me, which was
pretty decent of him. He even let me into the hospital room.
Although he sat in the corner glaring at me the whole time.” He
paused and said bitterly, “I can’t compete with him, Tilly.”

I sighed with utter weariness.
Why was he dumping this crap on me now? I was too injured and too
tired to deal with his emotions. Couldn’t he understand that? I
tried though, as a good girlfriend ought to. “Will, what do you
mean? You’re not competing with him. He’s my boss and you’re my
boyfriend. Different roles. There’s no competition.”

“I want to believe you, Tilly,
but I keep thinking about you and him.”

“Forget Heller and start
thinking more about you and me. Do you know what I really want? I
want tenderness, sweetness and love. I’ve had enough of violence
and ugliness. When I can, I want to go away with you for a few
days, somewhere secluded and luxurious, where you can hold my hand
all day, cuddle me all night, and shag my brains out every morning
and every evening! How does that sound?”

He laughed. “That sounds
wonderful. It’s a date. Now hurry up and get better so we can
go.”

Before I retired for the
evening, I limped back down to my flat to check on Marcus. He was
wearing his dirty clothes and was tied to the chair and gagged
again.

“Let him go! It’s not necessary
to keep him tied up. He’s just a kid,” I insisted angrily of the
two new men guarding him. One of them was Rumbles.

“We will, Miss. We just had to
livestream him to his parents for ten minutes. We want him to look
neglected and maltreated, don’t we?” Rumbles explained
patiently.

That made sense. “I can’t
believe his parents haven’t done what Heller’s asked. He’s their
only child,” I exclaimed in disbelief.

“I’m not surprised. His father’s
a hard bastard. I worked for him for a while. Lots of very dodgy
people work for him too, I can tell you. He used to treat his staff
like shit. Him upstairs is a saint compared to that bastard.”

Rumbles untied Marcus and let
him sit on the lounge again. ‘Him upstairs’ walked into my
flat.

“Any word?” Rumbles asked
him.

“No.” Heller stood over Marcus,
who shrunk back into the lounge, staring up at him with frightened
eyes. “We’re going to have to up the ante.”

“What do you mean?” I asked,
suddenly afraid.

“I’d like you to leave now,
Matilda.”

“No! Not until you tell me what
you mean by that.”

“Go please. I’ll be upstairs in
half an hour.”

“I’m not going anywhere!”

Heller regarded me coolly, not
pleased with my disobedience, and nodded his head at Rumbles. That
giant man advanced on me, sweeping me up in his powerful arms. I
began to struggle fiercely, kicking my legs and bashing him on the
chest.

“Let me go, you big gorilla! Put
me down now!”

“
Stop it, Matilda!
”
Heller shouted at me. “You will hurt yourself again if you carry on
like that.” Then to Rumbles, “Take her upstairs to my place and
stay there with her until I return. Be gentle with her, please.
She’s still injured.”

Rumbles nodded and carried me up
the stairs into Heller’s flat, lowering me gently onto the lounge.
I jumped up immediately and hobbled for the door. He beat me to it
and stood up against it, staring me down, arms crossed.

I paced around for a while.
“What’s he going to do to Marcus?”

Rumbles cut me a pitying glance.
“Rough him up a bit. Nothing serious. Just enough to look bad, but
not do any real damage.”

“I can’t believe that Heller
would beat up a kid.”

“All’s fair in love and war,
Miss. Personally, I can’t believe that someone would force a woman
and a kid to crash their car at high speed on purpose.”

I looked at him remorsefully,
tears filling my eyes again. Oh boy, I was turning into a human
fountain. “I’m sorry for the gorilla comment, Rumbles. I didn’t
mean it.”

His face softened at my unshed
tears and he shrugged good-naturedly. “I’ve been called a lot
worse.”

I continued to pace for a while
before Heller returned. He dismissed Rumbles and went to the sink
to wash his hands.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing much. I merely wanted
some blood for show.”

“Can I go and check on him?”

“No. We’re streaming him right
now. And don’t disobey me on this, Matilda. I’m warning you. You
can see him tomorrow morning. He’s all right. He took it like a
man.”

That night in bed, I slept right
on the edge of his bed, as far away from Heller as possible. He
didn’t seem to care, falling asleep immediately. His even breathing
was annoying me as I lay there, eyes wide open in the darkness. How
could he just fall asleep like that after what he’d done to that
poor innocent boy? What kind of a monster was he anyway?

It was no good; I couldn’t
sleep. I got out bed and watched a late night movie in his living
room, the volume turned down low. It was an extremely dull black
and white war movie from the 1930s, where everyone sounded as
though they had plums in their mouths and not much happened. It did
its job though and I finally fell asleep, cramped uncomfortably in
the corner of the lounge.

I was roused some while later by
gentle shaking.

“Come back to bed, Matilda.
You’re cold.”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“Try again, my sweet.”

I let him lead me drowsily back
to his bed. He wrapped his arms around me and I nestled against him
and tried to forget about everything except his regular heartbeat
and the fact that Niq would be coming home in a few days. And
eventually I was lulled back to sleep.

Chapter 17

I woke up very late again. I was
alone and stretched every muscle slowly. Some were still painful,
but I generally felt that I was on the road to recovery. I had a
shower, a quick breakfast and went downstairs to my place.

I opened the door with
trepidation. I vaguely recognised one of the men, perhaps from
Clarrie’s award ceremony, but not the other. Marcus was sprawled on
the lounge, reading one of Niq’s books, dipping into a packet of
peanuts. I went and sat next to him, taking his book away and
turning his face towards me. His lip was busted and he had fresh
bruising around his nose and right eye.

“Are you all right, honey?” I
asked unhappily.

“Sure,” he said, and tried to
take the book back. I held it away at arm’s length.

“Were you scared?”

He sighed impatiently. “I was
reading that! It’s a good book. I’m going to buy it when I leave
here.”

“You weren’t scared?”

“I was a bit, but Mr Heller
explained everything to me last night. The more hurt I looked, the
faster this would be over and I could go home. He said I had to be
a man to get my father to start acting like a man, and to stop
trying to run him out of business.” He looked at me unconcernedly.
“I agreed with him. My father is a bully. Picking on little kids
and women! And now you can’t even have your own kids. It’s not what
a real man would do. I showed Mr Heller that I could be a real man.
Not like Dad.”

“What did Heller do to you?”

He shrugged, bored with our
conversation. “Stuff. A few punches. It was okay. He didn’t want
to. He said he was sorry afterwards and that I took it like a man.
He shook my hand. He’s pretty cool.”

I slumped on my lounge and
looked in front of me blindly. What the hell was going on in the
world today? A man could beat up a kid and the kid
admired
him for it, while I stayed up all night worrying?
What the
hell?
Marcus took the opportunity to seize the book from my
limp hand, turning away trying to find the page he was reading
again, like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Don’t try to figure it out,
Miss. It’ll just give you a migraine,” sympathised one of the
man.

“You’re not wrong,” I rued,
shaking my head and standing up.

Heller came in then, a very
satisfied expression on his face. “Marcus, good work last night.
Your father has finally capitulated. I’m meeting him in an hour to
negotiate your release.”

The mood in the room lifted
immediately.

“It worked!” Marcus exclaimed
excitedly. “I’m going to be free.”

“Hopefully. If your father can
be trusted at all.” He turned to me. “Matilda, are you up to coming
with me to that meeting?”

“What about me?” demanded
Marcus, “I could go with you. I know how to deal with him.” We all
turned to stare at him. He looked abashed. “Oh right, I forgot. I’m
the hostage.”

“I’ll come with you, Heller.”
Straight back into the fire
, I thought.

It took a while for me to dress,
not because of the pain, but because I couldn’t make up my mind
what to wear. What does one wear to a hostage release negotiation
meeting?

I finally decided on a very
sober navy blue suit with prim cream blouse and sensible heels. I
was shocked at how much weight I had lost over the last few months.
My clothes were now swimming on me. When I looked at myself in the
mirror, it wasn’t a comforting sight. I was too thin and too pale,
and no amount of expensive clothes and skilfully applied makeup was
going to make any difference to my appearance.

Heller normally ran down the
stairs with energy, but I needed to take them easy, and he was
considerate enough to help me down the four flights. When we were
in his Mercedes and driving out of the Warehouse, I glanced at
him.

“Marcus has a lot of respect for
you, even though you hurt him. I’m struggling to understand
that.”

“You’re soft-hearted, Matilda.
Not everyone is. Marcus is young, but he’s a pragmatist. Once I
explained the options, he chose the most expedient one. It was a
good choice.”