Heller’s Decision (44 page)

Dear Tilly

Hope this
finds you well. We’ve never forgotten what you and Bick did for us
and have paid homage to you in our own little way. We rushed this
into production, excited by the concept.

Enjoy! (And
don’t blush too much, sweet girl!).

Love Barb and
Roger xxx

I picked up the
DVD, my eyes about to pop out of my head. “
Security
Swingers
,” I read aloud in a hushed voice. I was almost too
afraid to watch.

I decided to
brave it. After all, it couldn’t be
that
bad, could it? I
made a strong cup of coffee and curled up on my lounge to
watch.

The main
character was a well-endowed female security officer (Barb), who
wore a very skimpy uniform, very low-cut tight black shirt, midriff
showing, tight black mini shorts showing half her butt, and black
high heels.

“That’s not a
practical uniform,” I complained to myself. “How’s she supposed to
keep anything secure wearing that? She couldn’t even run in those
shoes.”

Her work
partner was a well-endowed man (Roger) in a black shirt slashed to
his navel and an extremely tight pair of black leather trousers
that would have severely restricted lower body blood flow and
impeded the movements of any normal security guy.

I wasn’t really
sure of the plot, but it seemed to involve the two of them taking
off their clothes frequently and indulging in certain physical
recreational activities that would have got your sorry arse
instantly fired, or even worse, if you worked at
Heller’s
.
Besides the female security officer getting it on with her
colleague, she also managed to bang every client she had, sometimes
with her colleague, sometimes on her own.
Something
, I
thought ruefully,
that would also get you fired from Heller’s
business, especially if your name was Tilly Chalmers.

I discerned
some side-story about a well-hung villain who liked to make violent
adult movies. He almost had his evil way with the female security
officer before the male one, and the couple’s boss, a giant blond
man who apparently didn’t mind participating in a threesome with
his staff in his spare time, rescued her.

I couldn’t wait
to turn it off and eject it from my player. Visiting Miss Petunia
seemed positively wholesome after watching that. A light knock on
my door had me hurriedly shoving the DVD under one of my cushions,
afraid it was Niq visiting. I opened the door cautiously before
relaxing. It was Daniel.

He frowned.
“What’s the matter? You look a little green.”

I retrieved the
DVD from under the cushion and handed it to him. He read the blurb
on the back and turned to the front again to eyeball the cover,
laughing. “You have to admit, that’s pretty funny.”

“It’s not funny
at all. It’s embarrassing and appalling.”

He laughed.
“It’s a tribute. You’ll be able to show it to your family.”

“As if! My
mother would keel over if she ever saw anything like that. And as
for my father . . . I dread to think what this would do to his
heart.”

“Fair enough.
You should let Bick watch it though. He is one half of the . . .
um, er . . . inspiration for this extraordinary work of art.”

“No way! He
might get ideas and that will just get him into terrible trouble
with Heller.”

He waved the
DVD in my face. “Speaking of Heller, is the boss mentioned in the
blurb anything like him?”

“He sure is,
but his accent is shocking. Heller would be furious. Imagine him
with a weird hybrid Cockney-German accent – in other words one
nothing like his.” Daniel threw the DVD onto the table. “I honestly
don’t know why these kinds of movies can’t have better acting.”

“Ha! People
don’t watch them for the acting,” he smiled. “And I guess it’s hard
maintaining your acting face when you’re having huge things
inserted inside you.”

I shuddered. “I
would be happy to never watch someone having huge things inserted
inside them again.”

“You better not
look in the mirror when you’re getting it on with Heller then.”

“Oh, ha, ha.
You’re hilarious.” I fell on to the lounge with a huge sigh. “What
do you think he’s doing while he’s away?”

He shrugged. “I
have no idea. It was as much a surprise to me when he told us as it
was to you.”

“I saw that on
your face. Your surprise was genuine. Clive’s wasn’t. Do you think
he knows where Heller is? Do you think he’s in contact with him? I
tried to ring Heller last night and the phone company said his
mobile was out of range.”

He shrugged
again. “Again, I have no idea. If he does know where Heller is and
is in contact with him, he’ll never tell you. The man’s a clam. A
hyper-loyal clam. Heller is his . . . I don’t even know how to
describe it.”

“His idol?”

“Not quite.
Maybe his redeemer, his saviour? He will follow Heller anywhere and
serve him unconditionally. He’s the perfect soldier in that
respect.”

“Sid told me
something similar a while ago. It almost sounded like a warning
from him.”

Daniel regarded
me warily. “Sid told you that?” I nodded. “Those twins are tight.
It’s hard to imagine Sid saying something like that about
Clive.”

“Sid told me to
be careful.”

Daniel jumped
up, flustered. “I’m really uncomfortable talking about this, Tilly.
I’ve said too much. I feel like I’m being disloyal to Heller
discussing him like this. I’ve done many dishonourable things in my
life, but disloyalty to Heller . . .” He shook his head. “I can’t
do that. He saved my life and he saved my soul. He gave me a home
and a family. I owe him everything, but especially my loyalty.” He
looked down at his scarred wrists for a good thirty seconds, before
flashing me a brief, tight smile. “I guess I can understand Clive
in that way. Heller is my saviour too.”

“You’re all so
close. I’m really the outsider in this family,” I said with a touch
of bitterness. “I’ll never really belong.”

Daniel smiled
fully, leaning down to cradle the back of my head and kiss my lips.
“You are the key to this family, Tilly. You make Heller happy like
none of us can, and I truly believe you bring him peace for
probably the first time in his life. He may have received physical
pleasure from screwing around so much and avoided inconvenient
emotional attachments by doing that, but,” he patted his chest,
“there was nothing in there. He felt nothing for those women. Now
he feels a mountain load of emotions because of you. And I think
they’re growing every day you’re together.” He half-smiled. “I’m
not very good at saying this mushy stuff, but that’s honestly how I
feel. You’re more important to him than you realise.”

“That’s really
sweet, Danny. For someone who’s not so good at mushy stuff, you do
a damn good job.”

“I’m just
describing what I’ve noticed. We have emotions about your
relationship as well as you.”

That threw me.
I’d never thought of that concept before. But when I recalled how
upset I was about how Dixie had treated Bick, I guess that a person
could be emotionally invested in other person’s relationship,
whether it was to keep them together or break them apart. And
they’d lived with Heller for so long, it was only natural they
cared about any new deep attachments he forged.

Daniel hadn’t
even noticed he’d dropped a self-awareness bomb on me and continued
speaking. “Niq’s desperate for you to marry Heller and live happily
ever after, while Clive’s probably the opposite. Sid’s very neutral
about the whole matter, but is very happy to have you in the
family.”

“What about
you?” I asked, trying to digest all this.

“Me?” The smile
faded from his face. “I don’t want Heller to hurt you and I don’t
want you to hurt Heller. If you no longer want to be together for
whatever reason, I want it to be an mutual, amicable separation
where you continue to live here with us.” Anguish flooded his face.
“I couldn’t . . .” He took a moment to compose himself, taking a
deep breath. “I couldn’t handle an ugly breakup between you. It
would tear me in two. It would be impossible for me to have to
decide between two people I love so much. I suppose that’s why I
spoke so sharply to Heller when he upset you so much and wouldn’t
just leave you alone.”

I jumped up to
hug him. He squeezed me hard and we held each other, feeling each
other’s tears dripping on our shoulders, soaking through the
material of our clothes, dampening our skin. But I also felt a
weight of responsibility. I loved this beautiful, damaged man and
to think that me leaving here might push him over the edge that
Heller and I had literally saved him from a few months ago, would
haunt me for the rest of my life.

When we
separated, we gave each other small watery wry smiles.

“Harden up,
Tilly,” he said.

“Harden up,
Danny.”

“Good advice
for both of us.” He sniffed, wiping his eyes with his palms. “I
should go do some work. Before he took off, Heller left me a to-do
list as long as Santa’s. I’m going to need a couple of elves to
help me get through it. What are you planning on doing today?”

“I was going to
return to that store and try to convince the owner to give me an
interview. She seems like a bitch, but I can’t really be
fussy.”

“You do need to
eat,” he said with a touch of irony. He poked my waist. “Not that
you couldn’t survive for a couple of weeks on your own body’s
reserves.”

“Be quiet, you.
I’m just naturally curvy.”

“There’s
generous curves and then there’s an overabundance of curves.
Unfortunately, you have the latter, especially that bit hanging
over the top of your jeans.”

I looked down
at my slight muffin-top sadly. “I really need to go to the gym. But
Heller said . . . Hey! He’s not here. I can do whatever I want
now!” I stood for a moment, almost breathless, my eyes shining,
reflecting on the sheer wonder of that fabulous feeling of freedom.
“I’m going to use the gym again while he’s gone. He’ll never
know.”

“Tilly. Think.”
Daniel’s voice of reason broke through my euphoria. He didn’t need
to say any more. We looked at each other.

Of course
Heller would know. He knew everything that went on here. He’d
probably left special instructions about me during his absence. For
all I knew, there may be someone following me everywhere. The
thought repulsed me – I’d never signed up for that.

I made a couple
of decisions of my own. “I’m going to use the gym anyway. I’ll deal
with him when he returns. And I’m definitely going to visit Miss
Petunia.”

“I’m not going
to stop you. You’re allegedly an adult and it’s your neck on the
line. I was just trying to point out the obvious flaws in your
plan.”

“Thanks for
your support,” I said drily.

At the door, he
turned to me, his face serious. “Thanks for yours, Tilly.
Always.”

I dressed and
did my hair as nicely as possible, and for the second time that
day, I made my way to the garage. Problem – my car
still
had
no petrol. Geez – where was the magical petrol fairy when you
needed them? I raced down the stairs to find two
Heller’s
fleet vehicles parked in their bays. I badly wanted to use one, but
knew Heller would do a volcano on me if I took a 4WD needed by one
of his security teams.

Forced to wait
patiently, that’s exactly what I did – wait. And then I waited some
more. I was deeply engrossed in perving on a naked picture of
Dixie’s latest guy on my phone when I heard the unmistakable tread
of a couple of pairs of heavy feet descending. I hurriedly switched
off my phone, shoving it back in my handbag. The two men who
appeared eyed me askance.

“You all right,
Miss?” one asked.

“Yep, I sure
am,” I said, quite dishonestly. In truth I was rather bored.
Particularly of waiting.

The men climbed
into one of the 4WDs. I raced over to stop the driver from leaving.
“Are there any more teams coming down for the other car?”

“Nope. We’re
the last to leave for today.”

I would have
sung a song of joy, except I knew I didn’t have a great voice and
it wouldn’t be a treat for anyone. Instead, I casually loitered
until the puzzled men drove off and out of sight.

My next hurdle
–
and really it shouldn’t ever be this difficult to ‘borrow’ a
car from an unsuspecting owner
, I thought resentfully – was to
access the key. I knew from experience the precious key hung
tantalisingly close, but behind the locked doors of a strongbox
inset into the wall. It could only be opened with a swipe of a
Heller’s
staff card – the very thing I’d had to relinquish
to Clive when I’d been suspended.

I tugged
tentatively on the door. It was no surprise to find it locked and
unmoving. This was a security business, after all.

Maybe I
could crack the lock?
I thought optimistically, despite the
fact that I had no equipment or the first clue about how locks
worked. But I’d watched
Ocean’s Eleven
twelve times, so that
had to count for something. Unfortunately for me though, no amount
of fiddling in the lock mechanism with my emergency metal nail file
made those thrilling clicking noises happen. I needed explosives,
not something I normally carried around in my handbag.
I bet
Heller had some
, I thought, remembering his small armoury on
the floor above. Maybe I could . . .?

I gave myself a
mental shake. That idea was patently ludicrous. As if the armoury
would be more accessible to me than the key box. The armoury wasn’t
a place for being casual about security, and as I knew only too
well, Heller was a careful man. And anyway, what I knew about
explosives was even less than I knew about lock mechanisms. I’d
probably blow myself up – or even worse, the whole Warehouse.