Heller's Girlfriend (4 page)

Sid stared blindly out the
windscreen for a moment, remembering the moment. I thought back on
a similar experience when I’d witnessed Heller slipping into a
fighting reverie, pummelling a man to unconsciousness – a man who
just happened to be my brother. It had been a terrifying
experience.

“After twenty minutes of full-on
fighting, we were all exhausted. I was on my knees, Clive could
barely see out of two black eyes and Heller was bruised and
bleeding everywhere, panting like an animal, but still standing.
Then he pulled out a switchblade from his pocket, smiled at us both
through his busted lips and said, ‘let’s really get this party
started’.” He stared out the windscreen again, into the darkness.
“I’ll never forget the way he said it. It was so . . . strangely
cold. Almost pleased. Then I realised that he was enjoying himself,
would never stop until we were both dead. We were only hired to
rough him up, not to be killed. That was when I surrendered and
after I did, so did Clive. I wasn’t letting either of us die for
that bastard, Kirnin.”

“Oh wow,” I said softly. “What
next?”

“Heller shook our hands. Can you
believe it? Told us we were the most worthy opponents he’d faced
for a long time. Told us we shouldn’t do any more work for Kirnin,
but should team up with him instead. Told us he wanted to open his
own security business when he had a bit more money under his belt
and were we interested?”

“Obviously you were.”

“Yep. Never looked back. He
moved out of the tiny flat he was renting and we all moved in
together, into the house he had before he bought his current
building. Heller found us jobs at the security business where he
was working and we all worked hard, saving every cent we had to
open up
Heller’s
.”

“So you and Clive are
part-owners of
Heller’s
?”

“Nope. Heller wouldn’t touch our
money. He’s done it all himself. We’ve always just been employees,
like you.”

We pulled into the Warehouse
driveway and Sid activated the automatic door. He drove down to the
first basement and parked the 4WD amongst all of Heller’s other
personal vehicles. The business’ fleet vehicles were parked in the
bottom basement below.

I thanked Sid nicely for the
ride and was about to alight when he gently grasped my forearm. I
turned, eyebrows raised in query. His face was full of concern.

“Tilly, you need to know that
Clive is very attached to Heller.”

I stared at him, unsure where
the conversation was going.

“He’s very loyal. He’ll do
anything
Heller asks him to do.” He sighed heavily. “We had
a hard childhood. Our old man was an abusive drunk – physical abuse
I’m talking about, not the type that poor Daniel suffered through.
He beat us up badly all our lives, until we grew bigger than him.
We had to leave home in a hurry when we were fifteen after Clive
smashed the arsehole into a coma. At the time we were glad to
escape the violence, but we only found life even more violent on
the street.” He laughed, but this time it held no amusement. “We
were big, ugly kids and now we’re big, ugly men, so we found work
easily enough with the wrong kind of people. We soon learned that
we were good at shaking folk down for their debts – even poor,
vulnerable people. Even elderly women.”

He was quiet for a beat.
“There’s nothing quite like finding yourself threatening to break
the legs of a crying seventy-year-old grandmother. Someone on a
pension who was forced to borrow money from a loan shark and
couldn’t meet the rip-off repayments. Not someone who borrowed the
money because she was a gambler or drinker or anything bad like
that, but just to feed and clothe her grandkids after her daughter
overdosed. Or even worse than threatening her – threatening to
break one of her little grandkids’ legs while they bawled and wet
themselves in fear in front of her.”

His silence was longer. “But
that’s what we did because we’re talented at intimidation. People
were scared of us and hated us for it. And in truth, we hated
ourselves for it, but we thought that’s all we were good for.
Heller was the first person in our lives to treat us like . . .
humans, I guess. Not just brutes and not just weapons, but
humans
with emotions and dreams and hopes. His friendship
and support has meant a lot to both of us. The difference is though
that I can see the flaws in the man, but Clive can’t. He worships
Heller blindly.”

“What are you trying to tell me,
Sid?”

He sighed again and wouldn’t
meet my eyes. “He’s very loyal. If Heller asked him to rough
someone up or make someone . . . disappear . . . one day, he’d do
it without thinking twice.”

My heart suddenly started
thumping.

Sid squeezed my arm. “I just
wanted you to know that.” He tried to smile. “I like you, Tilly.
You’re a sweet girl, and I think that you’re very good for us all
here, especially Heller. But I don’t think you’ve quite realised
who you’ve become involved with yet. And I’m worried . . .”

I waited a few moments for him
to continue before I prompted, “Worried about what?”

“Heller’s a possessive man. And
I’ve never seen him take such an interest in a woman before, like
he has with you. Just . . . just be careful about him. And be
careful about Clive. That’s all, I suppose.” He met my eyes briefly
and I could see that he wasn’t joking. “I shouldn’t be saying any
of this.”

Without another word I let
myself out of the 4WD and virtually fled upstairs to my little
flat. I needed a shower.
Especially
after hearing all
that.

I swiped open my front door to
catch Daniel and Niq sitting on my lounge, feet on my coffee table,
watching my TV and eating my food.

“Guys!” I remonstrated. “What
are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be in my place unless I
say you can.” It was one of the first things I’d insisted on after
coming to live in this all-male environment, finding their tendency
to treat my home like a public space disconcerting.

They appeared shamefaced, but
not enough to convince me that they really meant it.

“We’re eating your leftovers,”
confessed Daniel.

“They’re yummier than what
Daniel can cook,” said Niq indistinctly, busy stuffing leftover
vegetable lasagne into his mouth. I wedged myself on the lounge
between them, and looked from one to the other.

“So, when I’m not here, you two
sneak into my flat and raid my fridge?”

Daniel shrugged. “Sometimes.
Depends how long you’re away.”

“You never have time to make us
dinner any more,” pouted Niq, making me feel guilty.

I was very close to both Daniel
and Niq and I tried, but didn’t always succeed, in keeping time
dedicated to them. They didn’t realise of course, that I always
deliberately made extra of every evening meal, having noticed a
long time ago that my leftovers kept mysteriously disappearing from
my fridge. Only Heller knew, having surprised me one evening
gathering an unusually large amount of food for just one person
from the collective pantry he maintained for us. I’d sheepishly
explained what I was doing and why, and he’d regarded me with his
normal look of amused and affectionate tolerance, shook his head
and departed in silence.

“I want you both to scram right
now because I’m tired, but I promise I’ll make dinner for you
tomorrow night. All right? Come back then.”

They reluctantly agreed and
left, leaving me to clean up their dirty dishes before I hit the
shower and gratefully fell into bed, asleep within minutes.

Chapter 3

The next day I gave myself a
leave pass, not being assigned to any new jobs after being so
ignobly dumped from the Elvis gig. Clive had turned cold, flat eyes
to me when I’d gone down to the security section to check on the
day’s assignments, his face stony. I’d been about to volunteer to
fill in for anyone who’d called in sick, but his unimpressed,
crocodilian glance had me turning tail and scuttling away without
even opening my mouth.

So instead I spent the morning
industriously cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, washing and mopping in
my flat before ringing Mum and my best friend, Dixie, both asking
when were they going to see me again?

More guilt.

I wandered down to the office to
check my email at lunchtime to find Daniel alone, swinging back on
his chair with his feet up on his desk, munching on a sandwich and
laughing at something on YouTube. Suspicious, I checked quickly to
make sure it wasn’t anything related to me before ruffling his hair
into a mess.

“Tilly! Piss off!” he
complained, slamming his chair to the ground and immediately
stalking to the bathroom to use the mirror to rearrange his stylish
locks. I followed him in and hugged him around his lean waist from
behind, looking over his shoulder at his reflection, cheek to
cheek, watching while he fixed his hair. We were the same height,
so my chin rested comfortably on his shoulder.

“You’re so pretty, my Danny
darling,” I teased.

His eyes shifted to mine in the
mirror. “So are you – a pretty big pain in the arse.”

I laughed. Nothing he ever said
could upset me. He was simply the loveliest person I’d ever met and
I adored him unconditionally. I smiled at his reflection and
squeezed him, kissing his neck. He smelt nice.

After a few more moments of
pretending to be angry with me, he smiled back showing his terrible
sweet crooked smile, the long scar that marked the left side of his
face preventing him from smiling evenly. Even so, it was an
appealing smile, just as everything about him was appealing –
gentle, considerate, loving. Able to look after himself, and others
too when needed, but not an alpha male and not wanting to be one.
And that made a nice change in a business full of
testosterone-laden goliaths.

His brown eyes grew serious.
“You know what? I think we should go shopping this afternoon.”

The levity left our conversation
instantly.

“I don’t know . . .”

“You have to go back there
sometime.”

“Yes, but every time I go there,
something bad happens.”

“It’s just a shopping centre.
You’re giving it more significance than it deserves. It’s only a
location – it’s not evil or good.”

I sighed. He was right. Ever
since my accident, I hadn’t returned to the shopping centre where
I’d first noticed the car that had been following Niq and me. I was
afraid to, starting to think of the place as intrinsically evil.
Daniel had been trying to lure me back there, rationalising that it
would help me finally push that terrible episode in my life to the
background. And that said a lot about his affection for me, because
Daniel was very self-conscious of his scars and disliked going out
in public. The fact that he was willing to do so for me,
encouraging me to go, meant a lot to me.

“Niq’s happy to shop,” he
cajoled, our eyes locked together in the mirror. “It’s important
for him too.”

He knew how to exploit my weak
spots. I sighed again. “Okay! Okay! This afternoon.”

When it came time to leave, I
let Daniel drive. I hadn’t driven much at all since the accident.
The few times I’d forced myself into the driver’s seat, my hands
had been slippery with sweat on the steering wheel and my breathing
too laboured to make it a comfortable experience for me or my
passengers. Heller patiently assured me that my confidence in
driving would return in time, but I had my secret doubts.

The trip to the centre was
uneventful, the walk from the carpark into the mall even more so. I
began to relax a little, releasing the breath that I hadn’t even
realised I’d been holding as we made it safely inside. My hand
clutched Daniel’s so tightly that he grimaced in silent
suffering.

We shopped in some of the
specialty stores, the guys loading up on consumer goods as usual,
me not finding much of interest as usual. Apart from a few feminine
products, Heller supplied me with all my other necessities,
including food and clothes. He also had an extensive book and DVD
library, so I had little need to buy any of those either. So with
him taking care of all those things, I found it hard to think of
much else that I wanted to buy, my long years of poverty as an
aspiring actor teaching me frugality. Extra time in each day was
the one thing I really needed and you couldn’t buy that in any
shop.

We wandered into the large
department store that anchored the shopping centre.

“Hey look, Tilly! You’re wearing
the same clothes as the shop assistants,” laughed Niq.

I looked around in dismay. He
was right. I was wearing black trousers and a pale green buttoned
shirt and so were all the assistants, the pale green of their
corporate colour very similar to that of my shirt.

“Oh, no!” I groaned. “I didn’t
think of that when I dressed.”

“You have great taste in
clothes, Tilly. I hear the department store employee look is big
this year,” smiled Daniel, elbowing me. I pulled a face and elbowed
him back, harder. But deciding that there was nothing I could do
about it now, I looked around me, trying to make up my mind where
to browse first.

“I’m going to look at bras,” I
declared finally, immediately causing the other two to scurry away
to other sections, muttering vaguely about meeting up with me
later.

I dawdled at the lingerie
section, pondering whether or not to purchase the flimsy pieces of
lacy nothings I’d spied. Will would undoubtedly appreciate the
treat, but the price tag was exorbitant considering the small
amount of material involved.
What would Heller do if I turned up
in his bedroom wearing these one night?
I speculated idly to
myself with a smile. But when I thought of what he probably
would
do, I had to move on to another rack quickly, knowing
that fantasy would have to wait until I wasn’t in public.