Heller’s Decision (36 page)

“What’s the matter, Niq? Is something
bothering you?”

“
Yes,” he said, his eyes growing misty.
“You’re so nice to me and I love you a lot, Tilly. But I’ve done
something bad and it’s been bothering me ever since.”

Dread filled my heart. “What have you done,
sweetie? I’m sure we can sort it out.”

His face crumpled. “You’ll be angry with me.
You won’t like me anymore.”

I jumped up to cuddle him. “I’ll
always
only not just
like you, I’ll always love you. Now, what’s the matter?”

“
What you said the other day about Heller
probably eventually dumping you – I don’t want that to happen. I
just want you two to be together forever.”

“Like I said, sweetie. Sometimes
relationships don’t go the way you want them to.”

He looked at me with big, moist,
remorseful eyes. “The other day
when we went to the shopping centre and I was with you in your flat
all night, when you were in the bathroom, I put some of that potion
in your wine.”

“
Oh.” I couldn’t think of anything else to
say.

“
I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. It
was wrong. I’ve been so worried you’d have a reaction or something.
I haven’t slept or eaten since. I
drugged
you, Tilly. You might have died. I know you were
drugged before and nearly died.” He started crying.

I hugged him to my breast and smoothed
down his hair, ruining his locks. For once he didn’t complain. “Oh,
hey, hey. It’s okay, Niq darling. You can see I’m fine.”
Well,
mostly
, I thought.
Heller hadn’t been in a gentle mood last night.

“I’m sorry,” he sobbed.

“
Niq, how many drops did you put in my
wine?”

“
Ten, like the instructions said. I
carefully read the instructions, honestly.”

“
I believe you, sweetie. But how did you
find the vial? I hid it where nobody would look.”

“I was hungry. I found it in one of your
kitchen cupboards.”

I took his chin in my hand. “You did
something you must never do again, because it’s wrong. But it’s
good that you recognise that. And in the end, it’s turned out all
right. I had some weird experiences yesterday that you’ve helped to
explain.

He hung his head. “I’m sorry.”

I laughed gently. “We’ll just mark this up as
another adventure for me, shall we?”

He peeked up at me through his fringe.
“Really?”

“Yes, really. Now, go on with you. Off to the
office. You promised Heller you’d catch up with your schoolwork, so
you better make sure you do. He won’t forget.”

“
No, h
e won’t.” At the door, he turned to ask, “Are you going to
tell Heller?”

“No way. You didn’t tell on me for the
driving incident the other day, so I’m not going to tell on you
now. What’s done is done.”

“
What’s done is done,” he echoed, a faint
smile on his lips. He looked down at his new (and very expensive)
shoes then up at me. “I love you, Tilly. Please never leave
here.”

“I love you too, sweetie. I don’t want to
leave, ever.”

His smile grew a little stronger. I heard
his steps growing fainter as he ran down the stairs. My first
action was to ring Liya again.

“
Make sure you watch over Meredith
closely. She has genuine skills
and that makes her dangerous,” is all I said before I hung up and
busied myself for another day’s work.

Despite running rather late and hoping
that the tolerance I’d experienced from Trent and Brady yesterday
would linger on to today, I took a detour to Heller’s office before
I drove to work. I needed to test something before I went out in
public.

“
My sweet,” he greeted when he spotted
me.
“Are you on your way
to work?”

“Yes.” I kissed his forehead and stood there
looking down at him. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Are you feeling anything?”

“
I’m feeling confused about what you’re
asking me.”

I whacked his shoulder. “Are you feeling an
overwhelming attraction to me?”

“Ever since I laid eyes on you.”

I whacked him again. “More than normal. Like
yesterday.”

“I wanted to ask you about that. It all seems
rather a blur to me when I try to remember. What happened? I know I
didn’t drink anything.”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“
You women are such mysterious
creatures.”

“God, look who’s talking. Could you be any
more mysterious?”

He pulled me down onto his lap. “You know
everything there is to know about my body at least.”

“
I certainly do. And I sure received a
triple dose of it last night.”

He smirked. “I would rate that as
an outstanding
performance.”

“Bragger. Forget outstanding, I could barely
stand when I got out of bed.”

“Ah, the sign of a good night.” He tipped me
backwards until I was forced to cling to his neck to prevent
falling off his lap and kissed me.

Daniel came in. “Heller, I just . . . oh
God! Do you two ever stop?”

I looked at him from upside down.
“Never.”

Heller tipped me further down, so my hair
dangled on the carpet and my legs waved in the air. The blood
rushed to my head and I giggled like crazy, always enjoying the
rare moments he was playful like this.

“
I’ll be late for
work,” I protested. “I have to organise a
foot-in-the-door story for Trent.”

He
hauled me upright again. “I don’t know what
means.”

“Of course you don’t.” I struggled to get off
his lap. “But maybe I’ll be the mysterious one this time and leave
without telling you.”

“You’ve always been a complete mystery to me,
Matilda.”

I tried to think of a witty comeback, but
my brain blanked on me. So I just blew
him a raspberry and on that dignified tone, I
left.

I entered the station cautiously, smiling
nicely at the two meatheads, ready to bless them with some of my
small talk.

“What are you looking at?” Meathead Two
snarled at me.

“
I don’t know. I can’t work it out,” I
snapped back, pleased that things were back to normal, but a little
stung by the sudden reversal of attitude. I mean, just yesterday he
wanted to give me extra gravy!

He raised his middle finger at me and that
warmed my heart and planted a smile on my face.

The potion’s effects were definitely
over.

Chapter 24

Trent raised his eyebrows and checked his
watch when I rushed in. “Oh, so you
do
still work here?”

“
Hey, I was here
yesterday,
” I said
indignantly.

Puzzlement creased his face. “Were you? For
some reason, I’m having trouble quite remembering yesterday.”

“
It’s better that way, believe me.” And
leaving him standing there, confused, I scurried to my desk to
start working.

He came over and leaned on my chair. “I
want to film that off-set story tomorrow. Find
me some shoddy tradesman we can ambush on
camera, but not anyone too big or intimidating. I don’t want to get
my arse busted.”

“
The
Fearsome Truthseeker, huh? No story too dangerous for Trent
Dawson?”

He preened his hair. “Just thinking of my
fans.
They’d miss me if
anything happened to me.”

“You have fans?”

“
Yes, I do, smartarse. And just remember
what happened when I was away
from the show after that maniac attacked us.”

“The ratings went up, didn’t they?”

He clipped me lightly across the back of
the head. “Just find me a dodgy, but wimpy, tradie.”

“Yes, sir.”

“
Hear that, everyone?” he shouted out to
the office. “Tilly calls me ‘sir’ because she respects
me.”

Everyone, including me, and eventually
Trent as well, laughed heartily at that and then got on with their
work. I spent the day flicking through news stories and the emails
we received from viewers, looking for the perfect story to showcase
Trent’s street cred.

At the end of the day, I poked my head
into his office. “How about a shonky mechanic ripping off his
female customers
with
overinflated prices and poor quality replacement parts?”

“Yes! Perfect,” he grinned. “Is he big?”

“
I looked up his website. He looks weedy
enough for even you to take on.”

“
Watch it, girl. We’ll arrange it all
tomorrow. I can’t wait to do a story out of the studio. That’ll
show all those other stations what real journalism is
about.”

“As long as it’s not dangerous at all.”

“
Naturally.
I don’t have a death wish.” He stood. “And
speaking of that, and thinking of Brady, let’s go to the studio. I
want to get ready for the show tonight.”

Brady wasn’t going to ask me out for
drinks tonight, glowering at me from under his jutting brows
every second we were in the
studio together. I was obviously back at the top of his shit list,
no longer one of the contacts in his little black book, if he even
knew enough women to have such a thing in his
possession.

After work, I hung out with Daniel and Niq
for the rest of the evening, forcing them to make me dinner
(with
free food from
Heller’s pantry). And though I fell asleep in his bed, Heller woke
me up later for some intimate time.

Afterwards, I
sprawled on his chest, contented and rather
exhausted.

“
Matilda, I have a meeting tomorrow with a
potential
new
client.”

“That’s good news. The more, the
merrier.”

“This one’s female.”

“
That’s even better. You’ve always wanted
to attract more female clients. What’s her business?”

“
Software development. She suspects some
internal espionage
is
happening because her competitors always seem to know about her new
planned releases. She wants some surveillance installed,
particularly on a couple of key staff members’
computers.”

“
Can’t blame her, but gee, I wouldn’t like
a boss doing that to me.” I shot him a sharp glance. “You haven’t
done that to me, have you?”

“
No, my sweet. Whatever you’re emailing or
viewing on the internet is your own private business.”

“
Sure,” I scoffed, no
t knowing whether to believe him or not.
He looked up at the ceiling for a while in thoughtful silence. “I
think it might help close the contract if I entertained her. I
received the impression from our phone calls that she’d be
receptive to that kind of extra attention.”

“
What do you mean?
What kind of extra attention?”

He turned on his side and regarded me,
reaching out to stroke my cheek. “Pleased her. Spent the night with
her.”

I flung his hand off my face and sat up,
unable to speak, my hand clutching my throat as if to coax down the
clogging lump that had suddenly appeared in it. “You want to sleep
with her?” I eventually managed to spit out.

“
I don’t necessarily
want
to, but I think I should. It might end up bringing
in some very lucrative ongoing surveillance work from her
company.”

“You don’t have to sleep with clients in
order to run a good business, Heller. Millions of people around the
world run successful businesses every single day without feeling
the need to fuck their clients.”

“
Matilda, your language, please. I’m not
doing it for my own gratification.”

“Don’t you have any faith in your ability to
bring in clients otherwise?”

He sighed with patronising patience. “Of
course I do, but this could help seal the deal much more quickly.
It makes good business sense. It will be a very profitable
contract. Good for the business. Good for all of us.”

“
Fuck the fucking business!” I shot out of
bed, avoiding his restraining arm, scrabbling for my clothes. “What
about us?”

“What do you mean?”

“
Us!
You and me! This!” I waved my hand at his
bed.

“
We will still have this. Why wouldn’t
we?”

“
No, we fucking well won’t if you do this!
Are you insane? If you think for one second I’ll hang around
waiting every night for you while you’re off fucking other women
–”

“
Matilda, please mind your language.
There’s no need to be so crude. And you’re exaggerating. I’m only
talking about one night and one woman, not multiples.”

“
Fuck you, Heller! Just . . .
fuck you!
Go off and do what you want.
You’re going to anyway. Who cares about our relationship? Obviously
not you!”

I
stormed out of his flat, kicking every piece of furniture
in my way and slamming the door, already crying my eyes out. I
didn’t even care about the cameras or that all the men would see me
so upset. I locked the door to my flat and wedged a chair under the
doorknob so nobody could come in. I slunk on my lounge staring at
the floor in . . . I couldn’t even find a word for the emotion I
currently experienced. It felt as though my heart was being torn
apart into at least five pieces.