Heller's Girlfriend (10 page)

“I never knew you were such a
gold-digging harpy, Tricia. Why don’t you just drain the fucking
blood out of my body too? Would that be enough for you, you greedy
bitch? And all just because I fucked a few little sluts while we
were married! We all know the reason for that, don’t we, Tricia?
You’ve always been so fucking frigid, if everybody wants to know
the truth, and wouldn’t open your legs unless there were diamonds
involved. Just because of
that
, you think I should hand over
half – can you believe it Gerry, fucking
half
– of my
wealth. Money that I’ve earned
myself
with my
own
hard work! Half of that should go to a fucking frigid rich bitch
who spends her life shopping and playing tennis and couldn’t even
suck my dick once a year on my birthday without gagging. And
that’s
what they call fucking justice in this country,
Gerry!”

Patricia was in tears, still
standing in the negotiation room, clutching onto the back of her
chair as if barely able to support herself. Warburton took what I
thought to be a hostile step back towards her, his fists clenched
in anger. Not wanting to take him on again, afraid that he would
set Bick onto me, I immediately sprang to my feet. My intention was
to move past him into the room to protect and support Patricia to
her car and get her away from his abusive tirade. I can only
presume that he took my approach to be threatening to him
personally, otherwise I can’t explain why, as I walked towards him,
he attacked me again without any provocation or warning.

He butted me backwards so hard
that I stumbled and fell over my chair, knocking it aside and
sprawling against the wall, my arms and legs everywhere. Seriously
pissed off, I launched myself upwards and rushed towards him,
aiming to force him against the wall again, and if necessary,
repeat the knee-meeting-groin scenario from yesterday. It was one
of my only moves, to be honest.

He had other ideas though and
came towards me with fists swinging, deciding to take all of his
aggression for the day out on me. He slogged me with his clenched
fist across my jaw, flinging my head sideways, making me stagger
and fall.
Oh God, the pain!
I could hear the screams and
shouts of shock from the others.

I stabilised myself as soon as
the world stopped spinning around me, hauling myself to my feet
with the help of Corella, only too conscious of the incredible pain
in my jaw.

“
Control your client!
”
Corella screamed at Bick as she assisted me to a chair. He shook
his head, as if he’d been in a daze, and stepped over to Warburton,
facing him warily.

“That’s enough, Mr Warburton.
Things have gone too far,” he asserted in the calm, authoritative
voice that we were all taught as security officers. Warburton
stared at him blankly, as if Bick had spoken to him in an
unfamiliar language. Clarity slowly returned and he stared at the
Select man, his upper lip curling in a sneer.

“What the
fuck
? I hired
you to protect
me
from
her
!”

“That’s enough,” repeated Bick
firmly. “Best if you leave now.”

“Didn’t you see her? The bitch
came at me!
She
was trying to attack
me
! I was only
defending myself.”

“She didn’t touch you, Mr
Warburton,” Bick said flatly. “You assaulted her and we all saw it.
Best if you leave now before the situation becomes any worse.”

“Un-
fucking
-believable!”
Warburton kicked out at a chair so that it skidded across the brown
vinyl, crashing into another. “
I’m
the victim here, not that
bitch!”

Looking back on it, I probably
shouldn’t have said anything at that point, maintaining my injured
dignity. But, well, I’ll be the first to admit that prudence has
never been one of my strong points.

“You need some help,” I
suggested nastily, holding my jaw. “You have real anger management
problems.”

“Fuck you!”

“See what I mean.”

He charged at me, head down.
Chaos erupted in the room. Corella and I, with hurried inelegance,
scrabbled out of his way in different directions, while Patricia
was a mess, collapsed onto a chair, bawling her eyes out. The
mediator had long-scrammed, hopefully not to call the police. Gerry
was sitting on a chair, his hand over his eyes, probably rueing
ever taking on the case.

Bick showed his mettle
confronting the angry man, no longer bothering with polite requests
to leave. He ran up from behind, throwing his arms around
Warburton’s arms and chest in a bear hug of a tackle, stopping him
in his tracks. Warburton thrashed around in his arms with the
strength of a man infected with fury.

“Hey! You can just settle down,”
instructed Bick, his huge arms straining with the effort of
controlling the angry man.

I rushed over to help subdue him
and between us, we managed to press him up against the wall in an
uncomfortable hold, his arms behind his back, his face crushed
against the splotchy paintwork.

“Settle down,” suggested Bick
again.

Suddenly the fight left
Warburton and his limbs relaxed in our hold. “I’m settled,” he said
in a muffled voice. “Let me go. You’re hurting me.”

Bick and I exchanged a glance. I
shook my head. I didn’t trust him.

“We’re not sure about that, Mr
Warburton,” Bick said.

“Please.”

“Okay, this is what we’re going
to do. My colleague here is going to release you and I’ll see if
you behave after that.”

Bick nodded at me and I let go
of Warburton and stepped away from the reach of his fists, but
still close enough to help if needed.

Warburton remained calm and Bick
slowly released him from his hold as well.

Not making any eye contact with
any of us, Warburton silently adjusted his clothes and smoothed
down his hair, his face returning to a more normal colour.

Corella walked up to him. “You
have been behaving like a maniac. You have personally threatened
Mrs Warburton and attacked this young lady two days in a row. I
will be advising Mrs Warburton to take out a restraining order
against you and to cease these negotiations immediately. Then we’ll
just take the whole thing to court. Is that what you want?” she
spoke angrily.

“No,” Warburton protested
weakly, probably adding up the costs in his head. “Just please,
keep this bitch . . . this person away from me. I’ll come back
tomorrow and I’ll behave. I promise.” And Gerry and Bick helped him
from the room.

Bick threw me an apologetic
glance backwards. I had no time to respond before I put my arm
around Patricia’s waist and, with the help of her lawyer, assisted
her back to her car. I stayed with her for a while that night and
we shared dinner again. She hadn’t wanted me to stay the night with
her, clinging to her last remnant of independence, but it was
obvious that she was terrified. So I sat with her as she heavily
self-medicated with wine again, talking endlessly about the day’s
events.

Once more I offered to stay with
her, but she saw me to the door, insisting that after some sleep,
she would no longer be afraid.

Chapter 7

After leaving, I wearily rang
Heller to beg a ride back home. He arrived quickly and I flopped
against the front passenger seat, closing my eyes. He looked at me
with grim eyes and ran his hand gently over my jaw, which was
already starting to bruise.

“What happened?”

“The jerk belted me. Took me by
surprise. He was so angry. It was frightening. Thank God Bick was
there, or he might have hurt me even more.”

“Who’s Bick?”

“The guy from Select Security.
He made sure the bastard didn’t come near me again.”

“First name basis with Select
staff? You never fail to surprise me, Matilda.” His voice was
cold.

“He wants to defect. Are you
hiring at the moment?”

“Maybe. I’m always looking for
good men. Tell him to send me his CV.”

“I will. I really like him. He
doesn’t care for Kirnin’s unethical behaviour.”

“You seem to have found out
quite a lot about him in a short period of time.”

“He was surprisingly
friendly.”

“Most men are with you, my
sweet.”

“I don’t know what that’s
supposed to mean.”

“Nothing. It was merely an
observation.”

“Well, I tend to find that most
men I meet hate my guts and try to beat the crap out of me.” I
rubbed my jaw, feeling sorry for myself.

“I don’t think you should
continue with this job. This man sounds as though he has a personal
vendetta against you now.”

“But I didn’t
do
anything! Anyway, Patricia wouldn’t be happy with another person.
She wouldn’t be comfortable with one of the men,” I protested. Time
to change the subject, fast. “Have you had a chance to talk to that
ex-SAS guy about training for me?”

“Yes. He’s a good man. I’d be
happy for him to teach you some hand-to-hand moves. And I’m fairly
sure he won’t kill you.”

“That’s a relief,” I smiled,
wincing again at the pain in my jaw.

“Maybe I should be worried about
you killing him though?”

“Ha ha,” I said sourly.

“You can start with him when you
finished this job.”

“Excellent.” I smiled with
satisfaction and changed the subject again. “How was last
night?”

“I met someone.”

“You usually do,” I replied
lightly.

“No, it was different this time.
I think I want to see her again.”

I stared at him. He avoided eye
contact, keeping his own eyes fixed firmly on the road. He’d never
expressed this desire before. His one-night stands were strictly
that – one night only. He didn’t do repeat performances. I didn’t
like what I was hearing.

“Really?” I said with deceptive
casualness. “She must have been special.”

“I felt as though she wasn’t
giving me everything. That intrigued me. Most women tell me
everything about themselves with little effort from me.” He threw
me a sideways glance, his sexy half-smile playing on his lips. “I’m
quite the charmer, you know.”

“Quite the egoist as well!” I
snorted rudely.

He merely laughed at my
shrewishness. “She was wild, but also intensely reserved. Almost as
if she was holding something back. As if she has a secret. I want
to know what that secret is. I rarely feel that level of personal
interest in a woman. Perhaps only once before in my life.” His eyes
rested on me with silent significance.

It was my turn to avoid eye
contact. I didn’t want him to look at me that way while he was
talking about another woman. And I
really
wasn’t happy about
what I was hearing about that other woman. “Heller, she doesn’t
sound like an open kind of person. What do you know about her? Have
you checked her out? Maybe she has a secret that’s harmful to
you?”

“Matilda, look who you’re
talking to. Of course I’ve checked her out. She’s from out of town
and works as an art dealer for a big auction house. I looked up
their business website and she’s mentioned on it, with a photo and
biography. She’s here on an extended buying trip. She’s legitimate.
I also looked through her belongings when she was in the bathroom –
her driver’s licence and credit cards confirm who she is.” He
glanced at me sideways. “You sound a bit jealous.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not
jealous. I’m just urging you to be cautious, that’s all. It’s not
unknown for a man to be guided by something other than his brain
when it comes to sex.”

He laughed. “I told you, she’s
clean. Nothing for you to worry about. And my brain is fully
functional, thanks for your concern.”

“What’s her name?”

“Vanessa Langmore. Are you going
to compile a dossier on her?” he teased.

“Why would I bother?” I replied
coolly, forcing myself to look out the window as if the topic bored
me. “I don’t care who she is.”

But of course, that was a
shameless lie. And the more I thought about it, compiling a dossier
on her sounded like a capital idea . . . Maybe I should talk to
Clive about it surreptitiously? I slapped myself across the face
mentally –
talk to Clive?
God, what was I thinking?

I didn’t say any more about her,
sure he would only accuse me again of being jealous. And I guess I
was jealous. Any woman who captured Heller’s attention must be
spectacular.

I’d hoped for some time with him
tonight, but he bounded off upstairs ahead of me as soon as we
parked his car. I went to my flat and spent ten minutes resting
with an icepack on my bruised jaw, before nibbling on a late snack,
drinking a glass of wine and watching TV until I went to bed. As if
in consolation for Heller’s news, I had an erotic dream during the
night. But I found that the man I straddled and humped
enthusiastically in my dream didn’t have Will’s curly brown hair
and soft brown eyes, but instead had an alluring smile, wavy black
hair and dark blue eyes.
Hmm, that could be a problem,
I
thought to myself drowsily, before drifting off to back to
sleep.

Again I woke up early and went
to the gym. I couldn’t wait to start some hand-to-hand training so
that I could put tools like Warburton back in their boxes much more
quickly and decisively in the future. After my shower, I examined
my face critically. Yep, definitely more bruising on my jawline. I
reached for the concealer with resignation. I went through a tonne
of it every year covering up the excesses of high emotion, mostly
mine. I did tend to lose my temper easily and with little
provocation, but in my defence, I was exposed to more dropkicks
than the normal person.

I caught a lift to the hotel
with some men who were heading off to another job and knocked on
Patricia’s hotel room. She opened the door, looking a bit worse for
wear, but assured me she was feeling fine and able to go through
with the day’s meeting. Corella drove even more erratically,
running a red light and then a stop sign, busy rehashing the events
of yesterday.