by JD Nixon
That evening as we were driving home, Daniel and I told Heller about the day’s events and I asked Heller about the soft cross-examination, still puzzling over it in my mind.
“My sweet, by all accounts you were a very sympathetic, sincere and believable witness. The jury warmed to you. It would have been foolish for the defence to try to besmirch you through innuendo, although I have no doubt that they had prepared that argument. You were just not the right person to do it to.”
I wasn’t convinced about that, but let it go. I made Daniel attend the rest of the trial for me, grilling him every evening. We shared a bottle of merlot while he told me about Heller’s testimony. He’d been calm and cool and gave his evidence about taking on Meili as a client in a clipped, professional tone. Every woman, and possibly one man, on the jury was completely in love with him by the end of his testimony, Daniel had concluded by glancing at their faces. Even the judge fluttered her eyes at him once or twice. He’d given her a brilliant smile as he finished and she’d audibly gasped in admiration. Or so said Daniel, and when I questioned him about it, Heller didn’t deny it.
Daniel sat through the defence argument, but it was thin and unconvincing up against the photographic and scientific evidence of the prosecution. And in the end, all that evidence was too overwhelming for the jury to give any verdict other than guilty. The murderer ended up being sentenced to life in prison for his horrible crime. But we’d never know who really hired him, because he refused to spill the beans.
Heller and I waited for Daniel to emerge from the public gallery after the verdict had been given. On our way to the door of the courthouse, I noticed Brian chatting to Meili’s family. I went up to them to introduce myself, Heller following me. They were very pleased to meet the person who had been with their son at his death, but I struggled to know what to say to them. I merely said that Meili was a wonderful man and an inspiration to millions, and that his loss was felt deeply. They nodded their heads graciously.
Heller said a few words to them in Norwegian, and they turned to look at me with renewed interest. They conversed for a while in Norwegian and again, I felt left out of the conversation, positive that they were talking about me. When we left, they shook my hand warmly and his mother even kissed me on both cheeks. I didn’t bother asking Heller what he had said, because I knew that he’d never tell me.
When we exited the courthouse, the press was massing, some of the crews international, but they didn’t care for me. Instead, they were focussed on Meili’s family and an environmental activist who was speaking on behalf of one of the foundations that had sponsored Meili’s visit. I was intensely grateful for that as we slipped past them anonymously.
Safe in Heller’s Mercedes, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“That’s it. I can’t possibly do any more for Meili. I feel as though I’ve finished that assignment for good now. And surprisingly, I actually feel relieved. It’s been a huge burden.”
“I know. It was a lot to ask of you, Matilda. It’s taken its toll,” Heller said.
“I never want to see another human die, ever again.”
“I can’t promise that.”
“I know. But at least don’t send me on anymore emotional assignments.”
“I can’t promise that either, but I will try.”
Back in the office, I turned on my computer for the first time in ages to find what seemed like a million emails. Once I’d deleted all the rubbish, there was one interesting email left to read.
Dear Tilly
I’m absolutely over the moon to let you know that Kitty and I are now the very proud parents of a beautiful baby girl, photos attached. We have called her Katherine Matilda Cockburn, and I’m sure you’ll realise why we’ve chosen that particular middle name! If it hadn’t been for you, I never would have met Kitty and been the happiest man in the world. And I have Milt over here with me as well now (thanks to you as well!). He’s such a great friend. My life is now perfect all because of you.
Thank you so much. I know I wasn’t very grateful at the time for what you did for me, but I really am now and just can’t think of the right gift to say thank you for all my happiness. So I’ve attached ten life memberships of Synonymy and Synful Synonymy for your family and friends and something special will be arriving in the mail for you soon.
Despite our small disagreements, I hope you might think fondly of me now and then.
Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of love, Clarrie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I opened up the attachments to see some really heart-warming hospital photos of a beaming Clarrie, relieved and exhausted Kitty and a cute little red-faced bundle. Clarrie was wearing a Charlie’s Angels t-shirt, obviously a new-age man now. Without me realising it, Heller had walked up behind me and was standing quietly, looking over my shoulder. I finally noticed him and turned to smile.
“You’re not regretful, are you, my sweet?”
“About Clarrie?” I asked in wild disbelief and I think I may have even thrown up in my mouth a little at the very thought.
“No! The baby, Matilda.”
“Oh.” I thought for a while, looking at the photo of the newborn. “No, I don’t think so. Not at the moment anyway. Maybe later when I’m older, but not now.” I turned to give him a sad smile and shrugged. “You have to play the cards life deals you, don’t you?”
“That’s the best way to look at life,” he agreed.
I cocked my head, looking up at him. “You can play forever in the naughty virtual world now. I have ten lifetime memberships to Synonymy and Synful Synonymy to give away, courtesy of Clarrie.”
He laughed. “Not for me, thanks. I prefer to play with the real Matilda.” That sexy laugh again as he swept my hair to one side and leaned down to kiss me on the neck. A delicious thrill ran through me.
“Heller, not in the office,” I protested demurely, shrugging him away, although we were currently alone.
“What on earth are you going to do with those memberships? Give them to your mother and father?” he teased, smiling down at me.
“Of course not!” I thought about it for a moment. “I’ll give one to each of the twins as they play anyway and one to Dixie. She’s a big fan of the game when she has the money. Maybe one to Daniel too, if he wants it.” Then I was stumped. Niq was too young for something that came with an adult-only section. A thought popped into my head and I gave him a cheeky glance. “What about Victor? He might appreciate it?”
Heller became serious. “That’s a lovely gesture, Matilda. He would enjoy it very much. He relies heavily on the internet for entertainment. And he’s often overlooked in life.”
And I laughed because I thought he was talking about himself, not believing in Victor at all. He tolerated my laughter, and reminded me that still left me with five memberships.
I thought for a moment. “Why don’t you use them to make yourself popular with your men? Give them away as a reward to your best performers or something,” I suggested. “Man of the year award, perhaps? I’ll leave it up to you.”
“That’s very generous of you. It’s your gift.”
“I don’t want them. Do you really think I want to know whether Clarrie has made another Little Tilly or not? I’m better off being ignorant. And anyway I have enough trouble balancing all my real relationships, let alone investing any time in developing virtual ones.”
A few days later I received an envelope from Clarrie and Kitty. This must be the ‘something special’ he promised me, so I opened it excitedly and read the letter, then looked at what was attached to it. Involuntarily, I screamed with excitement. Daniel and Niq looked up at me questioningly. I flew straight into Heller’s office and showed him what they had sent me. His eyebrows rose in surprise.
“Two first class tickets to LA! And look, accommodation and car hire and tour vouchers, all prepaid! And in the letter from Kitty, she says they want me to be little Katherine’s godmother and come over for the christening. And she’s invite
d me to stay with them at their mansion while I’m over there.” I was almost jumping up and down with excitement. “You’ll give me a couple of weeks off work to go, won’t you? Please?” I begged.
“I don’t want you to go, Matilda,” he said, unsmiling. I could tell he hated the idea of me being away from him, even for two weeks.
My good humour evaporated immediately. “Well, I’m going to go. You can’t stop me. It’s an honour to be asked to be a godmother. Nobody’s ever asked me before and I’m not saying no.” And I turned to flounce away in a temper, when he spoke again.
“Wait!” I turned around again. “Do I really have a choice?” he complained, unhappy expression on his beautiful face.
“No.”
“You’ll just go anyway, whether I want you to or not? Whether I even give you time off work or not?”
“Yes.”
“Matilda.” He sighed heavily. “Who will you take with you?”
“Dixie,” I said without any hesitation.
“Dixie can’t look after you,” he protested.
“Heller! I don’t need looking after. I can look after myself,” I reminded him, aggrieved at his low opinion of my self-preservation skills. But before he could respond, I shot out, “I better go ring Dixie.” And I hared off up to my flat.
It took a bit of organising and Heller had to pull in a few favours for us to get our visas so quickly, but we were ready to go in a few weeks. I managed to squeeze in an evening with Will before we left, receiving the distinct impression that he was very resentful that I hadn’t chosen to take him to LA. It was an uncomfortable moment for me because in all honesty, the thought had never even crossed my mind.
It was a fun holiday and Dixie and I had a great time together, loving every luxury that we’d been given. Our visit with Clarrie and Kitty in their opulent mansion overlooking the ocean was more enjoyable than I’d expected. Clarrie was even almost bearable under Kitty’s moderating and sensible influence, and he only stared at my boobs a couple of times every day. Milt spent a lot of time at their house, very keen to reacquaint himself with me even though I reminded him that I still had a boyfriend. Fortunately for me, Dixie found his geeky, virginal innocence a massive turn-on. She didn’t sleep alone once during our stay with them, and I’d never before in my life seen a man who looked so tired, smile so much.
The christening went off without a hitch, Milt stepping up as Katherine’s godfather. I wasn’t sure what being a godparent involved, other than vague memories of severed horse heads left in beds. But that didn’t sound right to me – I was sure it was something nicer than that. Whatever I was supposed to do, I made a vow to myself to always be there for little Katherine Matilda, no matter what her problem might be.
Dixie and I farewelled the happy little family and were free to enjoy the rest of our holiday, jam-packing every day with sightseeing. Two weeks isn’t a long time though, and before too long we found ourselves snoozing in first class on the way home. I never wanted to fly cattle class ever again. I’d been spoiled for life now.
Heller met us at the airport, dropped Dixie at her place, and dragged me up to his flat. I showered and joined him in bed where we lay together watching the late news, arms and legs entwined. I had missed him terribly while I was away and told him so, which made him smile to himself. I knew he’d missed me too because he hadn’t taken his hands off me the whole time I’d been home – holding my hand, slipping his arm around my shoulders or my waist, running his fingers up and down my arm or through my hair, his eyes fixed on me the entire time.
Awkwardly, there was a story on the news about how Meili’s grave had become a pilgrimage site for environmental warriors from around the world.
“He was such a wonderful man,” I sighed as I watched, leaning against Heller’s chest.
“Matilda,” Heller warned.
“So are you, Heller. But maybe I’m naturally attracted to Norwegian men?” I teased, to circumvent any residual anger about Meili raising its ugly head again. It worked.
“Hmm. Is that so? You’re tempting me very strongly to tell you something about myself with that statement, my sweet.”
“I know that you’re Norwegian,” I said with a breezy confidence I didn’t really feel.
“I’m too afraid now to say that I’m not,” he laughed softly.
We watched TV quietly for a few minutes.
“I was cruel to you,” I confessed. I’d done a lot of thinking while I was away. “I said you didn’t compare to Meili favourably. He was into big gestures, civil disobedience, publicity. But you do lots of good things at the local level quietly, without a media contingent.”
“Do I?” He sounded surprised, but I knew he was faking. He was probably a better actor than I’d ever been.
“Yes. For example, what you’ve done for Daniel and Niq and the twins. And Victor.” I chuckled when I said that, still not having met that mythical housemate. “And I’ve heard that you help your men and their families out financially if they find themselves in difficulties. I hear a lot of things.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So it seems.”
“You’re just as extraordinary a man as Meili and I feel privileged to have known both of you.” I kissed him. “I’m really sorry I said those cruel things to you.” And I continued to kiss him for a long while, enjoying the warmth of his lips and the comforting way he stroked my back.
“You can say cruel things to me all day long, Matilda, if you’re going to make up for it like that,” he smiled lazily when I’d finished and was leaning on his chest, gazing down with dreamy affection into his beautiful eyes.
“I was being serious,” I pouted.
“So was I,” he smiled again and leaned up to kiss me, his stomach muscles tensing in a way that made me forget what I was about to say next. So I settled down on his chest again, and rested my hand on those taut muscles with a sigh of happiness.
“I hope my next assignment is a fun one. I’m done with crying and feeling so sad all the time.”
“Well, now that you mention it,” he hinted. “I do have an interesting little job for you.”
I sat up. “Really? What is it?”
He smiled teasingly. “I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.”
“Does ‘interesting’ mean bad-interesting or good-interesting?”
“Tomorrow, my sweet. For now, you need to sleep.”
“Heller! Just tell me what it is.”
He chuckled to himself and reached over to turn off the lamp, settling himself onto his pillow. And knowing that it was pointless to press him further, I burrowed against him again, not minding the weight of his leg thrown across mine. I let his steady breathing lull me into drowsiness.
And in that nice, dozy half-awake, half-asleep state, I thought about the ‘interesting’ assignment, wondering if I’d really made the right decision to become a security officer. I laid there in the dark, flicking over the awful incidents that I’d experienced since I’d first set foot inside the Warehouse – incidents that I’d never have experienced in a normal life, some of them traumatic.
But even as I thought that, Heller drew me up closer to his body, his arms tightening around me protectively, as if he could tell my mind had wandered into negative territory about my life with him. And as I snuggled up against him, I knew that there was no other place I wanted to be, no matter what tomorrow brought.
And I slept soundly.
I usually did when I was with him.
~~~~~~ ###### ~~~~~~
About the author:
JD Nixon lives in beautiful Queensland in Australia, writing and editing for a living. But by night, she lets a wild imagination run free.
Want to contact me? I’d love to hear from you.
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Other books by JD Nixon at Smashwords:
Heller series
Heller (free ebook!)
Heller’s Revenge
Heller’s Girlfriend – due January 2012
Little Town series
Blood Ties (free ebook!)
Blood Sport – due end November 2011
Thanks for reading!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28