Heller by J.D. Nixon Read Free Book Online Page B

that dossier,
although I’d probably find that too if I read it more closely. I
was gobsmacked and glanced up at him, appalled and now more than a
little wary. Who was this man anyway?
    He leaned back
in his chair and laced his fingers behind his head. “I know more
about you than you could possibly imagine. I know, for instance,
that your last acting role was a small part in Summer Days over six months ago.” He added, unkindly casual, “Not great acting
in my opinion.”
    The blood
rushed to my face. Screw you, buddy!
    “And what
about that execrable movie with the bikini women and the madman?
Not to mention that advertisement.”
    Despite my
increasing anger, I was impressed with his knowledge. He had
certainly done his homework.
    “They paid the
rent,” I said defensively. “I know it’s not great acting, but what
I really want to do is . . .” I stopped suddenly and remembered
that: one, I was at an interview; and two, I couldn’t finish the
sentence anyway because I didn’t know what I really wanted to do.
So instead, I smoothed back my hair and composed my features,
gracing him with a beatific Mona Lisa smile. “What I really want to
do is work for you, of course, Mr . . . um . . . Heller,” I said
calmly, my eyes big with angelic sincerity.
    He gave a rude
shout of laughter at that and my temper flared again. I threw the
folder on the table and stood abruptly, clutching my handbag.
    “I can see
clearly that I’m not the right person for this position or your
business, so thank you for your time today. I’ll show myself out.” Arrogant jerk!
    What a
complete waste of a day for me, not to even mention my sore nose,
the ruinous loss of my only suit and the cost of the bus trips that
I couldn’t afford and had virtually depleted the remainder of my
precious twenty dollars. I stalked to the door of his office, head
high. On a sudden impulse, I turned around to say one final thing
to him.
    “And anyway,
you’re wrong. You don’t know everything about me, after all.”
    He was taken
aback by that. “I’m confident in my research.”
    “ Summer
Days wasn’t my last acting role. I’ve had another one since
then.”
    He frowned.
“What is this other job?”
    Suddenly I
wished I hadn’t mentioned it. “It doesn’t matter,” I mumbled.
“You’re just wrong.”
    “It does
matter. You tell me my information about you is incomplete. That
might affect the outcome of the interview.” He said it with no
expression, but I couldn’t shake the suspicion that he was secretly
laughing at me.
    Why had I
opened my big mouth? All I’d wanted to do was to puncture his
self-assured arrogance, but instead I would be the one to end up
looking like an idiot. As usual.
    As I turned to
leave again, pondering my self-inflicted predicament, one of the
big sash windows in his office exploded inwards with a shattering
crash. Shards of glass flew through the air, wickedly embedding
themselves in every exposed surface, including our skin. Before I
even registered what was happening, I was knocked to the ground.
Heller covered me with his body, protecting me from further
explosions I presumed, rather than an uncontrollable desire to get
closer to me. I lay there winded, ground into the carpet, glass
shards painfully pressing in to my face and hands, with his
incredible weight forcing the air from my lungs. If it has ever
been your fantasy to have a tall sexy Viking smothering you, let me
tell you it’s nowhere near as much fun as it initially sounds.
    “ Daniel! ” Heller bellowed through the door, almost rupturing
my eardrum. “Take Niq downstairs to the basement! Now!”
    I heard them
scurrying away obediently down the stairs and subsequently heard
heavy footsteps jogging into Heller’s office. He rolled off me. I
gratefully gulped in some air, coughing and gasping, pushing myself
up onto my hands and knees. My skin was stinging everywhere. It was
like a thousand paper cuts.
    “Stay down!”
he yelled at me, then