“Bye, Mum,” I whispered before I spun on my heel and ran for the side door. I could feel my head spinning and the dark closing in, and I knew I had to escape now before it was too late. I hesitated after I pulled the door open and looked back at Mum, but she was still fussing over Dad. So, I decided to make a decision for me for once. I had to save my own life. In truth, there was nothing left of my mother to save.
Chapter 32
Now that will be quite enough of that
Rafe
“Ladies,what in the fuck are you doing here?” I growled as I leaned into the open window of Mrs Clayton’s old Ford Focus. Neither Mrs C nor Lily had heard my approach and both of them jumped in their seats at my sharp voice.
“Good Christ, Rafe!” squeaked Mrs Clayton, her hand clutching her chest as she spun to face me with wide eyes. “You can’t sneak up on a middle-aged woman with questionable bladder control like that. Are you crazy?”
I stared them both down as I leaned against my hands on the open window.
“AmIcrazy?” I asked, raising my eyebrows in disbelief. “My question is, what is a middle-aged schoolteacher with questionable bladder control and her fuckwit sidekick who’s more used to wrangling primary school children than dealing with London’s hardened criminals doing sitting in a clapped-out Ford Focus outside this address?”
“Shit, Rafe, keep your voice down!” hissed Lily, looking furtively up at the house. I rolled my eyes.
“Why in the fuck would I keep my voice down?”
Lily’s wide eyes blinked up at me in disbelief.
“Because of the bloody Masons, of course. We’re here to case the joint.”
“Tell me, ladies, what were you planning to do after you’d, in your own words, ‘cased the joint’?”
Mrs Clayton bit her lip, and Lily crossed her arms over her chest, her chin tilting to a stubborn angle.
“Well, we’ve not got that far yet,” she said irritably. “We haven’t had a chance to bloody well case the joint, because some big stupidlordhas arrived and has likely blown our cover.”
“Don’t be absurd. Youhaveno cover. You both stick out like sore thumbs. You are totally out of your depth. Stick to teaching my child and putting on dodgy plays, rather than dabbling in dubious rescue attempts from the criminal underworld.”
“Oh, right, and what are you gonna do then?” Lily said in a grumpy voice.
My eyebrows went up. “What do you think I’m going to do? I’m going to walk up to the front door, demand to see Clara and I’m not going to leave without her.”
“You can’t just do that,” Lily breathed.
“Why not?”
“Well, well… they’ll kill you, that’s why.”
“In broad daylight they’re going to kill a barrister, right out here in public? We’re not in Sicily and this isn’t the Italian Mafia. They may have a couple of bent coppers on their payroll, but they don’t own the judicial system. This is the United Kingdom, and this is London. If they are keeping a woman imprisoned against her will, a womanwho, by the way, ismine, then they are going to give her back immediately, and they will pay in a court of law.
“I’m the only one who seems to be able to see the situation here clearly. These people arefucked. There is an absolute avalanche of evidence against them. They will not come out of this free men – and, prior to that, they will not harm a hair onmywoman’s head. If either of you or, indeed, Clara herself had come to memonths ago, we could have avoided all this bullshit. As it is, I’m dealing with it now, and I’mnotleaving without her.”
“Thank goodness,” breathed Mrs Clayton, her shoulders slumping in relief.
Lily wasn’t quite as quick to yield under my superior judgement. She narrowed her eyes at me and her arms stayed crossed over her chest.
“What happened to your opinion about Clara beingpartof the criminal element? What happened to you wanting us to sack her? What happened to you hating her?”
“I was wrong,” I said immediately, and her combative stance relaxed just slightly, “and I’m a fucking prick.”
“Rafe, language,” admonished Mrs Clayton half-heartedly, still not quite on telling-off form after the wind had been knocked out of her.
“I’m not used to being wrong,” I told both of them, “but in this instance, I was. And, unfortunately, it was about one of the most important people in my life. I’ll have to live with that, but I’ll be damned if I let my mistake mean that I lose her. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get my woman and take her home to her brother.”
“Zach’s with you?” asked Lily, and I nodded.
