Chapter 30
You’ll get her back?
Rafe
“Are you going to explain to me why you’re here in your house at two pm on a Tuesday afternoon with the gate wide open, and not in your chambers beavering away to make the country a safer place?” Poppy said. “I’ve pretty much never known you to take a weekday off in my entire life.”
“Pops, I’m sorry,” I muttered, tearing my hands through my hair for what felt like the hundredth time that day. “But I don’t have time to explain. I just need you here and I need you to pick Ozzie up from school. Listen, are you sure you haven’t heard anything from Clara? Text? Call? Anything?”
“No, Rafe,” Poppy said, her voice softening as she watched me pace the kitchen. “I already told you. She cut off all contact with me way before you instructed me to block her.”
After all that shit that went down at court, hurt pride and frustration meant I’d told Poppy to cut Clara off completely.
Thank God my little sister didn’t ever listen to a word I said, because not only had she not blocked Clara, but she’d immediately tried to ring her after bollocking me over the phone for believing that Clara could ever deliberately set me up.
“Listen, Rafe,” Poppy went on in a placatory tone. “I’m sorry, but I really doubt Clara’s gonna take you back anyway, not after the way you behaved.”
“It’s not just about getting her back,” I snapped. “It’s about making sure she’s safe.”
“W-w-what?” Poppy’s face paled, and I immediately regretted my words. The last thing I wanted to do was scare my little sister. I was scared enough myself and I needed her to keep her shit together for Ozzie. “She’s not safe?” Poppy whispered.
I let out a deep sigh, the weariness and worry dragging me under for a moment.
I’d barely slept last night, and had spent all morning gathering resources to track Clara down.
I was coming up against brick wall after brick wall.
Grant was willing to help, but there was only so much he was able to provide me with, given that I hadn’t been able to come up with a solid reason for extracting Clara from her family.
In order for the police to initiate any kind of intervention, there had to be evidence of a credible threat to Clara’s life.
If I had let her actually speak to me in the courthouse corridor and not brushed her off like the prideful bastard I was, we likely wouldn’t be in this position.
But now all we had to go on was my bad feeling and the memory of Clara’s frightened face.
It was too weak to action what I wanted, which was a full-on armed response team invading the Mason family home right now, not for them to wait until they were bloody well ready.
What I did know was that Clara hadn’t been back to her flat. The courtroom appearance was the only time she’d been spotted in public.
“You’re going to find her, right?” Poppy’s words were trembling now. She wanted her big brother to reassure her that everything was going to be okay and that her friend was fine. I pulled her into a hug. More for myself than for her.
“It’s fine,” I muttered. “She’s coming back. She’ll be home soon.”
Because this was Clara’s home now. Her home was with me and Ozzie. I may have forgotten that for a while, but it didn’t make it any less true.
I pulled away from Poppy when I heard banging on the front door and walked to yank it open, only to be confronted by a tall, lanky teenager with familiar chocolate-brown eyes and a thunderous expression.
I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could say anything, both his hands came up to my chest and he shoved me back, hard.
It was more surprise than anything that made me go back onto one foot.
The kid didn’t exactly pack the kind of muscle required to floor me, which had clearly been his intention.
“You bastard wanker!” he shouted.
I held my hands up in surrender to try and diffuse his anger.
“Hey, kid, calm the fuck down, okay?” In any other circumstance, if a six-foot teenager had come to my door and shoved me, you can bet your arse I was shoving him back, and it wouldn’t be gentle.
But something familiar about this teenager stopped me in my tracks.
Not to mention the fact he was shaking. Underneath the bravado, he was terrified.
“Clara said that you were a good guy,” he snapped. “She said that you were keeping her safe. But she was wrong. You’re a proper dick.”
“Okay, okay,” I said slowly. “I’m a dick. We’ve established that. Now, I want you to tell me how you know Clara.”
“She tried to talk to you in the court, you twat,” he went on.
“She tried to get help and you just shoved her away like she was nothing. You looked at her like she was one of them. She’s not one of them.
She’s not like them at all. You are though.
You might think you’re way above all the criminals you bang up, but you’re just as much of a wanker as they are. ”
“You were there in the court?” I asked.
I didn’t remember seeing him, but then I’d been so focused on Clara, and my vision had been so clouded by the red mist of my anger that I hadn’t been able to see anything past it.
“Do you work for the Masons?” I asked in confusion.
The kid’s eyes went wide as his lip curled in disgust. “Work for those animals? You’ve got to be kidding me?
I had to go to the bloody court. We have to put up this bullshit united front, whatever the fuck that means.
If I don’t go to the sodding courtroom to see my psycho brother get convicted, I get the shit kicked out of me.
Enough information for you? And Clara’s my family, not the fucking Masons.
They’ve never been my family. Blood or no. ”
I let out a long breath.
“Zachary,” I said. “You’re Zachary Mason. Jesus Christ, you’re tall for fifteen.”
“Oh well, the birds in our family get all the short genes, don’t they?
” he said in a grumpy tone, shifting on his feet on my porch and looking a little lost as he realised I wasn’t going to fight back.
“The blokes are all big, broad bastards, all the better for beating the shit out of people, I suppose.”
Zachary Mason had certainly inherited the tall side of things, as for the broad, I’d say that gene may have passed him over. My eyebrows went up.
“Yeah, yeah, just because I’m not built like a brick shit house like you, gym bro, doesn’t mean I can’t handle myself.”
Given the strength of his push just now, I would dispute the veracity of that statement. But again, I kept my mouth shut. It would not do to piss off Clara’s brother, likely the only source of information I currently had as to her whereabouts.
“Zachary, calm down and come inside,” I said in a soft but firm tone, not unlike the one I would use with Oz when he was playing up. “I was wrong when I pushed your sister away, but we’re not going to solve anything like this.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down, you fucking prick,” Zachary muttered, but the heat had left his voice now, leaving just fear and uncertainty.
“I’m not doing this outside, kid,” I muttered, grabbing him firmly by both upper arms to pull him through the front door easily, and then slamming it behind us.
He looked startled for a moment and another flash of fear crossed his expression before he cleared it.
I let him go as soon as he was inside, holding my hands up to show him I wasn’t a threat.
“Okay, maybe we can start again. You know about me and Clara? She talked about me?”
Zachary opened his mouth to speak but then his eyes flew wide as his gaze went over my shoulder.
“Rafe? What’s going on?” Poppy said as she walked towards us, giving Zachary a wary look.
“You’re Poppy Sterling,” Zachary breathed, and I managed not to roll my eyes. At least the appearance of Poppy had taken some of the wind out of his angry sails.
“That’s right,” said Poppy carefully, looking between me and Zachary.
“Pops, this is Zachary Mason, Clara’s younger brother.”
“Oh,” Poppy said, then after a beat of shocked silence she smiled at him. “Hi.”
Zachary blinked a couple of times under the force of that smile. My sister could be an annoying little shit but she had her uses. I took a step forward.
“Poppy cares about Clara just like I care about Clara,” I told him firmly. “We both want to know that she’s okay, and we both want to find her. We’re worried, mate. I’m betting you’re worried too, or you wouldn’t have come here, right?”
I watched as his anger built again when he turned from Poppy to me. “You didn’t want to help her in the courthouse,” he snapped. “You–– you threw her away like she was trash. You didn’t help her then. She practically begged you, and you wouldn’t even listen to her.”
“I was a fucking prick in that courthouse,” I admitted.
“I completely agree with you, and I’m sorry.
Maybe you won’t ever forgive me. Maybe your sister won’t ever forgive me.
But for now, we’ve got to focus on making sure that Clara is safe.
So if you want to pull your head out of your arse, maybe we can move forward and you can tell me what you know. Right?”
Zachary was blinking at me in surprise. Clearly, he didn’t expect me to admit that I was a fucking prick. His shoulders sagged and he seemed to deflate before my eyes. The anger just draining away.
“Then why did you recuse yourself?” he asked, and I could just about detect a small shake to his voice. The kid was losing it.
“I had to recuse myself, Zachary,” I said, my harsh tone softening. “I didn’t have a choice. Clara would have known that.”
Zachary tore his hands through his hair and looked up at the ceiling before looking back at me and Poppy.
“Couldn’t you have just pretended you didn’t know her? Couldn’t you have played along to keep her safe?”