In Safe Arms Read Online Free Page A

took both steps in one long stride and skirted around two comfortable looking sofas. At the far end of the room he opened the plantation shutters a crack, and with a watchfulness that mirrored hers, stood for a full two minutes, looking out.
    Silent.
    Gun held close to his body.
    Internally battered from the cocktail of emotions waging a war inside her, Josie listened for traffic noise, the ocean, any sound that would indicate where they might be. But only the cadenced call of a tawny owl and the answering hoot of its mate, fractured the silence.
    After a while, Nate closed the shutters and retraced his steps, shoving the pistol into the back of his pants as he paused to switch on a lamp.
    ‘This is my home, in the Blue Mountains.’ He dimmed the lamp to a faint yellow glow. ‘It’s private. Overlooks the Jamieson Valley. Very few people know I keep this place.’
    His home?
    ‘Why bring me here?’ Josie watched as he came up the stairs and stood facing her. ‘And why did that bikie murder Lizard Mulvaney?’
    ‘One thing at a time, princess.’
    ‘Lose the “princess” tag will you?’ she snapped. Her parents might be loaded, but she was hardly rich in the things that mattered. ‘Are you that guy’s security?’
    He looked at her as though she’d lost her mind. ‘The guy’s a thug. He hardly needs a bodyguard.’
    ‘Then why are you mixed up with him?’
    ‘As a witness ,’ he continued on as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘You need to stay here for your own protection.’
    Josie’s heart skipped a beat, got back in its rhythm, then skipped another one. ‘The police can give me any protection I need.’
    He threw back his head and laughed, the sound strained, different to the natural way he used to laugh when he worked for Luke. Back then, he’d taken a delight in teasing her, until the night she hit on him.
    After that, he’d kept his distance.
    ‘The police will find my car.’ Her words tumbled out. She stopped, drew in a breath. She had to stay calm if she were to have any hope of opposing what Nate Hunter had in mind for her. ‘They were expecting me to come in. Whatever your involvement, you’re not going to get away with this.’
    A suggestion of a smile played around his lips as he unsnapped a leather cuff from his wrist. ‘You see, Josie, that’s the key. I am the police.’
    The fog of confusion lifted a little and her body sagged with relief. And then she wondered why he hadn’t told her in the car — spared her the torture.
    ‘Let me reintroduce myself, shall I?’ He inclined his head, a lock of long, dark hair falling across his forehead. ‘Detective Ignatius Hunter. Sydney Gang Squad.’
    With an impatient movement, he flung the leather cuff onto the nearest couch. ‘For two years I’ve been deep undercover with the Altar Boys, and there’s no way on this earth, you, princess , are going to jeopardise my operation.’

Chapter 3
    Ten minutes past midnight: Monday
    Josie sat on the couch wondering when Nate Hunter had become so cruel. In the car, she’d gone to a bad place, imagined him burying her in a shallow grave, her body discovered years later by a group of hikers.
    ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
    He moved aside one of the easy chairs and squatted on his haunches, leather pants moulded to muscular thighs like a second skin. ‘That’s not how it works. If you’d given me the slip, you’d have blown my cover, and the entire operation with it.’
    He pulled back a corner of the carpet square, hooked an index finger through a silver ring embedded in the polished floor and opened a small trapdoor. ‘It’s a safe.’
    ‘It’s messed up,’ Josie retorted, still too angry to converse with him in any reasonable manner.
    He ignored her outburst and spun the dial of what sounded like a combination lock. Something clicked, and he reached inside the floor cavity and took out a notebook computer, phone and leather wallet. Then he placed her laptop, mobile and money wallet inside