In Safe Arms Read Online Free Page B

the safe, spun the combination and stood up.
    ‘No phone calls. No internet. As of now, you’re off the grid.’
    He straightened, set the furniture back in place and came towards her, holding his wallet open to display a police I.D. ‘I’d like to say pleased to make your acquaintance — again . But it couldn’t be further from the truth.’
    Stung by the remark, Josie leaned forward and checked the identification. Dressed in a business suit, shirt and tie, he was clean cut, the way she remembered him coming into Grace and Poole on behalf of Neilson’s.
    “By the book”, perhaps even “conservative”, was how she would have described him back then.
    Not now.
    ‘I won’t risk carrying it on me, not until I’m ready to make an arrest.’ He rattled off the I.D. number and raised a questioning eyebrow. ‘Okay?’
    Reassured by the familiar image of him, Josie’s anger dropped a degree, and she nodded, taut muscles restricting the movement in her neck and shoulders. But the physical discomfort was nothing compared to the ramifications of what she’d witnessed tonight. And what it meant that Nate had brought her here.
    Glimpsing a photograph of a blonde haired young boy in another plastic window of the wallet, she looked up in surprise. ‘You’re a father?’
    A shadow crossed his face, and he flicked the wallet closed. ‘I wouldn’t go undercover if I had a family. Stay here while I make sure the house is secure.’
    Josie watched him disappear down the dark hallway and wondered about the boy. Perhaps he was a nephew, or a godson. Someone close, if Nate carried a picture in his wallet.
    Ignoring the biting pain in her shoulders, she turned her attention to her surroundings. The open fireplace was neatly stacked with wood, the country style furniture, dust free. And on the mantelpiece, a row of trophies gleamed in the subdued light.
    Someone looked after the place.
    A few minutes later Nate was back, taking her arm again and pulling her to her feet. ‘Come on.’
    ‘Where are we going now?’
    ‘The bathroom.’
    Josie stopped. ‘I don’t need the bathroom.’
    ‘I do.’ He flexed the fingers of his injured hand and propelled her forward with the other. ‘I stink of blood and petrol.’
    He led her down a wide hallway, walls decorated with black and white portraits of Australian pioneers, attired in old-fashioned mountaineering apparel.
    ‘The living room is in the centre of the house, with a wing at each end. Three bedrooms and a bathroom this way, garage, kitchen and laundry on the other side. It’s a mirror image.’
    Barely pausing to draw breath, he pressed on. ‘This is my safe house. As of now, it’s your safe house too. It’s crucial you learn the layout.’
    When he stopped outside what was obviously the bathroom, Josie hung back. If Nate Hunter thought he could railroad her like this, he had another thing coming.
    ‘Who was that man, the one who killed Mulvaney?’ She wanted to add “the one who ordered the hit on me”, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it.
    ‘Mitch Kennett.’ He spoke the words like they were a bad taste in his mouth. ‘The viper.’
    She’d heard of Mitchell Kennett, had typed his name into Court documents when the firm represented Mulvaney. But she’d never seen the chapter leader of the Altar Boys before. Not even in a photograph.
    Now she’d seen too much.
    ‘You could have arrested him without your I.D.’
    He gave a curt nod, expression turning wary.
    ‘Why didn’t you?’ She’d worked in criminal law long enough to know the instant Kennett was charged he’d be off the streets. She’d only be called on to testify if he pleaded not guilty, and what were the chances of that? Both she and Nate were witnesses. Surely Kennett wouldn’t defend the charges.
    Nate’s face was a canvas of steely determination. ‘Because I plan on landing a much bigger fish than Kennett.’
    ‘No!’ It was an instinctive response, the denial her mind’s way of