In Safe Arms (Grace & Poole, #2)

By Lee Christine

Smooth, seductive and savage: Lee Christine returns to the dark, criminal underbelly of Sydney with her follow-up to In Safe Hands.

Legal secretary Josephine Valenti has no idea why a notorious bikie president would be contacting her, but when he is murdered in front of her eyes, she knows that she is in very deep trouble. Fleeing to her home, she's intercepted by Nate Hunter, a man she used to know and lust after…a man she used to care about.

However, Nate has changed. His leathers and his bike tell of a lifestyle that Josie can't begin to accept or understand. His is a life of drugs, money laundering and prostitution.

But all is not what it seems, and Josie must fight harder than she ever has before – for the truth, for what's right, and, ultimately, for the man who still has a hold of her heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: Jan 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9780857991157

Lee Christine

Lee Christine is a former legal practice manager and corporate trainer. An amateur songwriter in her teens, she is passionate about music, and plays the alto saxophone. In 2011, In Safe Hands won first place in the Romance Writers of America Silicon Valley Gotcha Contest, followed in 2012 with first place in The Smoky Mountains Laurie Award and the East Texas Southern Heat Writing Contest. The novel also received a Commended in the 2012 Romance Writers of New Zealand Clendon Award. In Safe Hands is Lee's first novel, and she is currently writing her second, another gripping romantic suspense. She has two grown children, and lives in Newcastle, Australia.

Book preview

Chapter 1

9:30 p.m. Sunday

Hidden in a darkened recess at the rear of the tattoo parlour, Nate Hunter studied the garden variety flatland lock. ‘More light, Kennett.’

Mitch Kennett adjusted the angle of the torch, a stench of garlic on his breath, nervous eyes scanning the alleyway. ‘Get a move on, Bolt.’

Nate pulled his tools from the back pocket of his pants and addressed the lock, holding his breath against the bikie’s sour body odour. He slid the pick into the keyway then gradually withdrew it, using sound and touch to visualise what was happening inside the mechanism. He inserted the pick a second time, sliding it over the pins and applying just enough torque with the wrench until one by one the pins set at the sheer line. Then, with a gentle flick of his wrist, he opened the lock.

‘There she goes.’ Nate glanced at the president of Sydney’s legendary motorcycle gang, the Altar Boys. ‘Sweet as a woman coming.’ He shoved the tools back in his pocket and retrieved the can of petrol he’d left on the ground. ‘Patience and a deft touch never fail.’

‘You’d know.’ A leering smirk split Kennett’s ruthless face as Nate followed his hulking frame into a dreary looking kitchen, decades past its prime. On the bench, an autoclave steriliser stood beside a microwave oven, while surgical gloves, ink and needles lay in a cluttered heap around the sink. Startled by the torchlight, cockroaches scuttled from an open food container left in the centre of an old laminated table.

Nate swallowed the bile rising in his throat. He couldn’t imagine going anywhere near those needles, let alone eating in a room like this. The quicker they torched this dump, the better.

With a growing sense of unease, he watched Kennett set the Maglite down and take a pistol from inside his vest. ‘What’s with the piece, man?’

The bikie put an index finger to his lips and cocked his head towards the front of the property.

Muted voices filtered down the hallway.

‘No-one’s supposed to be here,’ Nate hissed, a cold sweat breaking out on his body. Ignoring the revolver, he pushed the heavy fuel container into Kennett’s chest, forcing him back against the cupboards. Nate wasn’t a small guy, but Kennett was a tower of granite, built like a world champion wrestler, and it took all of Nate’s strength to keep him there.

Kennett’s eyes turned to hard little marbles at the blatant challenge to his authority. ‘Mulvaney’s in there. You got a problem with that, pretty boy?’

Nate had a problem with a lot of things, the escalation of Sydney’s bikie war first and foremost. Only last week, Mulvaney’s gang, the Southern Cross, had peppered the Altar Boys’ clubhouse with bullets and beat three of their members senseless.

Kennett leaned closer, gold tooth glinting from behind a full grey beard. ‘You want your vest or not?’

Nate’s gut tightened, his mind filled with a dissonance he couldn’t reduce in any way, shape or form. He’d waited so long to be offered this upgrade in status, this progression, from nominee to fully fledged member of the brotherhood. And he shouldn’t be surprised Kennett had planned this operation knowing Lizard Mulvaney would be on the premises. It was part of the Altar Boys’ culture to use retaliatory strikes as initiations into the inner sanctum.

He’d supported Kennett’s idea to torch the tat parlour, owned and operated by the Southern Cross, but now he wasn’t so sure. The president of the rival gang wasn’t supposed to be here.

Fuck!

No-one was supposed to be here.

But he was out of time. Kennett was waiting for his answer.

Nate took a step back and pulled the container off Kennett’s chest. ‘I want the vest.’

The chapter leader sneered and pushed past him, light on his feet for a big man, leaving Nate no option but to turn and follow him out of the kitchen.

Moving with stealth for men over six feet, they inched their way down a dim, central corridor, walls covered in a floor to ceiling collage of photographed body parts, complete with designer tattoos.

Stomach churning, Nate sucked in stale air, heavy with dust particles and strained to hear over the tribal beat of his heart. He picked up the words search and it wasn’t hard, Mulvaney’s voice transmitting into the hallway from behind a scratched wooden door.

There was a pause in the conversation, and Kennett froze, listening.

Mulvaney’s companion spoke, voice a quiet hum.

As was expected of a nominee, Nate looked to Kennett for direction, nodding his understanding when the leader of the Altar Boys raised two fingers. It was unspoken bikie law that Kennett would take out the rival leader, leaving Nate to shut down the second person in the room.

Hard as it was to follow direction from a man he loathed, Nate tightened his grip on the plastic container. One well-timed swing and he’d lay Mulvaney’s guest out cold.

Kennett raised a fist, kissed the brass knuckleduster on his finger and threw open the door.

Light spilled into the corridor from a single, exposed bulb in the middle of the ceiling, and over Kennett’s shoulder, Nate could see Lizard Mulvaney sitting at a desk, his back to them. Startled, the man turned at the sudden commotion, half rising from his chair.

But they didn’t call Kennett the viper for nothing. Two long strides and he immobilised Mulvaney with his signature headlock, revolver rammed into the hollow of his throat.

Poised for an attack, Nate slipped into the room behind Kennett. He scanned the space in seconds, sweat trickling between his shoulder blades.

Mulvaney was alone!

Tightening his grip on the fuel, Nate checked every corner of the run down office, but the room was empty, the door through which they’d come the single point of entry.

A chair crashed to the floor beside him, Mulvaney’s booted heels scuffing the worn out carpet as Kennett hauled him backwards.

And then above the din, a woman screamed, the sound oddly electronic, as if coming from a distance.

And suddenly everything made sense.

Nate turned his head and stared at the computer monitor.

From the open Skype program, a woman watched in horror, eyes stricken, fingers pressed against her mouth.

Skirting around Mulvaney’s thrashing legs, Nate zeroed in on the computer. The woman’s eyes widened and she jerked backwards, as if he could somehow reach across the digital divide and physically grab her.

Mulvaney was making gurgling sounds low in his throat, and the woman tore her gaze from Nate to focus on what was happening at the back of the room.

Nate swung around, the same instant Kennett crushed Mulvaney’s windpipe in a sickening crunch of bone and soft tissue.

The bikie leader turned his back to the computer in an obvious effort to hide his identity, and lowered Mulvaney’s dead body to the floor. ‘Find her, and shut her up.’

Nate let the container slip from his fingers and turned to face the woman. She lowered her hand, and in the moment before she killed the connection, Nate glimpsed her face.

Jesus Christ!

He dived for the outdated mouse on Mulvaney’s desk and clicked on the woman’s profile, the implications of the unfolding horror assaulting his mind like death metal music.

Behind him, Kennett splashed petrol over the shabby, mismatched furniture.

Contingency plans flooded into Nate’s mind.

This was bad.

This was really bad.

‘I witnessed a murder — on Skype.’

Josephine Valenti sat hunched over the mahogany kitchen table and stared at her wide-eyed face in the blackened laptop screen. It had taken all of ten seconds for the emergency number to connect her with Mona Vale Police.

‘Okaaay,’ replied the male police officer — like she’d spent all weekend snorting crack. ‘Take a deep breath, Miss, and tell me what happened.’

Josie fought off her panic and tightened her grip on the phone. ‘A man was strangled — or had his neck broken, I’m not sure — it was quick.’

‘Your name?’

Josie spelled out her name before the policeman could ask, closing the computer lid with a snap. It made her feel better, like the action might trap the horrifying images inside and leave them there.

‘Your location please?’

‘Rainbows End.’ She couldn’t think, her overstimulated nervous system out of sync with her disbelieving mind. ‘Andrew Road, Cottage Point.’

‘Is that your place of residence?’

Not for a while now.

‘It’s my parents’ home.’ Josie steadied her trembling hand as the receiver clattered against her earring. ‘I’m looking after the place.’

‘Is the alleged victim known to you?’

Alleged?

‘Yes. Lloyd Mulvaney.’

A pause. ‘As in Lizard Mulvaney, the president of the Southern Cross?’

‘Yes.’

‘Miss Valenti, what is your relationship to Mr. Mulvaney?’

Josie moistened her dry lips with her tongue and cleared her throat. ‘I’m Allegra Greenwood’s P.A. at Grace and Poole, Lawyers. She’s acted for the Southern Cross for years.’

Prior to ringing the police, Josie had left messages for Allegra and her husband, Luke Neilson. Luke’s company, Neilson’s Security, provided investigative and consulting services to Grace and Poole’s criminal division.

‘So, why would you, her secretary, be Skyping with him at nine forty-five on a Sunday night? It seems rather unorthodox.’

‘He called me,’ Josie insisted, beginning to dislike the reproachful tone creeping into the officer’s voice. ‘He did a Skype search when he couldn’t find my number in the book. I’m the only Josephine Valenti listed in Sydney.’

‘Why did he call you?’

Josie looked down at the harem style pyjamas she wore. She’d barely hung up from speaking to her mother when the second Skype call came in. Had she turned off the computer and gone to bed, Mulvaney’s call wouldn’t have made it through.

‘Well?’ prompted the police officer.

Josie suppressed a shudder. She’d never found Mulvaney frightening on the occasions he’d come into the office, but tonight, there’d been a desperation about him. ‘He never got a chance to say.’

It was common knowledge there was a price on Mulvaney’s head, the bikie war escalating to the point where the chapter leader had been reluctant to appear in public. Seems his concerns had been warranted.

‘Do you know if Mr. Mulvaney called you from his home?’

‘No.’ Josie massaged her temple with her fingertips. ‘I wouldn’t recognise his home, and I wasn’t exactly checking out the decor.’

The officer ignored her exasperated tone. ‘I’m only trying to work out where we might start searching for the body.’

Oh God! Josie’s stomach heaved. ‘I have no idea where he was. He talked for a bit, explained how he managed to track me down, then said I need to speak with…’ She drew in a jagged breath. ‘Two bikies burst into the room. One broke his neck, I think.’

Josie trembled, the images of Mulvaney’s last seconds scorched into her mind. And she couldn’t be one hundred percent certain, but the second man in the room looked a lot like Ignatius Hunter.

Nate Hunter?

She hadn’t crossed paths with him since he’d left Luke Neilson’s employ over two years ago. If it was him, he’d taken a long, hard look at her as the ugly one murdered Mulvaney.

‘Are you there, Miss?’ The officer’s voice jerked her back to the present. ‘Was Lloyd Mulvaney trying to contact your employer?’

Josie glanced at her mobile phone, wishing Luke or Allegra would return her call. ‘It’s the only reason he’d have to call me.’

‘Can you identify these men?’

Josie wasn’t one to lie, in fact on occasion, she’d been criticised for being brutally honest, but she wasn’t about to start throwing Nate Hunter’s name around. Not when she couldn’t be sure it was him.

She skirted around the question. ‘I killed the connection pretty well straight away, but I’d recognise the murderer if I saw him again.’

The police officer drew in a sharp breath. ‘Did they get a look at you?’

‘I’m pretty sure one of them did.’

Her words hung between them, until finally the officer gave a frustrated sigh, as if it were somehow all her fault. ‘They would have checked your profile. We’ll need to look at your computer, Miss.’

‘Alright.’ Josie glanced at the closed laptop. What kind of footprint did the Skype program leave on the computer’s hard drive? She wasn’t enough of a tech head to know.

And now they were going to look at her computer.

Her mind whirled.

What was on there?

Her diary.

Her Facebook profile.

‘You need to come in immediately.’ The officer was hurrying things along now. ‘Do you have transport?’

‘Yes.’

Josie glanced at the oven clock in her mother’s newly remodelled, barely used, designer kitchen. Ten fifteen. Almost half an hour since Mulvaney’s call.

‘We’ll be waiting for you.’

Josie hung up the land line, forcing her wooden legs to move as she ran up the sweeping staircase to her bedroom. She tore off her pyjamas, scooped up tights and a dress from where she’d tossed them over a chair, and pulled them on. She’d been expecting the local policeman to contact homicide — but maybe that only happened after they found the body.

She looked up from lacing her Doc Martens when a tree branch tapped against the window, a southerly buster stirring the highest branches of the ghost gums. Standing up, she switched off the lamp, plunging the room into darkness. Outside, a handful of lights flickered and bobbed through the trees. Boat lights, from the yachts moored in the tranquil waters.

In the kitchen, she shoved her laptop and battery charger inside her computer bag, gaze falling on the pyramid of crystal martini glasses artfully arranged on the granite topped island bench. Earlier, she’d argued with her mother, disappointed Marilyn Valenti had ignored her wishes and organised an over-the-top twenty-first birthday party in her honour. Her mother simply couldn’t understand her preference for an intimate get together in her apartment over a pretentious shindig in this soulless mansion. Complete with martini fountain.

But to keep the peace, and for her father’s sake, Josie had capitulated. Who was she to deny Sydney’s charity queen the kudos of hosting a lavish celebration for her only child?

With the laptop tucked firmly under her arm, Josie grabbed her handbag, set the alarm and ran down the stairs to the four car garage.

None of it mattered anymore. As witness to the murder of a notorious bikie leader, she’d be lucky to reach twenty-one.

Forty-five minutes after Lizard Mulvaney tracked her down on Skype, Josie reversed through the automatic opening gates, shifted her car into gear, and headed towards the intersection at the top of the tree lined street. Once outside the national park, she’d pull over and call Luke and Allegra again. Arrange for them to meet her at the police station.

She was approaching the intersection, when a brilliant flash of light blinded her. Tightening her grip on the wheel, Josie squinted against the glare of driving lights reflecting in her rear view mirror.

A car pulled away from the curb and fell in behind her.

Coincidence?

Or had someone been sitting in the car – watching the house?

Waiting for her?

A long, extended note, summoned her from the back seat, her mobile ringing inside her handbag.

Shit!

‘Josephine?’ Marilyn Valenti’s sharp voice came over the Bluetooth connection.

‘Not a good time, Mum. I’ll call you back.’

Josie glanced in her rear view mirror. The car was tailgating her.

She pressed her foot down on the accelerator and switched on her high beam.

‘You need to ring the caterers,’ her mother was saying. ‘Get them…’

‘I’m sorry, Mum.’ Josie’s finger hovered over the button on the Bluetooth device. ‘I can’t do this now.’

With one hand working the wheel, she killed the call, sweat breaking out on her face as she glanced at the illuminated numerals on the dashboard.

Fifty minutes gone.

Mulvaney’s Skype location had shown up as Sydney.

Could he?

Could Nate Hunter have tracked her down? He’d been to her parents’ place before, the night she’d drank too much at Luke and Allegra’s engagement party and he’d insisted on driving her home. She’d had the hots for him back then, but apart from a rugged toughness and a certain hard edge she found appealing, what did she really know about him?

Nothing.

A big fat zero.

A flash illuminated the car’s interior, and Josie glanced in her side mirror as the vehicle pulled onto the wrong side of the road and began overtaking. Easing her foot off the accelerator, she fixed her gaze to the front and prayed it would pass in a hurry.

It didn’t.

Wheel sliding through sweaty palms, Josie turned to look at the car next to her, a slow tightening in her chest making it almost impossible to breathe.

An unfamiliar high powered ute growled along matching her speed.

And then she glimpsed the driver’s profile, and her legs turned weak, like she’d just stepped off the wildest ride in the fun park.

Chapter 2

10:35 p.m. Sunday

Nate gripped the flashlight and ran towards the blue sedan. The hood was concertinaed against the trunk of a eucalypt, a cloud of steam billowing from the hissing engine. The rear end jutted from the scrub at a forty-five degree angle.

Dense bush formed a dark canopy, the single carriageway lit only by the vehicles’ headlights. As he reached the car, Nate could see Josephine Valenti’s terrified face staring at him through the driver’s window. He gestured for her to unlock the door, but she ignored him, wild curls tumbling around her face as she struggled to unclip the seatbelt.

Too bad. He didn’t have time to play nice.

Ignoring the hunted look in her eyes, Nate tightened his grip on the heavy Maglite, centred his weight and took a swing, striking the driver’s window with a powerful blow. As the auto designers intended, the safety glass cracked but didn’t shatter, clinging to its sticky plastic insert. It took two more hard strikes until there was an opening large enough for him to slip his hand inside and unlock the door.

The glass continued to make popping sounds as he dropped the torch, flung the door wide and grabbed hold of Josie’s legs as she tried scrambling across the centre console. She howled, went feral, kicking and screaming as he hauled her backwards out of the wreck.

Free of the car, he yanked her hard up against him, got an accidental handful of soft breast as her shoulders slammed into his chest.

He kicked the door closed with his booted foot, lowered his arm and clamped his hand over her mouth. ‘Shut up! I won’t hurt you.’

She bit him.

Christ Almighty!

Pain shot up Nate’s arm as sharp teeth sank into the webbing between his thumb and forefinger. He dragged his hand from her mouth, twisted her arms behind her back and frogmarched her to his car, ignoring a string of obscenities that would make a wharfie blush.

Shocked by her potty mouth, he flung open the passenger door and pushed her inside. She fell over the handbrake, went still as the breath whooshed out of her.

Nate dragged in his first breath in a while and groped in the glove compartment for the plastic zip ties. Wresting her hands behind her back, he bound her wrists before she had time to recover. Then he bundled her inside, locked her in and raced back to the blue sedan.

Pushing his luck.

Risking everything.

Ignoring his throbbing hand, he dragged his tee-shirt over his head and scanned the black ribbon of road.

No company yet.

Josie’s belongings were on the back seat, and he tucked them under one arm, retrieved the flashlight from the ground, and wiped the doorhandles free of prints with his shirt.

Get out, Nate.

Go!

GO!

Adrenaline pumped into his system, fuelling his body and heightening his senses. He ran back to the ute, loose gravel sliding beneath his boots, a symphony of cicadas ringing in his ears.

He threw himself into the driver’s seat and rummaged through Josie’s handbag for her mobile phone, switched it off and dropped it back inside. Then he pulled onto the road and gunned the big V8, checking in the rear view mirror for the telltale glow of approaching headlights. But no vehicle crested the rise behind them.

There was nothing.

Only a comforting, inky blackness.

After a while, the marching beat in Nate’s chest began to fade, and for the first time he took a proper look at the terrified young woman in the seat beside him. She’d grown