It Happened at Cafe Nix

In Safe Company

In Safe Company

Lee Christine

The bikie turf war has returned to Sydney, and the lawyers for the Southern Cross, Poole Greenwood, are at risk of a retaliatory strike from the Altar Boys.

In Safe Company is a short story featuring secondary characters, Dickson Cross and Natalie Slater, from romantic suspense series In Safe Hands, In Safe Arms and In Safe Keeping, published by Escape Publishing.

Natalie watched the commotion taking place inside Cafe Nix from the doorway of the adjoining function room. The smartly dressed owner, a woman of European descent after whom the cafe was named, was attending an emotional couple who were dining in the restaurant.

The female patron was in floods of tears, her male companion on his feet, the owner beckoning over a waiter. Earlier, the young woman had rushed into the bathroom.

Natalie had taken notice.

So had Detective Dickson Cross of Sydney’s Gang Squad.

While Dickson went over to the table to investigate, Natalie turned and scanned the assembled group in the function room behind her. Within seconds, she caught the enquiring eye of her employer, former SAS Commander and security expert, Luke Neilson, the owner of Neilson’s Security. He was standing beside his wife, Allegra Greenwood. Known in Sydney law circles as “the perfumed steamroller”, the cool blonde was a partner of the prestigious law firm, Poole Greenwood. Next to Allegra was Evan Barclay, former rugby union international. The cocktail party was being held in honour of Barclay’s appointment as a junior partner of the firm.

Natalie gave a slight shake of her head, and Luke’s broad shoulders lowered as he visibly relaxed. Whatever was going on with the young couple out in the restaurant, she was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the reason she and Dickson Cross were in attendance tonight.

She turned around as Cross came towards her. Tall and athletic with a shaved head and intelligent, blue eyes, he was as attractive as the day they’d first met at Goulburn Police Academy.

Natalie’s body tightened as her eyes locked on his. Did he remember that night? The bourbon-flavoured kisses and aroused gropes they’d exchanged in a dark corner of some police cadet’s lounge room? While her brain couldn’t recall the party’s host, the memory of Dickson’s hot, demanding mouth on hers, his cool hands as they slipped under her blouse and unhooked her bra, was burned into her cerebral cortex.

Oh God!

Heat suffused Natalie’s face and her nipples hardened inside the lacy bra she always wore beneath her black pants suit. Dickson Cross had been one man who’d really made her feel it, and if she ever got another chance to lay her hands on his impressively muscular frame, she’d work his body over good and proper.

She wouldn’t be saying no this time.

“What’s going on?” she asked, as one by one every patron in the restaurant got to their feet and broke into applause.

“She’s pregnant. That’s why she took so long in the bathroom. She was doing a test. Been trying forever apparently.”

Natalie watched Dickson resume his position on the other side of the doorway. Life could be so unfair. It was obvious, from the couple’s unbridled joy, they’d been to hell and back trying to fall pregnant, while she’d got knocked up from one unsatisfying fuck that had barely lasted two minutes. “Bloody hell.”

Dickson slanted her an amused look, hands shoved into his trouser pockets. “Come on. You’ve got two kids. You must have felt that kind of excitement.”