Dana Nussio - Shielded By The Lawman

One conflicted cop must protect a woman living a lie

A riveting True Blue story

Trooper Jamie Donovan suspects there’s more to Sarah Cline than the waitress reveals. And Sarah, on the run with her son from an abusive ex-husband, won’t trust Jamie with the truth. But when danger—greater than she realized—catches up to Sarah, Jamie confronts the biggest dilemma of his life: uphold his oath or aid and abet the woman he loves?

DANA NUSSIObegan telling “people stories” around the same time she started talking. She has been doing both things nonstop ever since. The award-winning newspaper reporter and features editor left her career while raising three daughters, but the stories followed her home as she discovered the joy of writing fiction. Now an award-winning fiction author as well, she loves telling emotional stories filled with honorable but flawed characters. Empty nesters, Dana and her husband of more than twenty-five years live in Michigan with two overfed cats, Leo the Wondercat and Annabelle Lee the Neurotic.

Also By Dana Nussio

True Blue

Shielded by the Lawman

Strength Under Fire

Falling for the Cop

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Shielded by the Lawman

Dana Nussio

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09366-8

SHIELDED BY THE LAWMAN

© 2019 Dana Corbit Nussio

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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“You leap out of your skin every time the bells chime at the diner.”

Sarah shook her head. “I already—”

He kept going, despite her attempt to interrupt. “I know. But how could you never get used to sounds you hear all day...every day? And there’s more. You’re always watching the front door of the diner...as if maybe you’re dreading whomever the next customer will be.”

“Now, that’s just silly. I’m just doing my job being prepared for customers.”

“You didn’t want anyone to know about Aiden...or your last name.”

Now she only shrugged. If he hadn’t bought her excuse the first time, he was unlikely to buy it now.

“Do you have any idea how many times you looked over your shoulder at the zoo today?”

“I did not.”

Why couldn’t Jamie stop asking questions? Just because he’d told her his deep, dark secrets didn’t mean that she had agreed to share hers. Besides, he was getting too close to the truth. What if he found out everything?

* * *

Dear Reader,

Hello, Harlequin Romantic Suspense readers! I’m excited to be in my new publishing home at Harlequin Romantic Suspense and to share Shielded by the Lawman with you. As a huge romantic-suspense fan myself, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to write the same type of stories that are on my Kindle or on the tattered pages of my own paperback collection. Sarah and Jamie’s story has lived in my thoughts for several years now, so it was a joy—and a relief—to finally get the chance to write it. I hope you’ll love these characters and their journey to trust, healing and love as much as I do.

True Blue is a brand-new series for Harlequin Romantic Suspense, but it is also a continuation of the contemporary romance series I wrote for Harlequin Superromance. Bonus! True Blue is about the lives and loves of the brave men and women from a Michigan State Police post. Now with Romantic Suspense, these characters get to face an even rockier—and more sinister—road to forever love. If you can’t get enough of the True Blue crew for now, then meet a few more of the gang in my Superromance backlist titles, Strength Under Fire and Falling for the Cop. Meanwhile, I’ll be back at my computer, working on the next dark and dangerous adventure.

I love staying in contact with readers, no matter how you choose to connect. Learn more about me and sign up for my newsletter through my website, www.dananussio.com; connect with me on Facebook or Twitter, @DanaNussio1; or drop me a line on real paper at PO Box 5, Novi, MI 48376-0005.

Happy reading!

Dana Nussio

To Randy, for believing in me and supporting my dreams, even when that means you must keep wearing dress clothes and fighting traffic while I’m at home telling stories in my PJs. Thanks for loving me and ensuring that our three daughters didn’t starve during deadline mania and, let’s admit it, most of the other times, as well. You are my hero.

A special thanks to Officer David Willett, of the Michigan State Police, for patiently answering all my questions, even the strange ones; and to my dear friends Angela Armstrong, for inspiring me through your own true-life romance with a hunky police hero, and Cindy Thomas, for your constant support and superior country-music-festival matchmaking. As always, I would like to thank the real heroes in law enforcement, those who every day don the uniform with dignity and accept the duty and risk of protecting the rest of us. May God go with you all!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10