Janie Crouch: Daddy Defender

He was a man on a mission, one that included a beautiful woman and a little girl he’d die defending…

What a serious case of mistaken identity. Ashton Fitzgerald is no unassuming handyman but a highly trained sharpshooter intent on protecting Summer Worrall and her baby daughter. The Omega SWAT member has a debt to pay and he isn’t about to let Summer out of his sights.

For someone else has set their own sights on the lovely widow. Her unexpected relationship with Ashton has put Summer and her child straight into a madman’s line of fire. Suddenly a mission to make amends becomes Ashton’s quest to defend this little family with his very life.

Omega Sector: Under Siege

Summer stood holding her daughter, staring at the man she thought she’d known so much about, but obviously hadn’t.

SWAT.

She saw the exact moment Ashton heard Chloe. A smile brightened his face as he looked over at them.

Then faded as he obviously remembered where he was and realized what had just happened.

They stared at each other from the yards that separated them. Chloe kept yelling for him and trying to get down.

At least now Summer knew what Ashton had wanted to tell her that she wouldn’t like.

Her handyman was SWAT.

Daddy Defender

Janie Crouch

www.millsandboon.co.uk

JANIE CROUCHhas loved to read romance her whole life. The award-winning author cut her teeth on Mills & Boon Cherish novels as a preteen, then moved on to a passion for romantic suspense as an adult. Janie lives with her husband and four children overseas. She enjoys traveling, long-distance running, movie watching, knitting and adventure/obstacle racing. You can find out more about her at www.janiecrouch.com.

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CAST OF CHARACTERS

Ashton Fitzgerald—Sharpshooter for Omega Sector Critical Response Division (SWAT).

Summer Worrall—Young widow and single mother. Lost her husband two years ago in an Omega hostage-negotiation operation gone wrong.

Chloe Worrall—Summer’s toddler daughter.

Damien Freihof—Terrorist mastermind. Determined to bring down Omega Sector piece by piece by doing what they did to him: destroying their loved ones.

Mr. “Fawkes”—Omega Sector traitor providing inside information to Freihof.

Curtis Harper—Being used by Freihof as a tool to take revenge on Omega Sector.

Derek Waterman—Omega Sector Critical Response Division leader.

Roman Weber—Omega Sector Critical Response Division team member.

Lillian Muir—Omega Sector Critical Response Division team member.

Tyrone Marcus—Omega Sector Critical Response Division team member in training.

Phillip Carnell—Omega Sector agent. Computer and strategy expert.

Omega Sector—Law enforcement task force made up of the best agents the country has to offer.

This book is dedicated to my aunt Terri and uncle Mike. Thank you for being a wonderful example of God’s love and goodness to so many. And for being two of my favorite people on the planet.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

“Ashton, it means the world to me that you would come here to fix this first thing in the morning.”

Ashton Fitzgerald, top sharpshooter for Omega Sector Critical Response Division’s SWAT team, had his head and half his large torso under the kitchen sink of a condo unit in Masking Ridge, a community just south of Colorado Springs.

He knew Summer Worrall, owner of said sink, didn’t expect much of a response from him, so he just grunted as he put a little more elbow grease into tightening a stripped nut on her piping.

“I don’t know when it started leaking, but it was definitely bad when Chloe got me up this morning.”

As if in agreement, nineteen-month-old Chloe began gurgling in her mother’s arms and clapping loudly. She obviously wanted to be let down onto the floor to play with Ashton, but Summer was keeping her out of the way.

“It’s no problem,” Ashton muttered.

Actually, it was a problem. He was going to be late into Omega Sector’s SWAT training facility. Not that there would be any true harm in that; the team was just running exercises today unless something real came in. But as soon as they realized why Ashton was late—because Summer Worrall thought he was the maintenance man again—they were going to tease him mercilessly.

Again.

They all knew, or at least knew of, Summer and Chloe. Her husband had been killed in a hostage situation gone wrong nearly two years ago. Then she’d been kidnapped by a psychopath eight months ago in another incident involving the Omega Sector’s Critical Response Division, an elite interagency task force with some of the country’s best agents.

So no one on the team actually begrudged Ashton helping out the young widow. What they found so hilarious was the fact that Summer thought he was the handyman for the entire condo complex.

And Ashton could admit he was a pretty mechanically minded guy. Growing up on his parents’ farm in Wyoming had given him a lot of skills with his hands. He could fix most household problems, given the time and tools.

“I think I’ve got this under control,” he said. “It’s nothing big, just some piping that needed to be realigned and tightened.”

“Oh good. I didn’t want to turn a big, formal request in to Joe.”

Joe Matarazzo, the main hostage negotiator at Omega Sector, who also happened to be a billionaire, owned the condos in which Summer and Chloe lived. That’s how this crazy misunderstanding had started in the first place. Summer had needed a handyman and called Joe. Joe had said he’d send someone trustworthy right over.

But then Joe had an emergency with Omega and asked Ashton if he could take care of Summer’s problem. Instead of calling someone, Ashton had just gone over to Summer’s home himself. He’d had no intention of misleading Summer, and had even introduced himself as Joe’s friend.

Evidently she’d taken that to mean Joe’s handyman friend.

When he’d given her his number, telling her to call him if anything else came up, Summer had taken him up on that offer. Eight times in the last few months.

Now Ashton had no idea how to tell her the truth.

And that wasn’t even the worst secret he was keeping from her. He grimaced and worked his way out from under the sink.

“Okay, I think I’ve got it all fixed under here. I just need to turn your water back on in the basement.”