Patricia Johns - Her Lawman Protector

Their relationship isn’t real...

But his feelings for her are!

Detective Jack Talbott has devoted his life to ending police corruption. His latest target is Liv Hylton, the ex-wife of a dirty cop. She’s also the woman he’s secretly loved for years. To get close to her, Jack’s going undercover as her boyfriend. But when the evidence points to Liv’s innocence and a threat to her safety, he’ll do anything to protect her. Even risk his career...

PATRICIA JOHNSwrites from Alberta, Canada. She has her Hon. BA in English literature and currently writes for Mills & Boon Love Inspired and Heartwarming lines. You can find her at patriciajohnsromance.com.

Also by Patricia Johns

A Baxter’s Redemption

The Runaway Bride

A Boy’s Christmas Wish

Deputy Daddy

The Lawman’s Runaway Bride

The Deputy’s Unexpected Family

His Unexpected Family

The Rancher’s City Girl

A Firefighter’s Promise

The Lawman’s Surprise Family

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Her Lawman Protector

Patricia Johns

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07853-5

HER LAWMAN PROTECTOR

© 2018 Patricia Johns

Published in Great Britain 2018

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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To my husband, who has always thought

I was the prettiest girl in the room.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

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

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

LIV HYLTON CRACKED open a box of books, uncovering glossy paperback covers. The smell of new books never ceased to hit her brain right in the pleasure center. She was still filling shelves in her brand-new bookshop in Eagle’s Rest, Colorado, and she was a stickler for variety. One thing she hated in a bookstore was having access only to the ten top sellers. Sometimes she didn’t want a bestseller. Sometimes she wanted a fresh discovery, a delightful distraction...and Hylton Books was going to provide just that to the tourists who came for skiing each winter and for Eagle’s Rest Lake in the summer.

With the leaves changing to their brilliant autumn foliage, the tourists were gone—an ideal time to be doing the grunt work of opening a new business. She’d have everything streamlined by ski season.

Liv pulled a hand through her hair and heaved a sigh. Her jeans had shrunk one too many times, and they were getting uncomfortably tight. That’s what she was telling herself, at least. She’d gained weight, but she was done with diets. After ten years of marriage, where she constantly struggled to lose weight, she wasn’t doing that to herself anymore. At the age of thirty-two, this was her body—no more punishment.

The newly installed shelves were high—a sliding library ladder attached at one side of the store and could be swept along to whichever point along the wall it was needed. That had been hard to come by, but a local contractor had gotten his hands on an old sliding ladder from an archives building in Denver, and it all had come together rather nicely. Like it was meant to be.

Morning light spilled from the display window onto the front counter, and her gaze drifted toward the creased note that lay next to a pile of mystery novels. She’d found the paper on the floor that morning, shoved through the mail slot. It was a simple piece of computer paper with letters cut from magazines—creepy. The last two notes she’d tossed out, thinking they were a prank by some local kids, but this one had settled into her gut and left her nervous.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Go on back and leave us alone or you’ll regret it.

This note sounded darker than the others and less logical. Warn her about what? And how was she bothering anyone in Eagle’s Rest? She’d been born here, gone to Eagle’s Rest Elementary back when there was only one elementary school in town. Her grandparents, who’d already passed away, had settled here after they got married. Everyone she’d talked to seemed really excited about a bookstore coming to town. So, go back? To Denver, where she’d lived the past ten years with her ex?

The implied snarl and the confusing logic behind the note chilled her. She didn’t think she had any enemies here, but maybe she was wrong about that. Whoever had left this note didn’t seem stable, and who knew what an unstable person would do for their own convoluted reasons? She’d called the police station as soon as she’d read the note, and they’d promised to send an officer down.

Liv flipped through the stack of mysteries, putting the books in alphabetical order. But her mind wasn’t fixed on the work at hand, and she glanced out the front window at the sun-dappled sidewalk. She was waiting for the officer to arrive. It wasn’t that she thought there was some special magic in a cop’s eyes moving over that page. Her ex was a cop, so she knew their limitations, but if they could at least put this into the system, pass around a memo that she was being threatened—something! Maybe she could give local cops a deep discount for shopping at her store and keep a visible police presence on this street. That was an idea.