Liz Shoaf - Identity - Classified

Uncovering the past

May be the only way to survive

After security specialist Chloe Spencer witnesses a murder on her webcam, the killer faces the camera with a threat: return his disc, or she’s next. Unsure what he’s after, Chloe uses an alias and runs…until she lands in Sheriff Ethan Hoyt’s jurisdiction. When the killer finds her, Chloe must stand alone or trust Ethan—with the secrets of her past, her life…and her heart.

LIZ SHOAF resides in North Carolina on a beautiful fifty-acre farm. She loves writing and adores dog training, and her husband is very tolerant about the amount of time she invests in both her avid interests. Liz also enjoys spending time with family, jogging and singing in the choir at church whenever possible. To find out more about Liz, you can visit and contact her through her website, www.lizshoaf.com, or email her at phelpsliz1@gmail.com

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Identity: Classified

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Identity: Classified

Liz Shoaf

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09634-8

IDENTITY: CLASSIFIED

© 2019 Liz Phelps

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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The woman was trouble.

He glanced at her in the passenger seat. But she also intrigued him. Not that he’d do anything about it. Chloe had too many secrets, including her identity.

Ethan hit a deep rut in the mountain road and she groaned. “I guess a city girl like you isn’t used to roughing it,” he said.

She snorted. “You’d be surprised at some of the places I’ve been to.”

He jumped on that clue. “Tell me.”

The blood drained from her face.

The cabin came into view and he tabled his interrogation. Right now he needed to get some answers from its owner. “Stay in the car while I go in.” He opened the car door and a bullet whizzed over the top of his head. “Get down!”

“This is starting to tick me off.”

Ethan couldn’t believe it. Someone was shooting at them and she wasn’t afraid? “What kind of life have you really led?”

Chloe didn’t answer.

Didn’t matter. Either way, that life was now his to protect.

Dear Reader,

I love strong, independent women with unique personalities, and rugged, protective men who don’t know quite what to think of the women who land on their doorsteps. Throw in a good dose of suspense and danger, an attack-trained poodle, a precocious six-year-old child, and I’m a happy writer. Let me know if you enjoyed reading about Chloe and Ethan’s adventures as much as I enjoyed writing them. You can contact me through my website, www.lizshoaf.com.

Liz Shoaf

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

—Mark 16:15

To my own hero, Captain James W. Phelps. Over the years we have traveled the long and winding path that God set us upon. There’s been laughter and tears, but no matter what, we always knew God was there every step of the way, ready to catch us if we fell. I have no doubt that you love me, and that’s a very precious commodity.

To my editor, Dina Davis, who never fails to catch my plot problems. :) Thanks for being in my corner! And to her boss, Tina, who has final approval of all books. The art department always does such a fantastic job, so a shout-out to all you guys who work behind the scenes to make every book possible.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Readers

Bible Verse

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

TWENTY-ONE

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

Chloe Spencer tossed a piece of popcorn high into the air and deftly caught it in her mouth. A barely audible whimper rose from the vicinity of the floor beside her office chair. She glanced down and grinned. “Want some, do you, Geordie?”

Her fifteen-pound chocolate miniature poodle stared at her with black button eyes, bright with intelligence. He gently took the snack she handed to him.

Her computer chirped. She swiveled her chair around and rubbed her hands together in anticipation. As head of her one-person security company, Spencer Security, her job was to find and eliminate cyber threats and in-house data theft for companies she had contracted with. Sci-Fi Works Corporation was one of her clients, and a board member suspected someone in the company of stealing data and selling it to outside sources. He personally asked her to look into it on the sly.

She hit a few keys to activate her webcam, and there sat CEO Peter Norris, right in front of his computer in his office. She had a perfect shot of him. Geordie snorted and she grunted back.

Chloe quickly triggered the hidden software installed on all computers within the company—approved by the same board member—which allowed her to view and record anything an employee did on their PC. She also turned on her own camera and recorded everything she did—a security measure that protected her against a disgruntled employee accusing her of planting evidence.