Tara Taylor Quinn - A Defender's Heart

Her forgiveness is the only win that matters

Former defense attorney Cedar Wilson is on a mission for redemption. After losing sight of everything but winning, he betrayed the love of his life, Heather Michaels, to help a guilty man go free—a wrong he finally has a chance to make right when a potential new witness checks into The Lemonade Stand shelter.

Cedar needs Heather’s help as a top polygraphist to uncover the truth. And while he has no right to expect her forgiveness, the passion between them makes Cedar believe they could still have a future together. Maybe solving one case can fix two mistakes...

Having written over eighty-five novels, TARA TAYLOR QUINN is a USA TODAY bestselling author with more than seven million copies sold. She is known for delivering intense, emotional fiction. Tara is a past president of Romance Writers of America. She has won a Readers’ Choice Award and is a seven-time finalist for an RWA RITA® Award. She has also appeared on TV across the country, including CBS Sunday Morning. She supports the National Domestic Violence Hotline. If you or someone you know might be a victim of domestic violence in the United States, please contact 1-800-799-7233.

Also By Tara Taylor Quinn

Where Secrets are Safe

Wife by Design

Once a Family

Husband by Choice

Child by Chance

Mother by Fate

The Good Father

Love by Association

His First Choice

The Promise He Made Her

Her Secret Life

The Fireman’s Son

For Joy’s Sake

A Family for Christmas

Falling for the Brother

Shelter Valley Stories

Sophie’s Secret

Full Contact

Family Secrets

For Love or Money

Her Soldier’s Baby

The Cowboy’s Twins

MIRA BOOKS

The Friendship Pact

In Plain Sight

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

A Defender’s Heart

Tara Taylor Quinn

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08469-7

A DEFENDER’S HEART

© 2018 TTQ Books, LLC

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

Before you start reading, why not sign up?

Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

SIGN ME UP!

Or simply visit

signup.millsandboon.co.uk

Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

“I have a favor to ask.”

Heather held her purse in her hands. “I’m not going to...”

“Please hear me out,” he interrupted before she could walk out on him. No matter how much he probably deserved it, he wasn’t up to having her leave him again. The first time had pretty much killed him.

Killed the old him, anyway. Leaving him with a shadow of a man who lived to make amends—not to be happy.

“It’s not for me.”

“Of course it’s for you. Couched in a client’s need, perhaps, but it’s about your win. I’m not going back down that road, Cedar.”

He swallowed. Pursed his lips so they wouldn’t open until he had himself in check. He wasn’t going to pour out his truths. Couldn’t play with her emotions that way. The turns his life had taken were personal. His alone. They weren’t to get her back. Or even to show her that he’d become a better man. He was a man who’d lost his way, and that was a shadow he would carry forever.

Dear Reader,

On one hand this letter is very, very difficult to write. After twenty-five years writing for Superromance, this is my very last one. One of the very last that will ever be printed. I’m so, so thankful to all of you for your years of faithful support and following. A Defender’s Heart is everything that is TTQ and Superromance. It’s full of intense emotion—and a situation that is seemingly hopeless. And yet...there’s hope. Because that’s the bottom-line truth. Hope. It’s what I, and Superromance, have spent decades giving to you and what I pray you will take with you from our immense body of work.

A Defender’s Heart stole my heart. It’s a story of imperfect people making mistakes that aren’t just going to go away. It’s about choices. And the will to fight for what matters most, even when fighting for right might mean giving up. We’re giving up Supers; we aren’t giving up story. Love. Or hope.

And because I don’t just write fiction for entertainment, but believe wholeheartedly in the hope and love we portray in our books, I’ve got hope to leave with you! My stories are going to continue to be available to entertain you into the foreseeable future. I’ll still be right here at Harlequin, writing for Special Edition. And more great news—it looks like while Superromance is ending, The Lemonade Stand and Where Secrets are Safe are not. Stay tuned!

Tara

For Paula Eykelhof, Jane Robson, Victoria Curran and Piya Campana—I am the only one left here, and yet I take each of you, every day, into every story I write. God gave me talent, I have the will, but you made me the writer I am. Thank you from the depths of my soul. I love and miss you all.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

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