Catherine Lanigan - Protecting The Single Mom

Getting involved shouldn’t be this dangerous...

Cate Sullivan is no damsel in distress. She’s kept herself and her son safe for six long years. Built a good life in Indian Lake. But now that her drug-dealing ex-husband is moving his operation here, that life is about to explode.

Her instincts tell her to trust Detective Trent Davis. That he’s more than just a handsome cop doing his duty. The former Green Beret has even formed a fast bond with her son. But there’s something he’s not telling her. Some darkness that keeps him from giving in to the feelings she knows are growing between them. Cate trusts Trent to keep her safe, but the real question is whether he’ll trust himself with her heart.

“Listen, Trent, I should be honest with you.”

She pierced him with a look so earnest, he held his breath.

“Please.”

“I don’t want you to think I’m...well...a maiden in distress. I can take care of myself. One of the things I’ve realized is that I’m a magnet for guys who...are inappropriate for me.”

“That’s diplomatic.” He frowned.

“I can’t stand losing control. You have to know that, and right now I can’t let you take over my life—”

“I wasn’t trying to do that.”

“Sure you were. Our situation gives you a control over me and Danny that isn’t healthy...in the long run, I mean.”

He let her continue.

“Listen, I think it’s best I take a step back.”

She was right and he hated it.

Dear Reader,

For those of you who have followed the loves and lives of my friends in Indian Lake, you may remember I introduced Cate Sullivan in my first book of the series, Love Shadows. In that book, she was the Realtor who sold Luke Bosworth’s house when he couldn’t pay his deceased wife Jenny’s medical bills.

As I wrote other books, Cate kept niggling at me, but her words were strange. “You don’t know me. Nobody does. I won’t let them. I’m in disguise.” The night I heard that in my head, that did it. I had to delve into Cate and find out who she was.

Then, when I wanted to write a miniseries within the Indian Lake series on the issue of illegal drugs in our modern lives and how all of us feel those wretched effects, Cate’s story slapped me in the face. I really had to pay attention to her, because she wasn’t about to leave me alone.

I have always found silver linings in the worst circumstances. To find the love of one’s life while pitched into the center ring of death and terror not only makes for an edge-of-your-seat story but, to me, proves that love does conquer all. Happily-ever-after is that much sweeter after a high-stakes battle, and Cate and Trent have earned their joy.

Please share your thoughts with me—I’d love to hear from you. Write to me at cathlanigan1@gmail.com and connect with me on Twitter ( @cathlanigan), Facebook, LinkedIn and Wattpad, and at www.catherinelanigan.comand www.heartwarmingauthors.blogspot.com.

All my best,

Catherine

Protecting the Single Mom

Catherine Lanigan

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CATHERINE LANIGAN knew she was born to storytelling at a very young age when she told stories to her younger brothers and sister to entertain them. After years of encouragement from family and high school teachers, Catherine was shocked and brokenhearted when her freshman college creative-writing professor told her that she had “no writing talent whatsoever” and that she would never earn a dime as a writer. He promised her that he would be her crutches and get her through his demanding class with a B grade so as not to destroy her high grade point average too much, if Catherine would promise never to write again. Catherine assumed he was the voice of authority and gave in to the bargain.

For fourteen years she did not write until she was encouraged by a television journalist to give her dream a shot. She wrote a six-hundred-page historical romantic spy thriller set against World War I. The journalist sent the manuscript to his agent, who then garnered bids from two publishers. That was nearly forty published novels, nonfiction books and anthologies ago.

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This book is dedicated to my son, Ryan Pieszchala, whose sense of honor, responsibility and unconditional love for his family was the inspiration for my hero, Trent Davis.

And to all the men and women in blue who Serve and Protect our lives across rural farmlands and sprawling cities: your sacrifices do not go unnoticed. God bless you all. You are true heroes and heroines.

To my late husband, Jed Nolan, my hero, my best friend. I will love you to the moon and back, throughout all galaxies and all the universes.

Acknowledgments

Passions and causes have rumbled through my life and my writings since I wrote my first poems at the age of ten. I wish I was powerful enough to eradicate heroin from the streets and the playgrounds. I wish I could stop every man from beating his wife and children. I wish I could eradicate harsh and hateful words and actions from all humans.

I can’t.

My blessings are the trust and belief that my editors, Claire Caldwell, Megan Long, Dianne Moggy and Victoria Curran have in my ability to deliver a romance that has wide wings and deep, moral roots. It is your intelligence, commitment and heartfelt compassion for my story and me, that gave me the courage to delve into Cate’s fears about loving and her unrelenting devotion to her son, her friends and her town.

I can’t change the world, but as a writer, I can change a reader’s perspective. Even if one person who is being abused physically, mentally or verbally, reads this story and finds the courage to make changes in her life, then I have succeeded.

Thank you to everyone at Heartwarming for giving me the voice to help others.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

About the Author

Title Page

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

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

TRENT DAVIS GRIPPED his fully loaded Smith & Wesson M&P 45 semiautomatic pistol and motioned to his fellow officers who had approached the abandoned brick building with as much stealth and expertise as his Special Forces team had used in Afghanistan. They plastered their backs against the outside walls. All wore Kevlar vests and navy windbreakers with yellow ILPD patches on the back. Trent tried the rickety door. It was locked. He gave a hand signal that said he would bust it down.