A Defender's Heart. Tara Quinn Taylor
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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.
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
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 HarperCollinsPublishers 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.
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“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.
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