Her Detective's Secret Intent (Where Secrets Are Safe Book 16) Read online

  He’s not the man she thinks he is...

  And everything he knows about her is a lie!

  On the run with her young son, Miranda Blake must stay off the grid. That means she can’t tell her would-be protector why she’s fleeing her secret past. Just the same, Detective Tad Newberry can’t tell Miranda why he’s protecting her. Just as the two start falling in love, shocking truths explode their fragile trust.

  “You said you wanted to ask me out.”

  “I do.” He set his glass down. And somehow managed to move a little bit farther away as he turned toward her and took her hand. “I really do.”

  “So? Why is nothing...happening?”

  He didn’t say anything. Just studied her.

  “Ethan’s usually around.” His answer, when it came, was a huge disappointment. And a relief, too.

  Only because he was confirming an excuse she’d already come up with.

  “He’s not around tonight.”

  Her father had not taught her to be a woman who threw herself at men. To the contrary, he’d beaten her bloody the first time a boy had kissed her on her front step after a date and the great fire chief had witnessed the unremarkable occurrence.

  Buzzkill. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all.

  “I’m afraid that if I touch you, I won’t stop.”

  Tad’s words brought her head up. She saw the truth in the light in his eyes.

  “Who says you have to stop?” she whispered.

  * * *

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  Dear Reader,

  Oh my word. I am just so happy to be here with you. I’ve been writing romantic suspense my entire career, and I am finally, with this, my ninetieth book, writing them for Harlequin Romantic Suspense! The line wasn’t even in existence when I started my Harlequin career and, thankfully, Harlequin Superromance happily published my suspense titles. I am very thankful that you, the Harlequin Romantic Suspense family, invited me into your fold.

  So...welcome to The Lemonade Stand, where secrets are safe. Always. This series is integrally a part of me. It hits home. It’s personal. I created The Lemonade Stand several years ago, at the request of a Harlequin editor. I had no idea the impact it would have on readers, or on me. The Stand is a unique resort-like women’s shelter off the coast of California. And the stories that happen here...they stand alone. They’re individual stories of individual women and men whose lives have been impacted by this wonderful facility.

  This book...I feel it down to my core, and I hope and pray that you do, too. It’s intense, but I promise you an ending that is real and filled with hope.

  If you like this book, you can find the first fifteen Where Secrets are Safe stories, published by Harlequin Superromance, at all online retailers, including Harlequin.com, or by ordering them through any of your local retailers. And for future ones, just sit right here with me. They’re already on the way!

  I love to connect with my readers. Please find me at www.tarataylorquinn.com, www.Facebook.com/tarataylorquinnauthor, on Twitter @tarataylorquinn or join my open Friendship board at www.Pinterest.com/tarataylorquinn/friendship.

  Happy reading,

  Tara Taylor Quinn

  HER DETECTIVE’S

  SECRET INTENT

  Tara Taylor Quinn

  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 and is a seven-time RWA RITA® Award finalist. She has also appeared on TV across the country, including CBS Sunday Morning. She supports the National Domestic Violence Hotline. If you need help, please contact 1-800-799-7233.

  Books by Tara Taylor Quinn

  Harlequin Romantic Suspense

  Where Secrets are Safe

  Her Detective’s Secret Intent

  Harlequin Special Edition

  The Daycare Chronicles

  Her Lost and Found Baby

  An Unexpected Christmas Baby

  The Baby Arrangement

  The Fortunes of Texas

  Fortune’s Christmas Baby

  Harlequin Superromance

  Where Secrets are Safe

  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

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

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  For Drake Winchester, the brand-new little guy for whom I’d give my life.

  I am so thankful you’re in the world.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Excerpt from Colton on the Run by Anna J. Stewart

  Chapter 1

  Detective Tad Newberry—currently on leave from the police force in Charlotte, North Carolina—walked into the pediatric examining room in Santa Raquel, California, forcing a big smile. In addition to the exam table, some plastic chairs, a counter with drawers and glass containers of various cotton supplies, the room boasted zoo animal prints in shades of blue and green. The floor was gray tile, eight-inch squares, and the lights were ceiling-mounted fluorescent bulbs.

  After giving his surroundings a quick glance, cataloging every aspect out of habit, he focused on the seven-year-old boy dressed in jeans and a yellow T-shirt sitting on the edge of the table, swinging one of his legs back and forth—a nervous gesture, Tad surmised, not a happy or excited one.

  The boy’s mother, in jeans and a navy hoodie with a light green shirt underneath, stood beside him, hand about an inch behind her son on the paper-covered cushioned mat. As though she was ready to grab him at any moment. Tad glanced at her, having been prepared ahead of time, and still felt bile rise in his throat when he saw the red-and-purple puffiness taking up one entire side of her face.

  Marie Williams wanted to be kept safe from her abusive husband, but she didn’t want to press charges against him. She truly believed that once they got through their divorce, she’d be fine; he’d no longer be a risk to her. At the same time, she didn’t want to ru
in his life.

  Tad had heard the entire report. He didn’t get it. But it wasn’t his place to judge.

  “Danny, this is Tad, the man I told you about,” said the third woman in the room that sunny April morning, the one Tad knew and by whose invitation he was there. Pediatric physician’s assistant Miranda Blake could easily steal Tad’s entire focus if he allowed himself to relax. Something he could never do around the lovely brunette.

  “Hi, Danny,” he said, his gaze on the boy as he approached. “I hear you’ve had a bit of a tough time.” Pulling up a chair, not the doctor’s stool Miranda had pushed his way, he settled half a foot below the boy’s eye level.

  Chin almost to his chest, Danny nodded.

  The boy, a beefy little guy, though not overweight, wouldn’t meet his eyes.

  Tad had never been married, had no kids, but he knew human nature. Leaning down, he tried to catch the boy’s look. Danny turned to his mother, burying his face in her chest.

  “Tad’s not going to hurt you, Danny.” Miranda’s tone not only held authority, but that incredible sense of nurturing that had captivated him from the first time he’d heard her speak. The woman radiated caring. Not that he required it for himself.

  He had other matters on his mind. Giving all his attention to the boy, he made a guess. “I’m not mad at you, son. You aren’t in any kind of trouble. And I’m not a doctor or anyone in the doctor business. I’m not here to look at your injuries. I’m just here to talk.”

  He was there as part of an individualized plan designed by the High Risk Team in Santa Raquel—a team comprised of various working professionals who shared domestic violence information with the single goal of preventing domestic violence deaths. The current plan had been devised to protect Danny and his mother. His role, strictly volunteer, was to keep an eye on Danny anytime the boy wasn’t with his mother or teachers. Specifically he was to do multiple drive-bys a day to see that all was well. Miranda, a frequent visiting member of the High Risk Team, had come up with the idea for the two of them, Danny and him, to actually meet. Her reasoning—if Danny knew him and knew he was close by, he’d be more apt to reach out if he was in trouble—was sound.

  But it was only going to work if he could get Danny to trust him.

  Not an easy feat for a man who’d had few dealings with kids until recently, and a little boy who’d had his trust in men destroyed by the one man he should’ve been able to count on—his father.

  The boy didn’t turn to him as Tad spoke. Danny’s tennis-shoe-clad heel on his good leg was no longer lightly bumping the table. It hung completely still beside the leg he could hardly move.

  That caught Tad’s attention.

  Danny didn’t have to know or like Tad for Tad to keep an eye on him. But maybe he could do more here than help prevent further physical harm. Maybe he could help the little guy heal in other ways.

  As someone who was attempting to heal himself, he found that the idea appealed to him.

  “Ladies, if you’ll please forgive any impropriety and feel free to turn your heads, I’d like to show Danny something on my leg.” He tore the paper from the top half of the exam table, wrapped it around his waist. Then, looking at Miranda and Danny’s mother for an okay and receiving nods, he awkwardly—using one hand, as though performing some kind of comic routine—managed to get his loose-fitting jeans undone and dropped them to the floor. He was a boxers kind of guy, dark blue that day, and even without the paper all pertinent parts were fully covered. It wasn’t the pertinent parts that were relevant right now.

  Pulling the paper up on his waist, high enough to expose his upper thigh or, more accurately, the jagged, puffy and discolored seven-inch scar slashing across the front and around the side of his leg, he said, “It doesn’t look as gross now as it did. And yours won’t look nearly as bad because it was a straight line, and that makes a big difference.”

  Standing there with his pants around his ankles, Tad might have felt embarrassed. Or inappropriate. All he felt was that he had to reach this little guy on his own level. Dealing with what was foremost on the boy’s mind.

  And it appeared to be working. Danny, having sat upright, was staring at the scar. Boys must still be somewhat the way he remembered himself being—fascinated by gross things.

  “I fell, too,” he said, leaving out the part about the explosion that had sent him flying. Just like he didn’t mention that he knew Danny had been running from his enraged father when he’d tripped and impaled his leg on a plant stake in the backyard.

  “It hurt like heck to move my leg for a while,” he added, because he knew Danny had months of rehab ahead of him as the muscle that had been cut in his upper thigh healed. “I go to the gym at least twice a day, three days a week, to make it stronger, and now I can walk without any limp at all.” Unless he was overtired. Then a tilted gait came back to remind him of what he’d done.

  He moved his leg enough to flex the muscle, which made the scar jump. “See, it works just fine now.”

  Glancing briefly at the two women on either side of the exam table, he asked if they’d mind turning around so he could get himself put back together. He did so in record time, except for tucking in the blue cotton polo shirt. Going strictly on instincts, as he watched the boy watching him, he lifted his shirt a few inches, showing Danny his back. “I got burned, too,” he told the boy. “So, you see, I’m just here as a guy who got hurt, wanting to help another guy who got hurt.”

  Danny didn’t speak. But he didn’t turn away, either. He watched Tad. And maybe that was enough.

  “What happened?” Danny’s mother asked. Tad looked up and saw the compassion on her face. He chose to think of it as that, as opposed to pity, which he could not abide. He’d made a stupid choice.

  But it had brought the best result possible—saving a little girl’s life. Something that might have been done with less damage—to himself and others—if he’d followed protocol by waiting for the hostage negotiators and SWAT to arrive.

  Or little Lola could have been hurt far worse than the minimal bruising she’d suffered from Tad’s falling too heavily on her when he dived to protect her body from the blast.

  “A guy was angry with me,” he said, vetting his words carefully with Danny in mind. “He had something that didn’t belong to him and when I went to get it back, he...hurt me.”

  Lola’s’s father had rigged a homemade bomb to go off if anyone pushed open the antiques store’s back office door, behind which he held the child hostage. Unaware that the girl was there, Tad had gone to the business, not yet open for the day, to question him about some things he’d been selling in his shop. Stolen things.

  “Did they get the bad guy?” Danny’s voice was surprisingly strong as he looked Tad in the eye.

  “Yes, they did,” he said. The man had been prepared to kill himself and his daughter, too, apparently, rather than face arrest. The child wasn’t supposed to have been there. Her mother, who’d had shared custody of her and no idea that her soon to be ex-husband was in any kind of trouble, had dropped her off with him because she’d been called into work.

  He’d dragged her into the back office, telling Tad and his partner to get out or he’d hurt her...

  “So, anyway, if you want to come to the gym with me sometime, have your mom call me,” Tad said. Marie Williams already had his cell number. “You might see me hanging out, too,” he added. “You can talk to me or not, your choice. I just wanted you to know who I am and that I’ll be around.”

  Danny said nothing more. Tad took the boy’s choice at face value and left the room.

  * * *

  Miranda didn’t hurry through the rest of her appointment with Danny and Marie Williams, but as soon as they were out of the exam room, she finished the last of her administrative responsibilities for the day. Then she was out the back door of the clinic where she worked for pediatric specialist Dr.
Max Bennet, and heading to her car.

  The white Chevy Equinox blended in with a million other similar-sized and -shaped white mini SUVs, which was why it fit her perfectly. She had an hour before she had to pick Ethan up, and Tad Newberry was waiting for her at a coffee shop halfway between her office and the school.

  The balmy sixty-five-degree weather was perfect for her white cardigan and cartoon-spattered scrubs.

  Heart pounding in an entirely new way, she drove five miles over the speed limit, switching lanes when necessary to weave past slower cars. All the while, she thought about those minutes in the exam room with the off-duty, out-of-state detective who’d shown up at a High Risk Team meeting six weeks before.

  He’d dropped his pants. The move had been calculated, out of the ordinary, a somewhat shocking attempt to get Danny’s attention—and build trust, too. She understood that. Admired the hell out of it, actually. He’d known that Danny felt particularly vulnerable, so he’d made himself seem—and perhaps feel—just as vulnerable.

  All of that aside...she’d peeked. She shouldn’t have. It had been completely unprofessional. Completely, 100 percent out of character. And she’d done it. Seen...a lot.

  Blue boxers. Dark hair on legs that were tight and firm. Even now, driving to discuss the afternoon’s event and how it played into the care plan the High Risk Team had developed to prevent Devon Williams from ever hurting Marie or their son again, she shied away from thinking about the ugly facts of life, and found herself picturing those jeans pooled around Tad’s ankles instead.

  Watching him with a very definite feminine reaction.

  Wrong. It was just plain wrong of her. On so many levels.

  Parking in the coffeehouse lot, seeing Tad already inside sitting at a table for two with a couple of steaming cups in front of him, she pulled herself together. Having very private fantasies was bad enough; allowing them to invade the space she shared with others was prohibited.

  Period.

  * * *