Her Holiday Protector. Lenora Worth

      

      THE WRONG TARGET

      While investigating a murder at Rikki Allen’s house, detective Blain Kent realizes the victim looks a lot like Rikki. Could the secretive widow have been the target? He wants answers, but Rikki is unusually cagey. When the killer comes after Rikki at a safe location, Blain finally gets the truth out of her: she’s the daughter of Franco Alvanetti—the notorious crime kingpin. A by-the-book former marine, Blain has made it his life mission to put the Alvanetti family out of business. Yet he has to trust Rikki to protect her from a killer who wants her dead by Christmas.

      Men of Millbrook Lake: Four men find love and family

      Blain would find out everything about her.

      But right now he wanted to get Rikki out of here. They were too exposed at this location.

      She finally nodded. “I need to get my things.”

      After he escorted her to her room, he put her in his car and turned to stare at her. “Where to, princess?”

      She swallowed, dropped her head and stared at her hands in her lap. “The Bay Road.”

      Bay Road? Blain whistled. Real estate out there was way over his pay scale. “Okay, then.”

      Pricey estates out there. A scenic highway surrounding where the big bay met up with Millbrook River and the lake.

      When they were under way and out past the city, he turned off and followed the dark water. “What’s the address?”

      She finally looked over at him, a defiance in her voice. “2200 First Bay Lane.”

      Blain blinked, thinking he hadn’t heard right. “Hey, that’s—”

      “The Alvanetti estate,” she finished for him. “Sonia Alvanetti is my mother.”

      “And…Franco Alvanetti is your father.”

      “Yes.” She nodded and looked out the window.

      And suddenly Blain understood so much more about what was going on with Rikki Allen. No wonder she’d been so closemouthed and evasive. No wonder he couldn’t trust her.

      She was an Alvanetti.

      LENORA WORTH writes award-winning romance and romantic suspense. Three of her books finaled in the ACFW Carol Awards, and her Love Inspired Suspense novel Body of Evidence became a New York Times bestseller. Her novella in Mistletoe Kisses made her a USA TODAY bestselling author. With sixty books published and millions in print, she goes on adventures with her retired husband, Don, and enjoys reading, baking and shopping…especially shoe shopping.

      Her Holiday

      Protector

       Lenora Worth

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      But let justice roll on like a river,

      righteousness like a never-failing stream!

      —Amos 5:24

      To Winnie Griggs, Beth Cornelison and Renee Ryan

      With gratitude for a wonderful retreat during a storm

      Contents

       Cover

       Back Cover Text

       Introduction

       About the Author

       Title Page

       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

       Dear Reader

       Extract

       Copyright

       ONE

      The sickle moon dipped down in the dark sky, reaching toward the gray surface of Millbrook Lake like a slinky hand trying to touch the water. The nip of winter covered the dusk in a crisp, fresh-smelling blanket of evening dew.

      Blain Kent inhaled a deep, cleansing breath and hit his stride on the path around the big oval lake, the cadence of his nightly run echoing behind him. All around him, the quaint turn-of-the-century houses shone with pretty white lights and fresh evergreen wreaths tied up with bright red bows.

      Christmas had come to Northwest Florida. But tonight, Blain had to work off that big Thanksgiving