Janice Kay: Because Of A Girl

If they hadn’t lost the girl, Meg wouldn’t have found Jack...

She hadn’t hesitated to take in Sabra, her daughter’s pregnant best friend. Yet maybe that was Meg Harper’s first mistake. It was hard enough raising one teen, but two? And now the girl has disappeared. Because Meg’s the responsible adult, police suspicion falls on her. Which brings her entirely too close to Detective Jack Moore. The man’s clearly attracted to her, but she hasn’t been in a relationship in years and she doesn’t even remember how to begin. Her past is...complicated. One thing she does know: she absolutely doesn’t want Jack to be her second mistake. Her heart couldn’t take it.

The sound of footsteps was followed by a lock disengaging.

The door opened a cautious crack, letting him see the woman within, every bit as hot as he’d remembered from down at the police station. The snug, faded jeans she wore gave Jack a better look at long legs and curvaceous hips. She had a redhead’s skin with a scattering of freckles over her nose and cheeks. Cinnamon and cream.

And, damn it, he needed to quit looking.

“Mrs. Harper?”

“It’s Ms.”

Which meant...what? She was divorced? Had never been married?

Irrelevant.

He pushed back his shirt to expose the badge hooked on his belt. “I’m Detective Jack Moore with Frenchman Lake Police Department. I’d like to talk to you about the disappearance of Sabra Lee.”

Dear Reader,

Sometimes I know exactly where my stories come from—an overheard conversation, a newspaper article, even one of those aha moments. Because of a Girl isn’t one of those. It came from a note I made years ago that said something unhelpful like “missing pregnant teenager.” But if I wait long enough, my subconscious moves puzzle pieces around until...they fit!

I’ve always liked teenagers. I vividly remember the sheer irrationality, the roller coaster moods, and yet the sense of limitless possibilities. All those qualities make teenagers incredibly vulnerable.

Sabra was a fun character to create in a lot of ways. She’s a diva like her mother, yet is also a good friend and maintains her dignity and confidence under circumstances that would humiliate the average fifteen-year-old girl. She’s definitely preyed upon, but holds a whole lot of responsibility for the huge trouble she gets into. She’s only in a couple of scenes, and yet everything that happens is indeed because of her—a snotty, romantic, credulous girl who changes many other lives, including those of a man and a woman who have each been alone for too long.

Hope you wince a few times when you meet Sabra Lee!

Best,

Janice

www.millsandboon.co.uk

An author of more than ninety books for children and adults, JANICE KAY JOHNSON writes about love and family—about the way generations connect and the power our earliest experiences have on us throughout life. An eight-time finalist for a Romance Writers of America RITA® Award, she won a RITA® Award in 2008 for her Harlequin Superromance novel Snowbound. A former librarian, Janice raised two daughters in a small town north of Seattle, Washington.

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Contents

COVER

BACK COVER TEXT

INTRODUCTION

Dear Reader

TITLE PAGE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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

EPILOGUE

EXTRACT

COPYRIGHT

CHAPTER ONE

“YOU ARE SERIOUSLY telling me you won’t even take a report?”

The woman arguing with the desk sergeant caught Jack Moore’s attention. He’d come out from the back because someone claiming to be a witness to a carjacking was here to talk to him as detective on the case. The crime had been ugly, and he had stayed late at the station even if it was Friday night. As with a homicide, the more time passed, the less likely an arrest would ever be made.

Surely this wasn’t his witness?

She was so intensely focused on Sergeant Todd, she wasn’t noticing anyone else.

Used to dealing with distraught people, his colleague said calmly, “Ma’am, you say you saw her this morning. She hasn’t even been gone overnight.”

Whatever she was here for had nothing to do with Jack, then, at least until a missing persons report was filed. And the sergeant was right; most people who went missing turned up on their own. The police department couldn’t waste resources chasing people who had chosen to run away from their lives.

Even so, curiosity made him pause, his hand still on the waist-high swinging door partway down the long counter, to find out why this particular woman was so hot and bothered.

“Sabra is fifteen years old and six months pregnant. That means she’s exceptionally vulnerable.”

Yeah, it did, Jack thought.

“She’s an age that’s moody,” the sergeant pointed out. “Chances are good she’s at a friend’s house.” He shrugged. “Probably the boyfriend’s place.”

“I have tried calling every friend I know of.” The woman’s voice held a faint tremor now. “Unfortunately, Sabra has been unwilling to tell anyone who the father of her baby is.”

“Well, then,” the sergeant said, as if there was the answer.

In a way, it was. The kid hadn’t even been gone twenty-four hours? Hard to get excited unless there was a solid reason to suspect an abduction. A fifteen-year-old girl who was pregnant? Volatile as gunpowder.

Jack became uncomfortably aware that he was loitering not because the story was interesting, but because the woman was. She had glossy hair of a color that made him think of desert sandstone, confined in the fattest braid he’d ever seen. It lay over her shoulder and reached below her breasts. Big, greenish-hazel eyes shimmered with intensity. Medium height, she had enough curves to explain why he was still hanging around for no really good reason.

He didn’t much like the batik skirt she had on. It was a dark sea green that shaded to almost cream around the hem, which was at midcalf. She wore clunky boots below it and on top what might be a man’s white shirt over some kind of camisole. He wasn’t a big fan of multiple piercings, either, and there were three earrings in the ear he could see.

While he appraised her, she and Sergeant Todd had apparently concluded their standoff. She gave an angry huff, turned so fast the skirt swirled and strode out of the police station with long strides. The heels of her boots came down in a hard staccato that would have told anyone, absent the rest of the scene, that she was pissed.

Both cops watched her yank open the door and stomp out. Then the sergeant glanced at Jack and grinned. “Not a happy lady.”

“No shit. Is it her kid that’s pregnant?” Though she didn’t look old enough to have a teenager.