Janice Johnson - All a Man Is

Is this reward worth the risk?

Big risks hold no appeal for Julia Raynor after losing her husband to his high-danger career. And his vice cop brother, Alec, doesn’t seem much different—although he is there for her and the kids. So when her son is headed for big-city trouble, Alec voluntarily becomes police chief in Angel Butte, Oregon, to remove him from temptation.

But temptation stalks more than her son. Living close to Alec, the long-denied attraction Julia harbors won’t be ignored. And Alec’s actions say it’s not one-sided. Can she believe in another Raynor man? Yet, when a threat catches up with her family, Julia knows Alec is the only one she can trust!

Alec’s eyes met Julia’s, his expression rueful, but he kept quiet

It was miracle enough that he was willing to do as much as he did. Even to completely uproot and move. When she’d asked Josh to choose between his family and his dangerous, high-adrenaline job, he’d chosen the job. It scared her to think Alec might hate it here in Angel Butte, so far from the high-adrenaline job he’d loved. From what he’d said, he was now stuck behind a desk, probably the last thing he’d ever wanted to do with his life.

I didn’t ask him, she argued with herself. He offered.

But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t blame her if he began to chafe at a life shaped by his sense of duty.

He kept insisting they were his family, but they weren’t really, were they?

The fact that she wished they were would remain her secret.

Julia’s attraction to Alec might not remain secret for long…especially if her son can’t keep out of trouble! Read on for an exciting, emotional tale in this latest book in Janice Kay Johnson’s The Mysteries of Angel Butte series.

Dear Reader,

Forget The Taming of the Shrew. What I love writing about is the taming of a rebellious teenager! Truthfully, I’ve always had a soft spot for teenagers, maybe because I have way more vivid memories of the year when I was thirteen than I do the younger years. Emotions are all so extravagant. I hated my mother! My life would be ruined if that boy didn’t notice me, or my mother refused to let me date an eighteen-year-old! How dare she? Ah, well. How your attitudes change when you become a parent instead.

In All a Man Is, thirteen-year-old Matt Raynor is positive he hates his mother, but in his case it isn’t all teenage angst. My hero—and Matt’s uncle—Alec Raynor thinks of his nephew as being tamped gun powder. This boy is hurting, but until he finally blows up, his mom and uncle won’t know what’s really wrong. Poor kid. I’m almost ashamed to tell you how much fun I had writing about him!

Best of all, All a Man Is includes one of my favorite themes—forbidden love. Sister- and brother-in-law, in this case. Not really taboo, but…touchy. This pair have banded together to raise Julia’s two kids. Yes, her husband died a year and a half ago, but does that make these feelings they’re having for each other okay? What if one of them makes a move and finds out the other one is still in the brother/sister mode? Do you dare risk a relationship that is essential for the kids’ sakes in hopes of having something sublime? What if it all goes wrong?

I’ve had a great time writing these The Mysteries of Angel Butte books. Such a good time, in fact, that I’ve written another one. Jane Vahalik is a strong character in all three of the stories. The balance between being a woman and being a tough cop who has risen to the rank of lieutenant is a perilous one, and I found I kept thinking about her.

So look for her story coming in July 2014.

Thanks for visiting Angel Butte. Please come back!

Janice Kay Johnson

PS—I enjoy hearing from readers! Please contact me on Facebook, or through my publisher, at Harlequin, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, ON M3B 3K9, Canada.

All a Man Is

Janice Kay Johnson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The author of more than eighty books for children and adults, Janice Kay Johnson is especially well-known for her Mills & Boon Superromance novels about love and family—about the way generations connect and the power our earliest experiences have on us throughout life. Her 2007 novel Snowbound won a RITA® Award from Romance Writers of America for Best Contemporary Series Romance. A former librarian, Janice raised two daughters in a small rural town north of Seattle, Washington. She loves to read and is an active volunteer and board member for Purrfect Pals, a no-kill cat shelter.

This one is for Pat, a great friend when times get tough, and an unbeatable plotting partner

Contents

Prologue

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

Epilogue

Excerpt

PROLOGUE

HALF A DOZEN MEN and three women sat around the conference room table. Some had laptops open, others notebooks.

Lieutenant Alec Raynor found his attention kept wandering to the five red pins stabbing a map on a display board propped on an easel. Each pin represented a particularly brutal rape and murder, all similar enough for detectives to have linked them to a single perpetrator. One of those pins was within his jurisdiction, his responsibility, the Los Angeles Police Department. Two belonged to the county sheriff’s department, one to Beverly Hills P.D. and the most recent to Santa Monica P.D.

This killer liked his victims to be upscale.

The task force had been formed after the third murder. Unfortunately for the detectives working the crime, the killer was smart and clearly well educated in the collection of trace evidence. Result: they had next to nothing to go on.

Alec’s phone vibrated and he barely glanced at it, intending to let it go to voice mail. The name displayed, though, had him rising to his feet.

“Excuse me for a minute. I need to take this.”

He answered as he left the room. “Julia?”

Unless it was prearranged, his sister-in-law never called him during normal working hours. Certainly not in the middle of the afternoon like this.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Alec.” The stress in her usually melodic voice ratcheted up the worry that had gripped him the minute he saw her name on the call display. “I should have waited. If you’re tied up—”

“I can take a minute. Something’s wrong.”

She laughed, a sharp sound. “As usual, it’s Matt.”

Both her kids had been named to honor Alec and his brother’s mother and her Italian family. Matteo had recently turned thirteen. Alec kept hearing that girls were hell on wheels at thirteen, but boys had to mature for a couple more years before they were ready to rebel. Not Matt.

Thank God Matt’s sister, Emiliana—Liana for short—was, at not quite eleven, still a little girl.

Alec’s niece and nephew had both been slammed by their father’s death a year and a half ago. Liana’s grief and bewilderment seemed normal, while Matt’s original shock had come to more closely resemble a bomb packed with gunpowder. It was dangerous to handle and had so many explosives tamped down inside, Alec expected the worst when it blew. Some days, he had trouble recognizing the boy he loved in the sneering, foulmouthed shit he’d become.

What bothered him most was that he had no idea what was going on in the kid’s head.

Julia didn’t call after every one of his escapades, and certainly not in the middle of the day.

“What happened?” Alec asked.

“He was caught stealing a bottle of whiskey from the Grove Street store. From Mr. Santana.”