{"product_id":"9781370400669","title":"One Strange Week: Book 4 of \"Tracie Dumas, Bounty Hunter\"","description":"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt's not the best of times\u003cbr\u003e for me. Work's been slow and Johnny left me tending the bar so he could take\u003cbr\u003e care of his sick mother.  I'm a bounty\u003cbr\u003e hunter, not a bar manager. My instincts are wrong, and with Johnny gone, I'm\u003cbr\u003e also lonely. It doesn't help that a hot woman is angling to buy me out and I\u003cbr\u003e suspect Johnny might like that idea. To make things worse, I'm offered a bounty\u003cbr\u003e to catch some guy knocking off check cashing places and there is no way I can\u003cbr\u003e break loose to bring him in. The hunk who delivers booze is the only real\u003cbr\u003e bright spot in my life and between my legs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e~~~~~\u003cbr\u003e PG Excerpt ~~~~~\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eJohnny stretched languidly,\u003cbr\u003e his naked body moving against mine as we lay in his bed. The morning sun had\u003cbr\u003e just begun lighting the room, coming in behind him, silhouetting his wonderful,\u003cbr\u003e muscular body. It was warm, we were both naked, and I ran my eyes over his body\u003cbr\u003e and had good thoughts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"How's your work\u003cbr\u003e doing?\" he asked. \"Is the bounty-hunting season in high pitch? It\u003cbr\u003e doesn't seem like you've been traveling much lately.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eJohnny is not usually subtle,\u003cbr\u003e and I wondered where this was going. He didn't really pay much attention to\u003cbr\u003e what I did for a living. \"Why? You sound like you have something in\u003cbr\u003e mind?\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"I do. But it will take\u003cbr\u003e several days.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eOkay, Johnny has real\u003cbr\u003e stamina, but even he didn't think of playing mattress polo over that long a\u003cbr\u003e period. He liked his games as much as I did, but they didn't normally involve\u003cbr\u003e advanced planning. As it happened, I wasn't getting any work at all. I was\u003cbr\u003e intending to go to the office that morning and see what I could scrounge up.\u003cbr\u003e \"Several days?\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Of your time. See, I\u003cbr\u003e was hoping I could convince you to take a break from your work and watch the\u003cbr\u003e bar for a week. I mean, you are a half owner, so you have a vested\u003cbr\u003e interest.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeeing that the several days\u003cbr\u003e clearly wouldn't be spent with him, my interest took a dive. \"While you do\u003cbr\u003e what?\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Go see my mother. You\u003cbr\u003e know she's been sick, and now they want to operate and remove a tumor. She\u003cbr\u003e called me last night in a panic. The idea of them cutting into her scares the\u003cbr\u003e shit out of her. They want to do a biopsy, which isn't bad, but if they find\u003cbr\u003e it's malignant they'll want to get it all out right away. She needs me to go\u003cbr\u003e hold her hand and be there to help her make decisions.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"What about Alice?\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eHe grunted. \"Still in\u003cbr\u003e Paris. And it's your fault.\" He grinned teasingly. Actually, I had made it\u003cbr\u003e possible for Alice to be in Paris. I'd bought out her interest in the family\u003cbr\u003e bar downstairs, knowing she wanted the money to move there. \"She and her\u003cbr\u003e girlfriend just bought a place and they're in the middle of all the paperwork\u003cbr\u003e and then they have to move in right away because the lease on the place they've\u003cbr\u003e been living is up. Perfect timing and all that.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eI touched his hard chest, ran\u003cbr\u003e a finger over his chest and sighed. Family problems are a bitch. It's hard\u003cbr\u003e being an outsider because even if you know a person you can't really see how\u003cbr\u003e they view their responsibilities. In my case it was easy. My responsibility to\u003cbr\u003e my parents was to stay the hell away from them. They were staunch conservatives\u003cbr\u003e and very religious. That I had squandered my life by becoming a bounty hunter\u003cbr\u003e had been an unforgivable sin against my abilities and their sensibilities. That\u003cbr\u003e I was a slut was expected.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cp\u003eLong\u003cbr\u003e ago I'd come to understand that we didn't see life as even the same kind of\u003cbr\u003e experience. I wanted to live it and they wanted… I'm not sure what they wanted\u003cbr\u003e other than to make their Bible-pounding friends approve of them. That meant\u003cbr\u003e that they did what was written rather than what they wanted.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Boruma Publishing, LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47121453875440,"sku":"9781370400669","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781370400669_p0.jpg?v=1763711350","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781370400669","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}