Book Title: Relevant Law (The Fearless Heart, #2)
Author: Janice Jarrell
Publisher: Self-Published
Cover Artist: Janice Jarrell and Robin E. Vuchnich
Release Date: September 25, 2021
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance
Tropes: Hurt/Comfort
Themes: Suspense, Angst, Abduction and Rescue
Length: 91 638 words/ around 215 pages
It is part of a series but can be read as a standalone.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
Sometimes love is defined by fear.
Blurb
They’d been through it all and emerged victorious. Now they stood on the very brink of a whole new life bursting with possibilities and renewed hope for the future. Colin will take the bar exam and begin his promising career as an Assistant Commonwealth Attorney for the city of Charlottesville. Joshua receives his second Ph.D. and adds Forensic Psychologist to his list of achievements. What could possibly go wrong?
And then:
Three students are abducted from the University of Virginia campus. All three are recovered alive but have been sexually assaulted and brutally beaten. From his new position as Assistant Commonwealth Attorney, Colin partners with both campus and city police in a combined task force determined to solve these horrific crimes and put the perpetrator behind bars. But can they succeed before the ‘campus abductor’ strikes again?
The abusive and volatile husband of one of Joshua’s patients threatens his life. Suddenly Joshua is under siege as he is stalked both at work and at home by an unstable assailant.
Entangled in both these life-threatening situations, Colin struggles to protect both the university he loves and the man he adores. But…
“Oh god, Josh, my sweet love, if anything’s happened to you…” his voice trailed off, unable to voice the unthinkable.
“NO! Joshua’s mind shrieked. I can’t give up! I won’t give up! Colin will come! He’ll come!”
Warning: This novel discusses sensitive material which may be distressing to some readers. Relevant Law explores themes of abduction, physical violence, and non-graphic sexual assault.
The final count showed twenty-seven law enforcement officers involved in the joint police action to rescue Joshua from the hands of Lukas Page. Colin rode with Lenny and Donald Thompson in the lead vehicle. He did not speak during the ride to Reservoir Road. Lost in his own grim thoughts, he crouched in the back seat with his head down. His fellow officers could hear the erratic rush of his breathing but did not try to engage him in conversation.
He had no idea what lay ahead of him in the abandoned church. The possibility that his husband would be lying dead on the floor was very, very real. He tried to imagine how Joshua would want him to react in such a moment. He tried to stiffen his spine and make himself ready for whatever might be waiting at the end of this dark road. But no insights came to him. No uplifting thoughts or feelings found their way into his heart. No inspired rush of courage touched him.
If he’s dead…Colin mused, and with that horrifying suggestion, his every thought and feeling shuddered to a halt. He was numb. All feeling had died. He couldn’t even conjure up the need to weep or rage, and he nodded in understanding. If he’s dead…that will be my life. That will be me. A cypher. A nothing. My heart will have died with him. He lifted his head and drew in a deep breath.
“Whatever we find there,” he told his two friends, “I want to thank you guys for helping me. For helping him.”
“Colin, we’re going to bring him home!” Lenny told him.
“We don’t know that, Lenny,” Colin replied. His voice was low, and both men were surprised by the lack of emotion. Up until this moment Colin had struggled to hold himself together. But now he seemed bereft of all emotion.
“Are you OK?” Donald asked him, turning to peer at his friend over the seat.
Colin’s lips were pressed into a thin line, and his head gave a quick, taut snap. “I don’t know.” He turned, and his eyes met Donald’s. “Everything inside me feels dead. I can’t even feel angry.”
Donald did not reply, but nodded and pressed Colin’s hand.
“Speaking for myself,” Lenny commented, his voice edgy with irony, “that’s not the worst news I’ve had today.”
“Yeah. You may be right,” Colin said, then snorted out a grim laugh. “But I don’t expect it’ll last.”
They arrived in a silent caravan, extinguishing their lights over a mile away from the church where they believed Joshua to be located. “That’s the spot,” Lenny muttered, then pulled over and turned off the engine. “We’ve got a squad car at both ends of the road so no traffic can get through ‘til we’re done here.” He exhaled a quick breath. “I don’t want any collateral damage.”
The three men got out of the car and formed a group with the other officers who waited in hushed silence for Lenny’s signal to move. They were assembled behind a curve in the road in an area shielded from view of the church. Lenny divided his team into four groups who would approach the building from four different directions.
“We’ll take the front,” he told the assembled officers. “The city police SWAT team will take the back. The rest of you stay in your assigned locations. I want every inch of that church covered. I don’t want this bastard to have any way to sneak past us.” He looked from man to man. “He does not get away.” he said. “If that means firing your weapon, then fucking fire it! Just be damned sure who you’re aiming at!”
Colin stood to one side, leaning against one of the squad cars, gazing up at the stars twinkling in the night sky. In his thoughts he was back in Ireland, recalling the night they’d spent on his cousin Danny’s boat. He remembered Joshua gazing at the stars and how the sight of their beauty reflecting in his dark eyes had taken Colin’s breath. He turned when Lenny approached him. “What’s up, boss? We ready?”
Lenny shook his head. “In a couple minutes.” He laid a hand on Colin’s arm and gazed directly into his eyes. “Listen to me,” he said, his voice a low whisper. “No matter what you see in there, you have to promise me you won’t hurt this fucker.”
Colin grimaced and jerked his arm free.
“Colin, you of all people know how important it is that this guy stand trial for what he’s done!”
Colin spun toward him. “You think I give a shit about any of that?” His face twisted in grief. “Jesus Christ, Lenny, right now I don’t give a good goddamn about jurisprudence or relevant law!”
My name is Janice Jarrell. I am a retired grandmother who lives in Seattle, WA. I have two children and three grandsons. I’ve been writing gay romance since I was twelve years old, only back then it wasn’t called ‘gay romance’. In fact, it had no name at all. It was the fifty’s, and it was worth your life to admit to being gay, let alone confess to being a girl who constantly fantasized about relationships between gay men. Hell, I didn’t even know what a homosexual was. I lived on a farm out in the sticks in a tiny Michigan village and I’d never, to my knowledge, even heard the word. I just knew I loved the thought of boy-on-boy romance. I just knew that there was something hot going on between Tom Corbett and his Space Cadets and all those guys on ‘Combat’.
I wrote slash fanfiction for 30 years, writing over 337 stories, some as short as 100 words (a drabble), some as long as a series which was over 119,012 words. I enjoy writing my stories. I enjoyed the feedback I received from my readers. It was a creative release I’d been searching for my entire life and I blessed the Internet for leading me to this artistic oasis for my spirit.
Love’s Magic was my very first step into writing my own characters. I will always be grateful to the slash fanfiction community for nurturing the budding author until she was ready to blossom into a fully realized novelist. It’s been an amazing thing to watch the gay community’s growth over these past twenty years. My own journey has echoed theirs in many ways, and I’m grateful to all those gay activists who fought to give the gay community the rights and privileges they always deserved. Love’s Trials, Love’s Glory, and Love’s Lawyer were the second and third, and forth books in the series and all four books are available in audio format on Audible.
I’m also grateful to the gay romance community, readers, authors, publishers and promoters, who are making these, my retirement years, the most creative ones of my life. When I’m not writing, I’m traveling, walking, hiking, knitting, crocheting, and weaving.
I’m very excited about the upcoming release of my fifth contemporary gay romance novel, Relevant Law. Those of you who fell in love with Joshua and Colin in the four previous books in this series are in for a bit of angst in this latest episode. A dark and sinister cloud hangs over the University of Virginia after three students are abducted, raped and beaten. Colin works with both campus and city police to catch the perpetrator, but his hard work and effort proves futile when Joshua turns up missing!
Despite their struggles there are still many passionate, loving moments and the friends they treasure will be there to help them find their way.
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