The launch title in the all new action & suspense romance series by Cat Johnson
PREORDER FOR JAN 12, 2027
$4.99 Preorder Deal ($5.99 after release)
He thought he knew the difference between heroes and villains. Then he met Trouble Inc.
A chance encounter with a woman he never expected to meet leads Gavin Mercer to an old house in the heart of Sidney, New York. A house filled with men who don’t fit together… Former soldiers. Elite protectors. Men with questionable pasts and impossible skills.
Some wear their honor openly. Others hide theirs behind silence and secrets. But beneath it they seem to follow one unspoken code— Protect the innocent. No matter the cost.
When Gavin is pulled into their world, every answer raises more questions. Who are these men? What are they really doing inside that big old brick building? And why does it feel like they’ve been waiting for someone exactly like him?
And then there’s her… The woman who brought him here. The one he must now live and work beside daily. The one person who makes a man trained to trust his instincts question every one of them. The single mother and her son who make him question everything, including the kind of life he thought he wanted.
Fitting in with the most dangerous men he’s ever met might be the easy part. Especially when protecting the woman who turned his world upside down means more than risking his life, but also risking his heart.
But the hardest part for Gavin might be deciding if he can still be honorable in a world where doing the right thing means breaking all the rules.
TROUBLE INCOMING is a fast-paced, steamy romantic suspense featuring a highly competent protector hero, forced proximity, dangerous attraction, emotional tension, found family, a mysterious brotherhood, and a hero discovering that sometimes the people willing to break the rules are the only ones willing to save the innocent.
Perfect for readers who love
- Protective Heroes
- Forced Proximity
- Found Family
- Action & Adventure Romance
- Steamy Romance
Tropes & content tags
Genre: Romantic suspense, action-adventure romance
Tropes: slow burn, forced proximity, found family, action & adventure
Content tags: morally gray heroes; touch her and die; side characters that steal the show, settings that are a character in their own right; witty banter
Quick facts
| Heat tier | Steamy (3/5 chili peppers) |
| POV | Dual third-person |
| Tense | Third-person past |
| Setting | Upstate New York |
| Series | Trouble Inc., Book 1 |
| Read order | Standalone in a series |
| Length | Full-length novel |
| Formats | Ebook, paperback |
| Language | English |
| HEA | Yes — guaranteed happy ever after, no cliffhanger, no cheating |
| Status | PREORDER. Publishing Jan 12, 2027 |
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TROUBLE INCOMING UNEDITED EXCERPT
The screams of the crowd. The pop-pop-pop of the guns.
The din grew louder as he strode towards the glow on the horizon, brightly defined against the black of the night sky.
The ringing of a bell, the cacophony of divergent music, the fireworks exploding above while the shouts of the hawkers competed for attention below… The numerous and diverse sounds of the carnival combined, blending into a steady drone that seemed like nothing more than white noise to Gavin Mercer. Like that of the sound machine he’d picked up at the store to be able to sleep because silence was what kept him awake nowadays.
Twenty-years of active duty, more than half of that spent in the war zone, had left many unable to stand loud, sudden noises. Not Gavin.
For him the noise of war had become a familiar soundtrack. The chaos of the carnival almost reminded him of it. And maybe that was one reason he was here now looking for a job with a carnival that would pack up and move from one podunk town to the next each week.
An ever changing landscape. Action. Movement. That life sounded pretty good to a man who moved his entire life and his meager lifelong accumulation of possessions into a sixteen-foot vintage Airstream.
But looking at the two women to the right of him manning the hot oil in the truck touting Fried Dough, and the pair of men loading those eager to ride the ferris wheel, he didn’t think any of them had to ability to hire him. He needed the boss.
And he needed to hope the boss didn’t look askance at a stranger who’d wandered into the carnival, literally off the street, to ask for a job.
He reminded himself he didn’t really need a job. His retirement pay provided more than enough for the life he lived now. Gas, food, and maintenance on the pick-up truck and the Airstream Simple. Perfect.
He didn’t need a job for the money. He feared he needed it for his sanity. Because going from a life spent living on a rigid schedule surrounded by people day and night, his team, his family, to one day being cut loose completely… It had been an adjustment, to say the least.
More of one than he’d anticipated.
He felt like a boat released from its mooring, left to drift aimlessly. Alone. With no land in sight.
Time to sail for the shore.
He swept the immediate area and spotted the ticket booth. Bingo. If they couldn’t help him, perhaps they could direct him to someone who could.
“Hey, I have a question,” he began, directing the inquiry to the two women seated inside the booth.
The older of the two, a woman with short gray hair and a age-lined-face that spoke to a long life lived, didn’t even lift her head when she said, “It’s a dollar a ticket or all-you-can-ride for twenty-five. Cash or credit?”
“I wasn’t actually inquiring about tickets. I was wondering if you knew if you were hiring? Or if you can point me to someone who knows?”
That earned him a scowl from the older woman, who obviously was only interested in selling tickets, not answering his question.
The other woman, more girl really, with long black hair and the fresh face and enthusiasm of youth, smiled. “That would be Mrs. G. She owns the carnival. She’s always around somewhere, usually camped out at one of the picnic tables, keeping an eye on things. She’s older. Blonde. She’ll be wearing a T-shirt like mine.”
The girl pointed to the bright yellow logo fashioned to look like a ferris wheel imprinted on the right side of her electric blue collared shirt.
He nodded. “Thank you very much. Have a good night.”
“You too!” The girl called while her partner in the booth had already moved on to the next paying customer.
Finding the owner should be easy enough. He had to imagine she would be the only one wearing an employee shirt and sitting down. Because from the few minutes he’d been at the carnival, he’d seen it was tightly run like a well-oiled machine. With military precision. Lean and organized. Everyone with a designated task. No one milling around without a job to do.
He could appreciate that. He’d fit in here just fine… if they’d have him. Time to find out if they would.
As he started down what appeared to be a circular path that lead visitors through the food offerings, the rides and the games.
He made his way slowly through the crowd, hyper aware of his surroundings. It was a habit he wasn’t sure would ever leave him.
Then he spotted an older woman, blonde, wearing a carnival shirt and sitting at a picnic table, just as the ticket booth girl had described.
This had to be the boss.
The one problem was she looked to be deep in conversation with a man standing next to the table.
He knew better than to interrupt. And that wasn’t just from his years in the military. It was the echo of his grandmother’s voice. The one he still heard in his head.
Don’t interrupt, child. It’s bad manners.
While he waited, he took the opportunity to study the immediate area.
To his right was yet another food truck, this one selling turkey legs. Two male employees leaned on the counter chatting with each other while they waited for their next customer.
To his left were the games. Typical carnival stuff. Throw a ball through the hole, win a prize. Toss a ring onto the glass bottles, win a prize. And finally, one he was pretty confident he’d be good at, sharp-shooting.
Not that he needed or wanted the gigantic stuffed animal he’d win. Although imagining the looks he’d get if it road shotgun in the truck’s passenger seat provided a moment of amusement.
The boy in front of the booth though, jumping up and down, audibly begging, obviously wanted that big white polar bear that was almost bigger than him.
“Baby. I tried. Honestly. Mommy has many skills but being a sharpshooter isn’t one of them.”
Mommy was pretty with blonde waves that moved in the little bit of breeze that managed to make it between the carnival equipment. She was probably five to ten years younger than his own thirty-eight years. The boy looked to be maybe six, which meant she’d been young when she’d had him.
The boy’s jean looked new and were rolled at the bottom, making Gavin think they were newly purchased for the start of school this year in a size that left him room to grow. The boy himself had a smear of what looked like chocolate ice cream on one side of his mouth, which mom was currently bending at the waist to wipe clean with a tissue.
That unfortunate stance showed off that she was curvy in all the right places and damn his overactive powers of observation for noticing.
She was one thing he didn’t want to notice because Mommy was hot as hell. Or she would be if he’d been looking for something with her, which he wasn’t.
A fling with her, a single mom judging by the lack of a ring on her finger, was not something he was willing to do. And long term wasn’t in the cards.
“Just try one more time, ple-ease” the child pleaded.
“I tried, baby. Lots of time.” She glanced up now and smiled sadly at Gavin. Shaking her head, she said, “For what I just spent on tickets trying to win that polar bear he wants so badly, I could have gone to the store and bought him two of them.”
He pressed his lips together and said, “No doubt.”
Not his business. This didn’t concern him. Besides, he’d noticed the owner was now free. He needed to get over there before she got up and left or got involved in another conversation.
“Good luck,” he said as he made his escape, leaving the two behind him to step up to the picnic table and hopefully his future boss.
“Hi. I was told you’re the person to ask. Are you hiring? I’m available to start immediately and I can do most anything.”
She looked him up and down. “I bet you could. But I’m sorry. We’re shutting down for the season right after we break down here. But if you get in touch with me next spring, I’ll find a position for you then.”
Next spring felt a million years away when faced with the open road and an aimless journey between now and then.
He tipped his head. “Thanks. Appreciate it.”
Turning, he took a step back toward the way he’d come. Back toward his original plan. He’d eat a good meal then find a place to park for the night and get a few hours of shut-eye.
He shouldn’t be disappointed. This wasn’t his life’s dream. He’d stopped in on a whim.
He’d never even thought the word serendipity before but when he’d stopped for gas and the man at the next pump told him about the Mudville Diner being reopened, just when he was tired of the road food and could use a real meal. And then as he’d rolled into Mudville and seen the carnival while looking for a parking spot that could accommodate the truck and the trailer and the idea hit him that a carnival might be fun to work at… It had felt like it. Serendipity. A sign.
But her answer reinforced one thing. It reminded him he didn’t believe in signs. Or serendipity.
At least he still had a good meal to look forward to.
Unfortunately between him and the diner stood an obstacle. The sexy blonde single mother.
He should have taken the long way out of the carnival because she was still there with the kid, but now the boy’s eyes glistened with the biggest, fattest tears he’d ever seen.
Dammit, it wasn’t in his nature to walk away when someone needed help. And it would be so easy for him to help.
She’d told the kid she didn’t have the skill to win him that big white useless thing hanging by the neck on fishing line from the roof of the booth. But Gavin did have the skill.
Drawing in a breath, he took a step forward. “Let me give it a shot.”
“Oh, no. I couldn’t possibly ask you—”
“You didn’t. I offered,” he said, reaching for his wallet.
“Let me at least give you the money.”
“I got it.” Waving off her offer, he stepped up to the booth attendant.
Gavin thrust a twenty at the man who glanced down at the bill and asked, “Five dollars gets you three shots. One bull’s eye gets you a prize on the lower tier. Two on the second tier. And three will get you a prize from the top tier. How many chances you want?”
“Just the five dollars worth, thanks,” Gavin answered.
If he couldn’t hit that target ten feet away on every shot there was something very wrong. And not with him. With this game. In which case he’d be back over there interrupting the big boss to tell her that her game was rigged.
After pocketing his change from the cocky attendant whose expression said he assumed Gavin would be back for more tickets, Gavin reached for the gun on the counter.
He turned it over in his hand, testing the weight of it, inspecting the trigger, then brought it up to his eye. He’d love to take a test shot. Make sure the sights were dialed in. But this wasn’t his sniper rifle. And his target wasn’t a mile away and moving. He’d just have to wing it.
Muscle memory had him sighting the target ahead, blowing out a breath and squeezing the trigger in one smooth movement.
A bell sounded. He lowered the gun and saw the red number on the digital read-out change from zero to one.
Easy peasy.
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TROUBLE INC. SERIES
Small town. Big danger. Even bigger attraction. This spells trouble…
Book 1 “Trouble Incoming” Releasing in eBook & Print Jan 12, 2027 featuring TRBL Hero: Gavin Mercer
Book 2 Untitled expected Spring 2027 TRBL Hero: Rhys
Book 3 Untitled expected Summer 2027 TRBL Hero: Barrett
Book 4 Untitled expected Jan 2028 TRBL Hero: Titus
Book 5 Untitled expected 2028 TRBL Hero: wait until you see who in a shocking twist!