Abrupt Changes: A Second Chance Romance (O-Town Book 3) by Karen Renee (comprehension books .TXT) 📕

Whoever broke in last night not only knew what they were doing, they were good at doing it. Though, not that good, seeing as they hadn’t clocked my SUV on the street, which allowed me to surprise the asshole who came after Raegan. That wouldn’t happen again, and it was the other reason I was so damn worried: forcing Rae to sleep at my house meant I was putting Penny at risk, though I had confidence Gabe could protect her.

I was also hoping to figure out how closely Raegan was being watched. For that matter, I didn’t know what the intruder knew about me. With any luck, they’d take me for a guy trying to get laid.

If another incident happened involving Raegan, I was going to have to take some time off. No matter how little it said of me, I couldn’t split my focus between Otero-Silva cases and the chaos swirling around Raegan.

I loved her too much to ignore any threat to her.

Shit.

After all these years, I still loved her, but hadn’t admitted it to myself.

Otero had given Brock a different assignment today, and I was watching Slagle alone. The retainer was running out and the wife wasn’t going to add more to it. If nothing happened today, she’d have to make do with what we had. However, Deanne was working her own brand of magic by looking into social media accounts for Skylar Ibanez. People shared the craziest things on the internet, so there was every possibility Deanne would have more success than me today.

At ten-thirty a large black man unlocked the door to Domino’s. Seemed Ibanez had the day off, and when Slagle took his smoke break, he did it just to the side of the dry cleaners. I couldn’t assume Ibanez wouldn’t come in a little later, so I stayed in position but called Erica to kill some time.

“Hello, Clint.”

“Hey, Air. How are you doing?”

“Good. You?”

“All right. You still with Carlos?”

She chuckled. “You still with Irish?”

“Stop calling her that, Erica. You’re better than that.”

“Could say the same to you. You’re definitely better than that.”

I clenched my teeth. “We both did wrong, and that’s in the past, Erica. You’re twenty-four, know you’ve figured out life has a way of fucking things up no matter what you do.”

It took a while before she responded. “How about this, Clint? We’re both giving people a second chance. You leave me alone about Carlos, I’ll leave you alone about Raegan.”

I hated when she negotiated with me. “I’ll leave you alone about him if you tell me who fuckin’ hit you.”

“Not happening.”

“You said he’s bad. If it’s as bad as I think it is, then you at least need to give me a name so I can console Mamá when you’re laid up in the hospital.”

“Shut up! He’s gone, it’s over, and you’re overreacting.”

“Erica.”

“Clint.”

I waited.

“He’s with the Bloods,” she murmured.

My head fell back onto the seat and I closed my eyes. “Honey.”

“I didn’t know until things got more serious. It’s why I broke it off.”

“And why he hit you, right?”

She paused, then whispered, “Yeah.”

I bit back my own lecture.

“You’re disappointed,” she said in a low voice.

“Never,” I whispered. “I just can’t say much or I’m gonna fly off the fuckin’ handle.”

“That, I believe.”

A small grin pulled at my lips. “So, you gonna side with Mamá when she finds out I’m giving Raegan another chance?”

I loved to hear women laughing, but nobody did it better than my sisters, especially Erica.

She gave a sigh mingled with a moan before she asked, “So, you’re really giving her another go?”

“She’s not a carnival ride, Air. But, yeah, we’re gonna give this another shot. And really, what tore us apart to begin with was her living in New York slash refusal to move back home after pursuing her dream for a year.”

“Yeah, yeah, Mr. Logical. But if that were true, how could she have ever married somebody else? You’ve only been with four other women and couldn’t commit to any of them.”

I bit back the correction, that I’d been with five women, because the number didn’t matter. She was right about my inability to commit. Something held me back every time, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Something compelled me to answer Erica’s question. “My guess is that she knew she wouldn’t come back here, and when you know your life is in a different city, you do what you gotta do to make a life for yourself there.”

She scoffed.

“Besides, as a man, I can tell you Raegan catches the eye in a way other women just don’t. I wasn’t surprised that jackass asked her to marry him.”

She chuckled. “You know he’s a jackass, do you?”

I always marveled at how damn smart my sister was. “Sure do. When her mother reached out to me, I checked into what I might encounter if Rae ever brought him around. How long before you get back to classes, Miss Clever-britches?”

She sighed. “Maybe in the new year. Fall semester already started.”

My mouth threatened to bleed with the number of things I bit back during this conversation. “Well, if you need any help—”

“Right! Clint, you’re doing well, but you are not paying for my education. That asshole father of ours should be doing that.”

I shook my head. “Anyway, I’ll let you—”

“You can look into Raegan’s husband –back when he was her husband– but you can’t figure out where our father is and make his ass pay up?”

I lied. “Gotta run, Air. My subject just came out.”

“You’re lying.”

I grinned for a moment and wiped my face clean. “Far from it, hon. Talk to you later.”

I ended the call and blew out a breath. Anytime my profession came up she asked why I hadn’t hunted down our father. Thing was, she was two when he deserted us, and thank God for small favors. She thought finding him would mean money or some payback for his years of absence. No matter what Laura and I told her