Abrupt Changes: A Second Chance Romance (O-Town Book 3)

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© 2021 Karen Renee
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
COVER BY FURIOUS FOTOG
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The Riot MC Series
Book 0.5: Starting the Riot
(Jackie & Volt)
Book 1: Unforeseen Riot
(Mallory & Cal)
Book 2: Inciting a Riot
(Lorraine & Vamp)
Book 3: Into the Riot
(Tennille & Razor)
Book 4: Calming the Riot
(Andrea & Liar)
Book 5: Foolish Riot
(Trixie and Roll)
Book 6: Respectable Riot
(Janie & Beast)


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My deepest thanks to my readers! It’s an honor that you spend your reading time with my words. And if you’ve left a review for any of my books, I can’t thank you enough. Seriously.
Thank you to Kelly. She shared her wealth of pharmaceutical knowledge with me, and any mistakes in the manuscript are my own.
Thank you to Susan and Jennifer for the early feedback, it is much appreciated.
As always, thank you to my Beta readers, your support means the world to me.
Barbara J. Bailey, thank you for your diligent work in editing my words. And thanks to your friend, Jose for the PI input.
Thank you to Furious Fotog. Your work is some of the best around!
Thanks to my family for supporting me and my writing during these trying times.


DEDICATION
To Cookie
It’s as close to a detective novel as you’re going to get. (As far as you know.)


PLAYLIST
UNSTEADY by X Ambassadors
NO ONE by Alicia Keyes
YOU & ME by Dave Matthews Band
YOU GOT THE SILVER by The Rolling Stones
HURTS SO GOOD by John Mellencamp
SLEEPING AT NIGHT by Caught a Ghost
MICHAELANGELO ’70 by Astor Piazzollo
A THOUSAND YEARS by Sting
LORD PROTECT MY CHILD by Susan Tedeschi
OUR LOVE IS EASY by Melody Gardot


Chapter 1


The Finest Things
Raegan
SEPTEMBER 2019
As I stood in my mom’s farm-style kitchen, a chill slithered up my spine and I swung my head to the door when I heard a key scraping into the lock. It was lunchtime, and I was preparing a tomato sandwich for my seventy-one-year-old mother. As quietly as I could, I put the butter knife down and grabbed the butcher knife out of the block.
Edging to the laundry room next to the side door, I waited, with the knife up and at the ready.
It might seem like overkill, but my sister, Bronwyn, had been murdered four days ago. The authorities were still investigating, but they were saying it looked like suicide or an accident. I didn’t buy it, and not just because I read murder mysteries like most people binge-watch Netflix.
My sister had been a star swimmer in high school, but she accidentally drowned in the bathtub? I did not think so. With that in mind, there was no telling who was walking into my mom’s home.
The door opened, and I exhaled loudly when I saw the man standing in the doorway.
The last time I’d seen Clint Ramsey, he had no facial hair, kept his hair as close-cropped to his head as he could without shaving it bald, and he wore a police uniform. Now, he’d let his jet-black hair grow out more and his angular jaw had the dark shadow of two days’ worth of stubble.
His arms had bulked up more in the past nine years, too, seeing as his white dress shirt strained against his biceps. He had rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. I didn’t know for sure, but my guess was that he spent far more time outdoors these days, because his thick forearms appeared more bronze than olive.
My mouth went dry, and I swallowed.
His voice still sounded smooth and controlled, though. “Shoulda known you’d be here. What’s with the knife?”
My eyes widened. “‘What’s with the knife?’ Really? I didn’t know who the hell was coming in here. I could’ve stabbed you, Clint Ramsey!”
His eyes raked up and down my face and body. Then his lips quirked up, his head tilted back, and he had the gall to laugh.
He was laughing... at me! The jerk!
“I’m serious, Clint. I could have stabbed you.”
He righted his head, and those rich brown eyes caught mine. “Rae, I’d have disarmed you in seconds. That’s why it’s so damn funny. And who else would have a key?”
I cocked my head to the side a touch. “Maybe the bastard at large who killed my sister?”
He went silent.
“And don’t call me Rae. You lost that almost ten years ago.”
His jaw clenched. “No. You left me ten years ago.”
I didn’t leave him, seeing as he’d told me to go and to follow my dreams. But I didn’t have time for an argument we’d had plenty of times in the past.
My free hand went to my hip. “And you’re here why?”
The tell-tale sound of Mom’s walker on the wood floors came closer to us.
In a moment she entered the room, her eyes narrowed at Clint. “I want your nuts.”
I stared at my mom standing there, in her mauve housedress and terry-cloth flip-flop-style slippers.
I looked back to Clint, to ask what this was all about, but the tender look on his face made my heart leap.
“Stocked you up, Penny. I’ll fix you a bowl in a moment.”
Mother shuffled away, and I hissed at Clint. “You’re the reason her blood pressure won’t go down, aren’t you?”
He looked at me with a fire in his eyes I hadn’t seen in years. “What can I say, Raegan? I got good nuts,