Shattered Dreams (Boys of Bellerose, #3)
Tate James & Jaymin Eve
For everyone who loves their book boyfriends with baggage… angst is the spice of romance, after all.
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Tate James – The Fox Hole
Jaymin Eve – The Nerd Herd
content warning
Boys of Bellerose is a rock star mafia reverse harem story where the female main character finds her happily ever after with more than one lover. It’s a four book series, so cliffhangers should be expected throughout, until they find their happy ending.
This series touches on darker themes and includes both graphic sex and graphic violence.
Some characters have traumatic pasts, and there is mention of miscarriage, drug use, addiction, and murder.
Please also note that the mafia world described within Boys of Bellerose is a fictional one and differs somewhat from the real world. Because creative license is more fun!
Should you have concerns, please apply discretion in deciding if this story is right for you.
- Tate & Jaymin
one
BILLIE
EIGHT YEARS AGO…
My little girl kicked me from the inside, and my breath hitched, making me pause on my way up the front steps of my parents’ house. It was such a weird sensation, having another human growing inside me actually moving and making her presence known. Her. My daughter.
I’d just come home from my eighteen-week scan, where they’d confirmed I was having a girl. I’d burst out crying, and the poor sonographer had to pat me on the shoulder and offer tissues until I calmed down. That was my fault for refusing Angel’s offer to come with me. But he had enough trouble already, without adding my scan appointments.
She’d started kicking a week ago, and at first I’d thought it was just muscle spasms. Or gas. But the lovely sonographer today confirmed that it was indeed my baby girl stretching her legs.
Eighteen weeks. That meant it’d been a whole twelve weeks since I’d lost Jace. Since I’d lied to him and said I was in love with Angel. Actually, that wasn’t even the lie, I did love Angel… but I’d told Jace that I didn’t love him anymore. That Angel and I wanted to be together without Jace. That we’d been sneaking around behind Jace’s back and didn’t want to keep lying to him about our love.
I had nearly choked on my lies so many times, but I’d clung tight to the knowledge that he’d thank me one day. Maybe ten years from now, when he was an international superstar with platinum records on his wall and a stack of Grammys, he’d look back on our breakup and realize that I’d done it for him.
“Calm down, baby girl,” I whispered to my belly. “I know, I’m hungry too.”
I hunted through my oversize tote bag for my house keys, then unlocked the door before registering that my mom’s car was in the driveway. She was usually at work for a few more hours at least, so it was odd. Not that odd, though; maybe she’d just gotten the afternoon off.
For some reason, I didn’t call out as I stepped through the front door. Raised voices echoed through the house as I closed the door quietly behind me and placed my bag on the floor.
Frowning, I moved further down the hallway toward my parent’s bedroom. That seemed to be where the shouting was coming from, and my curiosity demanded I listen in—mainly because my own heavy guilt made me assume they were arguing about me and the baby… and Angelo.
We’d announced last week that we were going to get married after the baby was born, and neither of our families had taken it well—his worse than mine, but mine were far from encouraging of the idea.
“…you insane? If…” my dad was saying, his tone agitated and angry, “…going to kill us all. Not just you, Tina, all of us!”
Whoa. What?
I stopped dead in the middle of the hallway, my hand pressed to my belly like I could somehow protect her from the words my father was saying. Kill us? Who? Why? Surely, he was just being dramatic and not literal with that statement.
“…being dramatic, Christian…” My mother echoed my thought, her voice quieter and some words too muffled for me to make out. “…never find out. I know what I’m doing, besides the fact… only… for you! You and Billie, and that cursed baby. Otherwise…”
Dammit, the missed words were driving me insane. I needed to hear more. If they were talking about me and my little girl, I needed to know what was going on. On silent feet, barely daring to breathe, I crept closer to my parent’s bedroom, where the door stood open a few inches.
“This is insane,” my dad exclaimed with a slightly hysterical laugh. “Tina, these aren’t just white-collar criminals. This is the goddamn mafia. If they find out what you’ve been doing—”
“They won’t,” my mom insisted, sounding frustrated. “You are the only person who knows, so unless you’ve told someone…” She trailed off, leaving the implication hanging in the air between them.
A tense silence fell then, broken abruptly when my dad jerked the bedroom door open and found me standing there. Listening.