Tormented: A Bully Romance Anthology Read online

  Tormented

  A Bully Romance Anthology

  Nikki Young

  L.E. Bross

  Evelyn Masters

  Deborah Alexander

  A.C. Pontone

  Rieka Eli

  Alexis Taylor

  Axel James

  Beth Hendrix

  Joely Sue Burkhart

  Contents

  A Note from BBB

  My Dirty Secret by Nikki Young & Beth Hendrix

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  About the authors

  Other Books by The Author

  This Can’t be Us by L.E. Bross

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  About the Author

  The Reason by Evelyn Masters

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  About Evelyn Masters

  Rogue Roots by Deborah Alexander

  Author Note

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  About Deborah Alexander

  Hush, Little Wolf by A.C. Pontone

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About A.C. Pontone

  Guilty by Association by Rieka Eli

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  About Rieka Eli

  Infernum Academy by Alexis Taylor & Axel James

  Dear diary journal thing

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Epilogue

  About the Authors

  Omega Secrets by A.C. Wilds

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Other Books by AC Wilds:

  The Vicious by Joely Sue Burkhart

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  About Joely Sue Burkhart

  A Note from BBB

  Before you start this incredible anthology we have a few people we would like to take a moment to thank.

  Nichol, thank you for being by my side everyday. I couldn't ask for a better partner and friend I love you.

  Sosha, thank you for being the best friend that I could ever ask for. My life is so much better with you in it. I thank god for you every single day. I love you wifey

  To our authors who encouraged us to reach for the stars we love you.

  To our bad ass beta Joann thank you for your hard work. Sosha is never letting you go now.

  Finally thank you to all of you. Your support means more to us than you will ever know. Your amazing and we appreciate you joining us as we take over the world lol

  Now go enjoy these amazing stories

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental

  Copyright © 2019 by BBB Publishings. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact BBB Publishings.

  My Dirty Secret by Nikki Young & Beth Hendrix

  A Bully Reverse Harem Romance Prequel

  Chapter One

  “Why are you always fucking judging me, Bellamy?” My mom yelled as I stared down at her. How could I not judge her when she was sitting there with a fucking needle in her arm.

  “Really, Jean. Of course, I am judging you. You are shooting up right in front of me! I was trying to talk to you about college. And you know not to call me that. I fucking hate that name, Amy is my name and if I had the money I would go get it changed legally.” I couldn’t contain the disgust in my voice as I yelled. Too many years of abandonment and neglect were bubbling to the surface the longer I was forced to stay here.

  “I am your mother. Why can’t you just call me that? I know you want to go to the ritzy college’s, but we just can’t afford it.” She at least had the nerve to look sad at that thought.

  “You have to be a mother to be called mom, and I have raised myself since dad died. On top of that, we could have had the money, if you hadn’t snorted it up your nose or shot it into your arm. I don’t know why I thought we could actually talk about something!” Fuck this, one of these days I was going to get out of here and not have to deal with her all the time.

  Storming out of the living room, I headed to my room, if you could call it that. We lived in a one-bedroom trailer and my “room” was a closet. It was just enough to hold my twin sized bed and a bedside table. All the clothes that I owned fit in a small chest at the end of my bed.

  Slamming the door made me feel a little better, my anger diminishing a little. I loved my mother, but I was so sick of what she did. I couldn’t stand seeing her go downhill the way she had, and no matter how many times she had gotten clean. She never stayed that way. It was such a waste.

  Throwing myself on the bed, I fought the tears that threatened to fall. I had graduated Terren County High School as the Valedictorian and I had made it through all four years with a solid 4.0 GPA. So far. I had gotten nothing since then from any of the colleges that I had applied to. I should have gotten scholarship offers like crazy, yet nothing ever came.

  The offer from the manager at the grocery store to be a clerk was looking better and better. The only thing that stopped me from applying was I was still holding out for a scholarship. Not for the first time, I cursed myself for not having gotten myself a job as soon as I had been old enough to. Mom convinced me not to, telling me how I still had insurance money from when dad had died to pay for college. I was an idiot for ever believing her.

  She had been getting checks once a week for years and putting them towards her habit. Leaving us with nothing, and causing me to be the outcast as usual. Nobody wanted to associate with the girl who lived in the rundown trailer. Or the girl whose mother would blow anyone in town just so she could get her fix.

  I had heard the rumors around, but I never thought that she would go as far as she had. After what I had just seen though, I had no d
oubts that everything that was being said about her was true.

  Turning over, there was a loud crash in the living room causing me to jump.

  “Jean, Jean, Jean, what are we going to do with you? You haven’t been taking our calls.” A gravelly voice sounded from the living room. What the fuck has mom gotten into now?

  “I promise I will have your money next week. I’ve been working, I haven’t been ignoring you all.” The slight quiver in my mother’s voice is the only thing that tells me how terrified she truly is. Who are these people?

  “We just don’t believe you, Jean. You will either pay now or you will take your ass back to the street corner and work off your debt. Those are your only two choices. We’ve given you plenty of time.” The man’s words left me cold inside. My mother was many things, but I couldn’t let her be a prostitute. I was going to have to do something. God, why couldn’t I just let my mother handle her own problems? Because even though she is fucked up, she’s still my mom.

  Steeling myself as best as I could, I opened the door to my room and walked down the small hall propping myself up against the wall.

  “My mother will not be your whore. There has to be another way we can settle this.” I said, not sure where the words even came from, seeing as I was so terrified I was surprised I hadn’t released my bladder already.

  “My, my, my, what do we have here? You are a pretty little thing, aren’t you? You would be a perfect addition to the Devil's Playground.” The man’s black eyes looked me up and down before they fell on my face. At that moment, I knew that he would have no qualms killing my mother or me.

  “What is that? I won’t be your whore either.” My voice was full of venom and confidence that I didn’t know where it was coming from. I just knew that in front of them you could not show weakness, or they would pounce.

  “Jean, you did good raising this one. It’s rare we find anyone with a backbone in our line of work. The Devil's Playground is a strip club, not a whore house. You will be there Friday at four pm freshly shaved everywhere or we will take that to mean that you aren’t paying us back that way. Trust me when I say you do not want to find out what we will do to you both if you do not show. Don’t even think about running either, we have plenty of people in our pockets and we would find you.” He spat at me, the fire blazing in his black eyes told me that he hoped that I didn’t show up. The black holes that were his eyes promised pain and death.

  Fuck! Why did I have to open my big mouth? What do I know about stripping? Why did my mom have to get us in this fucking mess?

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be there. Now get the fuck out of our house!” I growled just wanting this nightmare to be over. Now my mother had finally taken everything from me, and I couldn’t even blame her since I was the one who had opened my stupid mouth.

  “Fine. We will be seeing you.” The man said before turning and walking through the door shutting it behind him.

  As soon as the door was shut, I sunk down the wall that I had been leaning on and curled my knees up. The terror that I had been feeling hitting me full force. This was not what I planned when I had come out of my room.

  My mother caused me to jump when she dropped an envelope on my lap.

  “What is this?” I ask snidely, still pissed that she had gotten us into this mess.

  “It’s a letter from Criten College. I have had it for about a week. Considering the fact that you just offered to pay my debt, I feel like I owed it to you. I just didn’t want you to leave me.” My mother says, leaving me even more disgusted with her. How could anyone feel like this is acceptable behavior?

  “Just leave me alone,” I whisper, not trusting myself to say anything else to her. All the things running through my head right now were not good so best to keep them in.

  How could she keep something like this from me?

  As soon as she walked away, I opened the envelope and scanned the contents. The only thing that processed was, "you have been accepted."

  Chapter Two

  The sun shining through the window woke me way earlier than I wanted to get up, but there was no way that I was going back to sleep. Today was the day I was supposed to go to the strip club, and it was safe to say I wasn’t looking forward to it.

  I had called Criten College yesterday and made sure that I wasn’t too late to take the scholarship that they had offered. Luckily, I hadn’t been and next month I would be able to pack my shit and move the thirty minutes away from this place.

  I had no illusions about getting out of this job, if you could call it that, though. There was no doubt in my mind that if I tried to run that man would not only do terrible things to my mother but me as well.

  Groaning, I pulled myself out of the bed and made my way to the shower. I was really hoping that this club was one of the ones where you didn’t have to get completely nude. The thought of having to strip period freaked me out, but getting nude made me downright terrified.

  Luckily, I could dance. It was one thing that I absolutely loved doing, so I was hopeful that I could get up there and forget about the fact that I was stripping. Ugh, every thought rolled back to that.

  Getting out of the shower, I dressed in a loose tank and a pair of shorts. My wardrobe was seriously lacking, the Devil’s Playground better have some spare outfits.

  “Amy, what are you doing up so early?” My mother slurred from the couch as I walked towards the kitchen.

  Stopping in my tracks, I took in her appearance. Her brown hair was flat and greasy, sticking to her head in more than one spot. Her once bright green eyes were now dull and hollow with dark circles and bags underneath them. I will never understand how anyone could let themselves get this way.

  “The light from my window woke me up, then after it hit me what today was I couldn’t go back to sleep. So now I’m gonna fix some breakfast. Do you want any?” As usual, you could hear the disgust in my voice. I loved my mother, but I just couldn’t pretend that things were okay.

  “How are you going to fix anything when we ain’t got nothing? Wake me if you find something though.” She laughed at me, however, what she didn’t know was I had been stashing oatmeal and other non-spoilable foods since she started down the druggie road.

  I didn’t even bother to reply as I took the two steps into the kitchen. This trailer really wasn’t meant for more than one person.

  The Devil's Playground was terrifying, not because of the way it looked. It was actually a really gorgeous building, but what it represented. I was dreading walking through the big red doors that stood in front of me. This was going to be a disaster, I just know it.

  Steeling my nerves as best that I could, I pulled open the door and was shocked at the classy features on the inside. Everything was decked out in red and black silk, even the floors were shiny black. There was fancy artwork on the walls, the stage that was centered in the back of the room had a shiny red pole with black silk curtains behind it.

  Looking around for anyone to talk to, I slowly made my way to the back beside the stage. There was a hallway that I could only hope would lead me to someone. If I didn’t find anyone soon, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from leaving. The longer I walked the more unnerved I got about what was to come.

  “Hey! You can’t be back here!” That voice sent shivers down my spine as I recognized it from the man who was at our house. I should have known he would be here.

  Turning around, I looked for him and finally spotted him coming around the bar. He was even more terrifying now than he was the other day, now he was decked out from head to toe in leather.

  “You told me to be here, but I can leave,” I stated, hating the quiver that I heard in my voice. I was going to have to get the hell over this if this was ever going to work because his dead eyes sparked like he was searching for signs of fear.

  “Oh yeah, you are Jean’s girl. I’m surprised you showed, I was looking forward to having to come looking for you.” He said with a gleam of disappointment in his eyes that made me s
hiver. I knew I made a good choice in coming and not running, even though every part of me wanted to run.

  “My name is Amy and I didn’t really have a choice. Did I?” The venom was back in my voice as I spoke. I had to steel myself from this even if it meant me pretending not to be afraid. He would use that weakness against me, I could tell by the look in his dead eyes.

  “No, you didn’t. Now follow me, we have to get you dressed and ready.” He said before turning and heading back the way I had been going before he called out to me.

  Letting out the breath that I didn’t know I had been holding, I followed after him. He led me to a silver door that said staff only and headed inside. I should have known after this my life would never be the same.