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  Cherry Hill 11: Pain Behind Beauty Shawna fights for a new life, but one poor decision based on guilt could take it all away from her. She took a chance, worked hard to be the top beautician in the salon in Cherry Hill, she has put the past behind her, and is still trying to heal inside from her pain. It isn't easy, and the last thing she expects is to fall in love with her bosses’ sons. They are determined to show her that their love is real, that they would never abuse her, or put her down, and she takes a chance and finally feels love for the very first time. Her feeling of guilt about her mother makes her go see her once again. She just can't seem to hope one day her mom will leave the abusive environment like Shawna did. That decision takes a turn for the worse as she is thrown into a dangerous situation because of her family. She is taken away from her men, her life in Cherry Hill, and is now under the power and control of a monster who plans on killing her. She is injured and ready to give up when that desire to live, to see her men again and completely be free from her families’ problems makes her take one more chance and fight. She isn't going out like this, and not before she takes some of the bad guys with her.

  Genres: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Romantic Suspense Length: 40,862

  CHERRY HILL 11:

  PAIN BEHIND BEAUTY

  Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  Cherry Hill 11: Pain Behind Beauty Copyright © 2019 by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  ISBN: 978-1-64243-776-8

  First Publication: April 2019

  Cover design by Les Byerley All art and logo copyright © 2019 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  W A RNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

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  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  For all titles by Dixie Lynn Dwyer, please visit www.bookstrand.com/dixie-lynn-dwyer

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHERRY HILL 11:

  PAIN BEHIND BEAUTY

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Epilogue

  CHERRY HILL 11:

  PAIN BEHIND BEAUTY

  DIXIE LYNN DWYER

  Copyright © 2019

  Prologue

  “ You stupid fucking bitch!”

  Smack.

  Shawna covered her head, curled up into a ball in the corner of her bedroom. She could hear the argument. Could practically feel the strikes against her own skin as her father struck her mother. She jerked at every cry, at every sound of his hard hand against her mother’s skin.

  I can’t take it. I can’t take it anymore. I can’t live like this. She cried and then the anger boiled up inside of her. Her father was a nasty bastard. A low life. She realized that years ago when he was dishonorably discharged from the military. A failure, and a screw-up. Her mom should have left him, but no. No, she was weak and abused, had no self-confidence whatsoever. She couldn’t protect herself, never mind Shawna. I’m nineteen years old. I can’t keep cleaning up his messes. Tending to my mother’s wounds. She won’t leave with me, but I’m out of here. I have to have a life of my own. Oh God, I’m so scared. How can I possibly survive on my own? How? The door burst open. She screamed as her father stood in the doorway, seething with anger.

  “Clean up the fucking mess in there and then bring some food outside for me and my friends. Donny is coming, too, so be nice this time,” he said to her, eyed her over, and then walked out of the room. Clean up the mess? Bring food out to your friends? Donny is coming over? She shook with fear. Donny was older, used to be in the military, as well, and he wanted her. Wanted to take her virginity and make her his woman. She knew that. Did her father realize that or was he too drunk? Too stupid, and didn’t care? Did he think she would be Donny’s woman? Oh my God, I’m nineteen, and Donny is thirty. More tears fell but she got up. She knew if she didn’t, then she would suffer from her father’s wrath. What was she going to do? What?

  Slowly, she made her way out to the kitchen. She could hear the moaning, her mom sobbing. There were broken dishes on the kitchen floor, cabinets opened, the place a mess after her mom just spent the morning cleaning it like her father liked it to remain. For someone who was so nasty and violent, and who was thrown out of the military, how stupid was it for him to want order, and perfection when he was so damn imperfect?

  She gulped. “Mamma?” she whispered. Her mother couldn’t get up off the floor. Her long, black hair cascaded over her face. She was trying to get up. Shawna went to help her, and when she moved her hair from her face and saw the damage, the swollen eye, the deep red bruises on her cheekbone and busted lip, anger pooled in her belly. “Oh God.”

  “It will be okay, Shawna. I should have had things ready for your dad and his friends.”

  “Bullshit,” she whispered through clenched teeth.

  Her mom looked shocked. “Shh, baby girl, don’t. He might hear you.”

  “I don’t care if he does. I’m done with this. I won’t be part of this any longer. Leave with me, Mamma. Leave with me right now, or tonight when he’s drunk and passed out.”

  “No. No, Shawna. He’s my husband.”

  “He’s a monster.”

  “No, no, it’s just hard for him. He’s disappointed in his life, and the deal God dealt him.”

  “He did this to himself, Mamma, and he’s brought you down, and now he’s bringing me down, too.”

  “No, no, Shawna, he loves you.”

  She stared at her mom like her mom was dense and stupid and blind, and just so submissive and weak. “Donny is coming over,” she said to her. She saw the change in her mamma’s eyes.

  “Donny is a good man and friends with your daddy for years. He has a steady job.”

  “He’s a disrespectful pig. He sells drugs to kids. He looks at me and wants me in his bed, underneath him.”

  “Shawna, it’s a small town. These are people we know.”

  “I’m leaving, Mamma. I want you to come with me.”

  “No. No, you can’t leave. You’ll fail. You can’t do it alone. You’ll get hurt or killed.”

  “I’ll get hurt or killed here. Out there I have a chance for a life. You can have that chance, too.”

  “Where is this coming from? You don’t disobey your father. You’re nineteen.”

  “I’m old enough to be on my own, to have sex, to get pregnant, to get a job and do just about anything I want to do. I can’t. I won’t do this. I won’t have your life,” she said, and tears fell from her mother’s eyes. She didn’t mean to insult her.

  “You think you can have things you see in the movies, in those books you read? It’s bullshit. I was beautiful, too. Had your stunning green eyes, beautiful face that made heads turn, and a body men drooled over. That your father drooled over. You aren’t better. This is the life you were dealt. You can’t make it out there on your own, baby girl. You need your father, this town, this is it. Pruent is it for us,” her mom said as more tears fell.

  Shawna knew that her mother had been a beauty when she was younger. She was stunning, but now she was battered all the time, and lost the light in her eyes Shawna only remembered from when she was a little kid. Her husband took that from her. Shawna wasn’t self-centered or stuck up. She knew she turned heads, she enjoyed beauty, makeup, hairstyles, and following the latest trends. She worked in salons watching the professionals work, and she knew she wanted to help women look and feel more beautiful. She just needed an opportunity to take the chance. She saw the sadness and insult in her mother’s eyes.

  She grabbed her shoulders as tears fell from her own eyes knowing that she would be leaving her mamma in order to break free from the violence and the pain. “Come with me, Mamma. We can start a new life together. I’ll take care of you. I’ll find work. I’ll become a beautician like I’ve wanted to do.”

  “You’re so beautiful, Shawna, that’s why Donny and the other men look at you like they do. They’re good men.”

  “No. No damn it, they are not good men. If he had the chance, he would rape me.”

  “No. No, he wouldn’t do that. Your father wouldn’t let him.”

  “God. I can’t do this.” She stood up. She was losing her mind. How could her mom get so beaten down? She was making Shawna feel the same way. Fear leaving. Fear what was out there in the world. A whole other world aside from the town of Pruent.

  She got her mother ice for her face. Handed it to her and then started to clean up the mess.

  “We should start making the food,” her mamma said to her, holding the bag of ice against her lip and chee
k. The sight all too familiar to Shawna. How many years has it been? I can’t stay here. I’ll wind up like her.

  “I got it. You rest,” Shawna said, and as she prepared some food for her father and his asshole friends, she began to formulate a plan. If she fought back, if she made a stand, and made them see she wasn’t so weak, then maybe, just maybe she would stand a chance.

  Hours later, the music still blasting outside, the men all drunk, her mamma passed out on the couch, she lay in bed and made her decision. She was almost finished with beautician school. She needed a break. To find a job and start working, and she could get some experience, and make some money. She could maybe stay with her cousin Elise for a bit. Shawna was determined to have a better life. A safer life away from military men, men like—

  The moment her bedroom door opened she panicked. She saw Donny in the doorway. He guzzled down a bottle of beer and stared at her on the bed. It was dark in her room. He couldn’t see her eyes, and she didn’t know what to do. He was going to rape her. Maybe beat her. She knew by the way he looked at her earlier that he wanted to make her his, and her dad did nothing to stop him. Not from flirting, from grabbing her ass, or pulling her into his arms to sniff her hair. She had a feeling he was getting impatient and was ready to take what he wanted.

  “I can hear you breathing, darling. You know tonight’s the night,” he said.

  She went to move, and he was on her fast. Straddled her body and grabbed her arms. “No. Get off of me, Donny. I don’t want this!” she screamed at him. He was heavy and so big. She wouldn’t stand a chance and she knew that. She prepared herself for this night best she could.

  “Oh, you want it. You need a man, an older, experienced man to guide you, and protect you,” he said, and licked his lips as she struggled to get free. She just needed to get her hands under the pillow. She had anticipated this. Had made a decision to not be a victim, to not wind up in a life like her mother wound up. She loved her mamma, but she wasn’t going to be like her. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

  He slid his palms down her arms and right to her breasts.

  “Holy fuck, you’re huge. I knew it. Despite how you hide these beauties. Fuck,” he said, exhaling as he squeezed her breasts hard. His beer breath nauseated her. She didn’t move a muscle. “You’re going to be mine.”

  “No. Leave me alone, Donny. I’ll scream. I’ll yell to my dad. He won’t let you do this.”

  He chuckled. “Your dad and I go way back. He thinks we’d be good together. Doesn’t like that little dick, Matt.”

  She could hardly swallow. Matt was her age, on the football team, and a nice clean-cut guy. He went to college. She hadn’t seen him in months. He lowered his mouth to her neck, and she went to push him away and he struck her. The feel of his fist hitting her jaw shocked her a moment. Then his hands were on her, he tore her top, her breasts were exposed, and he widened his eyes. “Holy fuck.”

  She grabbed at his arms as he cupped a breast, hard, and then grabbed her neck with his other hand. She couldn’t fight him off. He was too big, too strong. He lifted up, still holding her throat as he undid his pants, or at least attempted to. He was pretty drunk, reeked so bad of beer and sweat, and he had muscles, tattoos on him. She had to get her hands under the pillow. “Donny, please.”

  “You cooperate. It’s going to be good. This first time. Your first time, little virgin,” he said to her, and she eased her hands up under the pillow. “That’s right. You lay back and I’ll show you how good it’s going to be.” He adjusted his body, caressed her arms, her breasts, his cock out of his jeans as he went lower and lower.

  She gripped the metal. Relieved that she knew enough about guns, about shooting, and where her dumb father kept his guns. She slowly lifted it from under the pillow as he suckled on her breast, nipped her nipple. She clicked the release, and placed the barrel to his head. He froze in place. Her anger keeping her hands steady. “Get off of me right now, asshole, or you’ll meet your maker.”

  He lifted up. Looked shocked as could be. But he eased off of her, but not entirely. He smirked, eyed her over like she looked even hotter that she had a gun pointed at him. He wasn’t taking her seriously at all.

  “You won’t shoot me. You’re weak, like your mother. You need a man like me, to protect you, to take care of you and tell you what to do. Put down the gun.”

  She moved it slightly and fired it, so close to him he covered his ear and jumped up off the bed. She sat up, still pointing it at him. She didn’t even care that her breasts were fully exposed and her panties now too because all she had on was a nightshirt he tore. She was seething with anger. Felt empowered, like she was in control and not him. Not an abusive, rapist of a man.

  “Now if you ever, ever try to rape me, to touch me, or come after me again, I will fucking shoot you, and when the cops come I’ll tell them all about your little side job selling weed to little kids.”

  “You’re fucking crazy like your old man,” he said, and tried zipping up his jeans. He reached for the beer bottle he placed on her dresser by the door and she could see his hands shaking. He took a slug of it, and she could tell she got her message across, but she wasn’t stupid. He was a man, and men couldn’t be underestimated or trusted, and definitely not military men.

  Chapter 1

  “Oh my God, I love it, Shawna! Love it!” Mrs. Appleton exclaimed as she swung her head side to side, completely overjoyed with her latest hairstyle. Then, of course, came the other compliments from other clients at the salon. Head To Toes was a small hair salon and boutique in Cherry Hill, and Shawna had been lucky enough to snag a job here a year ago.

  She smiled at Mrs. Appleton. “I hope you enjoy the event in Central Valley with your husbands this evening.”