Soldiers of Pearl 3: Sing Me a Song
They thought they were prepared for Texas, but Stella, Sydney, and Ella never expected the magic and power of a town called Pearl. They each have different expectations. Love, money, making dreams a reality. But one bad decision could change it all and destroy a family forever.
Stella is rekindling a romance with Sydney’s father Matt and his cousin Jimmy. Sydney’s singing on stage at the Rusty Horn and trying to avoid the advances of four retired Marines set on making her their woman. Ella is always looking for the easy way out and in doing so puts her family in danger and risks Sydney’s life. It takes the town of Pearl and their close knit friends to save these three women and give them their happily ever after.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Romantic Suspense
Length: 73,327 words
SOLDIERS OF PEARL 3:
SING ME A SONG
Dixie Lynn Dwyer
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
SOLDIERS OF PEARL 3: SING ME A SONG
Copyright © 2015 by Dixie Lynn Dwyer
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-418-1
First E-book Publication: May 2015
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2015 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.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
If you have purchased this copy of Soldiers of Pearl 3: Sing Me a Song by Dixie Lynn Dwyer from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
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The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.
This is Dixie Lynn Dwyer’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Dixie Lynn Dwyer’s right to earn a living from her work.
Amanda Hilton, Publisher
www.SirenPublishing.com
www.BookStrand.com
DEDICATION
Dear Readers,
Thank you for purchasing this legal copy of Sing Me A Song. I hope you enjoy Sydney’s journey as she realizes that love is indeed such a powerful emotion it can make anything happen. The power of love can help heal the deepest wounds. It can touch the deepest places of the soul just as music can. Life is too short to hold grudges, to ponder over mistakes, and bad choices, and to fear opening up your heart at the chance of finding love, feeling love, experiencing love for whatever amount of time destiny allows it.
Happy Reading.
Hugs!
~Dixie~
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Epilogue
About the Author
SOLDIERS OF PEARL 3: SING ME A SONG
DIXIE LYNN DWYER
Copyright © 2015
Prologue
I’m going to live.
Stella felt her eyes fill up with tears once again. She beat the cancer. She was in remission. The chemo worked. She could remain the mother of her two beautiful daughters, Sydney and Ella. This was her second chance to make things right and to give Sydney at least the opportunity to meet her biological father, Matt.
She took an uneasy breath as she held the letter in her hand. He had contacted her after so many years, and after she had pushed him away. It was the worst time of her life since she was just diagnosed with breast cancer, but it also gave her hope and determination to live. Her life hadn’t been easy. Matt was the father of Sydney, twenty-three and gorgeous with an angelic voice. She could be famous, but instead she chose to stay nearby and help take care of Stella during this time and also watch over her sister Ella. God, Ella was a handful. Drake, her father, had been a wild one. His wildness and need for adventure was what got him killed. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree with Ella.
Stella had loved both men with all her heart, but that love for the two of them was what had split them apart. Matt left for war, and she didn’t have the heart to tell him she was pregnant. Drake was Matt’s best friend and when Sydney was born he had taken on the role as her father. He was pretty good at it, but he held back, and she knew it was because Sydney wasn’t his. By the time Matt returned from his multiple tours, living his dreams and living for the glory of his successful missions, she was pregnant with Ella, Drake’s baby. All hell broke loose.
There was a lot of yelling and a lot of crying. Matt left and Drake stuck around until his own dreams, his own need for adventure, sent him across the world to Australia. While hiking, parachuting, and escaping the dangers of wild animals and primitive cultures, he died from a spider bite. A painful, slow death far away from his family and the woman who loved him.
Tears rolled down Stella’s cheeks and she quickly wiped them away. This was a different time. Her daughters were older now, twenty-three and twenty. She wanted them to meet Matt. Matt wanted to meet both of them. At first Stella was skeptical. She feared so many things it was difficult to focus on just one of the what if’s. But being hit with a disease like cancer put life in perspective. It gave her the opportunity to see that she hadn’t done all she could do to help her daughters, to allow Sydney the chance to meet and know her father, and also to embrace the connection of family that was there no matter what had occurred all those years ago. Matt and Drake had been best friends, like brothers. Either man w
ould have loved her girls as if they were their own. But Stella had almost died. There was no guarantee that she couldn’t have a relapse. The thought of leaving her girls with nothing, with no parent that could guide them and act as family hurt her deeply. She’d never loved another man. Matt and Drake had been her only lovers. They were that special. She needed to take a chance and make things right. Matt needed to know his daughter and his best friend’s daughter. It was only fair.
Now she just had to figure out how she was going to tell Sydney and Ella. What if they didn’t want to meet Matt? What if they didn’t want to move to Texas? What if they hated her for keeping his interest in seeing and meeting them a secret all this time? She had denied Matt the opportunity before. He contacted her three times over the years and she blew him off. The third time was months ago when she was in a fragile state and exploded on him, telling him she had cancer and might die. He shocked her by not only continuing to call her and check up on her, but offering financial help and a new beginning.
She took a deep breath and released it. I can do this. I have to do this. Nothing is scarier than facing death in the eyes, and I’ve already done that.
Chapter 1
“How is that you continually seem to wind up in the middle of shit?” Sydney asked her sister. Ella had a matter of weeks until her twenty-first birthday, and here she was drunk and hanging out in the back room of the club with Lenny’s crew of shit.
“Oh come on, Sydney. You need to lighten up. You’re too focused.” Ella slurred her words and Sydney pulled her by the arm. Ella’s strapless top, a top she shouldn’t be wearing, was exposing her breast to nearly her areola. Sydney pulled it up for her and held her against the wall as she tried to open the door.
“Where ya going, Syd? Come on and have a few drinks with us. We haven’t hung out in ages,” Bruno told her as he pressed his hand against the door. He eyed Sydney over as if she were easy prey, a piece of meat. She had ignored his advances in the past. Hell, she’d even declined Lenny’s help to get her big gigs with singing. She knew better than to be in debt to a man like Lenny Lamorte. He wanted her in his bed. He wanted her sister, too. The damn pig.
“Bruno, we’ve never hung out. What the hell makes you think I would want to? Now remove your hand from the door so I can get my sister outta here. She’s not even old enough to drink.”
“I will be in a month.”
“That’s a whole month, Ella, and you’ve got a lot of growing up to do.”
“Ella.”
Sydney heard Lenny’s voice over the crowd. Ella stood up straighter, as if a soldier ready to take an order from the leader. It pissed Sydney off but also made her feel nervous and a little sick. Why did Ella insist on hanging out with criminals? Like their mom needed this shit? She had just recovered from breast cancer. It was a damn miracle. Ella should be being a saint for their mom. Sydney pulled her and gave Lenny a firm expression as he approached with Bruno.
Lenny looked Ella and Sydney over. He cupped Ella’s chin. “I’ll see you tomorrow night at the party. Be there on time.”
He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and then looked over Sydney. She wasn’t exactly dressed appropriately herself. Sydney had been working the lounge down the street and was still in costume, a low cut number that showed off her voluptuous figure. The raincoat she wore over it was untied and open, revealing the deep cleavage of her top. She even had her stage makeup on. What a sight she must look like.
“Damn, Sydney, you still working at Louie’s lounge down the street? When are you going to take me up on my offer to be your agent?” he asked as he caressed her arm.
“I’m my own agent,” she whispered.
He smiled. “And look where that’s gotten you,” he replied, sounding smug and conceited. It made her feel like a fool. Like a failure because her hopes and dreams were on hold. There was nothing more important than her mom’s health and her singing to make money to help pay the bills.
“Yeah well, it’s legit and it pays the bills.”
“Can’t we stay for another round, Syd? God, you’re such a prude,” Ella whined and then laid her head on Sydney’s shoulder.
“We’re out of here.”
Lenny grabbed Sydney’s arm.
“Listen, my offer is still good. You say the word and I’ll have you at some of the top clubs in the city in no time.”
“Not interested, Lenny.”
He stepped closer, and as she stepped back, her back hit the door behind her. She was scared. Who wouldn’t be? Lenny was a criminal, a man with connections. He could make her life hell. If they could get out of here with no further problems or scene, it would be great. In a few days they were leaving New York and heading to Texas. Seeing Ella mixed up with Lenny and his crew made Sydney realize that moving wasn’t such a terrible thing. It could be the only way to keep Ella out of trouble, perhaps out of jail.
“Maybe we can sit down some time and talk about my ideas. You know, get to know your wants and desires. And mine,” he said then caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. His eyes roamed over her breasts again then held her gaze.
“Maybe some other time. You know our mom’s been real sick. She doesn’t need Ella coming home drunk or not coming home at all. It’s a stress she can’t handle right now.”
“You need some money, some help? I’m willing to assist you, your sister, and your mom. I told Ella this a few times.”
“Sydney doesn’t want to owe you, Lenny. I asked her to accept your help so she didn’t have to work so hard,” Ella chimed in then hiccupped.
“Ella, cool it. We’re fine. Things are fine Lenny,” she said, giving Ella a squeeze and hoping her intoxicated little sister would shut the hell up. She was trying to get them out of here in one piece.
“You call me in a few days. We’ll sit down and talk this through. Come up with a plan to help. You’ve got talent, Syd. Don’t waste it in that shitty old lounge. You come meet me in a few days. I’ll let Ella know when. Okay?” he asked, and Sydney knew she had to say yes. It wouldn’t matter anyway. They would be gone in a few days.
“I’ll try. I work a lot and have to take care of Mom and other things.”
“You’ll meet me. Even an hour will be plenty of time to get things rolling.” He stepped closer, and Ella moved to the side as Lenny cupped Sydney’s face and leaned closer, his mouth to her ear.
“We’ll work out the details. I can take good care of you and your family. Trust me,” he whispered, his lips touching her ear, and then he kissed her cheek. When he pulled back and held her gaze he winked. “I’ll call you.”
Sydney nodded her head and pulled Ella away from the door as Bruno opened it. They headed out through the main dance floor and by the bar area. Ella wanted to stop for another drink, but Sydney squeezed her arm tight, making her cry out as they exited by the bouncers. “Leaving so soon, Sydney?” the bouncer asked her, and she ignored him like she ignored the other jerks who hung around at the local bars. She didn’t need this shit. She was getting tired of all of it. She wished they could leave for Texas right now.
By the time they got to the car, Ella was pulling away and bending over, throwing up.
“Damn it, Ella. What the hell? I mean, when the fuck are you going to grow up? Goddamn it, I don’t need Lenny on my ass. I don’t want his help or any involvement with those guys. You shouldn’t be hanging around them,” Sydney yelled at her, and Ella wiped her mouth then leaned against the car.
“It’s fun hanging out with them. They take care of me and no one messes with me because I’m with Lenny and his gang.”
“They don’t take care of you. They want to sleep with you. They want to use you. You’re not even twenty-one. Don’t make these mistakes and hang out with guys like Lenny and Bruno. They’ll bring you down. You’ll be dead, or nothing but used goods in a matter of months.”
“I haven’t slept with any of them.”
“Not yet, but if I didn’t drag your ass out of there Bruno would have
gotten lucky, maybe right there in the back room.”
“No,” she yelled at Sydney.
Sydney opened the car door.
“Get in. I’m done. I’m exhausted and I need some sleep. Let’s head home before Mom notices you’re still not home yet.”
“You’re only three years older than me. You don’t know more. You’re not better than I am,” Ella said as she got into the car and slammed the door closed.
“I never said I was better. I never claimed to know more, but living in New York and growing up struggling, I’ve seen what hanging with the wrong people can do. You’re a beautiful young woman with a bright future ahead of you. Don’t go fucking it up with losers. We’re heading to Texas. This may be the best time for you to leave, and before you do something stupid.”
“Like what?”
“Like get knocked up by Bruno or Lenny.”
“Lenny wants you, not me.”
“Well he can’t have either of us. We’re both too good for men like him. You remember that. You’re a beautiful, smart young woman and can have a bright future. Don’t be afraid to work for it and take some risks.”
Ella exhaled as she leaned back in the seat.
“Enough with the lecture. You’re not my mom.”
“No. I’m not, I’m your sister and I love you no matter what. So don’t forget it.”
Ella didn’t say another word, and Sydney hoped she got through to her. But Ella never listened and was always taking chances. She always seemed to find herself in some kind of trouble. But hanging with Lenny’s guys would bring her the kind of trouble that could take her life or at minimum destroy Ella’s chances at a bright future. She prayed she didn’t do anything stupid before they left for Texas. Maybe out there Ella wouldn’t be able to find trouble but instead finally grow up and take on some responsibility. Sydney could only hope so. She was getting tired of handling it all herself. There didn’t seem to be anything to enjoy in life, only heartache and an emptiness nothing seemed to fill. Not even her love of singing.
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