The Very Not So Nice Boys Next Door: Love Next Door: Contemporary Reverse Harem Romance, #4

By Chloe Kent

There's only one way, Tatiana Annikov can save her family, and it involves coming to Mayhem Falls and taking something that belongs to the Wilson boys.

She has it on excellent authority that while the Wilson boys are absolutely gorgeous to look that, they are in fact just the very nicest boys around so for Tatiana it should be like stealing a near priceless artifact from babies.

That is until she gets caught and learns the hard way that the Wilson boys are actually very not so nice at all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chloe Kent
• Release date: Jul 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201267421

Book preview

The Very Not So Nice Boys Next Door

Chloe Kent

Copyright © 2021 by Chloe Kent

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Epilogue

Coming Soon: The Very Rude Boys Next Door

The Love Next Door Series

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About the Author

Author Links

Chapter One

Tatum Smith.

That’s who she was now.

She had left Tatiana Annikov behind in Moscow, and for the purposes of her mission, she would answer to Tatum Smith.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror of the airport bathroom and barely recognized herself. She had swapped her usual black leather pants for a floral summer dress with ribbons and bows and her thigh-high boots for a pair of sandals. Her hair, which was always pulled back severely into a sleek and tight ponytail, now hung loosely down her back in what she learned people called beach-wave hair.

This was the look she would present to the people of Mayhem Falls, which would last for the duration of her mission. She had to Americanize her accent as well and had effortlessly removed every trace of her native Russian tongue from her voice.

She could easily pass for a plain blonde, blue-eyed American girl, no different from any other American girl. 

Except the dress she wore tickled the skin on her thighs every time she took a step and annoyed her to no end, and she missed her death-wish boots with their needle-thin heels that could do some serious damage when required. The strappy sandals she now wore were the worst kind of torturous armor she had worn in her life. Her boots kept her in control, empowered her; these flimsy things made her feel... well, flimsy and weak.

Tatum Smith, she said softly to her reflection. Hello. I’m Tatum Smith. I’m so happy to be here in your lovely town.

Blyad.

She swore one last time in Russian.

She had to do this right. For her family. Not only to reclaim their name after it had been paired with some extremely unsavory characters, but also to leave Moscow forever and start again somewhere else new and safe.

They were the Annikov Bratva, and they’d been admired and respected and feared once upon a time. That was until her father made a bad deal that resulted in them losing everything.

They had enough friends in high places, like the Bolshov Bratva, the Baskin Bratva, and the Semonov Bratva, so they weren’t entirely destitute, but it was their pride that was wounded, and nothing could replace that.

Her father had rebuffed seeking help from their friends. His pride wouldn’t let him, and he was slowly killing off their family name because he refused to admit he had made a mistake.

She could understand how he felt, and it broke her heart to see her father so broken yet still so prideful that he couldn’t see the fire under their feet. To everyone else, he pretended all was well. To his family, he assured them he was working on something that would see them through the dark cloud that doing business with the Gribov Bratva had created over their heads.

Tatiana knew he didn’t have a plan. She didn’t know what he was waiting for either. So she had taken matters into her own hands, and now the only thing that could save them from the Gribovs was this mission she had undertaken in Mayhem Falls.

If she succeeded, she could give her family back their dignity, so they could leave the Russian Mafia behind, with their heads held high. 

All she had to do was steal something from a trio of completely harmless, very nice boys.

Easy peasy, as they said.

She could eat nice boys for breakfast if she wanted.

Taking a deep breath, she picked up the rental car she had arranged, set the GPS, and was led straight to the little sleepy town of Mayhem Falls.

She sighed in relief when she turned onto the famous Shady Lane Street and was not met with a welcoming banner strung from the cherry blossom trees.

Her new friend, Tessa Newbury, who had lived in Mayhem Falls before she was whisked away by the Semonov brothers had told her to expect a huge welcome into the town when she had prepped Tatiana for what life would be like in the close-knit community.

When she had asked Tessa if there was a way out of the frivolity of it all, she was told no: it was simply not how things worked in Mayhem Falls. 

Well, it seemed as if things had changed since Tessa had left, and she preferred it this way anyway. She really wanted to slip in, then slip out with the least amount of fuss. But that wasn’t entirely possible because she had to do a little reconnaissance first.

And that meant being in plain sight while she portrayed an equally harmless presence. No one would suspect her or her nefarious intentions, least of all the Wilson boys.

She slowed down the rental as she passed what other people would consider charming houses, then eventually stopped in front of a sickeningly jolly-yellow-painted-picketed-fenced-in house, and rolled her eyes. 

She already hated everything about Mayhem Falls. The sun shone too brightly; the air seemed too clean, and it smelled entirely too nice for a whole town. It didn’t go well with her present mood. Her family’s livelihood was at stake, and there was nothing to be happy about that. She wanted darkness and gloom.

Igor, her father, had pampered Tatiana and her fourteen-year-old sister, Natalya, as if they were the most precious things on earth, meant to be enveloped in Bubble Wrap and placed in velvet-cushioned boxes.

But Tatiana had learned from her mother to protect herself in the male-dominated world of the Russian Mafia, and she was also the reason Tatiana had picked up some useful skills that she was already teaching her younger sister.

But without sons to take over the Annikov Bratva, his daughters had made Igor weak, and he was adamant about not having them in the front line of the Mafia business. He wanted them to marry into prominent families and have babies and be happy.

But then suddenly that dream of his turned into a nightmare, and now her family was being held hostage by the Gribovs, all loose cannons, drunk on their newfound power.

Her father’s first mistake had been trying to do legitimate business with them, thinking he could solidify the Annikovs' stance and increase the size of his coffers for his daughters.

But no one did business with the Gribovs. They were men without honor, and yes, there was a code in the Russian Mafia that everyone involved respected. But not the Gribovs.

If her father knew what she was up to, that she had secretly approached the Gribovs with certain information and then managed to make a deal with them to be released from under their thumb, her father would have a heart attack on the spot. It was best, then, he knew nothing about it and to continue thinking his daughter was spending a few days with her friends.

The information she had was too valuable to entrust to anyone else. She was fighting for her family’s freedom, and that included the dark threats that the Gribovs made about taking Natalya if their father stepped out of line, which made Tatiana even more prepared to do whatever it took to see her mission through.

She wasn’t going to stop until she succeeded.

She pulled into the small driveway of the house, and immediately her attention veered left to the house next door. It looked ordinary, well maintained, but there was something decidedly masculine about its feel and appearance that she couldn’t deny.

She climbed out of the car, retrieved her two bags, and pulled them behind her. She flipped the edge of the welcome mat in front of the brightly painted yellow door and snagged the set of keys from underneath, then slotted the key into the keyhole.

Tatiana heard the female footsteps long before its owner showed up behind her. By the way she was walking, her attention had been to sneak up on Tatiana.

Ordinarily she would have turned around in a flash, grabbed her by the neck, tossed her to the ground, then demanded to know who she was. But this was Mayhem Falls, and she was just an ordinary person with ordinary reactions. 

Woohoo, a voice said behind her, tapping Tatiana on her shoulder.

She faked a startled response and swung around with a surprised look plastered on her face. 

She sized up the woman standing before her in a heartbeat. 

Tall, brunette, beautiful with an instant scowl that settled onto her features as the other woman herself seemed to sum up Tatiana as well and clearly didn’t like what she saw.

Oh dear, Tatiana shrieked in her most American voice. You startled me. She clutched her heart with perfect fakeness.

Tatum Smith? You’re Tatum Smith?

Here we go.

Yes. Yes, I am. Forcing herself to come off as a little flustered, she awkwardly tried to shake