A forbidden romance built on secrets...add a touch of thrills, a dash of suspense and just a hint of darkness.
BLACK HEARTS by Karina Halle is NOW LIVE & Free on Kindle Unlimited!
Meet Vicente in a Sneak Peek of Karina Halle's newest Suspense Novel!
BLACK HEARTS by Karina Halle is NOW LIVE & Free on Kindle Unlimited!
Meet Vicente in a Sneak Peek of Karina Halle's newest Suspense Novel!
She sighs, running her hands over her face, turning away with a low moan. “I mean it, Vicente. What are you doing with me? What do you want with me?”
I don’t like these questions. I don’t like the heaviness they’re adding to my heart. It makes breathing just a bit harder.
“I don’t understand…”
“I’m a fucking mess!” she yells, eyes blazing as her hands drop away from her face. “Look at me! You just met me and I’m sure you wanted a quick fuck and now you’re roped up with all this…this…ridiculous fucking drama! From my family! I mean, how perfect timing is this? You show up, finally a guy who gets me, who really fucking gets me and then my family just explodes into shit!”
I watch her, completely enthralled at the anger pouring out of her. I want to see more of it. I want her to own it.
“Everyone has problems with their family,” I tell her. “Even me.”
“Not like this! You know who your parents are, don’t you?”
I swallow, nodding.
Unfortunately, yes.
“Now you’re going to leave me and I’ll be stuck with them, stuck here in this life I don’t fucking want anymore.”
I ignore the stabbing sensation in my chest. “I’m not leaving, Violet,” I say as patiently as I can. “I told you that last night.”
“Yeah fucking right. You’re saying that because you’re too nice.”
I burst out laughing. “Nice? You just called me nice?”
That’s a new one. Vicente, the nice guy.
She recoils at my laugh. “Well, you are. You’ve been more understanding of all this shit than anyone else should be. Right now, it should just be about you and me. My family should have nothing to do with this.”
Oh, my blackbird. That will never, ever be the case.
Our families would die before they ever let us be together.
“What if I were to tell you that I’m not as nice as you think,” I say to her, grabbing her hand and pulling her to me. I run my fingers over her cheeks before placing my palm against her throat, my fingers gripping around her neck. “Would a nice boy tie you up and choke you? Would a nice boy encourage you to leave all of this and her family behind?”
She stares up at me warily. Her throat is warm and presses against my hand as she tries to swallow. “What do you mean?” she whispers.
“You want it to be about just you and just me?” I lean in, kissing the side of her mouth. “Then you come away with me. You leave their bullshit and their lies behind and you become the Violet McQueen you were always meant to be. You become free.”
Images of blackbirds fill my mind, flying away, singing into the dead of night.
I don’t like these questions. I don’t like the heaviness they’re adding to my heart. It makes breathing just a bit harder.
“I don’t understand…”
“I’m a fucking mess!” she yells, eyes blazing as her hands drop away from her face. “Look at me! You just met me and I’m sure you wanted a quick fuck and now you’re roped up with all this…this…ridiculous fucking drama! From my family! I mean, how perfect timing is this? You show up, finally a guy who gets me, who really fucking gets me and then my family just explodes into shit!”
I watch her, completely enthralled at the anger pouring out of her. I want to see more of it. I want her to own it.
“Everyone has problems with their family,” I tell her. “Even me.”
“Not like this! You know who your parents are, don’t you?”
I swallow, nodding.
Unfortunately, yes.
“Now you’re going to leave me and I’ll be stuck with them, stuck here in this life I don’t fucking want anymore.”
I ignore the stabbing sensation in my chest. “I’m not leaving, Violet,” I say as patiently as I can. “I told you that last night.”
“Yeah fucking right. You’re saying that because you’re too nice.”
I burst out laughing. “Nice? You just called me nice?”
That’s a new one. Vicente, the nice guy.
She recoils at my laugh. “Well, you are. You’ve been more understanding of all this shit than anyone else should be. Right now, it should just be about you and me. My family should have nothing to do with this.”
Oh, my blackbird. That will never, ever be the case.
Our families would die before they ever let us be together.
“What if I were to tell you that I’m not as nice as you think,” I say to her, grabbing her hand and pulling her to me. I run my fingers over her cheeks before placing my palm against her throat, my fingers gripping around her neck. “Would a nice boy tie you up and choke you? Would a nice boy encourage you to leave all of this and her family behind?”
She stares up at me warily. Her throat is warm and presses against my hand as she tries to swallow. “What do you mean?” she whispers.
“You want it to be about just you and just me?” I lean in, kissing the side of her mouth. “Then you come away with me. You leave their bullshit and their lies behind and you become the Violet McQueen you were always meant to be. You become free.”
Images of blackbirds fill my mind, flying away, singing into the dead of night.
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MORE About Black Hearts
For Vicente Bernal, truth is all he’s known. The son of an infamous drug lord, Vicente was born to help run the family business, which means he’s been raised on a throne of sordid pasts and dirty laundry, violence and pride. But when Vicente stumbles across someone he’s not supposed to know about – a woman from his father’s checkered past – he sets out to California to find her behind his father’s back.
What Vicente doesn’t expect to find in San Francisco is Violet McQueen, the woman’s twenty-year old daughter. Beautiful and edgy with a vulnerability he can’t resist, Violet tempts Vicente from afar and though he promised himself he’d stay away from her, curiosity and lust are powerful forces. Besides, Vicente has always gotten everything he wants – why shouldn’t he have Violet too?
Soon his wants turn into an obsession, one that sweeps Violet into his games as they fall madly, deeply in love with each other, the type of first love that can drive a person mad.
But it’s a love with tragic consequences.
Both the truth – and the lies – not only threaten to tear them apart, but threaten their very lives.
Someone has to pay for the sins of the fathers.
And they’ll be paying the price with their souls.
NOTE: Black Hearts is book one of the Sins Duet, with the sequel, Dirty Souls, releasing in March 2017.
These books can be read as a standalone – though they are a spinoff of the Sins & Needles and Dirty Angels trilogies, Black Hearts & Dirty Souls are set 20 years in the future and follow new characters. You do NOT need to read TAT or DA to enjoy or understand this duet.
For Vicente Bernal, truth is all he’s known. The son of an infamous drug lord, Vicente was born to help run the family business, which means he’s been raised on a throne of sordid pasts and dirty laundry, violence and pride. But when Vicente stumbles across someone he’s not supposed to know about – a woman from his father’s checkered past – he sets out to California to find her behind his father’s back.
What Vicente doesn’t expect to find in San Francisco is Violet McQueen, the woman’s twenty-year old daughter. Beautiful and edgy with a vulnerability he can’t resist, Violet tempts Vicente from afar and though he promised himself he’d stay away from her, curiosity and lust are powerful forces. Besides, Vicente has always gotten everything he wants – why shouldn’t he have Violet too?
Soon his wants turn into an obsession, one that sweeps Violet into his games as they fall madly, deeply in love with each other, the type of first love that can drive a person mad.
But it’s a love with tragic consequences.
Both the truth – and the lies – not only threaten to tear them apart, but threaten their very lives.
Someone has to pay for the sins of the fathers.
And they’ll be paying the price with their souls.
NOTE: Black Hearts is book one of the Sins Duet, with the sequel, Dirty Souls, releasing in March 2017.
These books can be read as a standalone – though they are a spinoff of the Sins & Needles and Dirty Angels trilogies, Black Hearts & Dirty Souls are set 20 years in the future and follow new characters. You do NOT need to read TAT or DA to enjoy or understand this duet.
BLACK HEARTS IS NOW LIVE
& FREE ON KINDLE UNLIMITED
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Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Love, in English, The Artists Trilogy, Dirty Angels and over 20 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.
Halle is represented by the Waxman Leavell Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.
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Halle is represented by the Waxman Leavell Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.
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