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Title: Dirty Angels (Dirty Angels Trilogy #1)
Author: Karina Halle
Genre: Dark Romantic Suspense
Release Date: June 15, 2014
For Luisa Chavez, a twenty-three year old former beauty queen, a better life has always been just out of her reach. Sure, she’s had men at her feet since she was a young teenager but she’s never had the one thing she’s craved – security. Having grown up in near poverty, her waitressing job in Cabo San Lucas can barely let her take care of herself, let alone her ailing parents. Every day is another unwanted advance, every day is a struggle to survive.
Soon, Luisa is looking for an escape, a way out of the carefully controlled life she’s leading. She finally gets her wish in the worst way possible.
That man is Javier Bernal. And he wants Luisa. He wants to take her, keep her, ruin her.
Unless she ruins him first.
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Excerpt
It was a picture of a woman in white strapless wedding dress, very fluffy and extravagant from the waist down. Her hands were clasped demurely at her front, her face caught in a nervous smile.
She was extremely beautiful but that was to be expected. The country’s most flagrant excuse for a drug kingpin would never marry anyone less than stunning and this woman, Luisa, fit the bill. But despite her body, with her round, perky tits and elegant neck, her long dark hair and classic face, there was another layer to her that immediately got me hard. It was this look in her eyes. They were so pure and soft, giving her radiance that seemed to leap off the page.
I wanted nothing more than to have her on her knees, have her fix those round, angelic eyes on me and watch as I pin her down and come right into them. I would take her purity and make her see the world for what it really was – a hot, sticky mess at the end of my dick.
“I bet she’d be a tight little fuck,” Este leered over my shoulder.
I shot him a disgusted look. “She’s not a whore, Este,” I chided him.
“Not to you,” he said, as I looked at the next picture of her, now with Salvador at her side.
“I mean it,” I said, my eyes drawn to her again and again. “No one is touching her. Not you, not Franco.”
“I give you my promise,” Este said. “But Franco can barely control himself around the whores.”
“No one is touching her,” I repeated. “She will be our hostage. She is collateral. No one is laying a hand on her.”
“Except for you, I assume.”
She almost seemed too good to even touch. I couldn’t wait to break her. “She is very valuable,” I admitted.
I flipped through a couple of more photographs and grew harder at each one. I wished Este would just fucking leave so I could deal with it. I almost wished Laura was still alive so I could flip her over and come all over her back. I never fucked the women around here, but that didn’t mean I didn’t use them when I needed to.
“You know,” Este said, his lazy voice starting to grate me. “If Martin had been there close enough to spy on them, close enough to photograph, why didn’t you just get him to put a bullet in Salvador’s head? Especially if Martin was going to die anyway.”
I eyed him warily, disappointed that he could be so rash. “Because life is a game and we’re all just trading cards. We play the right hand to get ahead.” I studied the smiling, ignorant face of Sal as he stared at his bride. “Death stops the game. It’s too final, too inflexible. Death is viciously stubborn.”
When Este didn’t say anything I looked up to see a dull gleam in his eyes. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, annoyed at his ineptitude. “What good would killing Salvador do? Right? David Guirez or whoever, anyone, someone, they would step in and take over faster than you can shit after your coffee and nothing will have changed. Look at Travis Raines. The moment he died, I was able to slither on through to the top, to right here, right now.”
“Only because you killed Travis,” he noted. “More or less.”
“We killed Travis,” I corrected him. “Anyway, the point is that the dead make lousy deals. If we want the shipping lane, we have to force him to give it to us. Killing him does nothing. Taking his new bride, now that will do something.”
“You sound so sure,” Este said walking around the desk.
“I have no reason not to be sure,” I said. “They are newlyweds. He needs her, he wants her. We will get her soon, before he gets bored of her cherry ass. Sal has pride. We all do. It is our weakness. I know that enough about myself to know it about others.”
He smoothed his hand over the stubble on his chin and gave me a smooth nod. “All right.”
I stared at a photo of them at the altar, a lavish outdoor ceremony. He was gazing at her with that pride I was talking about. And she was staring at him with a look that was all too familiar to me.
“She doesn’t love him, though,” I commented, almost to myself.
“How can you tell?” he said, taking a step closer and peering at the photos again.
I swallowed uneasily and then shrugged it off. “I just can. She doesn’t.”
“So is she marrying him for money then?”
I took the papers and sorted them until they were neat and evenly stacked before slipping them back into the envelope. “Probably. Does it matter?”
“No. So when do we act?”
“Soon,” I said, putting the envelope in the first drawer. I knew I’d be taking it out again after he left.
Michel’s Review
It is no secret that The Artist Trilogy by Karina Halle is one of my all time favorite series. I absolutely loved all the characters. I admit that I was definitely team Camden. But on the other hand I was darkly fascinated with Javier Bernal. He was one of those characters that you hated to love and you loved to hate. He was ruthless, a bit psychotic, cruel, dark, and oozing with sex appeal. His character was unforgettable.
After his demise in the final book of the Artist Trilogy, readers were left wondering how the hell he was going to get out the situation he was in. Ahhh….Javier is a very crafty and calculating man. He did not become the leader of one of the largest drug cartels by accident. It was sheer ruthlessness, precise calculation, and diabolical patience that made him the king of one of the most barbaric drug cartels.
Dirty Angels by Karina Halle is Javier Bernal’s ominous kingdom and his quest for his queen. It is not a fairy tale that is roses and rainbows. It is your worst nightmare. It is a love story based on despicable deeds and monstrous behaviors. But it is the only kind of love story Javier can have. His world is violent, diabolical, and gruesome. There are no second chances. Life is expendable. Even for those you love.
What starts as a power play ends up being a blood bath. The bargaining chip is the very beautiful wife of the leader of a rival drug cartel. Her value will change all the rules. Her innocence will bring Javier to his knees. Her sinister acceptance will escalate Javier’s passion. Her dark beauty will mark his soul.
Javier is on a very dark road. His actions will be henious. His reactions will be shocking. His code of honor will be admired as well as abhorred.
Luisa will win the reader’s hearts. Her bravery and fate will have the reader reeling. Her evolution into the darkness will prove that she is a Queen to be reckoned with.
Dirty Angels is a hard edged, gritty, gruesome, and sensual book. Karina Halle did not pull any punches with this book. Her portrayal of the underworld of the Mexican drug cartels is brutally honest. This is a novel with high octane, violent suspense that will keep the readers glued to the pages. Readers will love to love Javier, they will hate to love Javier, and they will love to hate Javier. They will embrace Luisa and commend her for evolving into the Dark Queen.
Karina Halle has wrote another superb story! Dirty Angels will definitely go on my 2014 Favorite Reads List!
About the Author
Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently lives on an island on the coast of British Columbia where she’s preparing for the zombie apocalypse with her husband and rescue pup.
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