Black Hearts (Sins Duet #1)

Black Hearts (Sins Duet #1)

Karina Halle




ABOUT THIS BOOK


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 #1 of the Sins Duet, with book #2, Dirty Souls, releasing March 17th. These books are a spinoff of The Artists Trilogy and the Dirty Angels Trilogy - however, you do not need to have read those books in order to enjoy or understand this one.

If you do wish to read those books though, I recommend starting with Sins & Needles!



ALSO NOTE: Black Hearts contains some violence and a whole load of naughty sex and bad language. IF you are a reader who is sensitive to any of the above, you have now been warned.





PREFACE





Once upon a time, a troubled young con artist fell in love with her mark, the drug lord with ties to the man who had ruined her life as a child.

It did not end well.

In fact, it didn’t really end at all.

Years later, the con artist tried to go straight, live a good and pure life, free of crime and inner torment.

That didn’t go well either.

Instead, she got hopelessly tangled with her old childhood friend, a friend who never stopped looking for the good in her, never stopped loving her.

Love is a funny thing. It can cause all our demons to go away.

But there was one demon who wouldn’t.

The mark.

What followed was a reckless, raw and duplicitous journey for three people who were often more bad than good, people who let love and lust and revenge compete for the same space in their hearts, people who had to fight tooth and nail for their happy ending.

But life doesn’t stop at a happily-ever-after.

And as far ahead in the future as you might be, the past is never far behind.

You just have to look over your shoulder.





For the ones who love my black and tender heart





I was doomed from the start

Doomed to play, the villain’s part

“Up Jumped the Devil”



Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds





Chapter One





Violet





SAN FRANCISCO - THE NOT SO DISTANT FUTURE


Everything I know is a lie.

That’s the thought that strikes me at night when the lights are off and my room is dark and my mind keeps tripping over itself, regretting how I wasted the day and worrying about the day to come.

I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense. I mean, I know I’m not a lie. But if I was raised in a house of them, by people who aren’t who they say they are, what does that make me?

It’s ridiculous. I turned twenty a few months ago. I know my parents love me and my brother loves me, even though we don’t always see eye to eye. I know I have a good life and a bright, if not uncertain, future. But that doesn’t erase this unease I’ve had since I was a young girl, that things aren’t quite what they seem.

When I was nine, I remember catching my mother outside the house in one hell of an awkward moment. This was back when we lived above the beach in Gualala, just north of San Francisco. I shouldn’t say just north, like it’s a simple hop, skip, and a jump. It’s a long, winding, nauseating drive along Highway 1 to get there.

Anyway, I remember this because I thought she had gone down to the beach to take pictures. I wasn’t allowed to leave the house on my own (the cliffs were a danger, so they said) and Ben was inside with my dad talking about something in the kitchen. My mom and dad just had a fight an hour before and I was worried about her, the way that daughters are when their mothers sulk off somewhere. The same kind of fear when you see an injured animal slink off to die.

In general, my parents didn’t fight all that much, which is something I try not to take for granted. I’ve heard horror stories from my friends about the ugly divorces and custody battles, or the parents who stayed together for their children, even though their kids would have been happier with them split, rather than being exposed to a hellish home life. Though my parents are pretty odd, I know they’re happily married and have a lot of love for each other. Maybe too much at times.