Dino couldn’t ever let her go…🔫📷WORTH OF WASTE📷🔫, DeLuca Duet: Part Two by Bethany-Kris is #LIVE! Grab your copy now!
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🔫📷SYNOPSIS📷🔫
DeLuca Duet, Part Two
The Chicago Mob is the same as it has always been—violent, greedy, and excessive. The Outfit families have turned their backs when they were needed the most one too many times, but Dino DeLuca didn’t expect anything different.
His whole life has been lived for the Outfit—for his family.
He has a whole new set of reasons to live and fight now.
Karen Martin makes Dino change all the rules.
He’s finally ready to show everyone just how much waste is truly worth in the mafia, and just how far one will go for freedom from it all.
He’s learned these lessons well.
Too well.
Author’s Note: The DeLuca Duet is a standalone duet with a HEA ending that can be read independently.
Excerpt~
“Did you do what I asked?” Dino questioned, his gaze flicking to Mike.
He’d allowed himself to think about Karen, and that was enough to hurt.
Dino didn’t want to hurt.
Not right now.
Mike nodded. “I did. I contacted her through private means that wouldn’t draw attention, explained who I was, and what you asked of her. She wasn’t happy—actually, she told me not to ever contact her again.”
Dino cleared his throat, surprised at Mike’s description of Karen’s response. She was not a rude woman, and she wasn’t the type to be purposefully hateful to someone. But then again, maybe all of this had just been too much for her, and that was her way of acting out against it. He didn’t know, and he really didn’t have any reason to speculate on the whys of it all.
“What else?” Dino asked.
“Nothing, Dino. I did as she asked. I can’t force information on her if she doesn’t want to hear it. That’s called harassment.”
True.
Still …
“She hasn’t come back since that first time,” Dino said.
“Then she did what you wanted.”
Dino wasn’t sure if that was the case or not. Had she done what he requested, or had that one and only visit and his rejection been the final straw that broke her back where he was concerned?
God knew he wouldn’t blame her if it was.
“But I did receive a letter to my office last week,” Mike said, drawing in Dino’s attention again.
“What does that have to do with me?”
Mike popped open his briefcase, pulling out a white envelope and passing it over. “I only opened it because it wasn’t personally signed to go to you, but to my office, and to me. I figured she meant for it to somehow get to you … maybe, say, in a way that the prison wouldn’t get a hold of it first.”
What?
Dino’s confusion must have shown on his face, because Mike only chuckled when he asked, “She?”
“There’s only one ‘she’ you’re trying to keep away, isn’t there?”
Dino didn’t dignify that with a response.
Mike wasn’t looking for one. “Open it. If you want, I can take it with me when I go, but I think you might want to keep it. At least, if it were me, I’d keep it. There’s not much that could be identifiable, should someone stumble upon it.”
He didn’t have any idea what his lawyer was talking about, but the second he opened the envelope and tipped it over in his hand to empty the contents out, he understood perfectly fine.
A small six-by-four, colored photograph of a baby swaddled in blue with a matching wool cap stared up at him from his hands. For a long while, Dino simply stared at the photograph of the baby boy, unsure and wary in his heart.
But in his soul … oh, there he felt warm.
Like he knew just by looking at the face of the child that this was his son.
His baby.
Dino sat there, staring at the photograph and saying nothing as he traced the features of his child with the tip of his index finger. He had so much guilt—so much regret. He’d missed too much already, he’d missed his baby’s first day on earth.
He hadn’t been sure he would even know how to be a father when he first learned about the pregnancy, but shit, he wanted to try.
He should be allowed to at least try for his son.
“Flip it over,” Mike said. “She wrote on the back for you.”
Dino did, finding Karen’s familiar scrawl on the back of the photograph.
JD Martin, it read. But I call him Junior.
The baby’s birthdate, just a week and a half earlier, was written underneath.
And then, under that, was something Dino hadn’t expected.
I’ll see you soon, Karen had written.
Nothing else.
Dino didn’t need more.
It was enough.
This was perfect.
Review~
WORTH OF WASTE (DeLuca Duet: Part Two) by Bethany-Kris
• Spectacular Conclusion
This story picks up where Book 1 WASTE OF WORTH left off (in order to know what happened you really need to read Book 1 first), with Dino DeLuca being sent to prison for his illegal dealings with the Chicago family mafia/mob business. He does his time and after being released he tries to pick up his life until the FBI/police come after him again; he knows it’s just a matter of time. But he wants to spend as much time as he can with Karen, *she’s a spring shower—fresh, new, and revitalizing(*direct book quote), * she’s the brightness of her life colored up the darkness of his own.(*direct book quote). A spectacular life, the most beautiful soul! Karen doesn’t think she knows who Dino is, but doesn’t she? He’s still always trying to look out for and protect those he cared about. His siblings- brother Theo, sister Lily, and of course Karen. Especially when it came to the ruthlessness of his uncle Ben, whom he knows it’s the one behind him being sent to prison. Just because he needed to be “taught yet another lesson”, his uncle’s way, which was only to round Dino he had all the control and could or really would take away what Ben didn’t think Dino deserved or earned. To find out what happens with Dino and Karen you’ll have to read WORTH OF WASTE (Deluca Duet Part 2).
What an AWESOME companion duet to the Chicago War Series, Bethany-Kris has done an AMAZING job blending this duet into the story.. Both follow the DeLuca family, however you’re not required to read one to understand or follow the other, but it’s probably better if you read (or listen to audio version like I did) Deathless and Divided (Chicago Wars Book 1) before reading WORTH OF WASTE (DeLuca Duet Part 2), so it doesn’t give the ending away. . I voluntarily reviewed an ARC copy of this book via IndieSage in exchange for an honest blog tour review. Due to sexual content this novel is recommended for readers 18 and older!
Favorite Passages~
~ When Dino DeLuca smiled, Karen had felt like she won a battle that day.
She had done something good.
He made her feel amazing with nothing more than a grin.
~ Dino’s black soul had imprinted itself inside Karen’s heart without even trying.
~ The problem was, love couldn’t always be enough and no matter what people tried to say, it couldn’t be unconditional. Love without barriers meant no one thought about the other side of the equation—they didn’t take into account how their behavior or actions might hurt someone else.
~ The closest I ever came to freedom was you.
~ Dino had been treated as something that was worthless. A piece of waste to throw out with the trash. He certainly learned exactly what his worth was by the end of it all—he learned even waste had worth
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🔫📷ABOUT BETHANY-KRIS📷🔫
Bethany-Kris is a Canadian author, lover of much, and mother to three young sons, one cat, and two dogs. A small town in Eastern Canada where she was born and raised is where she has always called home. With her boys under her feet, snuggling cat, barking dogs, and a hubby calling over his shoulder, she is nearly always writing something … when she can find the time.
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🔫📷WASTE OF WORTH📷🔫, (Deluca Duet Part One) by Bethany-Kris
Purchase~
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🔫📷SYNOPSIS📷🔫
DeLuca Duet, Part One
Ask anyone and they will all say the same thing about just who Dino DeLuca is. A criminal, the son of a traitor, and a mafia Capo who can’t be trusted. His past has shaped his life, creating demons he can’t escape from that live in his mind day and night.
He is all too aware of just how people see him.
Closed off.
Cold.
Different.
He doesn’t care—keeping people out means no one can get close enough to hurt him again, and he already has one too many monsters with their claws stuck in his back that he’s still fighting off. His walls are so high, no one is climbing over them. Or so he thinks …
Karen came into his life like a spring shower, her light shining through the darkness and making him see something other than the hell that surrounded him for so long. She doesn’t know who he is or what he has done to become the man he is today. If he can help it, she’ll never know, and his monsters will never hurt her.
She sees his differences as beauty.
She never asks for more.
She is perfect.
The problem with happiness for Dino DeLuca is that his monsters don’t mind taking away what makes him happy. After all, what isn’t given cannot be kept.
These lessons will be the hardest he has ever learned.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The DeLuca Duet is a two book tale following the same couple through their journey. It is a standalone Duet that can be read independently with a HEA ending.
Excerpt~
“You know, I can see it when you sort of blink out on me, Dino,” Karen said.
Dino cleared his throat, setting his bottle of beer on the bar. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“You often go inside your head. It makes me wonder what’s so interesting in there that it’s where you want to be.”
“My head is not an interesting place, believe me.”
A war zone, maybe.
Hell, likely.
Certainly not interesting.
“I don’t believe that for a second,” Karen said quietly. “I went back to your mother’s grave for a couple of weeks after you stopped coming on Sundays—just to say hello to her, and wipe down the stone. I figured if you had done it for so long, maybe it was difficult for you to just up and stop simply because you had to in order to avoid me.”
“I wasn’t—”
“Are we going back to that again?”
Dino let out a laugh at her pointed glare. She was right, and rightly called him out on the lie. But the laugh … that was what surprised him the most. It was genuine, and deep. It almost made his stomach ache, though it didn’t last long and was over before he realized.
Sad thing was, it was not the first time or even the second time that she had made him laugh without even trying.
It was all a little surreal.
Who was this woman?
Why her, he found himself wondering.
“Dino,” Karen whispered, drawing him from his thoughts.
It was something else a little strange about her—he always found he liked being outside of his head when he was with her, rather than inside where he could ignore the world, even if his mind was full of terrible things.
“Yeah?” he asked, watching her more intently than before.
“You’ve been staring at my mouth for the last five minutes.”
Had he?
Well, she had been talking.
It certainly wasn’t because a part of his mind wondered what her lips felt like, and another part of his brain was curious what she tasted like and how she kissed.
Dino had spent so long keeping his emotions shut off from the rest of the world because it was easier to deal with life when he didn’t have the complication of feeling to go along with it that he didn’t quite know how to discern the things he felt now. Making sure he never got involved with people meant he didn’t need to put forth a great deal of effort to understand them or why they did the things they did.
Karen made him want to know all of those things, especially why she made him want it.
It felt like he was playing with fire.
She was right.
He was a little strange.
“Dino,” Karen said, laughing low.
“Just ask, right?”
Karen nodded, her grin deepening. “Right.”
He was caught staring at her mouth again, and how her lips curved upwards at the edges whenever she glanced his way.
Just ask.
“I’d like to kiss you,” he admitted.
“I didn’t hear a question there.”
“It’s self-explanatory.”
“I did say coffee was a possibility,” Karen mused.
“I’m only asking for a kiss.”
“We both know it’s not going to end at a kiss, Dino.”
Even as he leaned forward, closing the distance between them to catch her smiling lips with his own, he knew she was right.
It wasn’t the first time she had been, and he doubted it would be the last.
All those thoughts drifted away, and his mind quieted, as he felt her lips move against his. Soft and steady, slow and sweet.
It still burned him all over.
Suddenly, he was reminded what it felt like to be alive.
All because of a kiss.
Review ~
WASTE OF WORTH (DeLuca Duet: Part One) by Bethany-Kris
Just WOW!!!
I usually don’t start off a review like this, but I absolutely CANNOT WAIT for WORTH THE WASTE (Deluca Duet Part Two) to be released February 2017, for the rest of the story! That being said, WASTE OF WORTH (Deluca Duet Part One) left off at a great breaking point…. I just want the rest of the story and I’m glad it’ll be here soon!! Although I haven’t read The Chicago War Series YET, I didn’t feel as though I was lost while reading this story, in all honesty I didn’t know they interconnected until after I finished reading this one! I WILL go back and read The Chicago Wars to see what I missed… But I’ll wait until after I’ve finished DeLuca Duet Past Two.
Dino has always protected his siblings from their uncle Ben. Their family business is the Chicago Mafia/Mob. Their uncle is ruthless, even killing his own brother and his wife (Dino’s parents). Dino’s soul is a black hole, until one day he meets Karen. Who is a ray of light, while visiting his mothers grave. He blows her off and quits going to the cemetery, to keep her safe. Karen shows up a few months later at a strip club to audition for a job…. Just happens to be Dino’s club. He refuses to hire her there, but gives her a job at one of his restaurants instead. It doesn’t matter that he knows he should stay away from Karen, Dino just cannot do it. She actually makes him smile, and actually makes him feel. To see what happens between Dino and Karen you’re gonna have to read WASTE OF WORTH. It does describe some dark series of the Mafia/Mob, but the story is so much more than that. You’ll keep reading from beginning to end just to see how things turn out, it’s powerful.
Favorite Passage
~ She was light in the darkness that constantly clouded his life, and he had come to rely on her to keep shining around him when everything else seemed so dull.
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