Cartel B!tch: Almanza Crime Family Duet Read online

  Almanza Crime Family Duet

  Written By

  USA Today Bestselling Author

  Chelsea Camaron

  Copyright © Chelsea Camaron 2018

  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 Chelsea Camaron, except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976.

  This is a work of fiction. All character, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  1st edition published: March 15, 2018

  Editing by: Asli Fratarcangeli and Mandy from Raw Editing

  Author Lifesaving Critique Partner: Ryan Michele

  Cover Design by: Cassy Roop, Pink Ink Designs

  Cover Model: Mike LaCombe

  Cover Picture Photographer: Golden Czermak, Furious Fotog

  Thank you for purchasing this book. This book and its contents are the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied, and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

  This book contains mature content not suitable for those under the age of 18. Content involves strong language, violence, and sexual situations. All parties portrayed in sexual situation are over the age of 18. All characters are a work of fiction.

  This book is not meant to be an exact depiction of life in any cartel, but rather a work of fiction meant to entertain.

  *** Warning: This book contains graphic situations that may be a trigger for some readers. Please understand this is a work of fiction and not meant to offend or misrepresent any situations. There is quite a bit of violence, so if that’s not what you’re looking for, then please don’t read. ***

  Table of Contents

  Stay up to date

  Dedication

  Letter from Chelsea

  About this duet

  Prologue

  Present Day

  Part One

  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

  Part Two

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Other Works by Chelsea Camaron

  Excerpt from PowerHouse (Power Chain 1) by Chelsea Camaron and Ryan Michele

  Excerpt from One Last Snowy Christmas (O’Loughlin Brothers Novella) by AF Crowell

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  Dedication

  Demi Lovato – Lonely – Waitin On You — Only Forever These songs were on repeat for this entire book so it deserves a mention. Just go listen to the whole CD, it’s powerful.

  Jennifer Rivera

  You amaze me.

  You are my loyal lion.

  Five years you’ve been by my side on this journey, behind the scenes for every book. This duet would not exist if it wasn’t for you. I know you know it but I want the world to know, Cartel Bitch and Cartel Queen are for you.

  Thank you for being you.

  Other books that crossover in this Duet:

  Day of Reckoning (Devils Due MC) by Chelsea Camaron

  Hellions Ride On by Chelsea Camaron

  Adoring Ashton (O’Loughlin Brothers 2) by AF Crowell

  Letter from Chelsea

  Dear Reader,

  I wrote this book while in a very hard head space. I struggled. Let me be clear, I didn’t struggle with Javier or Mari Belle. I struggled with you and whether this would be a book you would accept with open arms. I struggled with whether anyone would even give it a chance. I struggled because I knew the power within these pages would be kept contained by a misconception of a single word, bitch. I know some of you don’t like the title Cartel Bitch. I understand.

  I won’t make excuses for it. I won’t apologize for it.

  I will simply say, in the world in which I have created, the term fits the book. In the pages you are about to dive into, sometimes a woman must fight with the dogs to come out on top. This is not your typical romance. It is not your typical duet. I challenged myself to push some boundaries. I challenged myself to dig a little deeper. I challenged myself to take you on a journey in your heart to understand the unbreakable bond these two characters share.

  Writing is a solitary process. I spent hours upon hours in my head with these characters. In this case, it was years in the making. For years, I pondered how to write a cartel book that was true to the nature of the lifestyle, with a fictional twist of course, while still remaining true to the woman I am. I struggled with how you, the reader, would perceive a book about a female in a cartel underworld. I worried, fretted, and lost time wondering if I would be able to portray the true strength it took to be a woman in Juarez, in Mari Belle’s situation. I wondered if all the things I wanted this book to be would indeed come across in the pages. Mostly, I wondered if any of it really mattered anyway.

  Once again, I dove head first into a project that is anything but mainstream. Once again, I took the path least traveled. Once again, I wondered if more people would hate it than love it.

  Then, I had an epiphany. I have written and published over fifty titles to date. I have many more that are works in progress that will never see a publishing platform. Honestly, I have written more books that have not been loved than those that have been embraced and lasted the test of time. I have had bad reviews. I have had good reviews. I have books that made market leaps and others that have tanked completely.

  And you know what? I survived.

  So, love it or hate it, here is the Almanza Crime Family Duet. Two books featuring one couple that I truly, madly, and deeply love. And I hope with everything in side me you do as well. These books are my passion, my heart, and I gave them everything I have to give when my reality honestly had me feeling not quite whole.

  Society is wrapped up in women empowerment—this is not a bad thing. I am a strong woman, an independent woman, a fierce woman. I am a force to be reckoned with.

  This duet is a force to be reckoned with.

  Mari Belle is strong.

  She is fierce.

  She is loyal.

  She is also sometimes flawed.

  But then again … aren’t we all?

  I hope you enjoy Javi and Mari Belle.

  With all my heart,

  Chelsea

  About this duet

  Cartel Bitch (Almanza Crime Family Duet Part 1)

  There was a fine line between love and hate, we walked it together.

  Unforgiving.

  Relentless.

  I'm to be feared.

  When your family is as much a friend as an enemy, there is no one to trust.

  I am Javier Almanza.

  Cartel kingpin.

  No one can touch me.

&n
bsp; No one can hurt me...

  Except her.

  Mari Belle Dominguez.

  He was raised as family. My brother’s best friend, my first kiss, and my first betrayal. He planned to make me his Cartel Bitch. The joke was on him; I’d never break nor would I bend. I would fight until the end for myself.

  My will was stronger than his want.

  He would soon see.

  This is book one in the Almanza Crime Family Duet and a full-length standalone romance. This is a dark, edge of your seat romantic suspense novel featuring an antihero, so there is a level of violence inside that may not be suitable for some readers. This is not meant to be an actual depiction of life inside a Cartel but rather a work of fiction meant to entertain.

  Cartel Queen (Almanza Crime Family Duet Part 2)

  Hardened.

  Persistent.

  I refuse to break at the hands of a man.

  I am Mari Belle Dominguez.

  Strong woman.

  My situation made me his.

  He’ll never really have me.

  I’ll never let him hurt me again.

  That is … until he claims more than my house, my body, and my life.

  When Javier Almanza claims my heart, I’m no longer his cartel bitch.

  No, I am the queen.

  I thought she wasn’t ready for my world. I thought she needed my protection. I am Javier Almanza, kingpin with a woman who didn’t need a single thing from me, but my love.

  The hardest fought wars are the biggest lessons learned. She was my lesson in forgiveness.

  Prologue

  Maricio

  Mantiene a tus amigos cerca y a tus enemigos más cerca—Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, they said.

  He was my brother—mi familia. He had my trust.

  Now he knew my hatred, my envy, and he would see my vengeance. I would take everything from him piece by piece the way he did to me.

  Javier Almanza was my brother no more.

  Present Day

  Javier Almanza

  “Deliver her,” I ordered Aurelio as I sat back in my chair thinking about the fact that Mari Belle Dominguez would find out who took her in a few hours. The fear, the power, the control, I would enjoy it all as I took my time fucking with her head the way she fucked with my heart. The anger and betrayal all sat just under the surface. “And get me Paco in this room in twenty minutes.” On a nod, Aurelio left the room immediately to find the information I sought. He was my right hand, my enforcer, and the only person I had even a small amount of trust in.

  Chicago became my primary home about five years ago. The hustle and bustle actually calmed my soul from the chaos of my upbringing. It was easier to blend in here rather than staying in the Midwest where my mother wanted to be. She lived in a suburb not far from me, but given the latest information I had dropped in my lap about our life, Estella Almanza would be relocating to my house whether she liked it or not.

  “How does Trapper Gates have a reach further than mine? How does Mitchell “Trapper” Gates beat you?” I muttered to Milano, my behind the scenes guy. He sat tied to a chair in my office a whimpering mess.

  “Jefe, no tenía ningún rastro de papel.” He whined about there being no paper trail pushing me to the edge of my control. I didn’t accept excuses. Accountability was a huge thing in my business. He had none. It would end today.

  Moving to stand behind him, I pulled out my knife. With the cold, metal blade against the tender flesh of his throat, I pressed in. The resistance of his skin to my knife made the weight move in my hand just slightly. I relished it. Power. The very power of life and death sat in my hands.

  “Por favor,” he said between gritted teeth. His skin was covered in a slight sheen of sweat. “Please,” he begged.

  “How does a biker know more than you? How does he know where Mari Belle is when I’ve had you on my salary for how long? How does he know Paco has been in contact with her when you did not? How? How? How?”

  “Jefe,” he started to speak as I quickly moved the blade from his throat and slammed it into his leg, narrowly missing an artery. He cried out while I laughed. This was only the beginning of his pain.

  “Fuckin’ doesn’t matter how. I was played for a fool.” I grabbed the other knife from my desk and stabbed it into his other thigh while the tears ran in steady streams down his face. “You, you fuckin’ piece of shit, you didn’t do your job and I got schooled by a fuckin’ biker.”

  “Jefe, you can kill the biker, teach him the lesson about who he stands against. I can do better.” His words were clipped as I watched the fear crawl through him. He knew this was his end. I relished each tear that fell down his face. This was his role in my organization—keep me in the know at all times about all individuals in my organization. He was also tasked with finding out where Maricio Dominguez was hiding his sister, which obviously slipped through the cracks. He failed. Failure didn’t exist in my world.

  “That biker didn’t stand against me you fool. You didn’t do your job. You pay. The biker gave me what I sought.”

  I was visiting a location, mi primo, my American cousin Antonio Almanza had secured for us a few months ago when everything came crashing down around me.

  The place was a cover. It was an art store or some shit. I didn’t bother with the menial details. We had been filtering drugs through an artist under our protection for years. Turned out she was married to a biker—Rowdy from the Devil’s Due MC. A man who before he rode with the Devil’s was a master fabricator. We even offered him a full-time job customizing cars to better transport our product. He declined. In a mess, he went to prison for killing his brother-in-law. He didn’t do the crime, but he did do the time.

  While we had been informed Michele and Rowdy were no longer together, the biker didn’t receive the message well. In the end, it left my cousin, Antonio, dead on the floor. Michele, our artist, was long gone on the back of her husband’s bike and me pissed the fuck off. While anyone else would have died the instant they crossed me, Mitchell “Trapper” Gates shared some information with me that left the Devil’s Due untouchable to me. They lived, I lived, and after they returned to wherever the fuck they came from, I received all the information on Maricio and Mari Belle Dominguez that I had been unable to procure through my own affiliations.

  “Dumb fuck, I made a deal with the Devil’s. They lived, Antonio died, and you will too. I am no longer in need of your services, Milano.”

  The man’s eyes grew wide before I took my hands and wrapped them around his throat. Slowly, with his eyes locked to mine, I cut off his air supply. I wanted him to watch me, to see me, and know it was by my hand he would perish. Minute by minute, I held him tighter and tighter. My thumbs turned white as I continued the pressure until the life was gone from his stare.

  Ripping the knives from his legs, I tossed them onto my desk, splattering his blood everywhere.

  The dark bamboo floors would be cleaned, the furniture replaced, and everything from top to bottom disposed of later. I needed the body, the evidence, to remain here for just a bit longer. I wanted Paco to have a visual of what he would endure soon enough. It was easy to kill a man with a bullet or a knife, but by my hands, my fingertips I held the power of life and death. Everyone beneath me would be wise to remember it.

  Right on time, Aurelio opened my office door with Paco right behind him.

  Only when Paco was inside the room did Aurelio step aside. Swiftly he moved out of the room while Paco looked from Milano’s body to me.

  “Jefe,” he greeted.

  “We go way back, Paco,” I reminded him while he seemed completely unaware as to why he had been called in.

  “Si,” he replied moving to the body to untie the hands like I was expecting him to clean it up.

  “You were once a father figure to me, Paco. You were once my Jefe,” I reminded him of the history we shared.

  “Si.” He continued about his task.

  “Stop!” I ordered and
he stood straight up like a soldier. “Paco, how long?”

  He raised both hands in surrender. “I don’t know what you mean, Javi.”

  I stepped in front of him. He didn’t step back. Paco was a prideful man. “You were like mi padre.”

  “Si,” he nodded at me.

  “Confiar en ti, that was my mistake,” I told him. “I should trust no one least of all you.”

  He blinked realizing he was not called here for clean-up.

  “You touched what was mine, and you of all people knew she was mine,” I explained as I removed my side piece. The gun felt heavy in my hands knowing the history I had with Paco. Normally, I wouldn’t shoot a man. I would draw out his pain, his agony, and let him feel his loss moment by moment. Paco and I had a past. One I respected until I found out the truth. Too many years he was by my side and me by his. Therefore, I would make this quick.

  “Javi,” he said my name in a pained groan. “Talk to me.”

  “The time for talking was years ago. You knew all this time. You knew exactly what I wanted. You played both sides of this war, Paco and you lose.”

  I took a step back as I lifted the weapon.

  I fired.

  One shot.

  His eyes were still locked on mine as his brain matter and blood splattered my face and shirt.

  As Paco’s body fell to the floor, so did everything I ever held onto that was good from my past.

  It was all a twisted mess. Every lesson from my lifetime ran through my mind as I slid the gun back into my holster.

  Lesson one: never trust anyone—even familia. For we were all men of the world, tempted by the flesh, and power hungry mother fuckers.

  Aurelio having stood watch outside of my door, entered again knowing the job was done. “She’s been delivered, Jefe. Mari Belle waits at your home.”