Book Review: Secret

Title: Secret
Author: Penelope Sky
Genre: Romance, Dark Romance, Fiction

What It’s About: Catalina doesn’t know what had happened with Heath and whether he had lived, until he walks through her door and she is relieved. Heath doesn’t tell her much and she doesn’t ask, but they do talk over breakfast. One of the topics they discuss is her coming over his place later, so he gives her the keys to his place as well as asks her to memorize a code for the entry to the house. Catalina then goes to visit Damien after she has breakfast with her father, and sees that he’s pissed off that Heath managed to survive and find out about his plan. She leaves him alone and goes to work, after which she heads to Heath’s house. They have dinner and then sex, with her wearing lingerie for him.

In the meantime, Heath works with the Skull Kings and Steel, his right hand man, asks him if Damien is going to be a problem. Heath tells Steel that Damien will listen and the Skull Kings will not do anything to Damien because he makes them a lot of money. He’s not willing to tell anyone the real reason he’s letting Damien off the hook is because he is with Damien’s sister.

After her next performance, Catalina goes out to the bar with friends, but is bored of the men and the event anyways. Heath texts her so she invites him over to the bar, and she becomes infinitely more interested in the evening when he is there. They end up leaving anyways after having a drink, because they would rather be home. So they go home and they have sex. Afterwards, Catalina asks Heath about his Skull King ring, so he takes it off and lets her hold it while he explains how it came to be. He then surprises her with a gift—an expensive piece of jewelry in the shape of a skull for her to put into her belly button piercing. She puts it on right away and they both love it.

They get into a routine, and one night after having sex, Heath’s phone keeps going off. Catalina looks at it and sees a message from Dynasty, one of the prostitutes that Heath used to see. She doesn’t know about Dynasty until Heath and she get into an argument about the text messages and all of the photos that he has as part of a collection of nudes. He deletes the photos and texts Dynasty to leave him the hell alone, but also tells Catalina that while he would also be pissed off if he saw another man’s junk on her phone, he trusts her to know that she wouldn’t mess around on him. He tells her that her reaction is outsized for his crime, which he agrees he could have handled better. He then walks out, and they don’t speak for a week. Finally Catalina gives in and goes to his place through the garage and finds him in the gym working out. She apologizes and they make up, though he admits that he likes when she gets jealous but adds that she’s the only person he looks at when he’s out—no other woman holds his eye or interest. After she spends some time apologizing to him, she tells him that she has to go because there is a performance that she has to be at, and as she walks out she admits she was afraid that she would find something else when she walked into his place the day before. But he reminds her that they will fight a lot, but it won’t mean anything because they’ll also fuck the way they fight.

Heath brings Balto to Catalina’s performance, and notices Damien at the theater. They hide from Damien and before the performance starts, Balto asks Heath if he will be telling Catalina the truth about his attempted murder. Heath tells him that no, and he’ll deal with it later. After the performance, Balto leaves and Heath goes to the vanity where he says hello to Catalina before he hides when Damien walks in with Annabella and his father. He watches as her father gives her flowers—sunflowers, which are her favorite and since summer is over, they are harder to find. He realizes that she is close with her dad, and that she will never forgive him if she finds out what he did.

He goes to her apartment and stays in her bed when everyone comes into the bedroom to have a drink. They don’t notice him, and leave without seeing him in the bed, though Damien questions the change in the entrance door that she has. Catalina tells him that she had it changed out after one of her neighbors had a break-in, and Damien asks her to consider moving elsewhere, as he can buy her an apartment. Catalina refuses, and once they leave she comes into the room and asks Heath if he couldn’t have closed the door, to which he responds that it would have looked suspicious. The two of them talk afterwards about her dad, because she is his favorite, and she shows Heath some pictures of her mother. He tells her that there isn’t much to talk about in terms of his family as both his parents are dead, and he only has a brother. Then she asks him about telling Damien the truth, he tells her it’s not likely to go over well.

Catalina has another performance and afterwards they are planning on going to a restaurant to celebrate one of the dancer’s birthdays. Andre, the production manager, comes up to Catalina to talk and ask her to go to dinner. She realizes that he’s probably asking her out to have sex like they used to, but she doesn’t want to go home with anybody but Heath, so she turns him down. They have the party event, and Catalina heads out, but is forced to return because she realizes that she left her bag behind. She then sees Heath with a woman at the restaurant. The couple leaves the place, and Catalina follows them out, calling out to Heath. At first, he doesn’t respond, but when she calls him out again, he turns around and she punches him, forcing him to stagger back. The woman steps in and tells Catalina that she doesn’t appreciate her husband being punched. Heath realizes what is wrong, and tells Catalina that he is actually Heath’s twin brother, Balto. At first Catalina doesn’t believe it until Balto takes off his shirt showing that he doesn’t have tattoos, and she is embarrassed so much that even though her car is in the same direction as the couple, she goes around the block to get away from them and apologizes to them twice.

Heath visits Balto and asks him about Balto’s cheek when he notices the discoloration. Balto asks him why he didn’t tell Catalina that they were twins, and Heath tells his brother and his sister in law, Cassini, that it slipped his mind, never realizing that Catalina might run into them in the wild. He’s shocked when he realizes that Catalina punched Balto in the cheek two nights prior, and Cassini tells him that when she told Catalina that Balto was her husband, the look on her face was really gutting. Heath finds the situation hilarious, and apologizes but Balto tells Heath that he wants him to know that Catalina is very much attached to him, because it was a whole soap opera situation. They talk more about Catalina, and especially her relationship with her father, because Balto is trying to convince Heath to come clean, but Heath knows that she will not stay around long once she finds out. Balto recommends that they all grab dinner together, surprising Heath.

Heath visits Catalina’s apartment and talks to her about it. She’s deeply embarrassed, but he ultimately convinces her that they like her and that they want to go out to dinner. That night, she gets ready to head out to a dinner event for the dance company, but after an argument with Heath about not inviting him, she brings him along. The two of them talk to a variety of people, but Heath then gets really bothered by Andre, realizing that he and Catalina have had sex before. Catalina and Heath get into an argument, in which he basically calls her a whore, quoting her prayer, and Catalina tells him to get out and stay out of her life. Despite this, at the end of the night, Heath is still at the Tuscan Rose and they work it out, especially once he admits to her that he overheard her prayer when he had her in captivity and used the information against her when he shouldn’t have as he doesn’t really care about her past. He also tells her that this is the reason why he had let her go in the first place. They talk about trusting each other, and Heath tells her that he trusts her with his life. They go back to her place and have sex, talk more about what he overheard, and why it impacted him enough to get Liam to let her go. He then invites her to dinner out and she agrees to go, at which point he tells her that it would be a double date.

They go to the dinner with Balto and Cassini, and they have such a wonderful time together. Heath even tells the story about the time that he met Cassini, during which he pretended to be Balto only for Cassini to smash a lamp on his head and use a gun on him. Catalina is surprised about the dislike for the Barsetti family, though Heath tells her that they have no issue about the wine, just the family because the Skull Kings and the Barsetti family do not get along. The four of them laugh and poke fun at each other’s expense while talking, and Catalina has a good time with Heath’s family. Catalina and Heath return to Heath’s place, and talk some more. She pulls out one of the handguns in his closet, so he tells her how to shoot it. While they are talking, they also talk about his job, and Catalina mentions that she overheard Hades and Damien talking about Vox. Heath realizes that Vox has been plotting with Damien to overthrow him so he heads out to the Underground, where he turns Vox into a blood traitor, one who could never have the Skull King’s seat. He returns to his place and Catalina is still there having chosen to wait for him, despite his order for her to go home, and they hug it out.

Heath then goes to visit Damien for his pick up of the cash, but this time he goes in alone first. He tells Damien that he is not collecting any payments from him any more, using the explanation that he doesn’t want to do business with someone like Damien who would work with a traitor. Heath tells Damien that he’ll be on his own with no protection whatsoever now that he’s not taking Damien’s money and will see what it’s like to live without his protection.

Catalina is back at her place when Heath shows up and surprises her with an arrangement of sunflowers. He tells her that one of the places that he owns all over the world now has a greenhouse where he has been growing her sunflowers so that she has them all year round. They have sex, and eat pizza, but then Heath has to go to work. Catalina goes over to see her brother, and she speaks with Damien, revealing that she has been seeing Heath. Damien is calmer than she expected, but he tells her that he won’t change his mind about Heath. He also realizes that Heath hasn’t killed him because of Catalina, and has stopped collecting money because of Catalina. Then Damien tells her that Heath almost killed their father, and why. This shocks Catalina and makes her feel very stupid because she’s really close with her father.

Heath returns to his place, where he finds a furious Catalina in the kitchen. She tells him that they’re through, and refuses to listen to any reasoning that he tells her, after telling him that he lied to her about her father because he knew she wouldn’t want to be with him. They argue about it because he’s trying to make the point that them ending up together was not planned, and the way that they feel about each other is not what they were expecting to happen. He tells her that he loves her and that she loves him. She’s surprised because she doesn’t realize that she loves him and denies it, but he tells her that he has known she’s loved since she called to save his life. Catalina tells him that she went to a gypsy in Marrakech and the woman had told her that she would only fall in love once, and that the man she falls in love with would be an enemy to her family. They continue arguing because Heath is doing his best to keep her, to make her see that nothing happened to her father, and he’s still alive, and that he himself has changed since he met Catalina—including making changes for her to the structure of the organization and the criminal underworld. Catalina ultimately walks out telling him to never come by to her apartment, as he tells her that he will always love her.

She spends her time in her apartment being depressed, ignoring the flowers that Heath had bought her, but Damien comes by with some wine and they talk for a bit, though Damien wants to know if Heath has bothered her. They talk a bit about her relationship with him, and how she feels like she has been laughed at. Damien tells her that he will kill him soon, and tells her how he saved their father from being killed by Heath, as well as how Heath kidnapped her and what he planned to do to her. Catalina doesn’t tell him about how Heath saved her from being trafficked, however, as she feels that will break Damien.

Later, she is hanging out with her friends at a bar, and she sees Heath, so she goes up to him to yell at him, though he tells her that he didn’t follow her at all. He touches her, and she punches him in the face to the point he ends up bleeding out of his nose. Heath tries to talk to her again, but she doesn’t want to talk to him, telling him that she hates him. Heath believes it’s impossible for her to hate him, and they go back to arguing again about what he did to her father. Heath tells her that they were meant to be together, but Catalina still dismisses him, only telling him that her brother is coming for him. Heath tells her that he wouldn’t hurt someone that she loves so if Damien comes after him, he doesn’t know what he’ll do.

Heath shows up at Balto’s place, and they talk about the fact that Catalina knows about her father’s kidnapping because Damien told her. Balto can see that Heath is low, but when Heath admits that he loves Catalina though she never said it back, Balto softens and feels horrible for him. Balto tells Heath that he’s just going to have to give her a lot of space, and that maybe sometime in the future he can try again, though Heath wants her now. Balto tells him that maybe he can offer Damien something—Freedom—instead of what he had offered Damien already in order to get Catalina back. Heath drops off flowers at Catalina’s place, and then returns to the underground. Damien shows up with bags of money, even though Heath released him from payment, and tells Heath in private that he will not get a free pass because Catalina cannot be bought. Damien then tells him that first it was his father, then it was Annabella, then it was his sister, before warning him that he’ll stop paying when Heath is dead. Heath tries to talk to Damien to show him that he’s not the same person any more, but Damien tells him that he doesn’t care. He tries to offer Damien free rein of the drug operations across all of Italy as a truce but Damien tells him that he’s not interested in a truce.

Catalina plays chess with her dad, and he realizes that something is wrong. So she tells him that she is bothered by her dad’s kidnapping, to which he is nonchalant. Unfortunately, she loses the game, and Damien comes up to talk to her. While they play, Damien asks her for her help in taking down Heath, and she agrees without hesitation. He tells her that he’ll put Heath into a cage, the same way Heath had placed her in a cage. Catalina calls Heath at her place, and he instantly picks up her phone call, just like he always promised her. She asks him to come to her place to talk, but he very quickly realizes that it’s a set-up. After a moment, he tells her that he’ll agree to it if he will get to hug her for a full minute. Damien is a little surprised and confused as to why Heath would give up so easily, and Catalina tells him that maybe it’s because he can’t hurt Damien because of her.

Heath shows up at her apartment fifteen minutes later, without his skull king ring, and hugs her. At first, she doesn’t hug him back, but he orders her to do it and she does. Once the full minute has gone, he steps away peacefully, telling Catalina that he loves her, and then he walks out of her apartment with Damien holding him at gunpoint.

Heath had left a note for Balto in his house with the ring, instructing Balto to give the ring to the right man, knowing that Balto wouldn’t go after Catalina since she means so much to him. Heath arrives in Damien’s house, and sees the housekeeper who is terrified of him, though he introduces himself to her as Heath, with a wink. Damien pushes him forward and down to the basement, where he puts Heath into a cage. He has some time to think about it and realizes that Catalina had been repulsed by him, so he gives up all hope. Damien shows up and they talk some, though Damien flies into a rage at him, hitting him in his face over again until Heath blacks out. Heath later eats—but barely finishes his food—dealing with his pain from the beating, which he didn’t fight against as it would mean that he would break his promise to Catalina not to hurt Damien. Damien shows up again while Heath is eating and drinking; they trade some barbs, though Heath admits that he loves Catalina. When Damien doesn’t say anything, Heath tells him all that he could have done between the time he entered Damien’s house and now to do some damage to Damien, but he hasn’t because he has promised Catalina that he would never hurt Damien, even if it claims his life. Damien tells him that it’s too bad because Heath doesn’t mean anything to Catalina and that she set him up because she wants Heath dead. That hurts Heath more than anything else, because he realizes that his betrayal changed her. He also realizes that he’s going to get beaten with a baseball bat.

Anna visits Catalina and they talk, though Catalina is defensive about not being sad. Anna only tells her that Damien has Heath in the basement of the house, though Catalina doesn’t ask if he’s alive or he is dead. There’s a knock at the door and it’s Balto, who surprises Anna because she doesn’t know he has a twin. Balto tells her to leave, and then he talks to Catalina, asking about Heath. At first, Catalina doesn’t want to tell him where Heath is for what Heath had done, though Balto points out that she would be a slave if it wasn’t for him, and reminds her that it’s a lot worse than death; that her saving Heath from Damien’s coup is nowhere near even to what Heath did to her father. They talk more about what Heath did and how it crushed her, and Balto tells her that he’s been already punished enough if he’s still alive, before also telling her that he’s different. Balto explains to her that he’s known his brother for a very long time and he’s become a different and good man because of Catalina. When she’s still hung up on the attempted murder, he tells her that Heath will not ever do anything to her family ever again, and she folds and tells him that Heath is at Damien’s. Balto is disappointed because going to save Heath would mean hurting Damien and Heath would rather die than have that happen because he loves Catalina. He tells her that he’s disappointed she’s forgotten that she loves him too.

Catalina visits Damien’s house, and plays chess with her father, though she’s distant because she does wonder if Heath is still alive. Her dad offers to provide guidance on her love life if she wants it. Damien comes in and asks his dad if he wants to kill the man who kidnapped him. Catalina cannot breathe suddenly, while her father and brother chat more about killing Heath, with her father arguing that it’s not something he’s going to do because he knew Damien would save him before the other guy killed him and nothing happened. Catalina also says that she won’t shoot Heath, and so Damien heads down to do it himself. But something makes Catalina move forward with him to go down to see Heath. When they get there, Damien tells Heath that Catalina will kill him, but Heath is not responsive at all, and it makes it all the more real to her that this is what it’s come down to. She sees him totally bruised, bloody, and barely alive as he’s not even looking at her, and it makes her sick. She demands Damien to open up the door, even screaming at him, and once he opens the door, she goes straight to Heath to see that he’s alive, barely. Catalina and Damien get into an argument because Damien doesn’t want to let him out as he believes that Heath deserves what he’s gotten and will get to him, while Catalina tells him that no one deserves this. She tries to get him to help her get Heath out but Damien refuses, and then Heath tells her that he can do it. He barely gets up and slowly goes up the stairs with her help, leaving Damien furious with her in the basement. They make it to her car, and she calls Balto while driving to Heath’s place.

When they both arrive, Balto helps Heath out and takes him to the bedroom, where he lays Heath down. Balto tells her that Heath will survive because he has something to live for. She takes care of him throughout the weeks as he gets better, and he doesn’t hold it against her that she set him up. She helps him bathe, and she realizes that at some point she has forgiven him; there is no anger in her. They talk about what changed her mind, and to save him, and later she speaks to Balto when he visits. He tells her that no one holds it against her that she got Heath to be taken by Damien; all that matters to them is that she didn’t go through with killing Heath and saved him instead. Balto also has been acting like Heath in the Underground, fooling all of the Skull Kings, because he’s been wearing long sleeves to hide the fact that he doesn’t have tattoos. She does tell Heath that she has forgiven him, and so they start to move on. She even sleeps in the same bed as Heath, though they don’t cuddle too much because of his injuries. Damien calls her at one point, and when she ignores his call, he texts. She responds —at Heath’s behest—that she’ll come by to Damien’s house the next day and they’ll talk.

Catalina goes to Damien’s house, and visits in his room. Anna leaves while wishing her luck. They talk, and Catalina admits that she has been staying over at Heath’s place because he’s been barely able to walk. She tells Damien again that she loves Heath, and asks him to let go of all of that hatred or that anger for her. Damien agrees to let it go in that he will not come after Heath, or do anything to Heath, but Damien also tells her that he doesn’t want anything to do with Heath at all because he doesn’t approve of Heath for her, and doesn’t think that their father would either. They debate that for a little bit longer, because Catalina believes that their father is more open-minded but Damien doesn’t believe so. He tells her that if she is with Heath, he will not be able to come to any family events, that Damien will not spend time with him, and if they have children, he will spend time with the kids because they are nieces and nephews, but he will not spend time with Heath. He tells her that in the end she has to choose between Heath and her family.

My Thoughts: I do love Catalina and Heath together, and their comebacks, her sass and just their fights are really something that really do well with showing the tension that leads them to be good together. I love how Heath tells her that he loves her, so freely and easily, and tells her that she does love him too, though Catalina refuses to admit it. Catalina also redeemed herself in my eyes when she saved Heath from death, and I do feel like this is a moment when she realizes that she loves him too though she’s not ready to share it with him; that she cannot live without him. That said, her brother, Damien, is being an ass about a lot this, especially seeing that her father is preaching that love is stronger than hate, and not letting it go that Heath did what he did to their father so that she could be with him. The fact that Damien tells her that she will not have a life with them and Heath integrated into their family makes me lose all respect for him, though I’ve already said that he’s the least favorite main male character in this series thus far—Heath outranks him for me even before all this has been going on with Damien, because of the way that he’s changing and trying his best to respect Catalina’s wishes and patch things up with Damien without revealing the reasoning of it. So excited to read the next book in the series and see the continuation of the relationship!