Bienvenido (welcome) Marisela Morales. Marisela is Tampa's latest bad-girl, a bail enforcement agent turned gun- carrying operative for a worldwide investigative agency. And she's good.

Marisela does a personal favor for family friends and lets bad boy Frankie Vega drive her from a bar to the little family apartment he stays in just so she can get him hot and heavy. Once he's in the most vulnerable position, wham, out come the handcuffs, and not for the fun Frankie had hoped for. Frankie's hot now, but Marisela knows it's because she's trapped him so he can't skip bond. She's feeling a little hot and heavy herself, but paybacks are coming, she's sure. She's just gotten even with Frankie for breaking her heart years before. Now she wonders what he'll do to her.

Frankie wasn't planning on skipping bond, but Marisela doesn't know that. He's feeling protective of this voluptuous Latina he's known since childhood. They were each other's first lover; they've got a special connection. Frankie has mentioned Marisela's name to his employer, Ian Blake from Titan International, who's looking for a Cuban- Spanish-speaking female to play a role in his latest operation. Now Frankie doesn't want Marisela to participate in the dangerous business. Ian Blake has other plans.

Circumstances lead Marisela to accept Ian's job offer, and soon she and Frankie find themselves working as partners playing the role of husband and wife hired assassins. Their assignment is to rescue a teenager held by her Latino father on an island off the coast of Puerto Rico and return her to her Bostonian mother. The stakes are high and death is a possibility. Marisela and Frankie discover they still desire each other and feed off danger just as they did when they were in teenage gangs.

I enjoyed DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS. It's a fast-paced story full of excitement and danger with a touch of humor from a get-in-your-face Latina who knows what she wants. I welcome Latina heroines and hope to read more of Marisela's adventures.