Page 1 of Reckless Forever (Jennings Mafia Family #3)

Judah Jennings

As soon as we made it to Santos’ estate, the rain came out of nowhere.

We had been in Bolivia for the last two weeks, and the sun was beating down so hard that I could smell when a bitch skipped their morning shower.

Now, the sky was black, and it looked like something straight out of a disaster movie before the town got washed away.

In all the years we've been here, the locals have always told us that the weather gets like this, but we had never seen anything past a thunderstorm.

But this? This was different, the kind of storm that made the ground move under your feet.

We had gotten soaked outside with Santos, and by the time that we showered and came back downstairs, the rain was already pooling against the glass.

Jax and one of the security guards had been putting down towels to stop it from seeping underneath the door.

I watched in slow motion. I wanted to help, but the weed that they gave me at the coca farm had me lifted.

My legs and arms made me feel like one of the blow-up dummies outside the car lot, just swinging in the wind.

When they offered it to me, I tested it because I know they like to play with liquid cocaine here, and it was clean.

Shit, I was so high that Jax tested it again just to be sure.

I wasn’t tweaking or anything, just felt like I was floating.

I don’t know what the strand was, but I know that as soon as this high wears off, I’m bringing a boatload back to New York.

Not only was I high, but I was also sore as hell after Santos’ tree knocked me out.

I wasn’t any help to anyone, so I just chilled and tried to keep my head up while they handled it.

Every time it thundered, I could feel the sound vibrating in my chest. And by the time I took a second look outside, I gave up any hope that we would be out of here tomorrow.

The rain was damn near waist-length, and the lights kept flickering on and off.

We were going to be stuck for a while, and I wasn’t looking forward to that at all.

Santos was family, but I had been living on my own since I was seventeen, so I wasn’t a fan of being in anyone’s house but my own.

I liked my space, and I wanted to be comfortable.

I told Jax that we should’ve just left, but he said Santos was going to cuss.

I couldn’t understand it anyway, so it didn’t make a difference for me.

By the time the housemaids had finished dinner, they had plated the food and sat down to eat with us.

Then Santos stopped Jax from eating and told him that we were waiting for another guest. Normally, we wouldn’t eat from anywhere other than our favorite Bolivian restaurant when we visited, but at this point, we didn’t have a choice.

The only groceries that he had that didn’t have to be cooked were fruit and some potato chips.

Hungry and high was a hell of a combination.

“Sorry I’m late,” The voice said as a woman came down the stairs, walking quickly in a blue dress that clung to her body.

She was the only one of the seven women present to have on clothing.

At first, I thought she was a slave; she was the only black woman here.

Then Santos said that she was his goddaughter, Ivy.

Jax also said that she was off limits, that we could have our pick of any woman in the house except her.

She took a seat, and Santos picked up his fork and began eating, signaling for us to do the same. I ain’t gone lie, I heard what they had said, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. She was pretty as fuck.

Jax elbowed me as we sat at the table, taking me out of my thoughts, “Don’t even think about it, bro,” He mumbled.

I was still in a daze, but I finally turned my head toward him.

“What, G?” I asked in slow motion as I picked up my fork, stabbed at the meat and vegetables, and started to eat again.

He shook his head but didn’t answer me. He just looked back down at his plate with his jaw tight.

Probably not wanting to call me out in front of her.

I glanced over at Santos, who was watching me through slits in his eyes with a smirk on his face.

I guess when Jax said 'don’t think about it,' he meant Santos’ goddaughter.

I didn’t have anything on my mind, but I would be lying if I said she wasn’t easily one of the finest women that I had laid my eyes on. If not, the finest.

Ivy was short, probably 5’3.” Her skin was the color of caramel, dark eyes, long hair that she had thrown into a bun, a pretty smile, and one dimple that kept peeking when she chewed.

Yeah, Shorty was like that. And it was natural beauty; she didn’t have an ounce of makeup on and no weave.

She was short and petite, her body was toned, in a Teyana Taylor kind of way.

I used to think that ass made or broke my opinion, but even slim, she was still colder than any other woman I had ever seen.

She looked like she could be a model, and looking at her made my dick jump in these pajama pants that they gave me.

Under any other circumstances, I would have definitely pursued her. But Santos had become an uncle to us, and out of respect for him and being in his house, I understood when he said that she was off limits. So, I was going to let the thoughts in my head chill.

“KD said that we should be able to leave in the next couple of days,” Jax said as he looked down at his phone and typed a message.

Kennedy had been tracking the flash flood for us and trying to keep us updated on what the news here was saying.

“Bet, I’ll have the assistant push everything on the schedule back to next week.” I scoffed as I put more of the vegetables on my fork.

“Actually, you might want to plan for a longer stay. This house sits at the bottom of the hill, and it’s not surrounded by concrete or asphalt.

So, the rain won’t be absorbed. Also, there’s about another 3-4 inches of rain to come in the next day or so.

You’re looking at two or more weeks here, and that’s being generous.

” Ivy cleared her throat and said lowly before she glanced up quickly and then let her eyes fall back on her plate.

Her voice was low and sexy, and the fact that she knew all this turned me on more. As soon as she spoke, I knew that it probably wasn’t going to be the best idea for me and her to be in the same space for more than a couple of hours.

“How you know that Shorty?” Jax asked.

“Well, ironically, I’m a meteorologist,” She chuckled.

“Damn, you couldn’t give a nigga a heads up?” I asked as she burst into laughter, covering her mouth because she was laughing with her mouth full.

Santos said something to her that caused her to wipe the smile off her face just as quickly, and Jax shot his eyes at me. Giving me a look that said to be careful.

I picked up my fork and continued to eat. Then Santos dismissed the maids from the table while him and Jax talked in Spanish. Every now and then, he would keep me in the loop and tell me something about the business. I was too high to give a fuck for real, though, so I just nodded.

A couple of times, as I looked up from my plate, me and Ivy locked eyes. She would smile and continue eating her food or scroll through her phone. She had an innocent look about her, and it made me wonder what her story was and how she had wound up living here with Santos.

“We got that security meeting in fifteen minutes, you gone be able to lead it like that?” Jax turned his attention to me.

“Nigga, I’m a professional,” I assured him as I took out my phone and checked the time.

Since we became national elites, we also held national titles, which made the jobs both more demanding and more relaxed at the same time.

While we were pulled in every direction, we had thousands of soldiers under our command to move at our discretion and be in the places we couldn’t be.

Trouble was promoted to Capo, Jax was the national negotiator, and I was the national leader of security and defense.

Sanchez and Zo were holding down Jennings Mafia regulations as underbosses, and right now, our team was untouchable.

No sooner had Mateo discovered I had broken his security walls than he made sure to add me to his team to prevent anyone else from doing so. Weekly, we had a meeting to talk about security and go over any concerns that the team may have.

I excused myself from the table and went into the bathroom to try to put some cold water on my face and wake up. But even after I splashed myself a couple of times, it didn’t stop the way I felt.

“Shorty, you got a phone charger?” I asked as I came back to the table when I noticed that my phone was going dead. All of our shit was stuck in the truck outside, which probably was going to need a new motor by sunrise.

“Yeah,” she said as she pushed back from her seat and went toward the back of the house and reappeared with a phone charger.

“Preciate you,” I said as I took it and walked toward the guest room that Santos had given us.

I went back into the room and propped the phone up on the dresser, plugging it into the outlet. Tonight’s meeting wasn’t going as planned; I was high and wearing a white T-shirt and pajama pants. If they didn’t want to hear what the fuck I had to say this week, they could let me go to sleep.

“Good afternoon, Jaxon and Judah,” The Capo said as we connected to the meeting.

“Good night,” I responded, and I could see Jax close his eyes.

“Excuse me?” he asked as he looked at the time.

“There’s a time difference; you guys are six hours ahead of us. We are in Bolivia, we got stuck here, there’s a flash flood,” Jax said before I could speak.

“I see, let’s make it brief. Mr. Judah Jennings, please go ahead and start.” He said as he cleared his throat and waited for me to lead.