Page 13 of Reckless Forever (Jennings Mafia Family #3)

Judah

After last night falling to sleep on the phone with Ivy and waking up to her showering and getting dressed from the waist up for a meeting, I knew that this shit was deeper than I thought it would be.

With the distance between us, I didn’t know how to handle the shit at all.

I paced the floor of my estate until I heard the doorbell ring, and I walked over to the door and pulled it open.

Both of my sisters were standing there, confused, wondering what I had called an emergency meeting for.

“Is everything okay?” Kennedy asked before I could close the door all the way.

Her eyes searched my body like she was looking for stab wounds or some shit.

She could pretend like she didn’t have a favorite brother, but her hard ass texted me all last night outside of the group chat asking if I was good.

Kenn was my nigga, we all were locked in like that.

“Nah, it’s not,” I admitted. I could see them shoot each other looks before I led them into the sitting area of the estate, where they sat down.

Storm’s eyes searched the house, but she didn’t say anything, just waited for me to start talking.

“Aight,” I said as I took a deep breath and prepared for the bullshit that I knew was about to come.

“Hear me out before y’all muhfuckas interrupt me.

You know we got stuck in Bolivia for three weeks, right?

We stayed at Santos’ house. You know we go to Santos’ house every time we’re in Bolivia, but we don’t stay long.

No more than an hour or two. Everybody knows he has the naked girls in there.

But this time, there was another girl there.

Ivy, his goddaughter. Santos said that she was protected by the Cartel and off-limits, but somehow we ended up being cool.

I started going into her room every night.

We watched movies and TV and shit. On the last night there, we kissed… ”

“You did that even after Santos told you that she was off limits? You're playing with the Cartel, are you trying to die?” Storm asked with eyes wide.

“Rain, we were just chilling. It wasn’t like I was trying to get at her. At first. But even if I was, you of all people already know how I’m coming.” I reminded her. She nodded. She had seen me in action one too many times to doubt me.

“Hold the fuck up, bro. Was Jaxon in Bolivia making love connections, too?” Kennedy snapped with a frown on her face.

As soon as she asked, I had a frown of my own. Thinking about the way that nigga cried the whole time we were stuck.

“Don’t get me started on that sad, sorry ass nigga. We were stuck in the house, rain up to our waist, and that muhfucka kept standing at the glass watching the pool in the backyard like we could leave faster, if he doesn’t get comfortable,” I snapped as they both broke into laughter.

“Let me finish, man. We still talk; we talk every day, all day. I’ve been so occupied that I haven’t even thought about another bitch until yesterday.

I called Tay and told her to come fall through and do what she does.

Y’all niggas won’t guess what happened. Ivy called me while she was on her knees in front of me, and I couldn’t even go through with it,” I said as I paced the floor.

Storm’s face twisted into a smile that caused me to stop, glaring at her.

“What the hell is so funny to you, Rainstorm?” I asked, wasn’t nothing funny about that lil nigga embarrassing me like that.

“Judah, at this point, she’s your girlfriend. Are you falling in love?” She asked as she slid to the edge of the couch, damn near unable to stay seated.

“What y’all think I got y’all here for? To tell y’all my business bout my shit for fun? Hell, I don’t know.” I shrugged.

“We can’t tell you that, Judah. Do you want to be in a relationship with this woman?” Kennedy chimed in.

“Yeah, I fuck with her,” I answered truthfully.

They both squealed on the couch like a school of dolphins. I knew I was going to regret this shit.

Storm’s eyes got teary.

“Rain, I’m about to ban you from my house just like I banned your son,” I warned her.

“You’ve been my baby brother for the last six years. With the way random girls were always in and out, I didn’t think that I would ever see this day,” she said as she washed a tear from her eye.

I chuckled. They made it seem like I was a damn renegade living life on the edge.

“Aight, I ain’t that bad.”

“You’re not? You had Alexis in Jamaica for two days and didn’t even think to tell us her name. We were scared to ask her because we didn’t want her to feel crazy or make you look bad.” Kennedy said, making me laugh. I shrugged; she probably had a point.

“Have you asked her to be in a relationship? How would that work with the distance?” Storm asked.

“No, and I don’t know. She was born in Bolivia and has lived there her whole life. I don’t know if she can leave. I ain’t thought that far, a nigga caught one feeling and panicked.”

“Let me see a picture of her,” Storm said once she pulled herself together. I took out my phone and went to the album that Ivy had slowly filled with herself.

“Judah, she is gorgeous!” She smiled.

“Stunning!” Kennedy came behind her as she leaned over to get a closer look.

“I see why we’re here. She is beautiful.” Storm said as she handed the phone back to me.

“What does she do for work? Is she just protected by the Cartel, or was she born into it? Take it from me, you’ve seen firsthand what happens when people feel overwhelmed by this life.

You’ll need someone who can understand it.

Especially since you’re always on the move.

You’re pulled more than Jax and Trouble. ” Kennedy warned.

I did my best to give them the summary of the life that Ivy had told me about.

“I don’t want to do no long-distance shit, but I want her.”

“Then start by asking her to be your girlfriend, and you guys can go from there. Do something nice for her. Stop talking to the other women as well. You can’t call Taylor or Alexis when you get in your little feelings.

Regardless of whether you are long-distance, how you start is how you’ll finish.

You want to establish that you’re trustworthy now.

And don’t play games with her.” Kennedy said.

“Agreed. If she says yes, she wants to be in a relationship, then discuss what that looks like now and how you’re going to make it work.” Storm added.

I pulled out my phone and started typing.

“You need to be paying attention, not texting.” Kennedy snapped.

“I’m putting in my notes,” They shook their heads at me.

“And here I was just thinking you were wrong for dogging these women. The whole time your soulmate was in South America.” Storm said as she came over and hugged me.

Kennedy got up off the couch, and she looked around. “You’re right, you do have some nice shit here. This place is definitely giving National Elite. I saw a truck I want for my birthday, I know you got it.” She smiled as I brought her into my arms and hugged her too.

“My baby still has his room here. How do you ban him from his stuff?”

“Should’ve turned that shit into another closet,” I said, making her laugh. I banned all their kids after they flooded the bathroom having a water fight, even though it’s a pool in the backyard.

“Keep us in the loop, now that you got us involved, we’re going to expect regular updates,” Storm said as I walked with them outside where their truck was waiting.

I hopped into one of my own. I appreciated their advice, and I was definitely going to make sure that Ivy knew where I stood.

Right now, I couldn’t act on it. It was time to snap into boss mode.

I had to get on the jet to Italy, we had an elite meeting that we couldn’t miss.

I would handle this when I touched back down.

Rocks cracked underneath the fleet of black trucks that came to a slow stop on the same hills that almost got us killed years ago.

Now, we were back at The Black Table for the third year as national elites.

I pushed open the door of the truck and stepped out onto the dirt road and looked around.

It was still the same scene as when we had been summoned the first time.

Quiet, deserted, and foggy. The fog made me laugh as I thought of Ivy.

I knew her smart ass would probably be able to tell me why it was always like that here.

Trouble, Jax, and I walked up to the door, and Jax used the metal knocker to knock on the door. It swung open, and the guards there gave us subtle head nods and stepped to the side so that we could enter.

When I walked to the table, the other twenty-one families were there already.

We made our way to our seats, nodding our heads in respect.

Pierce stood from the table and embraced each of us.

We hadn’t seen much of him lately, aside from Zoom calls.

He and Pops had been travelling together with moms and Storm’s mom, Yandi.

Pops was enjoying retirement, and Pierce seemed like he was next up to retire.

I looked at Mateo and waited for him to give us the nod so that we could take a seat. Once he did, we pulled out the chairs and sat down. We would be here for three weeks, meeting every day to review strategies and brainstorm ways to maintain our power and gain more.

At first, I thought that it would be a hassle to voice our opinion because we were the newest seats, but it was the opposite. They valued our word because our organization was still ranked second nationally. We were the proof that we lived what we talked about.

Errol, from Jamaica, passed me a box of Cigars, and I passed it to Jax. I didn’t smoke this shit; I’d leave that to Trouble. If he didn’t bring any gas from Jamaica, I was cool.

They started the summit every year with short updates. Mateo’s Capo turned to Trouble once he made it around the table to us.

“Trouble, can you tell us how business has been going for your region?”