Page 23 of Reckless Forever (Jennings Mafia Family #3)

Ivy

I sat at the counter of the safe house and didn’t know what to do with myself.

It was the first time since I had known Judah that we had some kind of discourse.

I hated that he felt I had lied to him, but my situation was too delicate to reveal outright.

I know Padrino’s stance. He wants to keep me safe and tucked away so nothing happens to me.

But I’m grown, and I miss the life I had before all of this happened.

His sisters-in-law were doing their best to make me feel comfortable, but all I could do was be in my head about how the last two hours had ruined the whole week that I had here.

There was so much to unpack. The disappointment in his eyes when he thought I had lied to him, his anger when he came into the room that shook me a bit, and then there was the protection that he had for me when it came to his brother.

He could say what he wanted to say, but Trouble was intense.

They all had this menacing energy, but Trouble’s was louder than anything I had seen in person.

He claimed that Trouble was the nicest guy I’d ever want to meet, but in those circumstances, as a first impression, I wasn’t so sure.

In contrast, his wife seemed like a ball of sunshine.

Her energy reminded me, for some reason, of someone playing a harp, and I know she probably got under his skin sometimes.

When he wanted to be mad, she just smiled at him through his anger.

Kennedy seemed like she was the “straight no chaser” one. And I could see the closeness that Judah spoke of. She barely looked at him the entire time they were in the house. Like she didn’t want to be accused of ganging up on him.

Both Storm and Kennedy were gorgeous, though, and they each had beautiful kids.

As I looked around at all that was going on, through the chaos, I realized that this was something that I wanted for myself.

Maybe not to be in an underground bunker, but the rest of it.

Wife, living a soft life, crazy husband, beautiful, healthy children.

“Are you okay? I know that it was a lot back there. I would also like to apologize for my husband’s actions.” Storm smiled as she handed me a bottle of water. I took it from her.

“It’s fine, Judah says this is a regular Thursday for them.” I shrugged.

“It is. But they’re all bosses in their own right. Trouble is just used to being the older sibling, and sometimes he has to scale it back and let them tweak out the same way he did,” she chuckled as she sipped from her bottle.

I nodded, understanding what she meant. I didn’t have any siblings, but I could imagine what it would be like.

Scaring us all, one of the baby girls started crying at the top of her lungs, and Kennedy went over to get her.

“Blade! Why would you give my baby a hot Cheeto? Stormy, I’m about to whoop your sons’ ass!” I heard her scream.

“She stole it,” he yelled back as we both tried to hold the laughter in.

“Kenn, that’s Trouble’s son when we’re in the same house,” Storm said lowly, uninterested, then looked at me and giggled.

Kennedy came back with the baby and fixed her a cup of milk. I could definitely see how Judah said that this was a special bunch.

My nerves started to calm as we sat at the counter and talked longer.

They were funny, honest, and gave me the cutest stories about what it had been like to be Mafia wives.

When I told them about Hollow and how he interrupted my conference, they gave me a million stories about people named Sanchez and Zo that made me laugh so hard, my side hurt.

They didn’t treat me like they had just met me; we talked like old friends.

Interrupting the laughter was the door to the room opening, and all the guys came back in to join us. When Trouble came out the door, he walked over to Storm and hugged her and rained kisses all over her face. It was cute, and suddenly, he looked slightly less scary.

“Baby, I was just telling Ivy that you’re very sorry for your actions back at the house.” She smiled as she gripped his face and kissed his jaw. He glanced at her and then at me.

“Yeah, my bad. Shorty. I ain’t mean no harm.” He said he tapped her butt, and then Judah shook his hand in respect of his apology.

“Thank you, it’s fine.”

“Got no choice but to be, you stuck in the bullshit now.” He chuckled, making me laugh.

“Girl, wait until you meet Amar. Their father.” Kennedy said, laughing and stroking Jaxon’s beard.

I was just sitting in the chair, dumbfounded, because here were these big, scary ass men, melting like putty in the hands of women barely taller than their kids. It was the cutest thing to see.

“Let me talk to you real quick, baby,” Judah said as he spun the chair around and waited for me to step down. Then he led me down a hallway and into the back room.

I sat on the bed and waited for him to speak.

“We’re about to go to Bolivia. I don’t know how long we’ll be gone. Maybe two or three days. Zo and Sanchez will be here for security; you’ll meet them in a second. I’ll try to keep in contact with you, but if I can’t, don’t worry, I’m good.”

Tears immediately came to my eyes because I don’t think that Judah knows what he’s walking into. The Mafia and the Cartel aren’t the same. The Cartel runs the government; they have connections everywhere. But I knew that begging him to stay was useless. That didn’t stop me from trying.

“I don’t want you to go,” I said, feeling my eyes burn.

“I’ll be alright,” he said as he pulled me up by the hand and hugged me. I kissed him for so long, so deep, and held on to him so tight that I didn’t know if I would be able to let go.

“I love you, Judah.”

“I love you too, Ma,” he said as he opened the door for us to walk back into the room with everybody else.

When I rounded the corner, I could see the men still hugging their wives, but I was the only one who was emotional.

Was I missing something? Were they not about to go to war?

When the men walked out the door, I flopped down on the seat, just barely holding it together, and Storm turned to me with wide eyes, and then she signaled for Kennedy’s attention.

When Kennedy turned toward me, she looked back at Storm, and they were silent for a little while before they both burst into a fit of giggles.

I was offended.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. But you’re definitely new here.” Storm said as she fanned the tears falling from her eyes.

“Ivy. I know that our husbands aren’t bulletproof, but they’re going to do whatever it is to make it home to us.

You don’t have to worry about them. Nothing is scarier than a Jennings man who has fallen in love.

We’ve seen this happen a couple of times.

Judah is about to flip Bolivia upside down about you.

Unless you’re crying about Abuelito back home, you have nothing to worry about. ” Kennedy said as Storm agreed.

She made me chuckle at the Spanish.

It made me feel better and scared me at the same time. What did they know about Judah that I didn’t?

The front door opened again, and Kennedy ran over to the three people who had entered and hugged one of the men and the woman. The other guy came over to Storm and pulled her into him.

“This is Sanchez, and that’s Zo and his wife Remy.” She introduced them.

“Hi,” I said to them all, but my armpits had begun to sweat. Why did everyone around them look like killers?

“You’re Judah’s girlfriend, right?” Remy asked, and I nodded.

“I’d never forget such a pretty face. I saw you two last week, and I asked him about you.” She said as she touched my chin and extended her arms for a hug.

“Thank you, you’re beautiful as well.” I embraced her and we parted. Everybody here in the States was stacked and looked like models. If I ate enough candied yams, maybe I’d have ass like this because it was heavy.

“You been crying?” Remy asked.

Before I could answer, Storm cut in. “She’s worried about the guys going to Bolivia.”

Remy looked at me like I had two heads. “Judah is going to shoot before they even get their guns out of their waistbands.”

The entire room was filled with laughter from everyone except me. Even from the two guys, before they disappeared into the living room.

While it may have made me feel a little bit better, knowing that Padrino was in danger didn’t make me any less uneasy about it.

I know that he had crossed the line by sending the soldiers into their parents’ home, but I wasn’t exactly okay with him being in harm’s way.

He was really all that I had left of real family. I didn’t want to see him die.

I excused myself from the table and found the nearest bathroom.

I had to get away from the noise to get my head together.

In the midst of my reflection, the guilt hit me like a ton of bricks, and I had another moment where I just had to cry it out.

I hoped that I had made the right choice to follow my heart and give Judah and I a real chance.

But now I had escalated it into something that was bigger than me.

After I gathered myself, I walked out of the bathroom and bumped right into who I believe was Cupcake.

“Blow these,” she said as she held up the bubble wand in her hand. I laughed through tears and took her to the couch, where I blew bubbles for her to run through. I was smiling, but, on the inside, I wasn’t okay, and I wouldn’t be okay until I knew that this was over and everyone was safe.