Page 26 of Reckless Forever (Jennings Mafia Family #3)

Santos Guerrera

The quiet smell of death hung in the air.

I walked through the house, looking at the carnage surrounding me.

Doors kicked off the hinges, closets opened, beds turned upside down.

My estate was completely swept and ransacked.

I scanned each room, nodding slowly as I made my way back to the living room.

My soldier lay on the floor, blue veins visible from the electric current that had run through his body.

His eyes were wide from the terror that he had been in just moments before he died.

Yenny was across the floor with a gunshot wound to her head.

I called out to the crew for them to take them away.

The other women walked carefully, like they didn’t know if they’d be safe in the home.

The truth was, I didn’t know either, but I would let no one run me out of my home for good.

I picked up the newspaper and read it as I had done every day for many decades and thumbed through it looking for nothing in particular.

I had one of the maids bring me a cup of coffee and a cigar.

It was another day in Bolivia for me. I had started many wars and put them to an end as well. This was like riding a bike for me.

I picked up the phone to make a call to the second-in-command of the Cartel.

He was my right-hand man when it came to a war of such a caliber.

“The Jennings Mafia has been inside my home. I want you to go to each of their properties and drop inert bombs on their estates.” He chuckled low and menacingly when I said it, before giving me the okay and hanging up.

The Jennings Mafia had been alongside me for the last eight years.

Our relationship began with their father, Amar.

Once he left his sons in control, they became the children I never had.

Sure, I had my own sons, four, but they were nothing like the men of the Jennings Mafia.

They didn’t understand family, loyalty, or the meaning of work ethic. Lazy.

Now, our relationship was tarnished because the youngest, whom I call the bull in Spanish, has disobeyed my direct orders not to have a relationship with my goddaughter.

Ivy. She is the daughter that I never wanted…

but didn’t know I needed. In the Cartel, it is standard for you to leave your legacy to your son.

I didn’t know the importance of having a daughter.

She is brilliant, a little headstrong, but she’s caring and compassionate.

Her father, Ivany, was my most loyal soldier.

If not for him, I would be dead, and my rivals would be profiting from the years of my hard work.

I think about him every day. Saddened that he met such a tragic end.

But I made a vow to him that I would always watch over his baby girl, and I would take that vow to my grave, the same as he did.

I pushed back from the chair and walked down to my study. My Italian leather loafers are the only noise in the house against my newly waxed floor.

I went to the safe on the wall, typed in the combination, and pulled out three letters.

The first was to me, from Ivany, Ivy’s father.

I read this letter at least once a month over the last two years.

But most recently, I read it weekly. A reminder of the weight that had been upon me.

I sat at the study and lit my Cigar, taking a puff from it, and I unfolded the letter.

The words beat in my chest as I read it again:

Act not only as her protector but also as the judge, jury, and executioner. You are to end the life of any man who chooses to claim her heart….

Do not mistake my passion for ignorance.

Ivy is the daughter of a legacy. She will be pursued by many men.

Any man who is unworthy of her must go. I am leaving the duty of finding her husband to you.

He needs to protect her as we have, love her as we have, and have the heart to go up against a million men.

It must not be easy; he must go through many tests to prove that he is worthy of our daughter.

She is all I have left to leave this earth. My death cannot be in vain.

This is the last thing I can give her, the last thing I can give you. My final act of loyalty.

Santos, I trust you more than I trust anyone else.

Do not fail her. Do not fail me.

-Her Father

A tear rolled down my cheek. The same weight that I feel every time that I read this letter. It haunts me to this day. But I knew what needed to be done. I folded it and placed it back in the safe. And tucked the other two in my pocket.

For years, I admired the Jennings Mafia Family.

They had become my own. They were raised right; their father, Amar, is a very honorable man.

The oldest Trouble is a natural-born leader, the only one of his kind.

Jaxon is a great decision maker and very trustworthy.

But the youngest, the youngest is exceptional.

Judah or Judá . His name in Spanish translates to noble, strong, and respected.

He is a great thinker, and thinking in this life will take you far.

He also has the heart of a lion, though his temper could use some adjustment.

When I saw his interest in Ivy at the dinner table, the letter came to my mind. Her father said that her husband needed to be all the things that Judah was. I barely understood what was being said, but attraction is a universal feeling. I saw it in the way that he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

For years, I had offered them women, and they never took up the offer. I knew the oldest two were married, and that spoke volumes about their loyalty to their women.

Three of my soldiers had asked me for Ivy’s hand in marriage. I declined; she never showed interest in any of them. But in two seconds, the bull had her from the moment she sat at the table. I took notice of everything but said nothing.

I watched for weeks as he went into her room at night.

I knew the Jennings men, and he wouldn’t disrespect me by taking her in my home.

So, I allowed the visits. Turning a blind eye when Yenny told me she had seen him coming from her room in the middle of the night.

How he would stand outside and stargaze with her like she had done every other night that she had been living with me.

Dreaming of the moment that her life would go back to normal.

A man of his caliber, in the Mafia, willing to stargaze with my goddaughter was a man who was slowly falling in love.

I stood outside her door many nights, listening to her talk to someone until well in the wee hours of the morning. Taking note of the calm in her voice and the way she giggled. I surveyed it all, and I knew. He was the one.

My bones are weakening, my hands are shaking, and I can feel my energy slowing.

I need someone to protect her when I'm gone. Judah will be that man if he can pass this one final test. How much did he want Ivy? Could he protect her if her father’s enemies came back to settle the score?

Would he turn on me and the bond we had in the name of love?

Then Ivy came to me with the conference in New York.

I knew that she had a motive for wanting to go.

I might not speak English, but I am no fool.

I put up a reluctant fight and told her that she couldn’t go.

But in the end, I let her. What I didn’t expect was for her not to want to come back.

She was my precious child who, up until that point, had never lied to me.

But it only strengthened my feelings about them.

Still, I had to stand true to my word about starting a war. It was my final test for the bull.

I fired the first shot by going to the vacation home that his parents had. I knew they would be away, so I had my men watch them for five days and follow them to the landing strip to ensure they were safely out of the home before we stormed the place. Did I expect the reaction I got? Hell yeah.

I knew they would bring trouble right to my front door.

Yenny, Emilio, and his brother were sacrifices.

Yenny and my soldier were the only ones left at home purposely; she was a problem.

Too mouthy and for someone who had very little to offer me, I hated when she spoke.

Not to mention her jealousy toward Ivy made me not trust her.

I knew that the Jennings would take anyone they could get their hands on.

I only kept Emilio around as a favor to his father. He was the farmer of the coca field, but Emilio stuffed more snow up his nose than anyone I had ever seen. He was a liability, and had Judah been anyone else, he would have died the moment he allowed her to go to the conference alone.

I knew that they would kill him the second he made contact with her. But the fact that Ivy was willing to come back to Bolivia just to save Judah when she thought that he was in danger spoke volumes to me.

This last call that I just made? Inert bombs, dropped at each of their homes?

Loud enough to cause an explosion, powerful enough to blow some dirt, but never strong enough to damage the structure of a home.

I was aware that they had gone to a safe house, but I wouldn’t dare send my soldiers there because I knew the whole team would be murdered.

I was going to force the Jennings Family back into my home.

If I knew them like I thought I did, they had eyes on me just like I had eyes on them.

It was a risky move, one that could likely be the end of my life, but I was going to try it anyway.

I tapped my hands on the desk and hummed a Bolivian song as I waited for the confirmation that the bombs had been dropped.

The soldier called me back twenty minutes later.

“It’s done.” He said into the phone with a chuckle.

“And the homes are still standing?” I asked for clarification.

“Perfect,” he said as he whistled.