Impossible Odds: A Mafia Romance (The Five Families Book 4)

by Jill Ramsower

  They lay siege to my delicate skin until all of my nerve endings sang for him, pleaded for his touch, and hummed in anticipation of his every movement. When he finally sheathed himself inside me, the spinning cogs and gears whirring in my brain came to a stop in perfect alignment, and my life suddenly made sense. The sense of being empty and unfulfilled was because somewhere deep down, I’d been saving room in my life for this man.

  My love was too big to take a back seat to a career or other commitments. When I found the man who would capture my heart, that love would consume every fiber of my being. Loving Javier was my purpose, which was not to be confused with him completing me. I was the first girl to insist that women did not need a man to complete them, but I was starting to realize that the philosophy didn’t preclude a woman from choosing to prioritize her relationship. He didn’t complete me, but my partnership with him would give my life a new meaning.

  I wasn’t just me; I was his. The same as he was mine.

  The dawning insight acted like kindling for the crackling flames dancing in my core. In an instant, the fire exploded through my web of nerves, igniting my entire body in an inferno of pleasure.

  As it was between us, he followed where I led, and I came when he called.

  My climax coaxed Javi over the edge. His cock jerked and pulsed inside me, his arms battling not to crush me with the intensity of his release. He groaned into my neck, his breath ragged and warm. We were two independent, competent individuals completely powerless over the invisible force that linked us together.

  We recovered in one another’s arms for several long minutes before Javi rolled to his side. I could only lay on my back, so he perched over me, one large hand splayed over my stomach.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, kissing my shoulder.

  “Mmmm … I’m more than okay.”

  His lips widened against my skin, which tickled and made me squirm then wince. The pain in my shoulder and ribs was muted while having sex, but the moment it was over, I was back to being an invalid.

  “Okay, huh? Seems like maybe that’s an exaggeration.”

  “It’s nothing, really. Oh! I forgot to tell you that I got a call from Haley earlier. It sounds like things are going well with her cousin. She talked about looking for a job after the holidays and sounded optimistic about her future. I’m so incredibly happy for her.”

  Haley had ventured to St. Louis to stay with her cousin who was married with a young child. She was having to start from scratch, but being out from beneath Naz’s control gave her the perspective to appreciate any new opportunity.

  “That’s good to hear. Maybe once you’re feeling better, we can fly out and visit.”

  “We?”

  “After everything that’s happened, I’m not letting you out of my sight for a while.”

  He wasn’t entirely unjustified in his concern, so I wasn’t going to argue. I actually liked knowing someone wanted to look out for me. I’d always been so independent that a boyfriend clocking my every move had sounded revolting, but with Javi, it wasn’t like that. He provided the perfect safety net to allow me to live freely. And in that vein, there was something I’d been wanting to talk to him about but knew he wouldn’t like.

  I turned my face and peered up at him. I figured hitting him with my idea when he was sex drunk was my best bet at getting his approval. “I’ve been thinking about everything that happened over the past couple weeks.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  I nodded. “My parents’ housekeeper Lucy. She was one of your informants, wasn’t she?”

  “She’s Alma’s sister,” he admitted.

  “Did Alma know Lucy was with my family?”

  “No. She had no idea where her sister was working, just that she was stationed somewhere for Naz.”

  My eyes fell to his chest where I traced lines on his smooth skin. “You know we have to tell my dad. She can’t work there anymore, which breaks my heart because I don’t want her out of a job.”

  “Honestly, I had completely forgotten about her, but now that you mention it, you’re right.”

  “The good news is, I think she can help us.” My eyes flitted back up to his.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I need you to hear me out, so try to keep an open mind. I think I know how to get your statue back.”

  His face hardened into chiseled granite. “I’m not going to like this, am I?” he mumbled.

  “I’m guessing she knows the people who work in Juan Carlos’s house?”

  “Yes, some of them are family of hers, I believe.”

  “Lucy could get me into the house as a cleaner, and I could get the figurine back.”

  “Absolutely not,” he barked, raising up off the bed. “It’s entirely too dangerous.”

  I eased myself upright and crossed my legs. “Listen. He won’t have bothered to know what us girls look like. Besides, he’s in Mexico and probably won’t come back to that house anyway since Uncle Enzo demanded he move. I’ll slip into the house, clean just like anyone else, and then I’m out.”

  He jerked his legs into his briefs and began to pace. “There’s no reason to risk you like that. The figurine is just an object.”

  “Javier Valencia, look at me,” I demanded, all traces of pleading gone from my voice. “I’m not saying today, since clearly I’m not ready, but when the time is right, I want to try it. You know I’m capable, don’t cage me for your own peace of mind.”

  Javi held my gaze, his features softening as I spoke. When I finished, he came back to the bed and sat next to me. “I almost lost you once; I never want to feel that again.”

  I ran my fingers through his hair. “I know, but you have to trust me. I can do this, and I want you to have that piece of your mom back. Let me do this for you.”

  “Fuck, you drive me crazy. I’m never going to win a single argument, am I?”

  “Probably not, so you might as well get used to it.”

  He shook his head, then snapped his teeth at me playfully. “Fine, but we do it on my terms—when and how I say.”

  “I think I can agree to that. See, I’m not totally uncompromising.”

  His lips twisted into a wolfish grin. “As soon as you’re all healed, we’re going to test that and see just how flexible you can be.”

  I smirked in return. “Mmm … an experiment. I always was a fan of science.”

  Chapter 31

  Giada

  “Are you sure you want to do this, mija? I think maybe I should be the one instead of you.” Lucy wrung her hands as she looked me over in my housekeeper’s uniform.

  Making the staff wear uniforms was a bit archaic, but Juan Carlos seemed to think otherwise. I wore a pale blue knee-length dress belted at the waist with short sleeves and a collar starched to a point of petrification. It wasn’t totally unappealing. In fact, with a thong and garter underneath, it might just make a perfect Valentine’s gift for Javi.

  I tucked that little idea away for later.

  “No, Lucy. It has to be me. Juan Carlos’s people know you and would be suspicious if you showed up. It has to be someone they wouldn’t recognize. None of them would ever in a million years imagine I’d do something like this. Besides, I live for this kind of stuff.” I winked.

  Lucy looked at the heavens and crossed herself. “Aye, Dios mío. All right, at least Señor Vargas is still in Mexico; otherwise, I would not let you do this. My cousin will vouch for you as a substitute. Do what you need to do and get out of there. If anything happens to you, I’d never forgive myself.”

  “I’ll be fine, and you’ll be back on a plane in no time, you’ll see.”

  After a remorseful apology to my father, Lucy had gone back to Mexico and reunited with Alma and the rest of her family. The two women were in the process of opening a bakery in Guaymas with the severance money Javi had given Alma. He might have considered himself a hardened criminal, but it was gestures like helping Alma that gave away his softer side.

  “I�
�m just glad I can help. I still feel terrible for giving information about you girls to Nazario. If it wasn’t for his threats to hurt Alma and my family, I never would have done it.”

  I wrapped my arms around her in a warm hug. “I know, honey. Naz was a nasty man, but now we’re all free of him.”

  Lucy pulled back, her brow knitted in a maze of skin. “His brother isn’t much better. Maybe even worse. You be careful, okay?”

  “Careful is overrated.” I flashed a devious grin.

  “Aye!” She swatted a hand at me. “Let’s get you to my cousin before I change my mind.”

  Lucy’s cousin drove me to Juan Carlos’s house and introduced me to the guards as a substitute housekeeper for the day. They looked me over more than I would have liked, but the attention was owed to my curvy figure rather than any heightened suspicion. He’d left a skeleton crew on guard with his wife and daughter still living at the house. I wasn’t sure what his efforts to sell had entailed, but there was a sign in the yard. My family wasn’t too concerned since he’d remained in Mexico, but if he returned to New York and didn’t vacate the house, I wasn’t sure what would happen.

  I’d been given a rundown of the cleaning procedures and told we started on the upper floor then worked our way down. I was instructed to tackle the toilets first. I’d never cleaned a toilet in my damn life. Lucky for me, everything already looked virtually spotless. I splashed around some water, used some cleaner to give the air a fresh, clean scent, then moved to the next room. I would have gone directly for the office if it wouldn’t have raised an alarm, but the cleaning staff had a strict protocol, and my departure from their routine might have drawn attention. Instead, I was stuck going room to room, pretending to clean.

  The far end of the second floor contained a suite of rooms tastefully decorated in mint green with elegant gold accents but lived in and decidedly feminine. I gave the bathroom a Giada treatment, then peeked into the adjoined living area and saw something that made me nearly drop my entire bucket of cleaning supplies.

  A young woman sat on the couch watching a movie and sitting with her was my sister, Val. My legs sprouted roots and anchored me in place. My heart thundered in my head until I could hear nothing else. I was terrified but didn’t want to put either of us at risk by outing myself.

  I was mostly behind them, so they didn’t notice me having a nervous breakdown on the other side of the room. The two girls giggled and scrolled through their phones, only half paying attention to the movie. Just how long had my baby sister been cozied up to the daughter of a cartel boss? Did she know how dangerous this family was? Did he know who his daughter had befriended? And why wasn’t she at school? I thought about what day it was and realized it was MLK day, and she likely had a holiday. Had my mother brought her to the house? My father never would have allowed it, so he either kept my mother in the dark about Juan Carlos or hadn’t been told about Val’s new friend.

  Shaking myself free of my shock, I left the suite of rooms through the bedroom. I would deal with Val later. It was time to head downstairs and wrap up this little Mission Impossible adventure.

  I wandered in search of the office, dusting and jostling my supply bucket on occasion to look like I was busy. When I poked my head around a corner and discovered a vacant office, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I continued with my cleaning charade, scanning the shelves for my target. I recognized it from Javi’s description the moment I saw it. Aged with chipping paint and three broken prongs, the Lady of Guadalupe stood humbly next to a black abstract sculpture on a shelf.

  As much as I wanted to make a beeline for the figurine and race from the house, I forced myself to dust my way over, then adeptly slipped her down into my bucket. I couldn’t imagine Juan Carlos would have cameras in his own office, but just in case, I wanted to cover my tracks as best as I could.

  When I finished with the shelves, I drifted into the hall and toward the back door where we had entered the house. I retrieved the figurine, dropping it into my dress pocket, then left the house in no particular hurry. Javi sat in his car waiting for me two blocks away. My feet picked up rhythm of their own volition, urging me to safety.

  “Aside from our plane ride to New York, that was the longest couple of hours of my whole fucking life,” Javi grumbled when I flung myself inside the car.

  “You’re telling me. I’m the one who had to pretend to clean toilets.” I grinned impishly. “But it was worth it because look what I got.” I held up the statue, relinquishing it into his possession where it always should have been.

  Javi turned the figurine around in his hands with such careful reverence, my heart became a puddle of melted butter. To anyone else, the cheap souvenir would have been worthless, but to Javi, it meant the world. It was his last connection to his mother. A piece of his past and a cornerstone for his future.

  “You can’t fathom how much this means to me,” he rasped, voice heavy with emotion.

  “I’m just glad I was able to get it back for you.”

  “This statue is only the tip of the iceberg. You’ve given me my life back.” He lifted his stormy gray gaze, so penetrating that my skin blossomed into goose bumps. I was already riding an adrenaline high, and seeing him so affected did strange things to my insides.

  I grinned, unable to rein in my mirth. “Ditto, baby.”

  His lips curved into a feline, predatory grin. “Time to get you home so that I can show you just how grateful I am.”

  I unbuckled my seat belt and peered up at him through my lashes. “Why wait?”

  ***

  It was all I could do not to call Val the day I saw her at Juan Carlos’s house. I had to wait until two days later when I was back on Staten Island for a family dinner to talk to her. It wasn’t a conversation for over the phone.

  I arrived at the house early and found my mother in the kitchen. “Hey, Ma. Need any help?”

  “No, I was just cleaning up. The lasagna’s in the oven, and everything else can wait.”

  “Mmm, homemade lasagna. Special occasion?” The hearty aroma of tomato sauce, garlic, and herbs saturated the air.

  “Just happy to have my family together. I thought … maybe it was time I told the other girls what I told you. It needs to be out in the open, and now that you’re better, it’s time we had a family chat.” Her voice wavered with nerves. She didn’t look at me as she spoke, instead keeping her eyes intently averted to her unusually dedicated cleaning efforts.

  “Momma, you know they’ll understand. And I think it’s good to tell them—for you and for them.”

  She dared a glance over at me and sent me a shaky smile. “Thank you, sweetie. Tell me, what’s been going on with you? Physical therapy going well?”

  “It’s going great, actually. My therapist said that my yoga had me in such good shape that I shouldn’t need the full length of recommended recovery. This week I went back to the yoga studio and saw they were having instructor certification classes. I’m not sure why it hadn’t occurred to me before, but I realized I’d love to teach a class. You know me; I’m not interested in being a full-time instructor, but I wouldn’t mind doing one or two classes a week.”

  “G, that’s wonderful! I think that would be perfect for you.”

  There was no greater feeling than hearing pride and excitement in your parents' voice when they spoke about you. Not to be judged or questioned. No matter how much I had schooled myself in the past not to care what they had thought about me, it never stopped hurting when my ideas were constantly met with criticism. I didn’t want to crave their approval, but some things just couldn’t be changed. Children would always hunger for the love and support of their parents.

  I smiled at her with a grin that could light up a room. “Thanks, Momma. I’m going to head upstairs and chat with Val. You need help down here, let me know.”

  She waved me away, her eyes suspiciously bright. “Go on. Your sister will be excited to see you.”

  I found Val upstairs on her computer,
a textbook and highlighters next to her keyboard. “Hey, there. You got a minute to talk?”

  “Yeah, I was just working on some homework. What’s up?”

  I sat on her bed, crisscrossing my legs and fiddling with the fabric of her duvet. “I know this sounds a little weird, but I saw you on Monday over at a girl’s house. I haven’t told Mom and Dad, but that family is seriously dangerous. You have to stop going over there.” I figured it was best if I was vague about how I’d seen her. She could assume I’d seen her walking inside as I drove by.

  “Please, G, you can’t tell them,” she pleaded with me, scooting to the edge of her desk chair. “Dad will make me break off the friendship, and I can’t do that. Her dad is awful, her mom is an alcoholic, and now she’s having to move. I can’t just abandon her.”

  “He’s not just awful, Val. He’s a cartel boss and Dad’s enemy,” I whisper-yelled.

  “I know, okay?” she hissed back.

  “You knew?” My voice pitched so high I probably summoned the neighborhood dogs. “Then why the hell were you over there? How did you get over there? Doesn’t Dad have someone protecting you?”

  “Yes, he has some thug shadowing me. I had the muscle head drop me at another friends’ house, and I snuck out the back. Look, if I promise not to go to her house again, will you please not tell Dad? She can’t help who her father is, and she needs me. Please.”

  I plopped back onto the bed, sighing in exasperation at the ceiling. “Now I know how Alessia felt,” I grumbled.

  “Huh?”

  “Nothing. Okay, I’ll keep my mouth shut, but I expect you to swear on your life that you will not go back over to that house. And she needs to know that she cannot tell her father who you are. That man may have gone to Mexico for now, but that doesn’t mean the threat from his cartel is over. We don’t know what will happen, so we have to be safe.” I rolled off the bed feeling like a total pushover.

  Val jumped up and circled me in her arms. “Thank you, G. You’re the best!”

  We’d see about that. After witnessing Naz’s merciless depravity, I wasn’t about to let my little sister walk into that same trap. I’d keep an eye on the situation. If she was in any danger, I’d rat her out in a heartbeat.