Snared (Jaded Regret #1) by L.L. Collins Page B

Linc must’ve felt.
    Johnny nodded. “It came from the boss lady herself. She wants to start a hangout for the foster kids in our area where they can come play. She wants to have lessons taught by us when we’re there and manned by employees when we aren’t. She wants to give them a place to go to keep them from getting into trouble on the streets.”
    “Johnny . . .”
    He held up his hands. “She’s been talking about this for a while, way before she knew anything about your shop closing. It helps both of us, Linc. We will arrange for a company to pack it all up and bring it down to us.”
    Linc shook his head. “But, Johnny . . .”
    “Do you want to talk to Bex? You know how she gets when questioned.” Johnny took out his phone and pulled up Bex’s name, hovering his finger over the button to call her.
    They laughed. Wasn’t that the damn truth. I allowed a small smile, but laughter was hard pressed with me. “No,” Linc said, “I don’t want to cross that woman. The hottest thing in rock music but scary as hell.”
    “She’s not as scary now,” I said. “Being a mom has changed her. Mostly. Well, okay, she can still be a stubborn bitch, but that’s why we love her.”
    “I love that woman more than life itself, and even I don’t want to cross her,” Johnny said.
    They laughed again, lightening the mood. “Are you sure?” Linc gazed around the store. While a lot had been purchased, there was still quite a bit still to go. Pride filled my heart. That was my sister, all right. Bex, the ball buster who would give you the shirt off her back. We knew what it was like to go without and now all she wanted to do was help others.
    “Beyond sure,” Johnny said. “You give us a total, and we’ll have Natalie wire you the money.” He took an envelope out of his back pocket. “Oh, Bex wanted you to have these, too.”
    Linc took the envelope like it was a snake that might come out and bite him. When he opened it and saw they were VIP tickets to our Orlando concert, tears filled the big rocker’s eyes. “Get that bitch on the phone,” he said, wiping his eyes. “I have a bone to pick with her.”

    “I’m fucking proud to be part of this band,” I said, setting my sweet tea down next to my sandwich and chips. Johnny and I had stopped for lunch before heading back home. We were both wearing hats low over our eyes, and so far, we hadn’t been spotted. Johnny had left Heath with Bex, so we were on our own.
    “You and Bex were the beginning of this band,” Johnny said, pausing to chew. “If it weren’t for the two of you, there would be no Jaded Regret.”
    “I don’t think of shit like that,” I said. “She just bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of instruments to not only help Linc, but to help all these kids as well.”
    Johnny nodded. “Yes, she did.”
    Silence stretched over us for a few minutes as we ate, both of us lost in our thoughts. Bex had not only created a safe place for kids who had aged out of the system to learn how to be adults, but now she was going to give teens a place to escape life in a healthy way and mentor them, too.
    What would’ve happened had we had someone like her in our corner when we were impressionable teenagers? Thankfully, we’d turned to each other and played music instead of what we could’ve turned to, but still.
    I remembered the day I first laid eyes on Bexley Bryant like it was yesterday .
    Natalie and I sat outside, anything to escape being inside the house. We’d only been here a few weeks. We had no idea how many houses we’d been in over the last four years, but we knew this one would be the last one we’d stay in. We already had plans to get the hell out of here. Natalie was about to age out soon, and there wasn’t any way in hell I’d stay in there without her. It’s not like anyone would care if I disappeared out of the system. That would just be one less kid they had to keep track of, and I didn’t want to be tracked anymore. I