Justifying Jazz (Submissives of Rawhide Ranch #11)
Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1
Jazz
For one night only join some of today’s hottest bands and get nostalgic for one or two from the past for a good cause. Get out your wallets, and plan to spend big for a chance to see your favorite stars bring in the New Year!
“Hey, Jazzy girl, you are not going to believe the call I just got.” Jazz’s best friend, Jamie walked into her home without knocking as he always did. She was just glad to know her best friend showed no scars from everything life had put him through the previous year. He was back to the same Jamie he’d always been, and that made her heart happy.
“You know, one of these days you might just walk in on something you don’t want to see.” She laughed, though it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen her in various stages of undress over the years. He had spent many years taking care of her as she toured with her group The Scarlett Letter, then there were the many public scenes she and her Dom, Michael, performed at Black Light. But they were both in a different headspace when they were with their partners at the infamous BDSM club. It was something else entirely in the privacy of her home.
“Yeah yeah, don’t get your panties in a twist, that is if you’re actually wearing any.” She could hear him chuckling at his own joke. “Just get your cute little ass out here, I brought coffee.” Her bestie knew what would bring her running as she sprinted from the bedroom and followed his voice to the kitchen where he sat at the kitchen table shuffling a deck of cards.
They’d spent the last year meeting weekly going head-to-head playing rummy, and she was the champion supreme. Week after week Jamie tried to cheat. Though, if you asked him, he would deny cheating, saying he was only “working the system,” but even with his creative attempts, he could never quite come out on top. It was fun to watch him try though.
She sat across from him as he dealt her in and took a long sip of the iced mocha latte which everyone knew was nectar from the gods. “So, tell me about this call. Did something happen with Dom?” Dominic was Jamie’s partner and dominant. The two of them had been to hell and back together, and she was grateful that her friend had him in his life.
“No, he’s great. Keeping me on my toes as always.” He shuffled in his seat as color rose in his cheeks.
“Don’t you mean he’s keeping you on your knees as always?” She couldn’t help but tease her friend. The two were both submissive to the men in their lives and were beyond lucky to have found men who were good to them and were also friends with each other.
“Aren’t you one to talk?” he mumbled. “Listen”—he began to deal the cards—“I got a call from Brad. It appears he has been trying to get ahold of you and the guys, but nobody seems to be willing to call him back, so as a last resort, he reached out to me. Would you like to explain why you are avoiding talking to your manager?”
She didn’t know what to say. The last couple of years in semi-retirement had been nothing short of bliss. Before that, the years of touring with Scarlett Letter had been amazing, yes, but they had taken their toll on her both physically and mentally. Her anxiety had grown out of control and as much as she loved performing, she’d found peace in writing and producing music for others.
“Ben has a new baby, and last I heard, Danny was performing solo gigs at a club in Germany. Nobody has been avoiding him.” Well, she was, but there was no way Jazz was going to admit that out loud.
“So, you’re not in the least bit curious why he might be calling after a year of not hearing from him? After all, he was content to take that big payout you all offered him when you all decided to walk away. So why couldn’t you be bothered to find out why he might be calling all this time later?”
“You know, Jamie, smart ass is not a good look on you.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Obviously he really wants to talk to me if he finally called you. What did he want?” she asked.
“First of all, everything is a good look on me, and you and I both know I speak smart ass fluently. Secondly, Scarlet Letter has been asked to come back for a one-night-only benefit concert on New Year’s Eve at The Hollywood Bowl.”
Her cards still face down on the table, she stared at her friend. “I’m sorry, you’re going to have to repeat yourself. He said what?” There was no way she’d heard him correctly.
“Such a drama queen.” He shook his head. “There is a New Year’s Eve benefit concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and they want Scarlett Letter to perform. It will be a multi-group concert with ten acts. Each group will perform a twenty-minute set.”
She picked at her thumbnail as she thought about the offer. She couldn’t deny even to herself that she missed performing; it was the grind of touring that she hated. Of course, she would have to see if the guys would even consider such a thing. “But we haven’t performed together in almost two years,” she protested without much fight in her voice.
“Like that matters. I swear you came out of your mother’s womb with a song on your lips and nothing has changed since.” He shook his head.
“Please don’t ruin this day by bringing up my egg donor,” she said. Jazz and Jamie had left their small town of Johnson’s Fork behind them long ago and her family with it. She’d always carried a small amount of guilt that when she ran at the age of eighteen, she left behind her ten-year-old sister. She’d known her mother would never let her keep in touch, but she hadn’t had a choice. She never would’ve survived if she’d stayed. Now too many years had passed; it was too late.
Jazz shook off the ghosts of her past because there was no room for them in her present. Jamie and Michael were her family now, and that was all that mattered. “Would they expect new music? A twenty-minute set isn’t really that long, only four to five songs at max,” she thought out loud. Was she seriously considering this? If this was going to happen, she needed to get the guys on the phone sooner rather than later to see if they were on board because she was not going to do this with anyone else.
“Right. You could do that in your sleep with laryngitis, blindfolded, after a three-day scene with Michael.” Jamie was grinning from ear to ear. He knew he had her intrigued which meant he knew he was going to be able to talk her into it.
“By the way, what charity is this for, anyway?” she asked, knowing that would likely be the deciding factor.
Jamie looked down at the table, wringing his hands. It wasn’t often he was unsure of himself, so this spoke volumes. “It’s for the Trevor Project.” He looked away. This was Jamie to a T. He didn’t want to mention that the charity was specifically for LGBTQ youth. He wouldn’t want to sway her because of their relationship, which of course it would. Anything she could do to help his community she would do, and Jazz had not come to a point where she’d ever considered not doing everything in her power to be of service.
“I’m in. Call the boys, and whatever you have to do, make it happen.” She pretended not to see the tears welling up in his eyes. He didn’t need her reaction. He’d worked too hard to get beyond not only his own childhood, but also the devastating attack he’d suffered eighteen months ago.
Jazz could never understand hating an entire group of people simply because they were different. Jamie had been doing nothing more than walking down the street minding his own business when he was jumped because a group of men wanted to hurt him because he was gay. If it hadn’t been for Dom, Jazz knew in her heart she would have lost her best friend, not to the attack itself, though it almost took his life, but to the depression that had followed. She would be forever grateful for the man who’d brought her Jamie back to her. Now, the two of them were going to kick the future’s ass together, joined by the two men in their lives.