Redeeming You (Before You #2)(4)
“Do us both a favor and tell Alec to give her some money and hire a professional PR person.”
“She won’t take handouts,” Jax said.
“Great, now I’m her experiment. What’s going to stop her from selling our dirt for money?”
“She might not give a shit about you, but she’d stick a hot poker in her eye before she hurt Alec, and selling any of us out would hurt the band and, therefore, Alec. She wouldn’t do it. You know their history.”
He nodded. Alec hadn’t shared all the horrid details of his childhood, but he knew enough to realize it was far from happy and that meant that Alec and Taylor had each other’s backs more than any other brother and sister he’d ever met.
“Fine. We can trust her. That’s nice,” Cam said sarcastically. “But is she qualified?”
“By qualified, do you mean does she have any babysitting experience?” Laughing, Jax stood up from the chair. “I think she might have watched a couple of the neighbor’s kids when—”
“Screw you,” Cam hissed. “You know exactly what I’m asking.”
Smiling mockingly, Jax folded his arms across his chest. “Sure. She has a degree in marketing. She worked as a band promoter in Seattle while she was in college. She’s smart and she won’t fall for your innocent smile because she already knows you’re full of shit.” Jax shrugged. “The way I see it, she’s perfect.”
Cam grunted. He wasn’t getting out of this. He actually had a babysitter for the next thirty days. “What are the ground rules?”
“You can discuss that with her,” Jax looked at his watch. “You’re meeting her in the hotel restaurant in thirty minutes. Do yourself a favor, take a shower before you meet her. You smell like hell.”
Cam’s jaw dropped. “You had no intention of giving me a choice in this, did you? This was a done deal before you knocked on my door this morning. What if I refused to meet her?”
“Alec is waiting in the hall. We planned to physically drag you there if you didn’t agree to go.”
“You’re an *.”
“I’m a good friend. An * would’ve kicked you out of the band.” Jax walked toward the door, opening it a few inches and then he paused. “Don’t screw this up. We need you, but if you can’t be a team player, we won’t hesitate to replace you. We won’t let you take down Chasing Ruin because you refuse to pull your head out of you ass.”
Fucker. When the door slammed, Cam tossed a pillow at the door. Sadly, he couldn’t even be pissed at Jax because Jax was right, he needed to hold up his end of the bargain and be a team player. Chasing Ruin had carried his dead weight long enough, and he needed to get his shit together and stop wallowing in the past. If that meant having Taylor Reed follow him around for the rest of the tour, he would do it, but he didn’t have to be happy about it.
CHAPTER TWO
Taylor paced the floor of her brother’s hotel room. Jax and Alec still hadn’t returned from meeting Cam for the so-called intervention. Five more minutes and the carpet beneath her feet would be threadbare.
She needed this job, even if it only lasted for thirty days. Her savings account was nearly exhausted and she refused to take a penny from Alec. She loved her brother, but she couldn’t escape the feeling that Alec’s money came with strings. He loved her, but he was also one of the most overprotective, overbearing brothers in the history of mankind. She wanted to support herself, otherwise she’d end up exactly like her mom some day: falling into the arms of any man who would throw a couple bucks in her direction.
Sure, if Chasing Ruin offered her the job, the money she earned would indirectly come from Alec, so in theory, she’d be getting a handout, but at least she’d be doing something for the money even if the job only entailed being Cam’s shadow and conscience. She’d rather dig ditches than live from Alec’s handouts. She needed to make it in life on her own two feet.
Working with Cam would seriously suck. He was a complete douchebag with his pretty boy smile, his blond hair and cutesy f*cking tattoos. He wanted to portray some bad boy from the wrong side of town rocker image, but he didn’t even know the meaning of a hard life.
From what she’d heard, he had the perfect well-adjusted childhood in a picturesque mountain town with two devoted parents who showered their only child with endless amounts of affection. Even with all that love and support, he still couldn’t stop his downward spiral after he lost Bre, which was his own fault. Self induced misery wasn’t real. He should try being sucker punched by a heavy dose of parental neglect, abject poverty and shit luck. What a loser.
The door swung open and she spun around. Jax trailed behind her brother. She couldn’t tell from the look on their faces whether she was about to be officially employed by Chasing Ruin as Cam’s babysitter.
“He agreed,” Jax said, leaning against the doorjamb, his feet crossed at his ankles.
If Jax weren’t so head over heels in love with Bre, Taylor wouldn’t mind sampling a little of what he had to offer. Being in the same room with him, she could feel his presence as though it were a living, breathing thing. He had a calling and it was on display every time Chasing Ruin took the stage. Too bad he didn’t need a babysitter.