Chapter 1Jest had almost forgotten his real name. It had been that long since he’d used it. Maybe he’d done a little too much coke and certainly way too much cheap whiskey, although he was off that stuff now. Oh, he still wore his spiked hair in rainbow colors and still played drums like a mad man, but gradually he’d gotten clean, gone straight. Well, as straight as a guy could be who’d known he was gay since he was twelve.
Marcus Jestyn Ballard III was much more name than he needed these days. He’d lived by his wits and will from the time his parents discovered him in bed with a buddy and threw his sixteen-year-old ass out to fend for himself. He’d done a lot of crazy things to survive before fate—or fortune—led him to Tom Holden and his rag-tag band.
It had happened at a low-end bar an
