Page 7 of Destined Prey (Wild Ones #1)

Chapter Seven

“Does it feel like people are looking at us weird?” Jack whispered to Rhett as they poked through the pathetic-looking avocado choices. “Like…like as soon as you glance their way, they’ve just averted their eyes so you can’t quite catch them at it?”

Rhett grunted and held up one avocado. “This one’s not mushy.” He put it in a plastic bag. “And yeah, people are looking askance at us. Probably because Aldan Weathers has a big fucking mouth.”

Jack tried not to cringe. “He said something to you about me?”

“Nope. Ernesto told me Aldan and Vince thought I should know my brother’s a fag,” Rhett said in such a low, angry voice it made Jack’s gut cramp.

Rhett cracked his knuckles. “Seems that Vince had heard gossip about you being gay. I don’t know the details, but…

” He trailed off, pressing his lips together.

“I can go back to New York. It’s not a problem.” Though Jack didn’t want to go back. He wanted the security and safety of the familiar, of the only family he had left.

Rhett shook his head. “This is your home, too, and it always will be. Fuck those two assholes.”

The words hit Jack harder than he expected.

He’d braced for judgment, even from his brother, and instead Rhett had stood firm at his side.

A lump clogged Jack’s throat, part relief, part guilt, because he knew Rhett was putting himself in the line of fire just by defending him.

He wanted to say thank you, but the words stuck like barbed wire.

“Rhett Tucker, you watch your mouth, young man!” Mrs. Elgiers, who had to be a hundred if she was a day, shook one bent, arthritic finger at him. “Your mama would tan your hide for using that kind of language out in public, where any child or true lady could hear and be offended.”

Jack almost laughed. He knew plenty of women who were ladies, true ladies, and capable of out-cussing him or Rhett. He wasn’t going to argue with Mrs. Elgiers, however, and besides, it was Rhett getting his ass chewed out by her.

“And you quit smirking at your brother’s misfortune, Jackson Tucker,” Mrs. Elgiers snapped as she narrowed her rheumy eyes at him and jabbed that finger in his direction. “The things people are saying about you would make your parents turn in their graves!”

The barb sliced deep. Jack’s breath caught, shame flooding him even though he knew it shouldn’t.

He’d spent years trying to believe Mom and Dad would’ve accepted him, that their love would’ve been enough.

But doubt gnawed at him now, mean and relentless, and it burned worse than any insult from a stranger.

“That’s enough,” Rhett barked, stepping between Jack and the elderly woman. “My parents would love and accept us both, and my mama sure wouldn’t stand for anyone being rude or judgmental to her boys.”

Jack’s heart had ached with Mrs. Elgiers’s barb, and that ache had yet to fade.

He rubbed at his chest, as if he could actually wipe out the doubt growing there.

He’d wondered if his parents would have accepted him, thought they would have, albeit slowly for his dad, but still…

What if he’d been wrong? What if their love had been conditional?

“What are you saying about yourself, Rhett Tucker?” Mrs. Elgiers demanded. “Stop talking in circles.”

“Is there a problem here?” asked a man walking their way. He was wearing a name tag proclaiming him to be Greg Manning, Manager.

Mrs. Elgiers harrumphed and gestured at Jack and Rhett. “These two boys are causing a disturbance.”

Greg glanced at them, then Mrs. Elgiers.

“Ma’am, with all due respect, I heard you raising your voice, not them.

Please remember that you’re in a public place and making a scene could cause someone to question your abilities.

I know you’ve been arguing against Chris putting you in a retirement community.

What would he think if he heard about you shouting at people in grocery stores? ”

The pointed barb seemed to have hit home since Mrs. Elgiers recoiled. “You wouldn’t dare. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Greg shrugged. “You were all over Mrs. Canton last week because her little girl spilled juice on aisle three. The week before that, it was the bagger you went off on because she didn’t ask paper or plastic—although she says she did.

There seems to be a pattern of you accosting people in my store.

I would think you likely behave the same way in other places. ”

Mrs. Elgiers’s chin wobbled. “But have you heard what people are saying about that boy, Jackson?”

“I don’t listen to gossip, ma’am,” Greg assured her. “And I doubt there’d be anything they can say that would shock me. Remember, I moved out here from California. You know how soulless us West Coast people are. Total heathens.”

“You’re making fun of me now, but mark my words, people will talk if you take his side,” she warned.

Greg blinked at her as if he were confused. “There’s a war between you two?”

Mrs. Elgiers muttered something about people going to hell, then huffed and shuffled away.

Greg watched her for a moment, then held his hand out to Jack.

“I’m Greg Manning, resident for five years, yet still the outsider.

” He smiled crookedly. There was a calmness about him that made him seem older than perhaps he was.

“Please, continue your shopping. I’m sorry about Mrs. Elgiers.

She made my cousin’s life pretty miserable here before Marky passed away. ”

“Mark Edwards was your cousin?” Jack asked. He’d had the worst crush on the older, vivacious blond football player back in high school, and had been shocked to hear from Rhett that Mark had died in a bar fight years ago.

Greg nodded. “Yes, he was. I moved here to help his parents with some things, then they decided they wanted to move to Florida.” Another shrug.

“And I’m still here. But enough about me.

” He arched his eyebrows at Jack. “I’ve heard the rumors and don’t care one way or the other.

Most people in town won’t care. If you, Jack, or you, Rhett, need to talk or anything, I’d like for us to be friends.

I don’t have many here. I think friendships begin at the twenty-year mark in this town.

” His wry smile didn’t quite hide his loneliness.

The simple kindness nearly undid Jack. After so much side-eye and muttering, Greg’s calm acceptance felt like a lifeline thrown across a storm.

Jack hadn’t realized how much tension he’d been carrying in his shoulders until that moment.

Now it drained out of him, leaving him shaky and grateful in equal measure.

“You can count us as two friends,” Rhett said. “Right, Jack?”

“Right. You should come out to the ranch for dinner sometime. Rhett can barbecue.” Jack didn’t think Rhett would mind him offering.

Rhett smiled at Greg. “Yeah, I’m fierce with a grill.”

Greg chuckled, and dimples appeared in his cheeks. “Thanks, I’d like that. Maybe, if the offer still stands, in a few weeks, once I have an assistant manager hired and trained?”

“Sure, that’d work.” Jack spent another minute talking with Greg before that eerie sensation of being watched made his skin hum with awareness.

Greg went back to the registers, and Jack tried to look around as unobtrusively as possible.

“I’m gonna pick out some fruit,” Rhett said. “You want something other than apples?”

“Grapes or oranges if they have any decent ones,” Jack answered distractedly, still searching for the source of his unease.

When his gaze landed on a frowning mountain of a man standing by the lettuce, his heart stuttered. The stranger was looking at him in return.

Jack sucked in a sharp breath when their gazes clashed.

Jack’s heart lurched against his ribs, knocking the air from his lungs.

Heat shot through him so fast it left him dizzy, his fingers twitching like they needed to grab hold of something, anything.

It wasn’t just attraction; it was recognition, bone-deep and terrifying.

His cock stirred, traitorous, and Jack clenched his thighs to keep from shifting where he stood.

He’d never seen eyes so close to an amber color, light brown but almost lit from within, like a golden light shone under those pretty irises.

Thick black lashes framed those eyes, and wind-tousled dark brown hair lessened the severity of the handsome man’s forehead.

He was stern in appearance, yet sexy, strong, masculine in every sense of the word.

There were no soft curves, no smooth angles about him.

Jack wanted to eat him up with a spoon, or better yet, lick every inch of his body and see what he tasted like when he came. Would he be a demanding bed partner? Bossy? Dominant?

Jack shivered, despite his attempt to restrain himself.

The stranger’s nostrils flared, and something, some emotion, flashed in his eyes.

Goosebumps erupted all over Jack’s body. He wanted to rub his arms, but forced himself to stand still. He felt, oddly enough, like prey, and admitted to himself that he wouldn’t mind being this man’s sexual conquest in the least.

The sexual desire tugging at his gut surprised him. Jack hadn’t thought he’d want to get involved with another guy for a long while after what he’d gone through with Alex. Apparently, he’d been wrong.