Buck Naked Read online

  The checker just grunted and kept scanning items. The bagboy kept bagging but he was doing an awful job of it. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Sadie long enough to realize that the loaf of bread should go on top of the heavy canned goods and not the other way around. Sadie wanted to correct him but the situation was already so awkward she decided not to. She would fix whatever mistakes he’d made once she got her groceries outside and away from the strange, poisonous atmosphere in here.

  Determined to get through this, she stopped trying to make conversation and just stood there, waiting to pay.

  It seemed the rest of the transaction would take place in complete silence until the register beeped at the cashier as she was scanning the square plastic carton of blueberries Sadie had picked up in the Piggly Wiggly’s rather limited produce section.

  “Says here these are buy one get one,” she said, frowning at Sadie. “You want another? Same price.”

  “Oh—thank you but I don’t want to hold up your line,” Sadie said, trying to smile.

  “No problem. Hey—Jess!” the checker called across the store. A boy who looked to be college-aged came jogging up. He had broad shoulders and light brown hair and he smiled at Sadie as soon as he saw her.

  “Hello, how can I help you?” he asked, his voice already a deep rumble despite his relatively young age.

  “Get this lady another package of blueberries and hurry up!” the cashier snapped.

  “Absolutely.” He grinned charmingly at Sadie again and jogged off, headed for the produce department.

  Jess came back just as the bagboy finished putting the last few items into the brown paper Piggly Wiggly sacks and stacking them in her wobbly grocery cart.

  “Here you are, lovely lady.” He put the second carton of blueberries in one of her paper sacks and took the handle of the cart. “Let me help you out with that.”

  He started to wheel the cart to the sliding front doors but the bagboy stopped him.

  “No way, Jess—I bagged her groceries so I get to help her out.” He stepped over and tried to grab the handle of the cart but the older boy elbowed him, none too gently, aside.

  “Don’t think so, Chad,” he rumbled, glaring at the bagboy. “The lady needs a lot more than you can give her. You just stay here and keep bagging groceries.”

  “No! She’s my customer.”

  To Sadie’s dismay, Chad the bagboy pushed Jess the college hottie—shoving the bigger boy as hard as he could and grabbing the cart.

  “You little Beta, I said she’s mine!” Jess shouted. He punched Chad, who fell over, his nose streaming blood, and grabbed the handle of the grocery cart back.

  To Sadie’s horrified surprise, the bagboy didn’t stay down. He popped back up again, his face a bloody mess, and ran at Jess, barreling into the bigger boy and knocking him to the ground.

  Finally, Sadie found her voice.

  “Stop it! Stop!” she cried, trying to intervene between the scuffling males. “I can get my own groceries to the car! Please—please, don’t fight!”

  “Well, what do you expect them to do when you come in here flaunting yourself like this, Juvie?” The checker glared at her, raking Sadie with her eyes as though she were wearing a G-string and pasties instead of a modest cable-knit sweater and jeans.

  “What are you talking about?” Sadie demanded. But just then the scuffling bagboy and college hottie rolled violently into her cart. The grocery cart, which was ancient and wobbly to start with, couldn’t take such a vigorous impact. It went over on its side with a loud metallic crash and Sadie’s groceries went everywhere.

  Eggs spilled out of their carton to be crushed by the wrestling boys into slimy yellow smears. Her half gallon of milk split open and white liquid gurgled across the floor. Canned goods and produce went everywhere and the already much-abused loaf of bread was absolutely flattened when Jess rolled over it while trying to fight off Chad, who was proving to be surprisingly scrappy.

  “Stop this! Stop it right now!” A middle-aged man in black polyester slacks and a short-sleeved white shirt came rushing up. His nametag declared him to be Gil, the manager of the Piggly Wiggly, but Sadie didn’t have much time to read it. Instead of going for the wrestling boys, who were still rolling around in the ruined remains of her groceries, he grabbed Sadie by the arm.

  “Excuse me, miss,” he said in a low, grating tone. “But I think it’s time you left. Now.”

  “What are you doing?” Sadie protested as he dragged her outside the sliding glass doors.

  “Getting you out of my store.” Gil the manager stopped a few feet from the door and then stepped back from her hurriedly, as though she had a disease that might be catching.

  “But . . . why?” Sadie shook her head, so confused she felt dizzy. “I didn’t make them fight—they just went after each other.”

  “They went after each other because of you.” The manager glared at her. “And you damn well know it.”

  “I don’t know any such thing,” Sadie exclaimed, but he paid her no attention.

  “Now listen, miss,” he continued. “I know that Liam Keller has claimed you and given you his word that you’ll be safe anywhere in Cougarville and as the dominant Alpha in this territory, we all respect his word as law. But there are limits. You can’t just come into a crowded public area in the state you’re in! You’re lucky you didn’t start a riot in there!”

  “How would I start a riot?” Sadie looked at him blankly. “What are you talking about?”

  “I have nothing more to say at this time.” Gil the manager crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “Except to ask you politely to stay out of my store until you’ve gotten yourself mated and gotten that scent of yours decently covered. After that, you’re more than welcome to come back. But not until.”

  “But . . . but I . . .” Sadie shook her head. It was like he was speaking a foreign language—like all the townspeople were. What was all this talk of Alphas and Betas and Juvies? What did the manager mean when he said she should get mated and get her scent covered. What scent? And why had Jess and Chad been fighting over her? The way they acted, anyone would have thought that Sadie was some eighteen-year-old cheerleader, not a forty-year-old accountant. This was all crazy—right?

  “Goodbye.” The manager nodded and headed for the door.

  “Wait—what about my groceries?” Sadie protested. “I paid for those!”

  But the door had already shooshed shut behind him. If he heard her question, he didn’t bother to answer it.

  Sadie stood there for a moment outside the Piggly Wiggly, feeling like the world didn’t make sense anymore. It was the same feeling she’d had when Jeff had informed her he was divorcing her for a woman half her age. The same feeling she’d had yesterday after her strange stroll through town and finding the box of impossible pictures and her mother’s weird birth certificate.

  Something was going on here but what? And who could tell her?

  Fiona, she thought. Maybe it’s not too late to catch her. The Cougarville Chemist had still been open when she drove by it when leaving work. Maybe the eccentric pharmacist would be able to answer Sadie’s questions if Sadie asked the right way.

  I won’t take no for an answer, Sadie told herself firmly. I’ll demand to know what’s going on in this crazy little town, and I won’t stop until she tells me.

  She marched over to her car with her head held high but when she got to her little Honda Civic, her heart dropped and her determination melted.

  Someone had slashed all four of her tires.

  Ten

  “Lady, could you maybe stand downwind of me?” The mechanic from Fox’s Auto Body Repair cocked an eyebrow at her as he crouched by her front passenger-side tire. “I may be an Alpha, but I’m not made of stone. I need to concentrate to get this done, and having you so close makes it damn near impossible.”

  Sadie thought about asking what he meant but then she decided not to bother. The whole damn town was crazy and asking for