Page 5 of Natural-Born Cullers

“Snob.”

Jan chuckled and eyed Gray up. “You want your old man invited over?”

Jack stilled, his look cooling with Jan, and Jan frowned.

“You’d like him, Jack,” he said softly. “Give him a chance, yeah?”

“No.” Jack didn’t add anything else. Cal had added too much shit to segregate the dinner table as far as he was concerned.

Jan gave a hard sigh as Gray straightened his hunting cap, then shook his head at Jack. Again.

“My father’s in Japan this weekend, anyway, back Monday.” Gray winced. “I owe him lunch at the Ritz… apparently.” But his look maybe said he owed Cal a whole lot more. Jack didn’t run with it to find out. Somethings were best left alone around here. If it was serious enough to get Gray and Cal in a restaurant together, with Gray buying… lunch, it was best left more than alone, because it no doubt surrounded Light. Jack wouldn’t ever begrudge Cal that, but that didn’t mean Jack had to eat at the same table with him. He’d missed the bad blood from his own mother. He wouldn’t entertain the bad blood that had gotten Light running into a café bombing and Gray hurt over losing Ed in all the chaos. Cal could… should have spoken to Light, not tried to hide him away from Gray over the years.

“You need anything ordering in, Gray?” said Jan, getting a little more comfortable on the unit and never looking more at home in just jeans and slippers, no shirt. Yeah, Jack hadn’t missed that detail either.

“I’m about to go and find out.” Gray’s look lingered on the summerhouse outside, then found Jack again when the kitchen fell quiet. “Can you get Ray to bring the coffee and breakfast over?”

“I’ll try. Andrews still in that breakfast headcount?” Jack already reached for the extra plates. “Ray’s checking the fire alarm that… played up this morning.” He refused to wince. “So I take it Light’s not on his own over there yet when it comes to you lot?” Light was mostly never alone, not with the CCTV equipment keeping watch, but for a few hours each week, the surveillance would go down, and he was allowed space, all depending on what space Gray and Andrews allowed him.

“You take right.” Gray headed on out, his look back at Jan, the food, leaving Jack frowning.

“Hey, chef….”

Jack glanced back, and Jan thumbed at the sausage and bacon.

“Oh fuck.” Jack shifted over and quickly tossed the sausage, or more it’s cry out against the Bonfire Night cremation. “Erm…” He poked at the few black bits. “Ray gets that one, right? Only don’t tell him.”

Grinning, Jan tugged out his phone as another cough plagued him.

“Hey.” Jack took the phone off him a second later. The cough he’d keep an eye on. That hadn’t been deliberate. “Aren’t you meant to be on my side, Richards?”

“Technically, I’m on Gray’s side… board. Well, more his unit.” Jan shifted his ass into the unit a little more to prove his point, then shivered, rubbing at his bare arms before pinching his phone back. “And I wasn’t snitching on you to Ray. I was texting my mum to see if she needs anything.”

As Jan finished the text, Jack went in and split his legs before distractedly taking over rubbing at his arms to get some warmth into him. Despite all its heating, marble flooring, and modernistic feel, the manor could really go bollocking cold, especially as the kitchen itself was part of the original building. Jan still carried that swimmer’s body and ass, not to mention all that soft vanilla filling from the bedroom, and it left him exposed this morning. “Cough up… what was all that whispering about, just? Between you and Gray?”

Phone still in hand, Jan watched him for a moment, then giving another cough, he came in for a hug, his arms going loose around Jack’s neck. “Just breakfast, walkways, and garden tent pegs.”

“Huh?” Jack frowned for a moment, then caught on. His smile fell, and Jan tightened his grip around Jack’s neck.

“C’mon,” he breathed gently in Jack’s ear. “Get breakfast done, then I’ll take the long walk with you, martial arts guy. Maybe we’ll miss those tent pegs out there, huh?”

“Fuck.” Jan nearly stumbled as he slipped on the damp grass, and a rattle of breakfast tray came from Jack as Jack stuck an elbow out to stop him falling.

“Careful… careful.”

Jan threw him athank you, then tugged Jack’s jacket a little tighter around himself. He’d pinched a T-shirt from the washing pile Mrs Booth had done, but he cursed now for not also taking one of Jack’s jumpers. The manor and its grounds could be bloody gorgeous in the summer months, but just coming out of winter? With how odd Christmas and New Year’s had been around here? Althoughoddwasn’t exactly the right word. None of them had really felt like celebrating, and Light had shown no interest even with calls from his mom and the Grouch, his stepfather. So they’d agreed to postpone until they were ready. Christ knows how they’d cope with his birthday soon.

So cold. Everything could get so bloody cold around here lately.

The walk over to the summerhouse seemed longer and longer each day, not helped with how grey clouds drew more coldness around them. A mist hung low around the maze off to their right, snaking in and out like a living, breathing eel, and a lone pheasant made an unwise decision to head over into it without a friend for backup… or a handful of cheese to find its way out at least.

Cheese… wine… a stereo playing in the distance—Jack dancing in the middle of the maze as they’d found him…

Jan smiled down at his feet.

“Hey, what’s got you grinning?” Jack held the breakfast tray out as if it were made of gold. More like the coffee was gold and he didn’t want to risk spilling any and earn that strip ’n’ whip from Gray. At nearly forty pounds a cup, Jan didn’t blame him. Gray really liked his coffee, but he came with such a refined palate.

Jan glanced over at the maze. “Nothing,” he said gently. “Just wondering if you brought any… cheese.” He threw Jack a look. “In case you get lost, like, Jack.”

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