With Caution: With or Without, Book 2 (2 page)

“Hmmm, what do I want to eat?” Sterling looked away, still smiling, and picked up his menu, flipping it open.

A purplish spot peeked out of the cuff of his long sleeve T-shirt. It looked like—

The sick feeling Remi had banished returned with a vengeance. It felt like someone twisted a knife into his heart. He seized Sterling’s hand, and Sterling dropped the menu.

“What—?”

Pushing the cuff out of the way, Remi studied the bruises. They were perfectly shaped like a hand. Someone had held Sterling around the wrist, hard. Further up his arm were bigger spots. Nausea swam in Remi’s throat, making him swallow hard. He gritted his teeth and his vision clouded over. If that son of a bitch hurt Sterling… “When? When did this happen? Did Dirk hit you? Where else are you hurt?” He growled, trying—but failing miserably—to keep the anger out of his voice. Some of his own past beatings filtered through his mind. The fear, the hurt and the anger had never faded with age. It was bad enough Sterling had to witness their father’s cruelty toward their mother, and even to Remi on occasion, but there was no way Remi was going to allow the bastard to beat his baby brother. “Answer me.”

Sterling’s eyes widened, looking startled. Slowly, he shook his head. “He hasn’t hit me.”

Yet.
Their father hadn’t hit Sterling yet, but he would. Remi was going to throw up. Even now, after all this time, he was terrified to face the old man and hated himself for the weakness. Somehow he’d convinced himself, by being the model son, he could make things right. He’d promised to behave as long as Sterling was not harmed, but now because of his own fear he’d failed his brother. He should have taken the kid years ago and run away. Why had he thought the asshole would stick to his end of the bargain?

Closing his eyes, Remi took a deep breath. A warm, fresh scent assailed his nose and a sense of peace overcame him. No, not peace exactly, he was anything but calm. It was strange, like a feeling of safety, a lessening of his physical tension, if not his mind.

A hand touched his shoulder. “Remi. I’m glad I ran into you. I’ve got something for you, can you follow me outside?”

Remi gazed up into a chiseled face and nearly black eyes. “Jake, hey, uh…” It
was
Jake he’d smelled earlier.

Glancing at Sterling, Jake dropped a hand around Remi’s biceps and tugged. “Will you excuse us for a moment?”

Sterling mumbled something, but Remi was too busy trying to figure out why Jake was dragging him out of his seat to catch it. His head whirled, barely registering which end was up. That was very rare for a trained firefighter, but given the circumstance and Jake’s nearness, Remi doubted anyone could blame him. Not that he was going to let anyone know how Jake affected him, of course.

Staggering to his feet, Remi was given no choice but to go as Jake continued to pull him along.
What the fuck?
Why was Jake leading him out of the diner? Halfway to the door, Remi mustered the strength to draw his arm back. “What—?”

“Your eyes. Come on.”

Huh?
His eyes?
Fuck
. Everything was black and white. Which was probably Jake’s fault. Every time Jake was within three feet of—
Oh shit
. What if Sterling saw?

Following Jake out the door and to his SUV, Remi concentrated on seeing color, like Keaton had taught him.

Jake opened the SUV’s door and motioned toward the seat.

Remi sat, peering up at his…well, his friend. Jake had become a friend during the last few months, since Remi had become a werewolf. Despite his effort to steer clear of the man, Remi usually ended up hunting with Jake on the night of a full moon. “Where’d you come from?”

Leaning his arm against the door, Jake stared at Remi. He took the mirrored sunglasses off the top of his head and held them out.

Damn, Jake was big. Accepting the shades, Remi put them on, then shook his head to clear it.

“I smelled you when you walked in. I was going to come and say hi after I was done eating, but your scent changed and I figured I better try to help you get a handle on things.” Frowning, Jake glanced at the diner then back to Remi. “Everything okay?”

Hell no, everything wasn’t okay. He no longer had the surge of adrenaline his anger had spurred, but now he was fighting off arousal. Remi groaned, dropping his head into his hands.
Fuckin’ Chay.
Turning him into a werewolf and making his life even more difficult.

Remi lifted his head. “Everything is fine.”

“You always get mad then terrified in a span of seconds for no reason? Yeah, okay, pull the other leg. What’s the matter, Remi?”

That wasn’t what he wanted to be pulling on Jake at the moment. And where the hell had that come from?

Remi sighed, and for a second he thought of telling Jake everything, but he didn’t. He’d never talked about Dirk. Not even to his friends. No way was he going to risk anyone else, especially a friend, by dragging them into it. He looked right into Jake’s dark eyes and hoped Jake would let it go. “That’s my baby brother in there.”

Jake turned his head, peeking back at the diner. “I kinda assumed. Cute kid. He looks like you.”

Following Jake’s attention, Remi saw Sterling duck out of sight of the window and scurry back to their table. He grinned. Yeah, Sterling did look just like him, well except for the eyes. Sterling had Dirk’s brown eyes. No, he had the asshole’s eye
color
. Sterling didn’t have mean, dead eyes like the son of a bitch.

“That isn’t what I asked though.”

Remi sighed.
That figures.
Jake wasn’t going to let it go. “I don’t want to talk about it.” He had to get a grip and go back inside. Telling Jake what a wuss he was about his father was out of the question. He had to live with his own failures. This was his problem and he had to fix it. And to do that, he needed to talk to Sterling.
Color. Concentrate.
“Blue.”

“Huh?”

“You’re wearing a blue shirt.” A tight dark blue shirt which showed off Jake’s pecs and—fuck, Remi was seeing black and white again. He had to focus on something other than Jake.

Jake chuckled, a low, sexy rumbling sound. The man could make a fortune in radio. “They changed back, didn’t they?”

“My scent change again?”

“Yeah.”

Could werewolves smell attraction? God, he hoped not. He couldn’t. No, that wasn’t true, he could smell all sorts of scents coming from people, but he didn’t know what they meant. He was still trying to learn to scent prey and the different scents of nature when he hunted. Keaton promised to help him with people next. Until then, he was going to have to be careful. How embarrassing would it be to be caught lusting after a guy? He wasn’t gay, damn it.

Remi gazed past the big man to the car parked next to the SUV. What color was it?

“Let me help you, Remi.” Jake’s deep voice softened into a caress. “I want to help you.”

The sincerity was Remi’s undoing. He closed his eyes, dipping his head.
Un-fucking-believable.
The slightest show of concern from someone and he was breaking down. No, that wasn’t true, it was Jake. Remi had never had a problem putting on a good face when his friends tried to help. He’d always known their help would make it worse for not only him, but everyone involved. But with Jake…there was something about the man that made Remi feel he would always be there for him.

Jake’s hand landed on his shoulder. “Deep breath. Relax. Getting worked up again isn’t going to get your eyes back to normal.”

Nodding, he focused his attention past Jake again and took a deep breath.

Something brushed past his cheek, startling him.

Remi sat up straight, trying to figure out what had happened.

Jake stared at him, wide-eyed, and stepped away.

Oh fuck.
He’d leaned into Jake’s hand, rubbing his cheek against it. What the fuck was he thinking? He glanced down, trying to act cool. “I’m sorry, I uh, I—”

“No big deal. You just surprised me. Tell me about your family. What happened to Sterling?”

My family?
Remi’s head jerked up.
How does he know it has something to do with Sterling?
How had he forgotten Jake was a PI? Maybe Jake
could
help. “Can you follow someone for me and gather info on them?” He knew damn well his father was a dirty cop—which was what made him dangerous—maybe if Remi could prove it he could get the information to the right people and no one would have to know he or Jake were involved.

Jake cocked his head. “I think you need to tell me more, but yeah, I can do that.”

Remi relaxed, feeling better now that he had started thinking of a plan. He had no idea how he was going to come up with the dough to hire Jake, but he’d figure out something. Keeping Sterling from suffering what Remi had gone through was worth it.

He stood and Jake stepped back further, but not before Remi got a good whiff of the man. Damn, he smelled raw and masculine and—he was doing it again. If he was going to let Jake help him, he was going to have to rid himself of this infatuation.

Remi shut the door and tried to hand the glasses back to Jake, but Jake shook his head.

“Keep them, you may need to put them back on.”

Nodding, Remi shoved them on top of his head. It was probably a smart idea considering Jake’s nearness always made him go haywire. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to my little brother. You can bring your breakfast over to our table.”