With Caution

to admit it. How could he have ignored his sexuality? He’d shut out who he really was deep inside to protect himself. Sterling was what he wanted to be. Sterling was comfortable with himself in a way Remi never had been. He’d made Sterling that way and now he’d yelled at Sterling for it.
    “I love you, and…” Remi pulled back, making sure Sterling was looking at him. “I do understand, but no matter how hard it makes things you can’t let anyone know right 138
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    With Caution
    now. Do you understand what I’m telling you? You can’t let Mom and Dirk ever find out about you or me…or Jake. Okay?”

    * * *

    Jake ran his hands over his face. Looking up at the office’s fluorescent lighting, he groaned, before turning his attention back to Rhys. “I swear to you, if you’d seen his face, you’d have no doubt that it happened.”
    “I don’t doubt it. What I can’t figure out is how the fucker got them to that field without getting caught. And why the hell no one figured out they’d been moved there. I know forensics have come a long way in the last fifteen years, but this shit could have been determined back then. So why the fuck wasn’t it?”
    “Because he’s a crooked son of a bitch and he had the time and opportunity to do it.”
    Rhys gritted his teeth, giving a crisp nod. “I can’t seem to get Caspari to call me back. I know damn well he could point me in the right direction to find out who else might be in on this and why.”
    “You think your ex-boss was involved?”
    “No, but Caspari knows something he doesn’t want to tell me. Apparently I’m going to have to corner him and make him talk to me.” Rhys would do just that too. He was a good investigator. He paid attention to everything and filed it away for later use, and he wasn’t above blackmail. Not many people were ballsy enough to call his bluff.
    Jake got up, stretched his legs and walked to the window. It wasn’t much of a view, only an alleyway, but it let the sunlight in. He needed something to do to distract himself from the images rattling around in his head. After listening to the vivid description of Remi’s dream, Jake could not help but imagine it. It was like a horrible movie playing over and over in his mind. He wanted to hunt Dirk Lassiter down and make him pay for what he’d done.
    Shaking his head, he stared out at the brick wall of the office building behind theirs.
    He was going to do this the right way. Killing the bastard would be too easy, but Jake wasn’t going to go to jail for the bastard or sign his own death warrant by going rogue, www.samhainpublishing.com 139
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    unless he had no other recourse. “What did the other kid’s family say? You said on the phone you’d talked to them.”
    “Yeah, I stopped to talk to the brother on my way in to the office this morning—”
    The intercom buzzed.
    Rhys growled and pushed the button. “Yes?”
    “Can I go to lunch now?” Matt asked so softly he could barely be heard even over the intercom.
    Jake opened the office door so he and Rhys could watch the front with Matt gone.
    “Go ahead, Matt.”
    Matt swiveled his chair toward Jake, making it turn all the way around once before he stopped and smiled. “Thanks, Jake. I’m just going to go get a burger and bring it back.
    I won’t be long. You want something?”
    “No thanks, Matt.”
    “Okay.” Matt hopped up and headed out the door with a wave.
    Jake and Rhys watched him leave, both shaking their heads. Jake turned to Rhys.
    “Do you think he dresses in the dark?” Matt was wearing khaki shorts, a long-sleeved pink shirt with a gray striped tie and black dress shoes with no socks.
    “I was leaning more toward him being colorblind, but that doesn’t explain the shoes.”
    Which would support Jake’s theory that Matt dressed in the dark. Matt was a wolf so even in the dark he could see. Rhys was right, what the fuck was up with the shoes? Jake shrugged and sat back down in the chair across from Rhys’ desk, positioning himself where he could see the front office. “Tell me about the brother.”
    “Jonathon Ikaz, thirty-five, married with two kids, a boy and girl, the boy is named William after his deceased uncle. Ikaz works at the casino as a cashier. He has no love lost for Lassiter. He didn’t seem to have anything against Remi though. He made a point to tell me what a good kid Remi had been and that he was always very polite when he was at