With Caution

complained. Even his abusive upbringing he tried to ignore, except when it came to Sterling.
    Remi’s cell phone rang.
    Snapping open his eyes, Jake watched as Remi fumbled for the phone.
    Turning toward Jake and Rhys, he flipped it open. “Hello?” His eyebrows pulled together like he was trying to hear. “Sterling? I can’t hear you. You’re breaking up.” He walked closer to the front window. “Sterling?”
    Jake was on his feet in a second. Tossing the folder aside, he hurdled the coffee table and caught Remi’s shoulders. “What is it?”
    Remi’s face went blank. “I don’t know. I could barely hear him. He sounded like…”
    Pulling away from Jake, Remi stuffed his phone back onto his belt and dug out his keys, running toward the kitchen door.
    Jake caught him before he made it to the garage. “Sounded like what?”
    “Like he was crying.”
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    With Caution
    Oh fuck. The pictures of Remi’s beaten face flashed through Jake’s brain. It gave Remi enough time to hit the garage door opener and go to his bike.
    Jake ran back inside and grabbed his keys and helmet off the kitchen counter. Putting his helmet on, he passed Rhys on his way to the garage. “Stay here in case Sterling calls.”
    “Fuck that.” Rhys had his keys out and phone in hand, already heading out the front door.
    The sound of Remi’s bike motor echoed through the house and Jake didn’t have time to think, much less argue. He shook his head and ran out the garage door, trying to keep up with his mate. “Remi. Wait!” Damn.
    Remi took off.
    Jake started his bike, hit the garage door opener, then jumped on and headed out of the garage with the door closing behind him. His heart leapt into his throat. Remi shouldn’t be driving. He didn’t think straight when it came to his brother.
    He drove onto reservation land, and Remi was still nowhere in sight. Had he taken a different way? He hadn’t said anything, but Jake was certain he’d go to his parents’
    house. That’s where Sterling would be.
    Rounding the first of three curves on the way to the Lassiter house, Jake hit the dirt road. Feeling the bike try and get away from him on the dirt and loose gravel, he slowed a little. That’s when he saw the cloud of dust and Remi’s bike laying in the middle of the road, the tank and front wheel crumpled, the back wheel still turning.
    Oh God no. Jake stopped so abruptly his bike almost slid out from under him. Alarm stabbed through him. Everything went still and quiet. It was like watching a movie in slow motion with the volume turned down. He scanned the area for Remi and inhaled, trying to find him through the dust. “Remi!”

    * * *

    Rhys watched Jake’s taillight speed away as he put his car into reverse. It was getting dark out. He’d been taking nightly trips to the Lassiter house in wolf form and so far Sterling had come to no harm, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t concerned now.

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    J.L. Langley
    He was tempted to try and call the kid’s cell phone, but he didn’t want to chance Dirk Lassiter hearing it.
    Those pictures of Remi as a teen haunted Rhys. Even knowing they were Remi, when Rhys had first seen them he’d envisioned Sterling lying there. He’d been so unsettled, he’d shifted and gone to the Lassiter house in broad daylight just to check on the kid. Luckily, Sterling had been unharmed. Which was a damn good thing. Rhys wasn’t sure he had Jake’s restraint. He’d have to kill Lassiter for harming the boy.
    His cell phone rang as he drove onto the reservation. Recognizing Sterling’s number, he hit the talk button. “Sterling?”
    “Rhys? I…can’t…get…Remi.” His voice was soft and slow, like he was having a hard time talking.
    Rhys didn’t like the wheezing sound of his voice. Something was very wrong. “I’m on my way, tell me where you are.”
    “There’s a fiel—” He coughed, the sound almost gurgling. When the coughing ceased, a long, pain-filled moan started.
    Fuck. Rhys stepped on the gas. “What are you closest to? Did you walk toward town or toward the Winston’s house?” He tried to reach that inner calm he always obtained in a dangerous situation, but it wouldn’t come.
    “I don’t…know. I went str—” There was more coughing. When Sterling spoke again, his voice was softer. “—out the back door and kept going.”
    A field. Out the back door. Rhys racked his brain. There were a lot of