Page 30 of Shaped to Be Yours

Oh.

I exchanged a surprised look with Ricky, who sat at my left, while Mom sat at my right, and Whitmore sat across from me. This dude was a sexy secret agentandgay? Fuck my life. Although I guessed that was better than him trying to flirt with my mom.

“He really is a very sweet boy, Agent Whitmore,” Mom said. “It’s just been a lot for him. You must understand that.”

“I do. And I appreciate his candor. It means he isn’t a liar. I imagine keeping his secret for more than half a year was one of the most difficult things he’s ever done.” Whitmore looked at me again and that intensity turned sympathetic. “But please, Jason, see where I’m coming from too.”

Hearing him use my given name for the first time only made me more anxious.

“Do you know why all the monster tester towns are small?” Whitmore asked.

“I thought it was a lottery.”

“It is, but only smaller towns are considered. The tester towns are small to better keep unrest and possible protests more easily contained. Acceptance takes time. Gradual growth, gradual branching out, is how we beat some—not all, never all—of the people who would sooner see all monsters sent back through the portals and locked out of our world for good. Unknowns do not help that cause. Especially when citizens of this town have been going missing.”

“What?” Mom and I both gaped.

Citizensplural?

Another glance at Ricky said he’d known too. He gave a little hinting eyebrow raise to let me know it had come up with his scientists today. I wanted to get him alone so badly to hear his side of it.

“People have gone missing?” Mom pressed.

“You may have heard about the first case,” Whitmore said, “reported missing in your local paper some weeks back. June Mulligan.”

“June,” Mom said with a somber nod. “Of course. We all assumed she finally left her lout of a husband. You think it was something else? And more have gone missing since?”

“Unfortunately, yes. There have been several more occurrences that we have done our best to keep out of the papers until we can be sure of the cause. We can’t be certain of similarities or connections, but in several cases, the last place the missing person was known to be going was into the woods behind your house.”

Shit.

I didn’t want Mom to worry. I didn’t want to see the look of nausea that filled her face.

I glared at Whitmore. “I don’t see how that has anything to do with—”

“Your father was reportedly in those woods when he disappeared, correct?”

“You don’t get to ask that—”

“Jason. It’s okay,” Mom said. “I’ve always believed that something, I don’t know what, but something strange must have happened to take Bo away from us. I’ve never liked Jason going in there, but we’d never heard of similar disappearances. If whatever happened to Bo is happening again, I want to be of help.”

I wanted that too. I just wished Mom didn’t have to be part of it and look so sad remembering Dad.

We’d all stopped eating. Despite being pissed about Whitmore’s presence, I’d still mostly cleaned my plate. I didn’t think I could finish what was left on it now.

“When looking into your son, we also researched Boris Bosco,” Whitmore explained. “He grew up in one of the larger citiesnearby, lost his parents in a car crash, no siblings, and moved to Elder Ridge after high school. He mostly kept to himself, working odd jobs for a while, until around the time that you, Mrs. Bosco, came home from college and first began some initial temp work in town. You met him then, while he was starting his landscaping business.

“The business was quite successful. Eventually, Boris was doing landscaping work for most of the town. We also discovered that he had plans for those woods behind your house.”

“That’s right,” Mom said, her eyes going a little distant and her smile somber. “Our border is about halfway into the woods. The rest is state owned. Bo hoped to one day acquire the rest or work out a deal with the state to turn the woods into an actual park or wildlife preserve. He started the research, even some of the initial paperwork, but never got to finish it.”

I reached to take Mom’s hand on the tabletop.

She focused on me, trying to smile wider. “He had that natural green thumb. Animals loved him.Peopleloved him. Just like you, honey.”

“I don’t know about the people part sometimes.”

Mom laughed.

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