Page 14 of His Place in the World
Unfortunately for him and all the rare shifters involved, the man who’d tried to sell Everly to the auctioneers wasn’t talking.Doyle, Del’s brother, didn’t know anything more than what he’d already shared, even though Angus had tried talking to him a few times.He was pretty sure Doyle had only given him the time of day because he was Del’s mate.Angus had been surprised to find out Del had told him and suspected it was because he’d wanted to know what his brother thought of it.Doyle was a human and a shifter’s mate, so he’d know better than most what Del was going through.
“What are all these names?”Toby asked.
“Everly gave me access to his rare shifters forum.I’ve been tracking rare shifters, especially the ones who seemingly disappeared without leaving a trace.”
“You think they were found by these people and auctioned off?”
“Probably not all of them.”After all, rare shifters died, too.
For most of them, it wasn’t from old age, unfortunately.Accidents happened, though, and Angus had even found a few vanished shifters who’d disappeared from the forum because they’d found a safe place to stay and had built a life there.Those people were always more than happy to tell Angus about their new life.Most had promised they’d contact him if they learned anything about the auctions.
So far, none of them had.
As frustrating as it was, Angus was glad for that.Those shifters were out.They were living their life, finally unafraid of being hurt, and he didn’t want to ruin that for them.He couldn’t bring unwanted attention to them through his research, so as soon as he was sure they were okay, he deleted their names.Hopefully, the people involved with the auctions wouldn’t find the forum.As far as Angus knew, they weren’t aware of it, and even if they were, Everly was too good with security and computers to allow them in.The forum was hackproof, and it would stay that way.
“There are so many names,” Toby whispered.
There were.Angus had been surprised at how many rare shifters were registered on the forum.Everly tried to keep things as anonymous as possible, but he couldn’t allow just anyone on the forum.It wouldn’t be unheard of for someone to try to use it to find rare shifters.There had been several hacking attempts, but Everly seemed to find them amusing rather than worrying.
“There are more rare shifters in the country than I expected,” Angus agreed.
“And how many of these people are missing?”
“Too many of them.The problem is that it’s almost impossible to find them once they’re gone from the forum.Everly keeps it anonymous for a reason, and even with my computer skills and the little info he has, it’s not easy.”
“What have you been doing, then?”
“Well, the first thing I do is take these names and google them.”
Toby snorted.“That’s it?”
“It’s a good start.I find everything I can on these people, and then I start digging.”
He copied and pasted one of the names on the list to show Toby.The google search didn’t seem that interesting at first glance, but Angus narrowed his eyes at the sight of a name several search results down.
He’d seen that name before.
He looked down at his notebook, trying to locate it.It took him a moment, but his heart skipped a beat when he did.
He quickly opened a new window, then searched the name, first on its own, then along with some of the names of the shifters he was looking for.
He didn’t get hits for all of it, but he got enough of them to know it wasn’t a coincidence.
“Who’s Albert McGrath?”Toby asked.
“I don’t know yet,” Angus murmured.“I need more time.He’s connected to several of the shifters who disappeared.”
Finding Albert was easy.He was on all the social media, usually posing with men who looked like him.Angus got an explanation for that when he found out that Albert was the co-owner of a security company.
“How is he connected to the shifters?”
Angus was only half listening to Toby but telling him what he was finding as he worked helped him gather his thoughts.“On the surface, in no way at all.A few of the vanished shifters have mentioned him in the forum or on social media, though.”Angus searched the forum for Albert’s name.“A few times, they asked if anyone had heard about Albert.Other times, they say Albert offered to help them.”
“But you don’t think he actually helps them.”
“I don’t know.”
Angus dug deeper into Albert’s life.Albert’s security company had many clients.Angus would have to research all of them, but he didn’t have to go far to know he’d found something.
