And while I’m not here to provide a shoulder for you to cry on, I do have a job to do and I know you respect that. Austin was privy to a lot of secrets – secrets that in the wrong hands could jeopardize all of us, you included. You know this. ‘The powers that be’ are not going to let Austin just slip off in the night without some sort of de-briefing. And because we know he knows that his bosses would demand that debriefing, it’s possible he was taken against his will.”
“You have no proof of that.” Cam tapped his fingernails on his desk. “If Austin was going to go dark, no one will ever find him.” He let out a huff. “What about his mate? Has he got family? Have you spoken to them?”
“Mate?” Eagle spoke up for the first time. He was supposed to take notes, but as Cam hadn’t said anything worth noting before now, Dian could see he’d been doodling. “He has a mate, as in Fated? That wasn’t in any of the details we got about the case.”
“Fucking Austin!” Running his hands through his short hair, Cam growled. “I should’ve fucking known he’d keep his personal life away from the office and the asses he kisses. Look, this is not for sharing. No one at the agency can know about this. It’s not my story to tell.”
“But…”
Dian cut Eagle off. “Understood. If you can give us a hint towards another lead, no one needs to know it comes from you. You have my word. Eagle’s too.”
“Better be a good fucking lead,” Eagle muttered but Dian knew that was his way of accepting the deal.
“You said Austin disappeared once before. That’s why you’re here now because he was calling me before he went off somewhere.” Cam let out a long breath. “Austin was calling me all those times because he wanted me to kill his fated mate. He called me to do it because, a, it was a personal job and b, he said I didn’t have a heart so wouldn’t have a problem doing it.”
“Holy shit, that’s fucking low, even for Austin.” The disgust was evident in Eagle’s voice.
“Yeah, well, he didn’t tell me who this guy he wanted killing was to him until that last call you logged. You know how he is, with not sharing details. By that last call I was really pissed off. He’d threatened my mate, sending a goon and a couple of jackals after him in a bid to convince me to do it for him. Those fucking jackals threw my Fergus out of a second story window. So, when Austin finally explained why he wanted this man killed and told me they were mates who weren’t living together, I was angry enough to tell him I’d do the job for free.” Leaning back in his chair, Cam smirked.
“For free?” Eagle looked at Dian, but Dian was watching Cam.
“They were double claimed, I take it?” he quirked his eyebrow.
Cam gave a brief nod. “Both wearing marks. Apparently, Austin got caught up in the moment.”
Eagle caught up quickly. “Are you telling me Austin didn’t know that with his mate dead, he’d die too?”
“Didn’t have a clue. Claimed that didn’t happen to shifters like him.” Cam’s chuckle was dark. “When I pointed out that with his mate being small, and Austin had already been gone from him two weeks…”
“That would explain his last leave of absence. He must’ve needed the time to grovel to his mate,” Eagle said, scratching at his ear. “But why do another disappearing act now? No one in the office knows he’s mated. He’s obviously had the guy hidden away somewhere all this time.”
“Which would be a stress on their mating in itself. Throw in the fact rhinos aren’t considered a furry shifter…” Cam let the implication just sit there.
“You mean...?” Dian’s mouth dropped open and he couldn’t stop the laugh escaping. “Hang on, that could be it. If Austin’s pregnant, he’s not going to want to stay at the office.”
“And he would be too damned embarrassed to admit to it to any of us, or management,” Eagle agreed.
“Austin was never a small guy, and with the suit jackets he used to wear, he could easily hide a pregnancy, especially to a mate the size of a racoon. And the timeline works too for a rhino.” Cam shrugged. “Case solved. He won’t be found, not with a male mate and a baby that could’ve only