Suicide Mission (Guarded Secrets #1)

5: "I won't tolerate dating on my team."

"Do you still live with your families?" I asked as Damon and Mark led me through the building on the way to start my training. They said that they needed me to start right away so I could hit the ground running in under seventy-two hours. If I didn't start as soon as possible there was no chance the mission would go as needed. Sharp Shooter said that I had to be prepared for anything, because this cartel was vicious and methodical in their planning and security, but I didn't have enough time to be fully prepared. I only had three days before I'd been leaving to go on my first mission.

Then I'd be fighting for survival.

"We do for now, and on weekends and weekdays we have lies to keep us out of the house and training. We go camping almost every weekend and say we have clubs that we really have no interest in being in, but it works. Then after graduation, we will each disappear and move in here permanently," Damon said as he dropped back from Mark's side and came into step with me so we could talk.

"What do you mean disappear?"

"I am going to be in a house fire," Mark said as he added air quotes around 'house fire' to let me know that he wasn't actually going to die. "The house will be destroyed, and they will find a burnt body, but it won't be mine."

"What about dental records?" I asked curiously, remembering the crime shows I watched almost every day with Alex.

"Look, you're not in the cover story department, so it's best you don't ask a lot of questions," Mark said with a cold tone.

"Mine will be a lot less dramatic." Damon chimed in with a smile. "Boating accident, everyone on board was lost. I tried to get Mark in on it, since we are doing it with multiple other recruits, but he turned it down because it didn't have flair." Damon must have seen the distraught expression on my face and mistaken it for fear of how I was going to go missing so he added, "But don't worry, you don't have to do that if you don't want to. A pretty thing like you would probably be kidnapped and eventually the case would go cold, you'd never be found. It would be traumatizing, but no one would ever look for you again."

"That's awful, everyone will think you're dead!" I cried out. I couldn't help but feel insulted that they had been planning to do this after graduation and they weren't going to tell me. I would have been traumatized if my friends died and I never got an answer why. It would be as bad as losing my family all over again.

"That's the point," they answered in unison. "You were going to let me think you were dead?"

"It's not all about you, Sara." Mark sneered, facing forward to effectively end his involvement in our discussion. I guess he figured I was going to ask about Charlotte next.

"I know it's hurtful, Sara, but we couldn't tell anyone. You know I would have told you if I could, but there wasn't a way. I've been here for you since before the accident, and am giving you a way out now so you don't have to go through that again. I wouldn't dream of having you in that much pain again," Damon said with a smile as he held out his hand for me to take so that I could jump down the last few steps.

I looked at him for a moment, fearful of the pain that would shoot through my feet at the landing. He offered a gentle smile as encouragement to try, knowing that I had been careful even years after the accident because my feet would still hurt, which most considered ghost pains, permanently scarred from the accident. I gave him a worried glance before taking a timid leap and landing on the flats of my feet. I had been braced for a sharp pain once I landed, but there was only a dull ache, a reminder of my injuries. Damon smiled proudly at me before he hugged me and shared in my wondrous moment. There was very little pain compared to what it had been over the years, and it wasn't crippling as it had once been; I was healing in more ways than one.