fuonlyknew

“Wake up, Jack. We’re moving out. Your assignment is done.”

My commanding officer barks his orders out, jolting me awake. I open my eyes and try to focus as the dawn barely lights the room around me.

“What do you mean, done? Last night we were waiting on the search warrants. We had the whole family. It was going down… today.” Propping myself up on my elbows, I shake my head, trying to will myself to catch up.

Going over the last few days in my head, this doesn’t make sense. I’ve been on the ground with my unit for months now working special ops undercover with local law enforcement on a federal level, collecting whatever evidence we could and rounding up witnesses. Everything finally began to snowball together three days ago.

First one witness came forward, then a second, then the third came in with solid proof. With Port Thomas being a smaller city nestled near the coast in Oregon, law enforcement is always underfunded so they were thankful for the additional manpower, as long as we didn’t step on too many toes.

We had our mission in place for today, but this wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

“It blew up. Shit went down a few hours ago. Apparently, they knew we were coming. The Sparr family is gone. All of the evidence against them is now speculative. Four witnesses are dead. Another two are missing.” Then, as he opens his mouth, I see the hesitation in his eyes as his body physically braces for a fight.

“Jack.” My commander starts then stops, carefully considering his words with a frustrating pause. “It’s Jessa. Both her and her brother’s bodies are missing.”

“What do you mean, missing?” Then the weight of his words hits me. “Wait. What do you mean, bodies?” I bolt out of bed onto shaky legs as I feel my world begin to crumble piece by piece.

He chose his words carefully. She isn’t missing.

Her body is missing.

“Her family was in a car accident just outside of town at the bridge. It looks like they went over the cliff. Her parents’ bodies were recovered from the ravine along with the car. We don’t know yet if it’s related but three other people from the company are dead as well. It was a quick job.” He glances around my area as I feel panic begin to flow through my veins.

“Maybe Jessa and Travis weren’t in the car. Did you check their house?” I counter in a desperate attempt to think of something they haven’t yet.

Thoughts quickly come to me. I just saw both Jessa and Travis yesterday. We were all talking about how fast our high school grad is coming up in a few months. For siblings, they are almost inseparable. Twins who look nothing alike but finished each others sentences at every turn.

When I started this undercover op, six months ago, I never expected to meet someone like Jessa. I was just a kid myself at 23 and I was five years older than her and her brother. But I fit into their senior year in high school. No one knew my secret.

Everything about Jessa just fit for me.

And now they are both missing.

“We’ve been to the house and the hospital. We retrieved the car an hour ago. The back side window was broken out from the inside. We found her school bag in the back seat. And before you ask, we already have over half the team in on the search. We’ve been working with the local guys and they have all of her information. We’re checking the river banks as well as the water. Anyone making it out will be found, unless…” His voice trails off in realization that he said too much, but I pick up where he left off.

“Unless they got pulled under and sucked down the rapids.” I feel my empty stomach clench tight.

His eyes stay locked on me as I pause to gather my thoughts then, without pretense, my body involuntarily spins to get dressed and go after Jessa and that’s when I notice them.

Two men standing behind my commanding officer.

“Look, Jack. We know you and Jessa became close but you need to let the team handle it. Finding her and her brother is their priority while we’re still here. Our mission still stands though and your orders are to pack up and let them do their job.” His attempt at pacifying me is beginning to speak to a part of me that I don’t want to show as the way he trivializes my feelings for her ignites my fight or flight reflexes.

We didn’t become close.

She was it.

She was everything.

She was mine and after the arrests were made, I was coming for her. I was going to come clean about everything. I was going to tell her I was undercover and older than she thought I was. I was going to ask her to forgive my secrets and I was going to tell her I loved her.

Now she’s gone.