Page 13 of Hayes (Voodoo Guardians #37)

Almost exactly thirty-four and a half minutes later, the Osprey hovered in stealth above the mountain. Bonds and Aamani were making their way up the mountain and heard nothing.

As they boarded the chopper, Victoria hugged her father, then Hoot and the others.

“I’m so damn proud of you,” said Mo, “but you’re grounded.” She laughed, shaking her head at him.

“Thank you, Victoria,” said Hoot. “You saved my son.”

“I saved my future husband,” she grinned. “I know that I messed up. I should have woken everyone or found you. I should have left a detailed message, something. I just wasn’t thinking clearly.”

“Weren’t you afraid, honey?” asked Eric.

“I-I was. I mean, I remember that I was, but the fear for Hayes overwhelmed me. I guess that’s what I needed,” she smiled.

“Yeah, well, that might be true, but let’s not do that again, okay?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, grinning at Eric. “Thank you all for coming for us. Are we headed home?”

“Not just yet,” said Luke. “We’re going to hang around for a few days to see what we can find out about Bonds and Khalil.

We know that he’s trying to cause upheaval in the area, but ruling the area, district, or even the country isn’t in the cards for him.

There are too many men above him far more powerful. ”

“What do you know about Bonds?” asked Mo, staring at his soon-to-be son-in-law.

“He met Dad, Gator, Jak, and Tanner when they came to see me one weekend. I always knew I was going to enter SEAL training and hopefully be accepted, but I wanted to do it on my own. I spent a few years in intelligence, and they were impressed with my work.”

“What specific work?” asked Cam.

“Obviously, a lot with data and comms. Most of the equipment is ours, G.R.I.P.’s, so if it needed repairs or upgrades, it was child’s play for me to fix it.”

“And he saw that?” asked Cam.

“I don’t know if he saw it, necessarily, but he knew the outcome, which was that it was fixed. He was really weird the weekend he met Dad and the others, though. He even said some of the names sounded familiar.”

“I remember that,” said Jak. “He stared hard at your dad and me for sure.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t just that. He always seemed to be watching me. He was wherever I was, and when I worked on things during missions, he always seemed to be over my shoulder. OUCH!” he yelled, looking down at Cruz.

“You wanna keep the hand or not?” he growled.

“I’d appreciate keeping the hand,” he smirked. Then he sobered, staring at Cruz. “Wait. Am I at risk of losing my hand?”

“No,” said Cruz, frustrated. “But it’s a fucking mess. Victoria did a great job of setting the bones, but you did some serious damage, and I’m not sure how much mobility you’re going to have with it going forward.”

“Maybe the pond will help,” he frowned.

“The pond should help, but I just want to get it to a good point right now.”

“Thank you, Cruz,” smiled Victoria.

“You did good, kiddo,” he said, smiling at her.

“Back to Bonds. Why was he on this mission? Shouldn’t he be in Coronado?” asked Luke.

“That’s what we all said. Our normal command, Gregor Dodds, came down with a stomach bug that had him in the hospital. Bonds happily stepped forward and took his place,” said Hayes.

“I bet he did,” growled Hoot.

“We have clearance to land and stay in Qatar,” said Autumn. She was flying with Chipper, who, in spite of his age, was still one of the best combat pilots on the team. Luke and Cam nodded at their team.

“Alright, we’ll find accommodations in Qatar, lay all this out, and then we find Bonds.”