Page 4 of Hayes (Voodoo Guardians #37)

Victoria sat on a bench within the maze, softly crying into her sleeve. She didn’t want anyone to hear her, and she didn’t want to bother her adoptive parents about all of this. It felt so silly.

Hayes should be able to understand how she was feeling. He knew her fears and why she didn’t want to leave the property. Why was he pushing her so hard?

“Care for some company?” asked Ajei, walking toward her with Kate, Sophia, and Gwen.

“Oh,” she sniffed, wiping her eyes. “Sure.”

“Honey, what’s going on?” asked Ajei.

“It’s Hayes,” she hiccupped. “He wants to join the Navy, which is fine, I guess. But he’s insistent that I come and live off-base with him. I don’t want to leave here!”

“You don’t have to leave here, Victoria,” said Sophia Ann. “We’ve told you that you don’t have to leave here. But let me ask you something. What if we were forced to leave this place? What if something happened to the property, to the world, that forced us to leave?”

“We’d be leaving together. All of us,” she said through tears.

“Yes, that’s true. But you’d be leaving. Are you saying that if we all went with you, you’d leave?” asked Ajei.

“Yes. No. Maybe. I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “I feel safe here. Doesn’t anyone understand that? I feel like I’m protected here, that the world can’t get to me. I don’t want to leave.”

“Honey, you are protected here,” said Gwen, rubbing her arms. “We’re all protected here, but we’re not so na?ve as to believe that the world can’t get to us here. They could. It’s unlikely, but it could happen.”

“I’m not na?ve,” she said in a childlike tone.

“I wasn’t calling you na?ve,” said Gwen, smiling at her. “What are you really afraid of, Victoria?”

“I was taken, over and over again. Taken from my home, taken from schools, taken from every place where I started to feel even the smallest bit of safety. Then I came here. No one has attempted to take me. I’m safe here.”

“Honey, you’ve got things backwards,” said Kate. “You are safe here, but you’re also safe out there. We’ve proven that to you. The people who took you are no longer living. There is no threat for you, or Hayes, or Monroe, or any of you.”

“So, you’re saying I should just run out into the world with no protection?” she asked sarcastically.

“Victoria, you know we’re not suggesting that,” said Kate. “I think it would help you to take small day trips, eventually taking some overnight trips with other people. Just a few.”

“I’ll think about it,” she said, walking away from the women. What she really wanted to do was run from them, but then again, where would she run? She didn’t want to leave the property, so her only option was her parents’ cottage.

She knew the women were trying to help her, but no one understood the depth of her fear of the outside world.

“That young woman is going to be left all alone if she doesn’t do something,” said Sophia Ann.

As time went on, Hayes did leave for the Navy, and Victoria vowed to stay in touch and support him in his career choices. There were glimpses of her making progress, sitting at Café du Monde with Angel and Trak, having café au lait and beignets.

While with them, she felt safe and protected and was actually enjoying the experience of being out and in the city. But the moment she returned to Belle Fleur, it was as if the noose tightened once again, and she couldn’t leave.

Hayes went off and joined the Navy, not returning home for quite some time. He wanted to clear his head and do things in his own way. Become the man that he knew he could be.

While meeting about a case, the team was shocked to see him walk in.