Reckless Bounty (Intergalactic Justice Book 1)

by Marly Mathews

  Pulling it open, she heard the guy finally speak. “Uh. Thanks. Glad to be of service.” He was still in shock. As she left, she heard him say, “Bye.”

  She was now at the disadvantage. Though on the upside, if she did manage to capture Clayton and his friend, she might just be able to collect twice the amount that she had originally anticipated.

  Oh, happy days!

  Sometimes her partner made mistakes and missed some of their targets. If she could bring this one in, Johanna would definitely be excited.

  Samantha dashed frantically through the building, down the stairs and then stopped at the door.

  Clayton and his friend laid in wait for her and she knew they’d be there. Opening the door, she threw out a disorientation grenade. They started hacking and gasping for breath.

  The thick purple smoke the grenade emitted swirled around them. She smiled. Within seconds, they were completely debilitated and harmless as babes. But they were in no shape or form as cute, and she wouldn’t change their diapers in a million years.

  Samantha stormed out in front of Clayton and his friend. She grinned at the effect of the grenade. They were so woozy they looked like they were ready for death’s door. She reached inside her coat for her electrical handcuffs.

  Fastening them around Clayton’s wrists, she snorted. “Why couldn’t you have just done it the easy way?” She clenched her teeth together. Her shoulder pulsed with pain reminding her that she was a wounded woman. “You know, Clayton, you’re a great big pain in the ass. Literally. You really try my patience!”

  She reached for her communicator and sighed with relief when she heard Johanna’s strained voice on the other end.

  “Dear God! Samantha, where are you?” The whirring sound of traffic carried through the speaker.

  “I have the targeted bounty and I am down on the ground in front of Landry’s Apartment Complex. Please come and get me. I have a 180,” Samantha explained, exhaustion seeping into her otherwise calm tone.

  “Right away,” Johanna snapped off.

  Johanna instantly interpreted the code they used. Since 180 meant that she was harmed in the line of duty, her sister would move her ass to come and get her. She blinked her eyes, having a hard time warding off her dizziness.

  Everything swirled around her. She felt as if she’d been drugged. The pain and loss of blood were definitely getting to her. She just had to hold out and pray that Johanna would reach her in time.

  Johanna would.

  She’d never failed her before.

  *****

  Johanna lowered the hover mobile down to the cement walkway outside of Landry’s, and released the hatch. She jumped out of the driver’s side and her eyes widened with concern when she noticed how pale her sister had become.

  “Good lord, Sam. You look like death warmed over,” Johanna exclaimed, grabbing a hold of the two prisoners and hauling them over to shove them in the back of their car that was equipped for air and ground transportation.

  “I feel like death warmed over,” she muttered.

  All of the fight had vanished from Clayton and his buddy thanks to the drugs rippling through their systems.

  “Sam,” Johanna called out. “Can you manage to get yourself into Aggie?”

  Aggie was what they called their car and though they both knew it was foolish to name a vehicle they just couldn’t help themselves.

  “Yep, you bet,” Samantha gasped. Wincing, she slumped into the passenger side.

  Johanna shoved Clayton and his friend into Aggie, and then harnessed them in. She activated the force field that surrounded them and kept them out of sabotaging the rest of the car.

  Slamming the door shut, she locked it securely. Running back over to the driver’s side she slipped inside. She turned her head at the sound of two hovercrafts quickly approaching their position.

  Turning to Samantha, she gave her a jubilant smile, which quickly faded when she looked at the random blips on the computer screen. “That doesn’t look good. What do you think, Sam?”

  “I think we’ve got trouble. Aggie, identify incoming vehicles,” Samantha ordered. She pressed a gauze pad onto her shoulder from the med kit.

  “Third-class Dyvanian hover speeders. Two humanoid individuals, genders male. The Dyvanian race is a cruel and calculating race known for their illegal drug trafficking on the Rim and for slave trading. I would suggest we lose them, as soon as you can, Johanna.” The female computer system promptly said in her monotone voice.

  *****

  Nothing was ever easy for them. It seemed like just when everything was going their way, the shit hit the fan again.

  “Double Damn!” Samantha muttered, craning her neck around to look out the back window. “I need this like I need a hole in the head. Uh, Jo, I think that it would be very wise if you took us away from here as quickly as you can. It seems that Clayton has some friends that are really missing him.”

  Her eyes widened. It didn’t take her long, to sum up, the battle capabilities of the craft that were quickly overtaking them.

  “He’s a bloody murderer. How many friends can he have? Oh, wait. Scratch that question. He’s probably got a freaking shipload of nasty-assed cohorts waiting to rescue his fat ass,” Johanna shot back. She activated Aggie and slowly brought her up into the air.

  “It was all a misunderstanding. Really. I had to teach him a lesson. I never thought that it was gonna kill him. But did he listen?” Clayton whined from the back of the car.

  “What did you think he was going to do when you threw him out of your hover car? Did you actually believe that he was going to sprout wings and fly? Plus, they were the wrong race to cross. They are the kind of people to send you home in pieces!” Samantha shouted.

  Aggie shook under the massive impact of the enemies mounted phase guns. Samantha reached for the weapons control.

  Leaning forward, she tried to program some defensive shooting patterns.

  “Dylan wasn’t able to finish that,” Johanna murmured. “He’s been a little preoccupied what with Tyler gallivanting all over the galaxy…” Swerving, they narrowly missed colliding with an oncoming car.

  “Freaking wonderful. Remind me to smack him upside the head the next time I see him. If we live through this, that is.” Samantha slammed against her door and was then hurled forward when another blast connected with Aggie.

  They never seemed to have the money or the time to finish any of the repairs and she was sick to death of everything breaking down on them when they needed it the most!

  “They aren’t trying to blow us up, they are simply trying to get me to land. And I’m not landing until we reach The Excalibur. Then we can get off of this godforsaken planet!”

  Johanna made a sharp turn and headed for the entranceway to a land formed tunnel. Swerving low, Johanna barely missed scraping the top of the car. She struggled to control Aggie, as they flew into the shallow tunnel.

  “Oh, shit! I really don’t think this is a good idea, Jo,” Samantha warned, pressing back against her seat, and briefly closing her eyes.

  They entered the tight passageway and her belly flip-flopped. It was eerily dark inside of the tunnel and Johanna lit it up as she turned the new specially designed headlight on that Dylan had installed only days before.

  The blinding light blasted through the tunnel. It took a moment for Samantha’s eyes to adjust. She looked back and swallowed the lump in her throat when she saw what their enemies had just shot at them.

  “You know your theory about how they weren’t going to blow us up? Well, my dearest sister, I think that’s just been shot to hell. I don’t think Clayton has as many friends as we originally thought. Either that or we have more enemies than we thought. That’s a mat grenade. And it’s stuck to our roof!”

  “Oh, God! Just what we need,” Johanna gasped lifting them out of the tunnel. “What do you plan to do? No, Sam. I see that look on your face. Don’t you even dare! Did you hear me?

  Oh, no, no, no! You can�
�t be serious! Even I think what you have in mind is too big of a risk. How the hell do we get ourselves in these kinds of situations? There must be another way,” she whistled. “I’ve got it! We could always bail out.”

  “Bail out? On our one and only Aggie? I don’t think so. If we do, we’ll be without Aggie, and we’ll be sitting ducks,” Samantha answered. “I don’t fancy being sold to the highest bidder, how about you?” When her sister remained silent, she gritted her teeth and opened her window. “Keep the communication channel open. I might need your help. Get ready to do some fancy flying!”

  “Aren’t I always ready? Just get your butt back in here in one piece!” Johanna screamed, the frustration seeping through her soft voice.

  “Love you, too,” Samantha whispered. “Don’t worry about me, I’m charmed…I’ll just tap into the power inside of me and hope it answers,” she mumbled.

  She winked at her sister and climbed cautiously out the window.

  Pulling herself up onto the roof she thought about her sister’s touching concern. On a whim, she fastened herself to the top of the car as Johanna always said it was better to play it safe than take the ride home in a box.

  Samantha edged her way over to the grenade and fought her way through the strong current of air. She fell onto her ass when a particularly strong gust assaulted her. Reacting instantly, she rolled onto her stomach when she heard Johanna’s half-screamed warning.

  A long thin line of green laser bolts flashed past her and the car shook as it hit the side of Johanna’s door.

  “Jo!” she whispered frantically. “You okay?” Fear leapt through her.

  “I’m fine,” her sister automatically replied. Samantha heard her mutter under her breath, “But there goes another few years of my life!”

  She crawled over to the grenade and rolled her eyes when she saw the time display.

  “This night just keeps getting better and better,” she growled, pursing her lips. She quickly pulled out her laser pen and tried to unfasten the grenade from the roof of the car.

  Samantha had three minutes to get the grenade off and away from Aggie or they’d all be walking through the pearly gates before their time.

  “Jo, I need you to stop when I say stop and then floor it when I say go. I have a little gift for our generous friends. I think that they’re going to get an early Christmas present this year.”

  “You’re just a regular Santa Claus,” Johanna replied. “I always knew that your initials stood for something.”

  Samantha yanked the grenade off and felt it thrumming beneath her fingertips.

  “Stop!” she yelled. The vehicle slowed to almost a standstill as slow as Jo could go without having Aggie stall out on them. “Now get me close and then burn like lightning!”

  “Aye, Aye, mon Capitaine.”

  Johanna skillfully guided Aggie as close as she could to the pursuing vehicles.

  Samantha threw the grenade onto one of their cars and then saluted them with thirty seconds to spare.

  She bolted into action. Jumping back down into the passenger seat, she released her security rope.

  Johanna checked to make sure she was back inside safe and sound. Then she floored the engines. They went to maximum speed.

  The night sky lit up as if a thousand firecrackers had detonated. They wouldn’t have to worry about those ruthless jerks coming back to attempt another hit on them.

  “I’m beat. Take me home.” Samantha slumped back in her seat.

  “My pleasure,” Johanna said, smiling brilliantly.

  Chapter Two

  “Are they both locked up and settled for the night?” Samantha asked, pulling the white sheet up to rest beneath her arms.

  Johanna entered the sickbay and walked over to stand beside her sister’s med bed.

  “Everything is fine. Close your eyes and get some rest. You worry too much, Sam.” Johanna assured her. She leaned over and inspected Samantha’s wound. “You know, maybe Mom was right. Perhaps I should have done my internship at Jupiter Medical instead of going into the family business. That’s a great job done on your arm if I do say so myself,” Johanna bragged, patting herself on her back.

  “Thanks, Johanna. I don’t know what we would do without our resident Doctor. It certainly saves us the hassle of finding an Earth Authorized Hospital. You never know what kind of nutty doctors you’re going to find out on The Rim.”

  “With the way that you beat up that beautiful body of yours. You need a doctor at your disposal twenty-four, seven. That’s where I come in. You’re so lucky to have me. Oh, incidentally, it seems that Clayton’s little friend is a hardened criminal and he’s wanted in four systems.

  I was chatting to one of our contacts online and he told me that his bounty would be even heftier than Clayton’s. So, that’s really good news. It should give us enough money to take some time off.

  Right now, we’re just barely scraping by. It’s a good thing you did have Clayton’s buddy fall in your lap. Because if he hadn’t, we would have had to take on cargo or passengers to make enough money to keep us going,” Johanna muttered.

  “Take on passengers? Over my dead body! There’s no way that’s going to happen. What do we tell them when the shit hits the fan? Offer them life insurance?”

  “Samantha, get serious. This life on the edge thing really doesn’t make us that much money. I could have made more as a doctor.”

  “Well, maybe you should have stayed back on Jupiter Prime. I didn’t need your help. I could have done it all on my own.”

  She should have just married Devlin. Maybe she wouldn’t have inadvertently gotten him killed. She’d screwed her life up in such a monumental way, and now her pride wouldn’t let her reach out to him and tell him that she was wrong.

  Dead silence fell between them.

  “I’m going to ignore that comment. You are in a good deal of pain, and you had a hard day. You don’t know what you’re saying. Anyway, I think that once we deliver Clayton and Gus that we should return to Earth and visit Mom, Charlotte and Jessica.

  I need a vacation and so do you. Dylan wants to take me to Hawaii and since we can’t fly Excalibur within Earth’s atmosphere, we’ll have to pay to get there. I don’t know how to tell him that we’re almost broke. You know Dylan and money. He sort of thinks it’s a renewable source.”

  “That’s because he’s not used to doing without it. His family always has had loads of money. They are like new age Royalty. If Tyler hadn’t had a falling out with them, then they both wouldn’t be here. But you know Dylan, wherever Tyler goes, he follows.”

  Samantha rolled her eyes. Suffocating pain wound its way around her heart.

  Tyler.

  Yet another mistake of hers.

  She’d screwed up their relationship as well. She knew why she and Tyler never could make it work—she always wanted him to be someone else and he could never live up to her ideals.

  If only she could go back in time and fix it all. She never should have married Tyler—even though she’d cared for him, she hadn’t been madly deeply in love with him, and he didn’t deserve to have someone who only half-loved him.

  “Oh, sweetie. Are you thinking about Tyler again? We could ask Dylan where Tyler is, you know. I’m sure he knows. He must. I know he’s always getting messages from him, even though he tries to be secretive about them.”

  “It’s okay. Don’t get him mixed up in this. That isn’t fair. Besides, I wasn’t thinking about Tyler—I was thinking about someone else.”

  “I understand. Why don’t you just try to put Tyler out of your head for a bit? That shoulder is still tender. Since I’ve given you a sleeping tonic, you’ll be getting drowsy soon. So, I’m going to leave you.

  We’ll be at Notting Prime by early morning at the latest, and that’s where we’ll collect the bounties on Gus and Clayton. Believe me, you earned every bit of it. By the way, I saved the bullet that was lodged in your shoulder. I thought maybe you’d want it for a memento.”

>   “Thanks. I’ll add it to my growing collection. I’ll put it in the anything that doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger box.”

  Johanna leaned down and kissed her softly on the forehead.

  “Sleep well.”

  Johanna gently pushed a stray lock of light-blonde hair off of Samantha’s forehead. Her deep violet eyes fluttered closed. The sleeping tonic and painkillers finally overwhelmed her.

  *****

  Samantha’s sleep was frantic and tortured.

  She jumped when she heard the sound of a bullet ripping through the stillness of the night. She was there in the room. There was a man standing over her father’s lifeless body.

  Blood was spilling everywhere. The strong cloying scent of jasmine lingered in the air. She had never been fond of it, and now the smell of it made her feel as if she were suffocating. She turned when a soft breeze fluttered through the open window.

  The man was tall and cast a long shadow across the marble tile. His shoulder length white hair was pulled back into a severe ponytail. He wore a long silver coat that was inches off the floor. His black boots were splattered with blood. He whistled an odd tune as he calmly placed the gun back into the folds of his coat.

  Turn around.

  Turn around, she willed. Just one glimpse of his face, that’s all she needed.

  But he remained impervious to her mental commands, and then stepped away, cloaking himself in the shadows and disappeared into the night, leaving no psychic imprint for the trackers to hunt.

  The trauma of seeing her father murdered, caused her astral form to be sucked back into her human body. She sat upright in bed, shaking and screaming out for her father… but she knew he would not answer, he never did.

  She had failed her family—her powers should have been able to save him but they had been no match for the psychic assassin sent to take out her father.

  Samantha struggled to let go of the horrific memory that tortured her dreams when from out of the mists of time and space someone else reached out to her and her sixth sense picked up on the message.