Reckless Bounty (Intergalactic Justice Book 1)

by Marly Mathews

  She grinned as the bars sizzled and melted away. “This latest invention of your brother’s is definitely a keeper!” she exclaimed.

  Tyler reached through the bars and briefly settled his hand over hers. He squeezed it gently, and gave her one of his heart stopping smiles.

  “This means more to me than you will ever know,” Tyler whispered.

  Just then, the criminal in the next cell over roused from his slumber. Samantha bit her lip. She couldn’t show her rioting emotions to him. She didn’t know what she wanted anymore and she felt wretched when she thought about it. If she dwelled on that issue for too long, she’d lose control and they’d both end up behind bars.

  “Oh, hell,” Samantha growled, darting her gaze toward the rough looking man. The prisoner belched, and then farted loudly. “We have to move fast, like I always say, we’re going to have to move it or lose it.” She smiled. “Come on,” she said, reaching for his hand. She pulled him out into the hallway, and sniffed as something that smelt remarkably like garbage wafted toward her. “Johanna,” she murmured, “Be waiting for us above the roof. Drop down a rope ladder so that we’ll be able to make a discreet getaway.”

  “Yeah, like that’s going to happen. Discreet isn’t exactly your middle name,” Johanna muttered back.

  The screech of Aggies’s engines rang out over the communication channel as she maneuvered Aggie into the specified location.

  “Johanna is her same old sweet self, I hear,” Tyler remarked, sarcasm dripping through his tone.

  Samantha’s jaw dropped. A loud whining noise hit her eardrums, and then the door to the office area burst open.

  “SHIT!” Tyler and Samantha both said in unison.

  Veronica Hutchins stared at Samantha in wide-eyed amazement. Shock turned to determination. She pushed the Sheriff’s Deputies aside and pushed up her sleeves. The determined glint that had entered her eyes seconds before intensified tenfold.

  “Leave this little bitch to me!” Veronica commanded.

  Murmuring inaudible grunts, they obediently fell back.

  Samantha groaned and elbowed Tyler in the ribs.

  “Stop standing around like you’re a brainless twit. Go and climb up onto the roof, and get into Aggie. I’ll be up shortly,” she promised, between clenched teeth.

  “I’m not leaving you with Veronica. She just called you a bitch,” Tyler pointed out, staring down at Samantha resolutely.

  “Men,” Samantha huffed, glaring up at him. “I didn’t save your sorry ass only to find it stuck behind bars again. You either get up there or I’ll never speak to you again!” She prayed that he would just listen to her, instead of making her day even more complicated than it already had become.

  She really didn’t need all of this fuss and bother. Whatever happened to the nice simple day, filled with no obstacles, and no ball busting women that were in dire need of a good ass-kicking!

  Ah, to have one of those blissful days! She fell into a fighting stance. She heard Tyler, shoot down the hall and wondered at the sound of his uneven gait.

  “So Big V, we meet again,” Samantha remarked dryly, studiously noting every weak spot on the woman’s formidable anatomy.

  It was going to be bloody difficult bringing her down in hand-to-hand combat. She had been there done that, and she hadn’t been particularly crazy about the outcome. She had emerged barely victorious, and she’d been sore for months afterward.

  “Greetings Sammy,” Veronica snarled, quickly reaching for her stun gun.

  “Ah, do you know the saying fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on you?” Samantha asked, reaching for a small metal ball that hung on her belt. “Well, I’ve learned just what it means since we last met, and in a few minutes, you are going to get a taste of your own medicine. My compliments, Big V!” She saluted Veronica, and then threw down the large stun grenade.

  Some would say she was playing dirty. But when she was up against Veronica she had to play the only way Veronica knew how to play the game, and she was as dirty as they came when it came right down to it.

  With only seconds to spare, she turned and bolted toward the escape hatch and climbed it as if her ass was on fire. She emerged breathless onto the roof and searched the sky for Aggie.

  “Bloody wonderful!” she gasped, pushing her hair out of her eyes. The winds had picked up…and the sky looked stormy.

  Johanna’s voice crackled across the communication channel. “Hold on to your horses. I’m coming back for you. I had to deal with a minor distraction!” Johanna cried out, screaming as someone fired at her. “Eat this butt head,” Johanna screamed out. Laser shots fired across the early morning sky.

  Samantha watched the battle in the sky, and then screamed out in frustration when the wind was knocked out of her. She was face down on the cement, and Veronica straddled her.

  “Get off of me you crazy assed bitch!” Samantha yelled.

  Adrenaline pumped through her. She pushed with all of her might and threw Veronica off balance. She went careening through the air and landed on her ass.

  Veronica shot a furious gaze at her. “Holy crap that hurt. I felt like I had a hippo straddling me!” She so didn’t need this bitch to get in her way. Blood trickled down the side of her cheek.

  “You just called me a hippo! I am going to make you pay for that comment, bitch!”

  “Yeah, well, get over it. Now you’ve really pissed me off,” she muttered. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aggie come racing toward her.

  Perfect timing, as usual. Samantha bolted to her feet. Veronica came lunging at her again. They struggled for a few moments, as hand and foot strikes blurred.

  For every strike Veronica served Samantha with, Samantha deflected it, and Veronica reacted in the same way. Samantha finally managed to flip the much larger woman over her shoulder.

  She ran for Aggie, and the lowered ladder, and jumped onto it. At the same exact moment, Veronica propelled herself to her feet and pursued her.

  Veronica was hot on her trail, and Samantha tried desperately to make it up the ladder before Veronica could reach it, but the woman pulled off a daredevil stunt, and lunged at the ladder. Veronica grasped the lowest rail and hung on for all she was worth.

  “You know one of these days. Just one of these days, the powers that be are going to take pity on me and cut me some slack!” Samantha cried, just as Veronica grabbed onto her ankle.

  Chapter Nine

  The harsh wind blasted against Samantha. She sputtered, and tried to spit out the dirt that had flown into her mouth. She squinted her eyes against the blaring sun and grunted, when she felt Veronica pulling on her leg.

  Some more dirt clustered in her eyes, and she let out a mental scream against the pain. She should have worn sunglasses.

  “Stop pulling on my leg. What are you a freaking lunatic? If you haven’t noticed butt head, we are hanging out of a bloody flying car and if you keep on tugging on me, we’ll both plummet to our not so pretty deaths. I don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly want to be scraped off of the sidewalk!” Samantha stared up into Tyler’s anxious eyes. He leaned toward her.

  “Take my hand!” he urged.

  Thankfully, Veronica abruptly ended her tug of war. Proving her wrong again. She had believed that Veronica was a brainless nitwit.

  “Hey, Big V, why don’t we agree to a truce, and then after we are out of this shit your pants situation, we can agree to disagree. Deal?” Samantha asked, dreading the answer.

  She knew Veronica was as tough as nails, but she highly doubted that even Veronica wanted to take a dive on the wild side.

  “Deal,” Veronica grudgingly agreed. Her grip slackened ever so slightly on Samantha’s ankle.

  Samantha blew out a gust of relieved air. Veronica released her ankle. She breathed deeply and began climbing, as Veronica followed her.

  Clambering the rest of the way up, she gratefully accepted Tyler’s assistance as he pulled her into the hover car. He quickly wrap
ped his arms around her, when Johanna had to make an evasive maneuver.

  The car rolled to one side. “What the hell are you doing up there? Trying to shake me off?” Veronica screamed.

  Feeling the blood drain from her face, Samantha peeked over the side of the car and found to her relief that Veronica was still perilously hanging on. Though by the looks of things, she knew Veronica wouldn’t last much longer.

  Wincing against the reawakened pain in her arm, she reached for her, even as she bit back a scream of sheer agony.

  “Let me, Samantha. I know that you don’t need a man to do anything for you but I think that Johanna could use an extra pair of hands. Besides, Big V weighs a lot more than you, and I’ll probably be able to pull her up. If you accidentally let go of her, you’d never forgive yourself!”

  Tyler did have a point. Sometimes his perceptiveness caught her off guard.

  “Would someone get me the hell off this damn ladder? Stop acting like bumbling nitwits and give me a fucking hand!” Veronica shouted.

  Tyler and Samantha cringed in unison. “She really does have a grating voice, you know that?” Tyler muttered.

  “Be my guest,” Samantha invited. Even though she was secretly relieved at his offer, she’d never let him see it.

  She sank into the passenger seat. Sighing, she brought up the weapons schematics. The holographic light lit up the small space. “Haven’t we lost them yet?” Samantha arched an eyebrow at the loud snort Johanna let out.

  “Easier said than done, I’m afraid!” Samantha stole a glance at Johanna out of the corner of her eye. Johanna’s face was a violent red.

  “If you’re this worked up, Jo, we must be right in the grease in the frying pan!”

  Samantha glanced over her shoulder at Tyler and narrowed her eyes when she caught sight of the bloody stain on his pant leg. She pursed her lips together in anger, realizing that someone had gone and inflicted bodily harm on him.

  When she found out whom that someone was, she was going to make sure they got one hell of a payback.

  Tyler hefted Veronica into the car. Samantha had to admit that when push came to shove Tyler’s prowess and strength still made her tingle from head to foot.

  He was all man. And at one point in time he’d been all hers. She wondered where they were going to go now that they were reunited.

  Granted, the circumstances were very unusual. But she still had strong feelings for him. If it had been totally up to her, she’d carry on just where they’d left off, he came with fewer complications.

  Devlin, on the other hand, was almost as much trouble as she was.

  Some people said that she was a force of nature, but compared to Tyler they complimented each other in perfect harmony. Samantha swallowed and tried to pull her thoughts away from Tyler and what could have been.

  Instead, she focused her attention on Veronica, who had become suspiciously silent. Veronica’s cheeks were a bright red, and her eyes still hadn’t lost their terror.

  For one brief second, Samantha actually felt sorry for the mean-spirited woman that is until she opened her great big trap.

  “You’re mine now, Cassidy!” Veronica bragged, looping an arm around him.

  He immediately shrugged her off and served her with a disgusted stare.

  “Oh, I think that you’re gravely mistaken, Big V,” Samantha remarked while she worked the weapons control. “He’s mine and you can’t ever have him.”

  Johanna shot her a grin. “Driving and working weapons control is a bloody nuisance. I should trust Aggie to do one or the other, but when my loved ones butts are at stake to be fried like a bright green tomato, I take the responsibility upon myself. You know, I don’t think the Deputies are going to let us go, with a ticket of congratulations.”

  She easily weaved in and out through traffic, having finally dumped the last bogey on their tail.

  “You’re all prisoners of mine, now!” Veronica declared, from the back seat. “Since you are helping to harbour a fugitive from the law, I feel quite certain that Lord Devlin will be sticking bounties on your heads… probably as we speak.”

  “Listen to the inflated ass,” Samantha said to her sister. Johanna chuckled. “You know, Veronica, I don’t see you in the driver’s seat, and from my perspective, I really don’t think that anyone will believe you weren’t aiding and abetting us.” Samantha shared a conspiratorial wink with Johanna.

  She smiled as Johanna mouthed the words ‘you are bad’ at her.

  “My sister and I haven’t gone the whole nine yards, just to have you come in and break down our proverbial door. You may sit there and shut up while we come to a mutual agreement.

  First of all, Tyler just saved your stinking life and you owe him. Secondly, I didn’t shake you off and let you fall to your death so you owe me. And thirdly, I am in no mood to take any bullshit from you.

  You can either agree with what I am about to propose or you can try your luck at jumping out of Aggie.” Samantha turned around to face the now sputtering woman. “Look, I could use a woman like you on my team while I search for Lady Devlin’s real murderer. You can agree to work with us in proving Tyler’s innocence beyond a reasonable doubt and then we can split the bounty on the real murderer, or you can try your hand at sky walking. If I were you, I’d pick the first choice.”

  Samantha hoped that her instinct was right on target with Veronica. She knew how Veronica conducted business. She admired strength and abhorred weakness. So, if Veronica knew she’d just met her match, she’d probably be easier to deal with.

  Veronica stared at her with heated daggers striking from her beady brown eyes. And if looks could kill, Samantha would’ve been greeting her maker.

  “I should not be agreeing with you… you and I are rivals…” But though Veronica grumbled a great deal under her breath, she finally blew out a gust of wind right into Tyler’s face. He turned a puce colour, and then leaned his head out the window for some fresh air. “You could use a breath mint or even better, a toothbrush,” he mumbled.

  “Fine,” Veronica licked her lips. “I’d like to take Tyler in, but you’re right, he has placed a reasonable doubt in my mind. I didn’t want to consider it at first, but the man did save my life. Oh, hell. I guess we can come to an agreement that will be mutually beneficial,” Veronica relented, looking as if she’d sucked on a whole bag of sour lemons. “But when I fulfill our agreement, I won’t owe you a damn thing. Deal?” Veronica asked, extending her dirt-smudged hand.

  “Deal,” Samantha agreed, reaching to shake the woman’s man-sized paw.

  Chapter Ten

  “Aggie, open a channel via Lucy to Dylan,” Samantha said.

  They had a thirty-minute trip back to the docking bay. In the meantime, she could put Dylan’s mind at ease concerning Tyler.

  So far, they hadn’t been pursued and they were hoping their luck would hold out until they made it back to The Excalibur and off of New Monaco. The newly opened communication channel chimed, indicating it was secure for Samantha to talk.

  Because they were linking the communication channel through to The Excalibur, a miniature holographic visual screen popped up in front of Samantha. She could see Dylan, but he wouldn’t be able to see her.

  “Dylan!” Samantha barked.

  Dylan bumped his head on the console he worked under.

  “Shit!” he cursed, hearing Samantha’s commanding tone. “What is it now, Samantha?” he demanded, wiping his greasy hands off on his handkerchief.

  His eyes darted to one of the internal sensors that Aggie had fed through to gain visual. Samantha sighed deeply, and silently implored Tyler to keep his mouth shut.

  “We’re on our way back. We should be arriving within the half hour,” Samantha said.

  At her words, Dylan’s entire face lit up.

  “Please, tell me that you have him!” Dylan implored, sounding like a little boy on Christmas morning.

  “Oh, ye of little faith,” Samantha snorted tossing her head
at her sister. “Can you believe your dear husband?” she asked Johanna, slightly annoyed at his lack of trust.

  “Of course she has me, butt brain,” Tyler said, bravely interrupting Samantha.

  “Thank God,” Dylan breathed, turning toward Lucy, who had just materialized out of nowhere.

  “We have a guest knocking on our front door,” Lucy said primly, smiling at Dylan.

  “We don’t have a front door, Lucy,” Dylan said tiredly. He moved toward the view screen, in engineering.

  Samantha watched as Lucy pulled up a scene of the activity going on outside of The Excalibur. Try as she might, the engineering view screen was too far away and too small for Samantha to catch sight of anything.

  “You know what I mean,” Lucy huffed. She made a loud crackling noise and quickly disappeared.

  “Do this, Dylan, do that Dylan, kiss my ass Dylan,” he rambled.

  Samantha broke through the intercom. A grin broke out across her face. She’d really have a fun time calling him on that one.

  “Say that again, Dylan. I don’t think that I quite heard it the first time,” Samantha teased, an edge of humor began creeping into her voice.

  “Sorry,” Dylan mumbled. He darted a gaze toward the internal sensors and stuck his tongue out at her.

  Then he turned back and quickly made his way to the ship’s hatch. He listened for a brief moment to the loud noise that slightly resembled a lawn mower as it blared out across the intercom.

  “What in the known worlds is that bloody awful noise?” Dylan asked.

  Back in the car Samantha turned and rolled her eyes in Veronica’s direction.

  “That would be Veronica. She fell asleep about five minutes ago, and now she has decided to treat us to her wonderful snoring. I’d wake her up, but, to be honest, I like her better this way.”

  “Veronica?” Dylan asked. “Okay, hold up. What exactly have I missed? How did you manage to get Tyler away from Veronica, and then get her to fall asleep in your car? I thought she was the proverbial bitch from hell. You don’t have her hogtied do you?”