Reckless Bounty (Intergalactic Justice Book 1)

by Marly Mathews

  And none of them were there at the moment to help her. If Johanna were here, she’d be able to find the exit. Johanna had a knack for those things, and Samantha had always told her she was like a bloodhound.

  Sniff and she shall find.

  Her heart twanged as she suddenly missed her sister. She’d always been able to count on Johanna, when she had been down, but not out. If she couldn’t think of an escape plan Johanna always had one shoved up her sleeve.

  “What would you do right now, Johanna?” she whispered, staring down the two possible hallways.

  She had to choose one. And only one was the right choice.

  If she made the wrong choice, she could very well find herself in the lion’s den with no way out. She recited a childhood verse that her mother had taught her long ago, and then inhaled deeply as she walked down the corridor she had chosen.

  “Please, let this be the right way!”

  She didn’t have any of her nifty little gadgets. No bombs or grapplers or electrical force field.

  Nothing.

  She was left with her own intelligence, strength, and skill.

  Well, granted she had her borrowed pistol but that was the only thing that she could count on in a tight pinch. She could use her powers again but that only increased the risk of being exposed, even though she’d used them back in her cell, she hated to use them again. She needed to get out, and get back to the rest of the gang. She had to tell them, that it was Crenshaw that had murdered Lady Devlin.

  She didn’t know why he had murdered Lady Devlin, except maybe for the fact that he wanted to get her, by eliminating the only competition. Why oh why, did she have to be so bloody gorgeous?

  She sighed heavily, shooting two guards before they could even get their finger on their triggers.

  She stopped and thought about what she was doing.

  She was escaping.

  Running away from the man that had dared to kidnap her. No one took such liberties. What the hell was she thinking? If she let him go, then he’d try it again. No, she had to finish him off by teaching him that Samantha Cassidy belonged to no one. She turned around, as the hairs rose on the back of her neck. She could sense danger, and this time she was listening to her sixth sense. She knew that someone who posed a threat to her was close to her.

  Samantha slowly turned around and narrowed her eyes, as she stood face to face with Tyler. “Oh, hell,” she muttered.

  *****

  “WHY?” Samantha asked, her finger freezing on the trigger as he watched her, with love shining in his gorgeous green eyes.

  She bit her lip to bite back the cry that she felt welling inside of her. She couldn’t figure out how he had escaped the Red Falcon, but nothing about Tyler surprised her.

  After all, she wasn’t the only one with a wealth of talents. He was the King of Thieves, and he was proving that to her in the hardest way. He had stolen her heart, and now he was breaking her heart.

  She would never love again.

  Men weren’t worth all of the trouble that they put women through.

  Tyler had betrayed her. He had to be the one that was the actual murderer. She had no way of knowing how long he had been off of The Emerald Star. Her hands trembled. A sob welled in her throat. She had been wrong when she had believed that water was her only fear and weakness.

  She hadn’t just made a mistake by pushing away Devlin. She had married a murderer, as a result.

  She wanted to break down and cry her eyes out but that wasn’t in her nature, especially when the chips were down, and the odds were stacked against her. She waited for her answer as Tyler stepped closer to her.

  “Stay there, or I swear I’ll shoot!” she threatened, as her voice wobbled.

  She felt numb and drained. Everything she’d done had been for nothing. She’d faced countless challenges, all for him, and now she discovered that he had been behind all of those attempts on her life. He had even ordered the hit on her sister.

  Bastard!

  She would see him rot in hell.

  “I had to do it!” his voice was remarkably calm.

  She snorted when she realized that he wasn’t affected in the least bit.

  “You know, Tyler, you’re a cold-hearted bastard. As far as I’m concerned you can go straight to hell! I should’ve let Devlin hang you when he wanted to.”

  “You’re just saying that, Samantha,” he purred, taking another step toward her. Her rifle whined with its pent-up charge, but she couldn’t bring herself to hurt him.

  She couldn’t kill Dylan’s brother. But she had no compunctions about making herself a widow.

  Samantha’s mind whirled. She couldn’t seem to slow it down. Tyler’s betrayal was making her question herself.

  “Stay put,” she commanded, her tone becoming louder, and more determined. “I mean it,” she nearly shouted. “I don’t want to do it, but I will damn it!”

  “No, you won’t, Sammy,” Tyler said, as she jerked her head to one side.

  “What did you say?” she asked, her brow furrowing, as she studied him again. She reached out with her abilities, raising an eyebrow at what they told her.

  Tyler sighed, and then patiently opened his mouth, “I said… No, you won’t.”

  “Repeat the last word,” she whispered. Her heart stalled in her chest. She moved her feet further apart and held her breath as he answered.

  “Sammy,” he breathed huskily, edging way too close to her. She snorted.

  “Wrong answer, ASSHOLE!” she shouted, feeling strength flow through her. “You are so fired! You don’t need to play the part of Tyler Cassidy anymore,” she said in a shockingly calm voice, raising the setting on the phase rifle. She shot a burning hole right through his chest. “Game over!” she stepped over the lifeless android.

  Some jerk hadn’t done their research.

  The Tyler Android had been placed to purposefully distract her and break her down. But it hadn’t worked. They hadn’t programmed it with one pivotal piece of information. Tyler never called her Sammy, plus they didn’t know about her other talents...talents she had to start using more before her lack of using them got her killed.

  If she’d kept herself open, she would have known it was a machine before her heart had almost given out.

  Something told her to look up, and when she did, she was met with several tiny cameras capturing the whole drama. Intense hatred, the likes of which she had never experienced, and might never experience again, welled in her heart.

  She was no freaking puppet.

  She wasn’t a plaything and somebody was going to learn his lesson the hard way.

  “Have you seen everything that you want, you son of a bitch?” she screamed, taking out the one camera, and then whirling on the other camera. “You picked the wrong woman to screw with! I’m going to hunt you down! Don’t worry, I’m smart enough to know that you aren’t even on this bloody ship.

  Hell, I’m even smart enough to know that Crenshaw isn’t the one that I want dead. He’s only your patsy. But just you wait, when I find you, your days of making my life, hell will be over. I’m going to give you a taste of your own medicine, Samantha Cassidy style,” she promised, raising her middle finger in a silent salute to the camera. She pulled the phase rifle up with her other hand. “This will be the only pleasure you’ll ever be getting from me!” she shouted, shooting the camera and falling silent.

  Since that unpleasant moment was now over, it was about time that she got her sorry ass off of this ship, and back to where she belonged.

  With her family.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Samantha raced through the winding corridors and began to get really pissed off, when she didn’t run into another human being.

  “Who the hell is running this bloody ship anyway? Androids?” She snorted, as her mind began jumping to all sorts of possible conclusions. They wouldn’t have been stupid enough to leave the ship, with no pilot or would they be that idiotic?

  She picked u
p her already speedy pace, and half-ass listened to her heavy boots clang along the metal planks that served as the floor.

  Except for the steady thrumming of the ship, they were the only noise that she could hear. She knew she was on a moving ship, but she still hadn’t decided if it was a spaceship or a submarine of some sort. Or maybe it was a large hover transport.

  She skidded to a halt and found herself outside of what seemed to be the main bridge. She pressed the button to open the door and stood gaping in incredulous awe at the viewscreen in front of her.

  She made a weird noise in the back of her throat as she rushed to the console.

  “No! You son of a bitch! You’re not going to get me that easily,” she threatened, trying desperately to reprogram the self-destruct sequence, which was ticking off seconds on the view screen. “Okay, who the hell am I kidding?” she whispered, directing her phase rifle at the control module.

  She fired at it blowing it up. Almost immediately, it began to sizzle. Smoke filled the air. Ah, ha. She’d done it. Grinning, she stared in triumph at the view screen. It flashed to a blank screen. And she blew out a long rush of air.

  “Phew!” she breathed, rubbing the droplets of sweat off of her forehead.

  Her eyes almost bugged out of her head when a klaxon began ringing. She dropped the phase rifle and tried plugging her ears.

  Damn it!

  Where was the freaking klaxon so that she could shut it off? Everyone knew she could hear things no one else was able too, and the loud shrieking noise was enough to drive her up the wall.

  She stared back at the view screen when a blinding flash filled the room.

  “Oh, crap! Oh double crappers!!!” she gasped, reaching for her discarded rifle.

  Seconds still ticked by on the view screen telling her that she hadn’t been successful in deactivating the self-destruct. Though she had been successful in losing herself twenty minutes. She now only had FIVE minutes, and it was quickly becoming four.

  “Oh, shit! Samantha, when will you ever learn that you are no bloody technical genius?” she chastised, falling into the habit of talking to herself because she was all by herself.

  She’d be fine, as long as she didn’t start answering her questions because then she’d simply have to commit herself to a loony bin.

  She sprang toward the door and cursed a blue streak as she found that it had locked securely again.

  “No way am I going to die inside of a tin can!”

  She at least knew from the setup of the bridge that she was on a submarine. And it wasn’t even that sophisticated since the technology seemed to be at least fifteen years out of date.

  So, in essence, some cheapskate had bought a second-hand submarine and yet they’d been willing to splurge on the most recent Android model just so they could torture her. This was all freaking unbelievable.

  She wasn’t going to die!!!

  She just had to slow down long enough to think of a way to get her ass off of the bridge and into an escape shuttle. But she knew that was easier said than done. She looked down at the setting on her phase rifle, set it at its highest frequency and placed it in front of the locked door. She then dove for cover and instinctively placed her hands over her head, as the charge overloaded.

  The door blew apart and she jumped up. She ran quickly through it, stopping as she suddenly remembered something. She rushed back onto the bridge and stared at the layout of the entire sub that was displayed on the wall.

  “That’s where I want to be!” she muttered, brushing her finger across the tiny icon that signified the shuttle bay.

  Now as long as she made one hell of a mad dash, she might be able to make it off of the sub, by the skin of her teeth. She had to get her booty going, or her booty wouldn’t have a body to make beautiful anymore. She might be able to use her abilities to withstand smaller explosions but a ship this size, she didn’t think her telekinetic force field could withstand that sort of pressure.

  She flicked on her jet pack and used the extra momentum to get her there on time. With only minutes to spare, she arrived in the shuttle bay and groaned when she realized all of the escape shuttles had been taken.

  Oh, hell! Samantha, what did you expect?

  Her stomach plummeted down to the floor, and she realized how foolish she had been. Had she really expected cold-blooded murderers to leave her a shuttle, with an invitation on it?

  “Get real, Samantha. Wake up and smell the coffee.” She sighed as she felt an intense craving for her favourite drink.

  Stop! Think, and let your brains get you out of the mess that you’ve created for yourself. She had come too damn far to be blown into tiny little bits and scattered through the Gyniss Ocean.

  Her eyes desperately scanned the shuttle bay and a tiny flicker of hope flared in her heart when her eyes rested on the oxygen tank and scuba gear.

  “Yeah. Like I can make that work!” she scoffed rolling her eyes. But she didn’t have any choice.

  It would have to do.

  The suit was made to fit over a person’s clothing. By the looks of it, it was outfitted for any unforeseen problem. She quickly pulled it up around her average sized frame and then reached for the rest of the equipment. She stared over at the pool, which obviously led out to the Gyniss Ocean, feeling her knees weaken slightly.

  She had to shake it off and get a hold of herself! It was the only way out. If she didn’t take it, she’d be a goner.

  No second chances.

  No time to take her sweet assed time. It was now or never.

  Since she normally jumped in headfirst, she took a deep breath and dived into the pool.

  She swam through the tunnel that led out into the ocean and had only gotten a few meters away from the ship when inspiration struck her. She would never make it far enough away from the ship before it blew up and killed her with the massive blast. At least she had possessed enough foresight to have removed her jet pack and slung it on the outside of the scuba gear. Now she realized there was no certainty it would work beneath salt water but she had faith in Dylan.

  When he had designed it, he’d promised her it would weather her lifestyle with ease. Then he’d laughed and joked that it would work even while all hell was breaking loose. Well, all hell was about to let loose and if she wasn’t mistaken, she knew Dylan would’ve been intelligent enough to dream up every possible scenario. Though she teased him a lot, she knew they had one of the, if not the best engineer in the Milky Way.

  “Don’t let me down now, Dylan!” she prayed, activating the jet pack and shooting through the water.

  The ship blew up and the concussive blast sent her barreling even further. Luckily, she had been far enough away to avoid any hazardous fragments. When she got back to The Excalibur, she was going to give her favourite monkey boy, one big slobbery kiss on the cheek.

  She kept swimming away from the wreckage deciding to slowly swim toward the surface. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing but she was keeping her fingers crossed that everything would turn out the way it was supposed to.

  She was going to find the real murderer and tie his balls in a knot. Yes, that would make her feel much, much better. She had swum for only a few more meters when she felt something create a tidal wave sensation through the water. She was nearly to the surface and then she would have her many problems nearly solved.

  Her stomach rumbled with hunger. She dreamt of the food that she would eat once she got back to civilization. Maybe she would have chicken and veggies, or fish and veggies. She came to an abrupt halt as her eyes got their fill of what was in front of her.

  “Oh, HOLY MOBY DICK!!!” she gasped out, nearly choking on the sudden lump in her throat.

  She froze in petrified awe and felt a large breath assault her. If she could smell beneath water, she knew that it would stink like shit.

  “Now what do I do!” she murmured out loud, as three yellow eyes glared out at her.

  She swallowed thickly, feeling clammy all over.
Why didn’t I just read that stinking book on Sea Monsters of New Monaco?

  She had heard that New Monaco had ugly water life but had never in her wildest dreams had she imagined something so hideous.

  No dolphins or whales or sharks existed here.

  No siree Bob!

  New Monaco only had really big scary looking sea creatures. Yep, this was probably what the Loch Ness Monster had looked like if indeed it had existed.

  “Hello, Nessie!” she muttered, trying to think of a way to escape the monster, just as Nessie opened her cavernous mouth. “Oh, shit! Don’t mistake me for lunch!” she whispered, turning her jet pack on to the highest speed and swimming away from it, as if her ass was on fire.

  She was definitely going to have chicken for dinner because at the moment, she really wasn’t in the mood for any type of aquatic creature.

  She blasted to the surface and turned around as Nessie rose to the surface behind her.

  “Look, I really don’t need this right now!” she muttered, staring at the monster as it blinked its three eyes in unison. She flinched. “Yuck. That is beginning to give me the creeps!” she said, as if the monster could understand her. Unbelievably, the monster stopped blinking in unison and instead blinked one eye at a time. “Ugh, I’ve got to get out of here. This is some freaky shit!!!” she tried to discard her scuba gear while she held onto her jet pack.

  She slipped it back beneath her sopping wet leather jacket and frowned when the sea creature playfully splashed her. Okay, so Nessie wasn’t going to eat her, she was trying to play with her.

  New Monaco was one screwed up place.

  She felt like she was in someone’s twisted fairy tale, and she wanted out as soon as possible!

  When she had thought that the creature was going to eat her, it had probably only been yawning. First, there was shrinking men, then a genetically engineered freak, then an Android that was programmed to look and act like Tyler.

  Now, she was frigging looking at a monster that wanted to be her friend. She was sick of all of the science fiction crap and she wanted out. Why couldn’t she just have a normal day filled with space pirates and madmen?