Reckless Bounty (Intergalactic Justice Book 1)

by Marly Mathews

  “Yes. What do you want?” an unfamiliar voice asked.

  “Get me the Red Falcon,” Samantha snapped off, blowing out a gust of impatient air.

  “He’s busy at the moment,” the voice replied rather huffily.

  Samantha leaned forward about to rip the person on the other end a new one, when Devlin intervened.

  “Connie, get my son on the line pronto,” he ordered, as Connie let out a surprised gasp.

  “Yes, my lord,” Connie said. Two seconds later, the Red Falcon’s voice blared out to them.

  “What do you want, Devlin?” he asked impatiently.

  Samantha jumped in before Devlin could open his mouth.

  “I wanted to tell you, that we’re coming for a visit, and we’re bringing company. In other words, we’re coming in hot!” Samantha said, just as Eleanor was hit again and the channel went dead. “Freaking terrific!” Samantha muttered.

  Chapter Forty

  Eleanor was doing her best, but she couldn’t seem to shake the bogeys that still clung to their tail, and Samantha was worried to the point of chewing her fingernails. They broke out of New Monaco’s atmosphere and Samantha screamed out in frustration when they were all greeted with empty space.

  “Not good!” Samantha muttered tensely, twisting herself around in her seat. “Those assholes are still hot on our trail, and the courageous Red Falcon has decided to make a disappearing act. You know, I shouldn’t be surprised. I mean I’ve had the shittiest past few days and this one’s the icing on the bloody cake.”

  She heard Ross’s stomach grumble at the mention of food and she gave him an annoyed stare.

  “Thank you, Ross.”

  “Sorry,” Ross said, hanging his head. “But I like cake,” he muttered, continuing to hang his head.

  “I know you do sweetums, and when this is all over I’ll make you a big one,” Veronica said, patting his hand affectionately.

  “Okay. That does it! Now I think I’ve gone into an alternate universe. Ross, if we make it out of this fix alive. I’ll make you the biggest damn cake that you’ve ever seen,” Samantha promised, thankful for the distracting conversation that they were all taking part in.

  “You know,” Devlin interjected, as Eleanor’s weaponry still fired off at an alarming speed. “I like to eat cake too,” he murmured, wetting his lips.

  “Really, isn’t that interesting. Well, Devlin, you can bake it yourself, have someone bake it for you, and that doesn’t include Big V, or me, or you can just go and buy it.”

  “You’re all heart, Samantha,” Devlin said, glaring at her.

  “Yep, that’s me. I’ve got the biggest heart in the universe. But I don’t understand it. We were just talking to Red, and yet now he’s up and taken off!” Samantha grumbled. Six ships closed in on them. Samantha’s eyes widened. Oh, dear. This really wasn’t how she imagined her last stand.

  “I love you,” Devlin said.

  “Me too,” she whispered. “Why did Red have to bail on us?” Samantha demanded through her gritted teeth.

  Her head was whirled and her hands shook as she reached for the communication button to open the channel. Eleanor was more than a little busy and Samantha wanted to see if they could reach The Emerald Star yet.

  At the exact moment that Samantha was just about to press down on the button, Eleanor tinted her windows black as blinding rays of laser shots emitted out of the blackness of space. When it was all over, Samantha opened her eyes, and discovered crap loads of debris floating around them.

  “Now that could really turn a gal on!” Samantha murmured. Her eyes focused, searched for The Emerald Star.

  “If I mentioned that I bought that starship for Danny would that help?” Devlin asked.

  “It might,” she whispered.

  “I never doubted my Danny,” Devlin bragged confidently, causing Samantha to spew out a gust of hot air.

  The Red Falcon’s deep rich voice crackled out over the com link. “Thank you for telling me you brought company, Samantha. How would you all rate my welcome?” he asked, as the hangar bay doors opened for them.

  “On a scale of one to ten, pirate boy, I’d give it a twelve,” Samantha remarked, her voice brimming with approval.

  “Thank you. Thank you very much,” The Red Falcon said dramatically. Samantha smirked, imagining him taking a theatrical bow.

  “Don’t let all of the gratitude go to your head,” Samantha muttered. Eleanor shuddered to a landing.

  “I shall need some minor repairs done, at the earliest opportunity. I have several scratches, and a few minor bruises,” Eleanor proclaimed. She sounded like the worst snob ever.

  Samantha expelled a large gust of air, as Eleanor opened all of her doors. “Eleanor, you are a freaking piece of metal, you can’t be bruised. Only dented or damaged,” Samantha corrected, climbing out of the Faerie Cruiser and wincing as her back cracked. She really needed to do some stretching.

  “I tend to disagree. I was built to be as real as possible,” Eleanor huffed, slamming her doors after everyone vacated her.

  “Fine, have it your way, Eleanor. I’m sure that in a little while Ross, or one of the other engineers aboard The Emerald Star will be more than willing to take a gander at your booboos and bandage them up,” Samantha said, walking toward the doors.

  She wanted to eat, shower and go to bed. Because tomorrow she was going to be confronting Rodgers and she needed all of the energy that she could get for that taxing job.

  As she emerged out into the main part of The Emerald Star, she let out a cry of alarm when Devlin drew her into his arms and kissed her so deeply that her head began racing. She tried to push him away, groaning when she heard Red’s chuckle of amusement.

  “Maybe the two of you should get a room,” Veronica suggested, as Samantha glowered at her.

  She had been able to tolerate Veronica for the last little while but now she wanted to plant her foot right up between her skinny butt cheeks.

  “Veronica has a point,” Red said thoughtfully, winking conspiratorially at Devlin.

  “Now you decide to go public with our tenuous relationship? I don’t get you, Dev!”

  Devlin had by now released Samantha, and she stood stiffly at his side, as he wound his arm around her and rested his hand on her butt.

  “Remove your hand from the merchandise, or I swear you’ll be walking funny tomorrow!” she whispered, still smiling sweetly over at Jordan.

  “Where is Johanna?” Samantha asked, as Devlin turned, slipped his hand in hers and began walking at a leisurely pace. Red followed them.

  “She and Dylan are down in The Excalibur. She’s fine as is Dylan, but I don’t think that you should be spending all that much time with them. It looks as if Devlin wants to be the only person on your mind right now.

  “Come, my love, let’s return to my quarters on this ship so I can make sweet love to you.”

  “As inviting as that is, I don’t think we really have time for it right now,” Samantha muttered.

  “Samantha,” Johanna called out urgently.

  “Johanna am I ever glad to see you! I have so much to tell you,” Samantha said, rushing to embrace her.

  “Samantha, you’ve got to make a quick getaway from Devlin. Tyler has remembered something that he thinks might help you out in finding the murderer.”

  “Oh, that. I already know who the murderer is. I’ve just got to prove it, track the bastard down and bring him in,” Samantha said dismissively.

  “No, Samantha. You have to listen to me!” Johanna urged, pulling her further away from the group, dropping her voice to the faintest whisper.

  “You don’t understand, Johanna. I was down there and I put all of the pieces together.”

  “Yes, and while you were down on New Monaco gallivanting around trying to get the real murderer, Jordan, Dylan, Tyler and I were reviewing the video footage that was taken the night of Lady Devlin’s murder. And we’ve proven that it isn’t a fake.”

  Samantha’
s face lost all of its colour, as she gripped onto her sister.

  “Don’t say it, Johanna!” she warned, suddenly feeling ill.

  “Tyler’s even admitted he can’t see any way around it.”

  “No, the footage was digitally spliced in, or it was an Android. I just met an Android made to look just like Tyler.”

  “It wasn’t an android, sis. The person in the footage is giving off a biological heat signature. Androids don’t do that.”

  “You’re wrong!” Samantha contradicted, shaking her head adamantly, as the Red Falcon and Devlin began walking toward them. “This will crush Dylan!”

  “What about you?” Johanna asked. She looked away from her sister.

  Veronica and Ross were walking the other way, obviously deciding that they needed some personal time together. What Johanna was implying was unthinkable.

  Tyler wasn’t capable of murder. No matter what sort of a person the target was. He couldn’t do that! He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. Samantha might be able to if push came to shove, but she knew, knew that Tyler didn’t have it in him. She would never consider it.

  Rodgers was the guilty one. He was the one that had somehow made it look like Tyler was responsible.

  That was her verdict and she was sticking to it!

  “I’m sorry, Samantha.” Johanna looked sick. Samantha’s eyes filled with unshed tears. “Hush now, here comes Devlin.”

  She had fought her ass off, and she wouldn’t give up, no matter what anyone said. She was going to follow her gut feeling and get to the bottom of the whole mystery, no matter how many times someone wanted to tell her otherwise. She would not let Tyler hang!

  She hadn’t listened to anyone in the past, and she wasn’t about to break that winning streak. She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn’t even think to shrug off Devlin’s arm, as he pulled against him.

  “Johanna and I will leave the two of you lovebirds together. Just don’t break anything,” Red remarked, laughing as he turned a worried Johanna away from her sister and led her down the hall toward The Excalibur.

  “I can’t do this right now, Devlin. I have somewhere else to be.” Samantha said.

  “You want to go and see your wayward husband. Am I right? Please be honest with me, Samantha you owe me that much.”

  “Yes,” she said, looking away from him. He tipped her face back so she stared straight up into his eyes.

  “That’s all I wanted to know. Go and have it out with Tyler, see if you can save his skinny hide. I care not…just as long as you don’t leave me for him, I don’t mind if you want to clear his name.”

  “Thank you,” she murmured.

  How dare Tyler do this to her?

  What was he thinking? He had to have gone off of his rocker.

  She walked away from Devlin and noticed that he didn’t pursue her. He was actually trusting her with this.

  Could she in good conscience leave him again when they’d come so far? She loved him as much as she always had…she just wished that Tyler wasn’t in the equation because he was a distraction they didn’t need at the moment.

  Using her communication device, she asked Red for directions to Tyler’s room. When she reached his room, she stood outside of it, mulling over what the hell she was going to do. She bit her lip, as the door opened, and her eyes met Tyler’s. She stood there for what seemed to be a heartbeat.

  “Well? Tell me that what Johanna just hinted at is a load of crap!” Samantha urged, stepping hesitantly toward him.

  He stared at her sadly, and she found herself nearly gasping for air, when she was met with the confirmation in his gaze.

  “I did it, Samantha. I murdered Lady Devlin,” Tyler whispered. “I am so sorry. I know that what we shared was broken by the time I left you and I know that it’s still broken. I don’t see us getting back together but I do see us living in harmony with each other for the sake of Dylan and Johanna.”

  Samantha let out an animalistic howl, and reached for the nearest breakable object and pitched it at the wall.

  This couldn’t be happening.

  Her worst nightmare couldn’t be coming true. How the hell much more was she expected to take?

  *****

  After she broke the vase of Earth roses against the wall, she sat down in the nearest chair and hung her head in her hands. She felt Tyler move to stand beside her, but she ignored him.

  Fury welled within her, and she wanted to lash out.

  But not at him!

  Not in this way. He was right, they were broken but she had to stick it out long enough to help him evade the noose. Her heartache at possibly losing Devlin, her frustration at not having this turn out the way she’d envisioned, finally overwhelmed her and she started to cry.

  She never cried because when she cried she was an ugly crier. She didn’t look pretty doing it, she looked like a walrus having a meltdown.

  Hot tears streamed down her face and she grudgingly took the white tissue Tyler handed her.

  He sat down beside her and gathered her hands within his. “First of all, I want you sign our divorce papers. I don’t want you married to me when they do the dirty deed.”

  “I can’t believe Dylan would let you admit to something that you didn’t do!”

  “Even Dylan could not dispute scientific conclusions. It’s all there on the footage,” he explained patiently. She hated not being able to pass this belief off. Damn it! How the hell did they fake the footage? She was going to try to figure that one out.

  “I won’t believe it! I want to see this footage. I’ll find something to prove that you’re wrong. I always do. You know as well as I do that a good hacker could replace the real footage with fabricated stuff.” She locked gazes with him. Certainty shone in his eyes. Why did he believe that he had murdered Lady Devlin?

  It went against who and what he was. A pain began building up behind her eyes. Where were the blessed pain pills when she needed them?

  He released her hand and looked away from her. He reached for a remote control, pressed a button and called up the vintage plasma television set.

  “Prepare yourself, Samantha. I really don’t want you to break anything else. This T.V. is worth a small fortune, so for heaven’s sake, please don’t do anything to it!” he stressed, pressing the play button.

  “I won’t do anything to it. I’ll just go and break the Red Falcon’s skull for giving you the footage in the first place. I just don’t understand why you don’t remember doing the actual act of killing Lady Devlin.

  I mean I know that you are absent minded at times, but this is freaking ridiculous.” He pressed the pause button and stared at her with his lips drawn in a thin and unreadable line.

  “I didn’t want to tell you I had a good chunk of time that I couldn’t remember. It’s a great big black blank to me. No matter how hard I try, it won’t come back. I don’t remember killing her, so therefore I believed that I was innocent. I do remember leaving the house, but Samantha, I must’ve gone back. Lady Devlin was found dead in her bedroom. I had to have done it!” Tyler’s eyes filled with pain, and he raked his left hand through his hair.

  She sighed. Gritting her teeth, she searched her brain for anything that might support Tyler’s innocence. So he was missing a chunk of time.

  Big deal.

  Maybe they drugged him, or he had gotten drunk or…she stopped in mid-thought.

  “Maybe someone altered your memory for you,” she suggested. He snorted.

  “That kind of thing is outlawed, you know.”

  “Hello? We’re on New Monaco, Tyler. Think about it, almost anything goes here.” She tapped her finger against her chin, and then stood up. Placing her hands behind her back, she did the only thing that came to mind. She paced.

  “I won’t believe it!!! I’ll believe that Red is a harmless sweetheart before I’ll believe you are a cruel and vindictive killer. It isn’t going to cut it with me! Tyler, I’ll do anything, and everything to prove your innocen
ce.”

  “You already have. You and Johanna have nearly been killed several times. Dylan almost lost his life, and I’m endangering Ross and Veronica. It all stops now! I’ll take responsibility. Samantha, I’ve never asked you for anything before.”

  “Yes, you have! You asked me to leave bounty hunting, and you asked me to marry you. So don’t try that with me.”

  “Yeah, and you didn’t leave bounty hunting for me, and I have to say that I’m relieved. Because if you weren’t a bounty hunter, and you didn’t have nerves of steel, we would’ve never been able to get as far as we have. But you need to do this for me! You have to let me answer for my crimes. You have to let me face the punishment. Alone,” he stressed.

  She stopped pacing and stared at him as if someone had switched places with him.

  “No!” Samantha said, planting her hands on her hips and staring at him challengingly. “I won’t hear any more of the shit that comes out of your mouth. You did not kill Lady Devlin! I will not have you go to your death and I will not see Dylan suffer because of it. He’s like a brother to me. Our relationship might be broken but what Dylan and I share will never be broken. You didn’t do it, and that’s that.”

  “How do you know?” Tyler asked, closing the space between them.

  “Because I do. And it’s true because I say so.”

  “Yes, and your word is law!” he said, laughing half-heartedly.

  “It is law. I’d know if you were capable of murder. I can pick out a bad seed as soon as I see them. I’ve never been wrong before, and I’m not about to start now, thank you very much!”

  “You can’t fight it, Samantha. This is one battle that you won’t win. You can’t win it.”

  “Yep. Maybe you’re right,” she agreed. “I might not win this battle, but just because you lose a battle doesn’t mean you can’t win the war.”

  “Ah, how the mighty fall.”

  “Hey, listen up, I haven’t fallen until I can’t get up anymore, and as it is, I keep picking myself up, and brushing myself off for another day. Just because you say I should stop isn’t going to make me!”

  “I love and admire you for your determination, but let it go, Samantha. I’m a lost cause. I was never good enough for you—but I think Lord Devlin is. You and Johanna should be able to live a life without having to worry about my past coming back to haunt me. Before you came along, Dylan had the task of taking care of my ass, and for once, I’ll take care of myself if you don’t mind.”