Microsoft Word - RecklessBounty

by test

They reached the nearest stairwell just as the com link frequency faded out of existence.

  They all ran down the stairs as fast as their legs would carry them. Samantha grabbed onto the railing, when she nearly slipped.

  “Don’t worry about me,” she said, grimacing as pain shot up her leg. “Keep going,” she urged, her pace slowing considerably.

  She stared down at her watch, bit her lip against the pain, and smiled as they reached the last flight.

  Ross pushed open the frozen doors, and Veronica followed. Samantha was just about to reach the doors, when something hit her from behind. Hard.

  She whirled around, and struggled with the masked man that wrapped his arms around her. She pushed him down to the floor, and her eyes widened when he produced a glinting knife.

  Wild-eyed, she grabbed onto his wrist and tried to overpower him. Even though he was stronger, she was pissed off and knew that she needed to get out of the building before it blew up.

  She grunted. Pushing backward on his wrist, her heart slammed against her ribcage when the knife narrowly missed stabbing her in the stomach. Then, she twisted his wrist, and having no other choice, plunged the blade into his gut. He groaned. She jumped to her feet.

  She knew that she didn’t have much time, even as she tried heaving the man toward the door. She heard Veronica’s shouted warning and screamed, just as the assailant, pulled on her ankle, nearly pulling her back down to the floor. Bastard. Didn’t he know when to stay down?

  She roundhouse kicked him and then fell out into the street. Pushing herself off of her hands and knees, she bolted into a run just as the bombs inside of the building detonated.

  * * * *

  Samantha was thrown face first onto the ground, as fire blew out of the building.

  “Come on,” she heard Veronica saying, as she reached down to tug at her. “We have to get out of here.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know!” She grasped Veronica’s hand. The woman hauled her up. Her ears were still ringing, and her eyes stung like a bugger. She didn’t know how she’d RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 117

  survived that. For a moment she thought she’d been toasted. She released Veronica’s hand as they raced for Aggie. Her balance was still a bit off, but she was still in pretty good condition.

  Dylan however, was out of it. Right out of it. If only he’d come around. Then she’d know he’d be okay.

  “Samantha? ” A female voice murmured. She shook her head. The voice sounded like Johanna but she couldn’t be sure. She could have sworn it was someone else, but it couldn’t be, not this far away from Earth. Even she wasn’t that talented.

  Aggie was waiting for them, and Samantha quickly ignored the pain in her body. She jumped into the driver’s seat, and reached for the steering wheel.

  Veronica sat next to her, and Ross climbed into the back with Dylan. She lifted Aggie up into the air, and sped away at their highest velocity as the building began crumbling.

  Pale-faced, she gripped the steering wheel as if it meant her life. She could feel Veronica staring at her, and she turned her head sharply when she heard Aggies’s irritated voice blare out at her.

  “Two hover cars are pursuing us,” Aggie announced. Samantha’s heart fell. Even though she wore gloves, she could feel her hands beginning to sweat. “The inhabitants are male, their hover cars are B class. We can outmaneuver them.” Aggie informed Samantha.

  She veered off to the left just as a laser bolt flashed past Veronica’s side.

  “Aggie, do we have weapons?” Samantha asked, diving to avoid another volley of shots.

  “Yes, though only lasers,” Aggie answered, which did nothing to raise Samantha’s spirits.

  “Shields? ” Samantha asked, really not wanting to know the answer.

  “Dylan, did not have time to repair my shields,” Aggie answered promptly. Resisting the urge to smack her head, she expelled a long drawn out sigh.

  “I’m all out of ammo. I used it all up in the Moonlight Bar,” Veronica piped in, furrowing her brow angrily.

  “And I’m all out of patience. Do you think that you could slide over and fill my place, while I go and take care of those perfect assholes?” Samantha asked.

  Veronica moved toward the driver’s seat, just as she opened her window and climbed out.

  Clinging to the side of the car, she popped her head back in.

  “Do some fancy flying, and as soon as you’re clear, make your way back to The Excalibur. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine, just get Dylan to Johanna. He’s in bad shape.”

  “The day that I worry about you will be the day that I kiss your ass. Besides I think you’re crazy to make yourself a moving target,” Veronica shot back. Samantha smiled back at her.

  “I thought I was the Queen of Danger,” She drawled out.

  “Nah. I’ve reconsidered. Now I think that you’re the Queen of Nut Jobs.”

  “See you in a few.” Samantha grinned.

  She dropped off of the hover car, and activated her jet pack. If the little piss ants in the hover cars thought they were going to get the better of her, then they’d be better off jumping off of a bridge.

  She was sore, angry, and tired. And she felt bitchy. Really bitchy. So if they thought that they were any matches for her, then they needed to be taught a lesson in the art of ass kicking.

  They shot wildly at her, but she managed to remain agile enough so they couldn’t hit her.

  Sometimes being a moving target wasn’t all that bad after all.

  She decided to focus on the car that seemed to be the most determined to shoot down Aggie. Zooming toward it, she dropped underneath it, just in the nick of time. One of the men RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 118

  inside stuck his head out, and tried vainly to hit her with his pistol.

  “What’s up, asshole?” she screamed.

  Spotting a grounded news banner, she reached for one of her grapplers from her belt. She shot it toward the news banner, and it coiled around the long post. Then, she shot out the second grappler, and waited as it latched onto the hover car that she targeted.

  She quickly flew out of the way, and watched with glee, as the men in the hover cars, realized they were being dragged backwards at an unthinkable pace. She flew past them, and glanced back to see them careening toward the post. She waved to them, just as they crashed into the news banner. One down. One to go! She flew toward the last car.

  Aggie had slowed down considerably, and Samantha prayed that Veronica would be able to get them back to The Excalibur before Aggie conked out entirely.

  “Now, round two, time to execute another perfect plan.” The traffic in the air was light, so the chances of hurting any innocents were almost non-existent. She seriously doubted that there were any innocents on New Monaco anyway, since it was a planet that attracted a variety of criminals from all walks of life. ‘Course, she’d probably end up doing some more damage to Lord Devlin’s lovely world. Ah, well, shit happens. Maybe the Red Falcon could get her a picture of Lord Devlin’s face as he was viewing the wreckage. Yep, that would be a GOOD

  birthday present.

  She glided down to the B class hover car, and waved tauntingly at the men inside. Livid faced, the driver gunned straight toward her. She glanced quickly behind her just to make sure she’d situated herself in the right spot. They weren’t far from the ground now, and she’d have to make sure that she was very careful, or she would become another skid mark on the pavement.

  The street was clear and the men hadn’t realized how low they flew. She hoped that if she kept leading them down this path they’d finally bite and end up crashing their hover car.

  Hearing the familiar sound of weapons being charged to fire at her, she froze. The sight that met her curdled her blood.

  “Holy shit! ” she murmured, frantically reaching for a smoke grenade. She said another prayer and threw it behind her.

  She heard it hit the car, and then quickly flew out of the way, even as the la
rge transport hover mobile raced toward her. It had been about to fire at her, but since she was able to move so quickly, the shots missed her, and instead grazed the car she’d thrown the smoke grenade at.

  They collided. Smoke whirled around her. She struggled to control the jet pack. It had started to emit a screeching noise, akin to fingernails on an old-fashioned chalkboard. The engine sounded as if it were fried. Looking down, she realized how high she had climbed. Her heart danced in her chest.

  “Ah, just great. Now I’m really in for it,” she muttered. At that precise moment, her jet pack lost power.

  * * * *

  As if by some miracle, a light flashed on her vest, just as she began to come to grips with meeting her maker. Another surge of power gave new life to the jet pack, and she realized with immense relief that Dylan had implanted a mini back-up engine. She regained altitude, and tried activating her com link. Nothing happened, and that almost had her crying out in frustration.

  The bomb at the Moonlight Bar, and the bomb in the elevator were no coincidence. Then when she had narrowly escaped those two death traps, she had been informed that someone had made a back-up plan to ensure their deaths. Followed by the thug that had tried killing her, made her come to only one conclusion.

  RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 119

  Whoever had murdered Lady Devlin had gotten wind of Dylan’s inquiries at the Moonlight Bar, and had sent people out to deal with them.

  Someone was running scared, and they’d stop at nothing to get her to shut up. They were trying to take her out, so that her death would scare Dylan and Johanna into giving up on Tyler.

  But no one intimidated Samantha. If they thought that she could be easily killed then they had another damn think coming.

  People had tried to kill her before, and she’d survived, and this time nothing would be different. She would clear Tyler’s name and they’d look back on this incident with disdain.

  She’d almost reached The Excalibur, and knew that Veronica had succeeded in getting to the ship before her, because she didn’t see Aggie anywhere. But something was different about The Excalibur. It held a heaviness, that seemed to seep out to Samantha, and foreboding lodged in her heart. In an instant, her mind jumped to a whole bunch of horrible possibilities.

  Dylan was fine! He had to be fine. If something had happened to him, she would’ve felt it way before this. Her special sense for those kinds of things had never let her down and it wouldn’t begin to now. But she still knew that something was wrong.

  The docking bay door was wide-open. She frowned at Johanna’s blatant disregard for security. Hadn’t the harrowing experiences of the last two days taught her sister anything?

  Sometimes she thought she was the only one that ever engaged her brain.

  Shutting her jet pack off, she stepped surefooted onto the slopping metal plank that led up into the ship. She began walking quickly, and then as a lump lodged in her throat, she ran.

  She emerged into the main area of The Excalibur, and her heart gave way, as she realized that her fears had not been unfounded. But it was definitely much worse than she’d thought.

  RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 120

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Johanna!!! ” she cried, running to embrace her seemingly battered sister. She held her for a moment, and Samantha pulled away when she felt her sister stiffen with pain.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a dark silhouette. She had her pistol drawn in the blink of an eye.

  “I don’t give a damn who you are, I’m going to kill you anyway,” Samantha said, resting her finger on the trigger, amethyst light engulfing the pistol.

  “No!

  Samantha,

  don’t do it! ” Johanna rasped, putting out a restraining hand. “For the love of God, put that bloody weapon away. Both of them!” she commanded in a soft voice, earning a confused glance from Samantha.

  “He helped me. If he hadn’t shown up just in the nick of time, I’d probably be dead right now. It all happened so fast that I truly didn’t know what had happened, until the wind was knocked out of me from behind. Lucy had only given me like a two second warning. Damned if I know how they even managed to break through her security sensors. I was trying vainly to get the communication channel reopened, and I definitely wasn’t expecting such an attack.”

  “It looks as if you’re going to have a black eye,” Samantha said, glancing around the bridge for Dylan. She didn’t want to acknowledge Lord Devlin, so she pretended he wasn’t there. Which was about as worse of an insult as she could manage considering the current circumstances. “We should get you down to med bay to attend to all of your injuries.”

  “I don’t have any injury, that you haven’t already suffered in past missions, and besides dear sister, you don’t look so shit hot yourself,” Johanna said all in one breath.

  “I agree wholeheartedly with what Johanna just said. Though I’d like to add…you don’t look that shit hot, under the best of conditions,” Lord Devlin interrupted, his eyes twinkling.

  Samantha gave him a dirty look.

  “What about Dylan? Have you even given any thought to your own husband? ” she demanded, wincing as pain flashed through her sister’s eyes.

  “Well of course I have, Samantha. I could hardly do anything for him. I don’t think he’s any the worse for wear, except for the fact that Veronica felt the need to give him medication, which will probably knock him for a loop. At least for the next few hours anyway,” Johanna added. Turning her head to the side, Samantha finally noticed that Lucy had her holographic butt planted in the captain’s chair.

  “What the hell do you think that you’re doing, Violet? ” she asked, sauntering over to Lucy.

  Lucy stared up at her with a mingled expression of irritation and anger splayed across her features. Samantha wrinkled her brow, once again noticing the galling similarities in physical appearance they shared. Dylan had programmed Lucy’s looks and Samantha now couldn’t believe she had been so worried about him.

  “I’m running the ship. Someone has to,” Lucy drawled out, staring up at her with an impish grin.

  “Okay. I’m going to kill you as soon as I figure out how to kill something that isn’t real!” Samantha lunged toward Lucy.

  RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 121

  She fell head long into the chair, with her butt sticking up in the air, just as Lucy crackled out of existence. Lucy reappeared over by the weapons locker, and grinned at her.

  “Sometimes being intangible has its moments,” Lucy laughed. Groaning, Samantha tried to push herself up from the chair.

  “Oh! Now that is a rather good look for you, Samantha,” Lord Devlin said.

  She let out a frustrated groan. “Why don’t you pucker up your lips, and kiss it?” she suggested, pushing herself out of the chair.

  “Samantha, dear, why don’t you go and get yourself a cup of coffee. I think you need it,”

  Johanna advised, laying an ice pack against her slightly swollen cheek.

  It reminded Samantha of the pressing issues that were at hand, and she quickly poured herself a cup of the precious black brew, and settled herself in her chair.

  “Why don’t you take a hike?” she suggested, turning her head toward Devlin.

  Lord Devlin was just about to open his mouth to reply, when Johanna loudly cleared her throat.

  “For once just once, Samantha, can’t you keep your mouth shut? I want Lord Devlin to stay here. And you can kindly wipe that look of pent up indignation off of your face. Do I need to spell out what happened here? Lord Devlin saved my life. I thought I was a goner for sure, and then he showed up and scared the intruders away.”

  “Yeah, sort of like the big bad wolf,” Samantha scoffed, wrapping both hands around her steaming mug. “What I don’t understand is why you needed him to rescue you. The last time I checked you weren’t a crying damsel in distress. When push comes to shove, you can handle yourself just as well as I can. I’ve seen yo
u kick lots of assess in my day.”

  “Yes. But not when I’ve been outnumbered and caught off guard,” Johanna pulled her collar down, and she cried out with horror. Jumping out of her chair, she sloshed her coffee everywhere. She quickly placed it down and rushed to her sister’s side.

  “And you let them get away?” Samantha cried out angrily, gently feeling the bruises on her sister’s neck. “Dear God, Johanna, they might’ve killed you! ” she breathed out, feeling the ground give way beneath her.

  Whoever had been responsible for the welts on her sister’s neck, now lived on borrowed time! She’d hunt them down, and make sure that they never hurt anyone in such a way ever again. “Cowards! ” she spat out, leading Johanna over to a chair. “Sit! I’m going to make you a nice cup of tea. Then you’re going to give me all of the details.”

  “No! You’re going to give me all of the details about your numerous brushes with death.