by test
“You all right?” Veronica asked, as she lambasted the man in front of her.
RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 137
“Just fabulous! ” Samantha whispered back, wincing at the scratchiness of her voice.
Now she knew how Johanna felt. Bastards. They still needed some more payback.
“Thanks for the save from the eight foot giant back there,” Veronica muttered. Her brown eyes bulged, and she looked as if she were going to choke on her words.
“No prob, Big V, it was the least I could do. Seeing as you were ready to do some ass kicking on behalf of my sister.” Samantha put another charge into her depleted pistol. She pulled out both pistols, and began to work at taking out the rest of the enemy. Her hands worked in a fast forward motion. By now, Veronica and she were back to back as space was limited.
“What the hell are you doing?” Veronica asked glancing back. Veronica shook her head and whistled. “You look like you’re being put into overdrive!”
Samantha took a moment to study her own actions and wetted her lips. They had suddenly gone dry. The Liana Juice-- bloody wonderful. Coupled with her abilities she was starting to look like a freak and gaining a lot of unwanted attention. If someone discovered her secret from this, she was done for.
“Let’s just say that something definitely juiced me up!!!” she shouted back. “Ross, look out!”
“What’s going on?” Veronica turned, and let out a shocked gasp. “Oh, no!”
There was a mini bomb sitting at Ross’s feet and Samantha’s blood ran cold. “Bad, very bad.” She rummaged in her pouch for something to save the day.
They were going to be blown from here to kingdom come, if she didn’t do something.
She and Veronica might survive the blast but Ross would be a goner if it went off.
Samantha holstered her pistols, realizing that she only had seconds to spare. “Follow me!” she yelled, as Devlin turned around at the urgent strain in her voice. His jaw dropped when he saw the mini bomb and Ross was rooted to the spot as if he was in shock. “Not going to happen, I’m not going to die, nobody’s going to die!” Samantha muttered, scrambling for the ticking time bomb. She enclosed her hand around it, and threw it as hard as she could toward the open window. It sailed through it, but she knew that it wouldn’t be far enough away from them when it exploded. Mysteriously, everyone except for the bad guys and her team had left the casino. So she didn’t have to worry about anyone dying on her watch.
“Guys, get down behind me!” Samantha ordered quickly, as she opened up her personal electrical shield and programmed it to spread in diameter around them. It fizzled out right before the bomb went off. “Shit.” She glanced at Devlin; he’d seen the device lose power. Closing her eyes, she realized what she had to do. Drawing on her abilities, she strained herself to the limits to erect a telekinetic shield around them. Devlin let out a gasp. If he told anyone.... She couldn’t think about that. She fell to the floor, right when the bomb exploded. “Well, that didn’t sound so shit hot!!! ” Samantha gasped, moving her jaw, as her ears began ringing. “Every which way I turn someone puts the screws to me, and I’ve just about had it!” She pushed herself off of the floor and turned to help the stunned Ross to his feet.
He could handle himself quite nicely in tough situations, but by the shocked expression he wore, she realized that he wasn’t accustomed to the kind of life that she and Veronica lived as bounty hunters.
“Don’t worry about it, big guy,” she began, as Veronica held him up from the other side.
“This is only your third or is it, fourth bomb? You’ll be much better once you reach a dozen.
After that, it all becomes old!” Samantha encouraged brightly, dismayed when his mouth only opened further.
“Do me a favor, Samantha, and SHUT UP! ” Veronica said, her tone rising as she finished RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 138
her sentence.
“I was only trying to help,” Samantha grumbled. Devlin snorted and stared at her in amazement.
“Like I said before, Samantha, don’t try to help by giving advice. It always seems to come out ass backwards! ” he muttered, resting his weapon against his shoulder.
“Keep that shrink ray away from me, or I’ll take it away from you and shove it up where the sun doesn’t shine,” she threatened. She looked at her force field device that was on the fritz and discreetly put it away. “Gee, Samantha, thanks for the quick save. Don’t know what we’d do without you,” she mimicked to herself, moving toward the exit. “Hey, Lord Dumbo, this place looks as if a bomb went through it. I think you’ll have to splurge and remodel.” She grinned, kicking debris out of her path. She also felt a bit off but that was to be expected after the near miss they’d all encountered. Still, she felt as if danger approached.
“Samantha, look out!” Veronica screamed. Devlin let out a bellow of anger.
“What now? You know, I’m tired, hungry, and bitchy.” She turned to see what Veronica was yapping about, when she felt something prick her neck. Samantha pulled out the dart that had been fired into her neck and stared out into the empty hallway.
“Oh, freaking hell! Now I’ve got to put up with invisible adversaries,” she grumbled, feeling light headed. She blinked, when she saw an image of herself over by the far window.
“What the...?”
“Not invisible, my sweet little bombshell,” Fred Crenshaw said, dropping from the line, that he had used to climb into the casino. She was definitely slipping. She should’ve seen that coming, but she hadn’t. She’d felt it and she’d dismissed it. She had to start trusting her psychic instincts, even if it did make her cringe to think about.
Fred had used the oldest trick in the book, distract and attack. While the bomb was taking out part of the casino, he’d been perched on the only part of the roof, that he knew was going to be unaffected. It had all been a setup and now she was down for the count. She swayed, as the drug in the dart began to flow into her system.
“Goodnight, Sleeping Beauty,” Crenshaw murmured. She couldn’t move. She heard Veronica’s scream of rage, and felt Devlin’s despair, just as Fred wrapped his arm around her, and retracted the line that he was hanging on. Samantha drifted into darkness. She fought to remain awake, and felt him hand her over to another man that had been waiting for them.
“You’re
so
fired, Crenshaw!” she rasped, as the hated darkness engulfed her.
* * * *
Samantha could hear loud voices around her. She had to wake up. But a thick invisible blanket kept pushing her back down. She felt heavy and sluggish. But she knew that her time for escape was limited. Soon, they would be coming back for her, and she knew then that she would be screwed royally. She could feel the floor humming and guessed they were moving. She pulled her eyes open and used all of the willpower that she could muster, just to keep them open.
“Just breathe, Samantha!” she whispered, beginning to cough. She prayed that no one would hear her, because for what she was about to do, she definitely didn’t need to have an audience. She wasn’t tied up, so that was a plus right there. Crenshaw was cocky, and obviously was still thinking with his dick instead of his head. She knew the man had always been infatuated with her, but she hadn’t realized he had been obsessed, to the loony bin point.
But Crenshaw had made one gigantic error. He had underestimated her and now he was going to pay! She glanced down at her watch in the dim light, and groaned when she found that she had only been asleep for thirty minutes. She knew that her captors weren’t expecting the RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 139
drug to wear off for at least another hour. Too bad for them and oh so good for her. She could only attribute it to the super powered juice Eleanor had given her, and she decided right there and then, to kiss the shiny hover car when she got out of this jam.
She groaned with her pent up frustration when she realized Crenshaw had been smart enough to have all of her weapons removed from he
r person. She felt for her concealed jet pack, and sighed with relief when she realized that the asinine fools had somehow missed it. These people gave a whole new definition to having one’s head stuck up one’s ass. They certainly took the cake.
No doubt Crenshaw was at this moment bragging about capturing the infamous Samantha Cassidy and damning her husband to hang. But boy, was he going to get one hell of a big surprise! Looking for the camera in her cell, she used her abilities to deactivate it. Purple smoke engulfed it and fried the connection it had to the mainframe.
She nimbly opened her jacket and partially unbuttoned her blouse. Then, she reached inside of her protective bra and smiled with triumph when she found the two parts that she was looking for. She quickly held up her miniature pistol and then slipped the charger into it. After that, she reached for the handy little laser pen that she always carried. Crenshaw wasn’t going to know what hit him. Pointing her finger at the door, she breathed in deeply, and quickly broke the lock on the door and pulled it open.
“Oh, holy crap!” she muttered, slamming the door shut, when she saw the five guards staring at her as if she had grown a second head. “Bloody wonderful! Now for Plan B,” she cried, as the door blasted inwards, and the five men filed in.
“Apprehend the prisoner! ” the ranking guard called out. She pushed some tables over, and crouched behind the bed. Setting her jet pack to the lowest speed, she shouted out a war cry and lunged toward two of the guards.
“Apprehend
this,
buttheads! ” she screamed, firing and shooting them both in the forehead.
They wouldn’t be dead. But they’d have one hell of a headache when they woke up. She tucked her miniature pistol into her pocket and grabbed the phase rifle the one unconscious guard had dropped.
“Mind if I borrow this?” she asked, whirling around on the last two guards.
Wait a minute. She’d counted five, and though she wasn’t great at math, she’d known how to count for as long as she could remember. She shot the one distracted guard and flew toward the last one. He hesitated shooting at her. “Oh, dear. Do you still go by the mantra that females are the weaker sex? Oh, well. Guess what? It’s a new age,” she called, knocking him off of his feet. “Where’d your other buddy go?” she asked, straddling him as she shut off her jet pack.
“Don’t know,” he sputtered, trying to push her off of him.
“Well, aren’t you a frisky one,” she muttered, pulling her fist back. “Say nighty night,”
she instructed just as she knocked him unconscious. Things weren’t going as well as she would have preferred. She’d planned on taking down all of the guards, but the fifth pig was at the moment squealing to his master.
She jumped to her feet, and edged out into the hall perusing her surroundings. There didn’t seem to be any guards but the most troubling aspect was the fact that she was running blind. She had no bloody idea which way to go to escape the ship that she was on. She didn’t know if she was on land, on sea, or in space, and it troubled her to no end.
Right now, she’d actually give anything for the Red Falcon to beam her up with his RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 140
trusty, snazzy transporter. She would even consider thanking him. But as it was, she rarely leaned on anyone for support, save for her family. 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, the man that she loved! Oh, God! Not this, anything but this, and she let out an agonized groan as her heart broke.
RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 141
Chapter Fifteen
She resisted wiping away the hot tear that was trickling down her cheek. “WHY? ”
Samantha asked, her finger freezing on the trigger as he watched her, with love shining in his gorgeous green eyes. This couldn’t be right. Tyler would never betray her.
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.
Tyler was her biggest weakness and losing his love had always been her secret fear. But how could she have lost something that had never belonged to her in the first place? 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 Lord 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.
He meant too damn much to her! She couldn’t free herself from the mis
ery of loving him.
Here she was, the one that had told her sister to forget Lord Devlin and she’d married a man that was great looking on the outside, but completely rotten on the inside.
Samantha’s mind whirled. She couldn’t seem to slow it down. Tyler’s betrayal was making her question herself. Her intense love for him stalled her actions. If he’d been any other man, he would already be lying on the floor. But he wasn’t any other man! He was specia l. He was the only man that made her feel special that made her feel loved. He was her soul mate.
“Stay put,” she commanded, her tone becoming louder, and more determined. “I mean it,” she nearly shouted. “I don’t want to, 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 RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 142
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.”
