Microsoft Word - RecklessBounty (34 page)

“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.

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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 misery 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.”

“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. Something gave way inside of her when her heart began beating again. She’d doubted Tyler’s love, and she would be forever sorry for that. “
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. Into the arms of the man that she would continue to fight for until her last breath.

* * * *

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 up 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 space ship 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 view screen in front of her.

RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 143

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 Einstein?” 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.