Microsoft Word - RecklessBounty (30 page)

“Over my dead body,” she huffed, moving to the weapons cabinet, she began reloading her personal supply.

“You should have something to eat before you go on your kick ass mission,” she said, clucking her tongue like a mother hen.

“Johanna, you’re giving me one big ass ache, with your constant concern. Why don’t you go and get some rest. I’ll grab an energy bar, and then I’ll be on my way. So, Lord Dumbo, when will you be leaving my ship?” she demanded. On a whim, she added another gizmo to her belt.

She didn’t know what some of these gadgets did, but she’d be finding out soon enough, since Dylan was not around to ask.

“What the hell, are you grinning like a Cheshire cat for?” Her stomach rolled again.

“Uh…Johanna, make him behave. I don’t like the glint in his eyes. And if I wasn’t worried about dirtying the ship, I’d be done with it, and punch him in his smug little mug.”

“
Devlin
. Stop that! You’re freaking Samantha out,” Johanna chastised, rubbing at her eyes.

Samantha walked toward him, and sighed heavily when he blocked her path.

“I think we’ve done this dance before, Dev,” she muttered, trying to walk around him, but decided to blow a big blast of air in his face when he dodged side to side, as he gained great satisfaction out of her annoyance. Rubbing her hands together, she pushed him out of her way.

“Lock the doors behind me, and don’t let anyone in. Lucy, if you don’t keep on guard, I’m going to convince Dylan to turn you into a man,” she threatened. Johanna called out her name.

“
What?
” she barked, without really meaning to. “Sorry,” she mumbled, crossing her arms.

“You should take Devlin with you. How do you expect to get to where my attackers are without a hover car?”

“Well. Actually, I thought I’d rent one,” Samantha shot back, ripping open an energy bar. She hungrily bit into it. Her stomach growled loudly. Sighing, she chewed the dry and tasteless bar.

“Get real, Samantha,” Johanna scrunched her face up in annoyance.

RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 124

“I was going to use my jet pack, if you must know. It’s a handy dandy little thing, and has saved my ass several times today.”

“Oh, yeah, like you’re going to be able to sneak up on them that way,” Johanna said.

Samantha marched over to Johanna and pulled her aside.

“What has gotten into you? Are you going loony? Since when was Lord Devlin our greatest ally? Let me take you down a road called memory lane. He was the one that issued the hefty bounty on Tyler in the first place. He was the one that placed our butts in the fire, and most importantly, he was partially responsible for what just happened to you. I thought you still loved Dylan, but perhaps I’m a little mistaken on where your loyalty lies!”

“I am still devoted to Dylan. You know I love him more than anything, but I can’t help but admit that maybe you should take Lord Devlin with you. He can watch your back.”

“
Yeah
. By stabbing me in it!” Samantha hissed.

Johanna rolled her eyes.

She didn’t like the way that her sister defended Lord Devlin. It made her feel icky all over, and she wanted to shake some sense into her sister. Didn’t Johanna know that she was defending a bloody
warlord?
Her sister was getting on her last nerve. She wanted to leave and get the information that would lead her to clearing Tyler’s name. She was sick of
New Monaco
and the sooner she got off of the crime-infested planet, the better.

“Perhaps, I should tell my people to take Tyler and bring him down here. We haven’t had a public execution of a well renowned criminal in many years. Don’t you think that the hanging of the
Galaxy’s King of Thieves
, will draw a large crowd? It could be a definite money maker for me, and no one ever accused me of not being an enterprising businessman,” Lord Devlin declared, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“You

wouldn’t

dare!
” But then Samantha thought back to when the Red Falcon had told her about the spies that Devlin had littered throughout
The Emerald Star
. “Are you listening to him, Johanna, or have you gone deaf? He just threatened me with doing bodily harm against Tyler!”

“Can’t see why you’re still concerned about the little good for nothing. But then in my many years as a man I have never fully understood the mind of a woman. Though it does nearly drive me crazy, when I try to. I mean you supposedly have my Danny, and yet you still want to protect Tyler Cassidy. Samantha, the only thing Tyler ever did for you that was good was leaving you.”

“Shut up…before I shove something really big in it. You know nothing of what I think or feel, and I’m really not in the mood to take advice from you. Now are you going to sit there all day, or are you going to get your ass in gear?”

“You know, Samantha, you never cease to amaze me,” he mused, walking toward the door leading out into the hallway.

“Lucy, have you downloaded all of the coordinates into my minicomputer?” she asked, pointing to the minute computer that she had tucked into the pouch on her belt.

“Yep. I did that an age and a half ago. And if you don’t get your butt moving those bad dudes will be gone by the time you reach your destination,” Lucy pointed out.

“
Please
. Tell me, that we don’t have to ride in your oversized excuse for a hover mobile!” Samantha rubbed her forehead.

“No, though I don’t see the problem with my hover limo,” Lord Devlin remarked.

Samantha stopped, arching her left brow at him. She pointed down to the docking bay, and muttered, “Oh, you can’t be
serious!
” She felt like screaming. Here she was actually talking RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 125

in a normal tone to a man she hated, and now he was expecting her to ride in that? Oh, yeah, she should’ve killed him when she’d been given the chance.

* * * *

“It’s ugly,” Samantha said, moving toward it. “What the hell is it anyway?”

“It has the latest in technological advancements, for a hover car. It can transform itself into a submarine, or a space shuttle. It’s very useful,” Lord Devlin remarked. Giving her a sly wink, he shouted a command at it. It came to life, and transformed in front of her very eyes. It changed color and shape and now resembled something close to a hover car. “As soon as I brought it in here, it camouflaged itself. That’s why you didn’t notice it, until I pointed it out to you.”

“Yes, well I also had a few things on my mind, and I can tell you, I wasn’t expecting your
fat ass
to be on my ship.” Samantha turned at the sound of Johanna’s voice and smiled at her.

“Go get them,” Johanna encouraged, even as her eyes began to widen. “Pinch me because I think I’m dreaming. Oh, I have to come with you! I’ve wanted a
Faerie Cruiser
ever since they were invented.
I want to drive it!
And being nearly strangled isn’t going to hold me back.”

“Johanna, snap out of it. You have to stay here with Dylan, remember?” she asked, closely watching her sister’s face transform from her normal placid expression, to one of pure joy. She was in heaven that was for sure.

“Oh, I have to
touch it!
” Johanna breathed eagerly, walking down the gangplank. “
It’s
beautiful!”

“I thought that it was ugly when I first saw it,” Samantha remarked, following her sister.

“Do you know what this baby can do?” Johanna asked, running her hand over the shiny exterior. “It can do
anything!
”

“What do you mean? It’s just a heap of junk that can fly,” she sighed. Her sister’s infatuation with cars never
did
make any sense to her. Lord Devlin looked angry at her comment, and Johanna was too busy to care.

“I’m

not
a heap of
junk
,” a female voice boomed out. Suddenly, the thing moved, as if by its own accord. Samantha jumped back, completely freaked out by it, and rested her hand on her pistol. “Take your hand off of your weapon. There is no need for that! You’re in your own ship.”

“
Holy shit!
” she breathed, continuing to edge away from the car. “I’m not getting into a hover car, that’s smarter than you, Devlin.” Samantha slowly reached to activate her jet pack.

“If we don’t get moving soon, the trip will be a waste,” the hover car said impatiently, as its doors opened, and the inside lit up. She tried swallowing past the lump in her throat. She wasn’t exactly the
Queen of Technology
, but this hover car sure took the cake.

“Her name is
Eleanor
,” Lord Devlin announced, pride carrying into his voice. He patted
Eleanor
, and then climbed inside.

“How do you do,
Eleanor
,” Samantha muttered, moving around to the other side of the vehicle.

“I’m fine, thank you,”
Eleanor
answered, which made her eyes almost fall out of her head. Samantha couldn’t believe she was interacting with the hover car. Even
Aggie
wasn’t this sophisticated.

“Johanna,” she muttered, as the seat molded to her body shape, “You should probably go and check on Dylan. He might be waking up by now.”

“Hmm....” Her sister murmured dreamily, not lifting her eyes from
Eleanor’s
sleek RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 126

exterior.

“She said that you should go and check on Dylan,”
Eleanor
clarified, earning a delighted sigh from Johanna. Samantha watched as Lord Devlin peeled his eyes off of her sister. Anger simmered inside of her, at the naked adoration in his eyes. She hated the man, and she’d be happy when she could finally rid herself of him.

“I’m going...,” Johanna sighed, her eyes meeting Samantha’s. “I’m going…really I am!”

“God!

Eleanor
, I think my sister might love you more than she loves me.”

“
Probably
. I am much cuter,”
Eleanor
retorted. She had to fold her hands in her lap to herself from hitting the dashboard. This car was going to drive her batty by the time they reached wherever they were going. Pulling the mini-computer from her pouch, she groaned when she realized where they had to go.

“So, where to?” Lord Devlin asked.

“I can’t believe this,” Samantha stuttered. “So Lord Dumbo, who was the brilliant mastermind of
Atlantis City?
” she asked, almost barfing up the energy bar she’d shoved down her throat not fifteen minutes earlier.

“
I was
.” The pride in his voice was unmistakable. He tilted his head to glance her way.

“
Freaking wonderful!
Because now, I’m going to have to kill you.”

* * * *

“Promises.
Promises
,” Lord Devlin teased. “You make threats to kill me in almost every breath you draw. I think that secretly you’re deeply infatuated with me.” He gave her a smirk.

She groaned. “Keep dreaming.”

Samantha tried shifting in her seat. She tried again and then let out a frustrated snort.

“Hey,
Eleanor
, give it up. I want to move, and you can’t keep my butt snuggled in forever.”

“Be thankful that
Eleanor
has such extensive safety precautions. If we crashed, you’d be held in tight,” Lord Devlin remarked.

Eleanor’s
engines thrummed to life.

“Yeah, but is that a good thing or a bad thing? And if you think you’re an inferior driver, then feel free to let me have a go.” She eyed his hands on the steering wheel, and wetted her lips.

Putting her life into his hands wasn’t something she was up to doing at the moment.

“I do most of the driving. Lord Devlin is
merely
a guide. He is here in case of an unforeseen consequence,”
Eleanor
retorted primly.

She let out another dragged out sigh, and then decided to go with the flow, for the moment at least. They soared up high into
New Monaco’s
clear afternoon sky. Her stomach flip-flopped as she berated herself for getting into a car with Lord Devlin. She must have flipped.

What had she been thinking?

Here she was, sitting quietly with a man that she despised above all others. Well, there were a few that sat up a notch higher than Lord Devlin but that was beside the point. She was filled with every sense of self-loathing imaginable. So she kept her mouth shut, for fear of saying something that she might later regret.

He had threatened her with a public execution of Tyler and she was smart enough to realize that Lord Devlin was a man of his word, when it came to such terrible matters. It was a shame he didn’t apply that honor to other parts of his life. She scowled at him.

“Let’s just get one thing straight, before we go into the casino in
Atlantis City
. I
will
be the one doing
all
of the fighting. You will stay the hell out of my way, your presence will only be an unwanted pain in my ass.” She peeked at him out of the corner of her eye and noticed his jaw twitch slightly.
Good
. At least she was getting a reaction from him. Point one for her. “So, RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 127

where are your manly women and your girly men?” she asked, hoping to bait him further. This time his eye twitched and she congratulated herself with a slight smile.

“Samantha, you make my ass twitch. I don’t always need my security personal to watch over me. I can handle myself quite nicely, please and thank you.”

“Well, if that’s the way you like it. Personally, it’s a little too much information for me,”

she snickered. She watched his face turn a shocking shade of red.
Touchdown
. Damn, she really was good at getting the better of him.

“You are the most vulgar and crass woman, I’ve ever met!”

“Thank you. If you’re not careful you’re going to swell my head.”