Reckless Bounty (Intergalactic Justice Book 1)

by Marly Mathews

  “Arm yourself, Johanna,” she instructed, nodding her head at the weapons locker.

  “I told you I have my laser pistol and my hands and feet normally work remarkably well. When I use them that is,” Johanna chuckled. “And besides, you should just give into your inner power and use that instead of resorting to using weapons. If I could do what you and Charlotte can, I would never pick up another pistol.”

  When Johanna turned her attention to their prisoners, Samantha slipped a little mystery device onto her sister’s belt and smiled, secretly thinking she’d succeeded at ensuring her sister’s safety.

  “We don’t need Aggie. The rendezvous point is easily within walking distance,” Samantha said.

  “I really wish that Marty would find a nicer place to conduct his business dealings than his seedy filthy cramped little office on the waterfront,” Johanna sighed, wrinkling her nose up with distaste. “That building is such a hole in the wall, it makes a shack look like a palace.”

  “Come on, you two. Get moving.” Samantha pushed Clayton and Gus down the gangplank of the ship out onto the wet squishy ground of Notting Prime. It felt as if the drizzle that spattered around them was about to change to a soft flurry of snow.

  “I always forget how cold Notting Prime is,” Samantha groaned. Shivering, she pulled her black leather trench coat closer around her. She stared up at the orange streaked sky and fought back another shiver.

  Damn.

  She really hated this cold and dank second-rate excuse for a habitable planet.

  “You shoulda given me a heavier jacket,” Clayton whined, interrupting her thoughts. “It’s way too cold out here. Couldn’t you have found a tropical planet to do your dealings on?

  New Acapulco would’ve been perfect. At least then I could’ve taken in the sounds and sites. Instead of freezing my nads off, I’d be getting my eyes full of tits and ass.” Clayton’s whiny voice became grating.

  The bounty had been put on Clayton by someone that used Marty as an intermediary. She didn’t care who put it on him but she knew it was not sanctioned by any government or police force as they made it a rule to only go after the bounties that were done by independents. It was easier that way, and came with fewer headaches.

  “Shut up! I swear if you keep going on like a broken record I’ll shoot you,” Johanna warned. They neared the rendezvous spot.

  “Well, aren’t you a bitchy little twit. I think I like your sister better.” At his confession, Clayton’s protuberant eyes bulged out even further.

  “Fine with me. Did you hear that, Samantha? Clayton thinks you’re the good sister and I’m the evil sister.”

  Samantha could see Marty’s short and bulbous form, in the distance. The drizzly rain turned to snow and she comforted herself with thoughts of her vacation in Hawaii on their native planet.

  “Jo,” she cautioned, “I don’t like the feel of these docks. Something is way off.” She tensed and tried to allow the feeling of the place to strike her guarded senses.

  “Well, there’s Marty. I can feel it too. It’s just in the air. But maybe we can turn in the prizes for the bounty and avoid the whole troubling situation.” Johanna stared down in disgust at the brown muck that she had nearly stepped in. “Oh, gross! Remind me to clean my boots when we get back to The Excalibur. This just better be mud!”

  Samantha’s eyes darted across the full length of the dock and she quickly inspected every yacht and boat. Everything appeared normal. But something was terribly, horribly wrong. She focused her attention on every single object in view and attempted to find the oddity that would tip her off on the approaching danger.

  “Samantha,” a female voice whispered.

  “What do you want, Johanna?” Samantha asked.

  “I didn’t say anything,” she muttered, looking at her oddly.

  “Okay, now I’m really getting the willies. I could have sworn I just heard your voice.”

  Marty walked toward them with two of his hulking assistants who held a bag of money each.

  “Hand the money over and you can have them with our compliments,” Samantha called out, pushing Gus out in front of her. They made the exchange and that’s when all hell broke loose. “Why can’t I just have an easy time of it? My life is anything but simple. Shit!” Samantha muttered, diving for cover. “Johanna!” she screamed. Grunting, she hit the ground behind four steel barrels that held who the hell knew what. “Please don’t let those be filled with explosives,” she muttered, shivering.

  “I’m fine,” Johanna shouted, from her cover spot.

  Samantha looked out into the harbour and became transfixed by the burning yacht. Recognition dawned. She realized what was missing. Those thugs of Marty’s weren’t really his thugs. She should’ve guessed that from the start. These thugs were as ugly as sin and meaner than the goons Marty liked to employ. His goons usually looked affable, if not, a few bricks short the full load.

  Right at that moment, she saw something that scared the bloody life out of her. There was a yacht that was safely away from the one that burned. Wonders of all wonders, its bloody name was Journey’s Prize.

  Damnation.

  This was just the icing on her already multi-layered cake. She chanced one final glance at the yacht that had almost claimed her life three years ago. Ducking back beneath the barrels, she stifled a scream of frustration.

  Sorting out her thoughts was proving to be difficult. Jarrod Rodgers had finally found his way back into her life and no doubt he was hell bent on gaining revenge against her.

  But she was safely away from Jarrod, she could leave the docks without him ever catching her. All she had to do was signal to Johanna and they could leave together. Thereby getting away from the psychotic bastard that had almost succeeded in killing her.

  Jarrod had surprised her with his obsession. He’d drugged her. And nearly drowned her. But Johanna had helped her out of that situation. No matter what happened, Jarrod wasn’t going to take her this time either.

  Three years ago, she had made it quite clear to him that she didn’t want anything to do with him. This time was no different. She just had to make sure her message registered with him the second time around. Jarrod had foolishly believed that she loved him and his dangerous delusions had almost cost Samantha her life.

  She should have given his name to Devlin. She knew that if she had he would have been found dead under mysterious circumstances. Alas, she couldn’t do that—if she made any sort of contact with him, he would want her back and she feared she wouldn’t be able to say no this time around.

  Samantha’s senses reeled. It clicked. She realized her one weakness that was here with her right now.

  Johanna!

  When she edged up to peer over the barrels, she wasn’t surprised to see her sister held firmly against Jarrod’s thin yet wiry body.

  Rodgers was cleverly using Johanna as a shield and he had one of those damn old-fashioned revolvers pointed at her temple. Those bloody freaking things really needed to be outlawed.

  Stay calm.

  She hunched back behind the safety of the barrels. What the bloody hell was she going to do? She could risk herself, but she wasn’t about to put her sister’s life on the line.

  Especially when it wasn’t her sister’s battle to fight. She could try to use her abilities against him but since they were so volatile under the best of times, when they did comply with her wishes, she couldn’t risk using them under such extreme duress as she could inadvertently end up hurting her sister.

  Samantha stood up with her hands in the air and walked slowly toward Johanna and Jarrod.

  “I give up! You can have me, Jarrod,” she continued, walking toward her sister. “Now please put the gun down. You don’t really want to do anything stupid. If you kill Johanna I will kill you. So why don’t you make the right choice and choose the prize? I swear you won’t find anything like it anywhere.”

  “You shouldn’t have left me for that useless pathetic excuse for a ma
n. Tyler Cassidy was never worthy of you,” Jarrod remarked, tightening his hold on her sister.

  “Tyler and I are no longer together. I came to my senses. I realized you and I belong together. But darling, you can be pretty elusive when you want to be. It’s like trying to find a ghost, I swear!”

  “I found you.” Jarrod narrowed his eyes. “Now you will truly be mine!” He threw the gun across the deck.

  “That’s it, darling. Now just let my sister go,” Samantha encouraged, hoping he would release Johanna. Her eyes went straight to his signet ring and her heart stopped.

  She darted her eyes back to lock onto her sister’s gaze and she blinked three times. She just prayed to God that Johanna would recognize the signal. Calling upon telepathy in this situation was a bad idea.

  She might just inadvertently send out too strong of a signal and fry Johanna’s mind. She was basically damned if she did, and damned if she didn’t. Besides, she had to stop relying on her powers, they’d been damn unreliable for the last five years and she didn’t expect them to shape up anytime soon.

  She pushed the button on her belt that activated her grappling hook. Relief washed over her when the retraction button worked.

  Samantha sailed up into the air. She was on the roof of Marty’s office building in the blink of an eye. While Jarrod was distracted, Johanna kept her eye on his poisonous ring and took her elbow and slammed it into his gut.

  Jarrod groaned in pain and reached for his abdomen releasing his hold on Johanna.

  That was all of the time that Johanna needed. She pushed a random button on her belt and was surprised when a bubble force field formed around her body. It bent and moved with her every movement. She rolled out of his way and went bouncing over to where Samantha stood on the roof.

  Samantha flew down to where Jarrod was doubled over in pain. Retracting her grappling hook, she served him a taste of her leather boot. Jarrod went flying backwards.

  Blood gushed from his mouth. Despite the few teeth she’d knocked loose, he stood up. He was a resilient little bastard, she’d give him that.

  Samantha steeled herself for what was to come and threw herself in a series of cartwheels and acrobatic flips. She roundhouse kicked him several more times and wasn’t surprised when Jarrod’s thugs jumped out of nowhere.

  Sighing, she pulled her titanium Bo staff out. In a flash, it grew to its six-foot length. She smiled.

  “Come on, boys! Let’s have some fun!”

  Twirling it in her hands, she sized up her opponents. She focused her ki ... her internal energy and added a boost of power to her natural abilities and took them down with a series of parries and thrusts.

  Her abilities actually came through for her! If she didn’t still have some assess to kick she’d be stunned.

  They never knew what hit them, poor bastards.

  Jabbing the end of her staff on the ground, she used it as leverage and propelled herself into the air knocking them both out.

  In the next instant, Jarrod charged toward her. She released her hold on her Bo staff for a split second, and heard it clatter to the ground. Her eyes widened. The force of his impact knocked all of the wind out of her.

  They both went hurtling toward the water’s edge. She was just able to inhale a gulp of air before they both catapulted into the murky depths of the water.

  She fought against him. Kicking out in the water. It was no use! He continued to pull her down toward the bottom. She hated water. It was her biggest fear. And one she had yet to overcome.

  She couldn’t abide the thought of drowning and it sent tremors of fear coursing through her body. Her fear paralyzed her. She couldn’t function normally, and in this state, she definitely couldn’t call upon her abilities. From afar, she heard Johanna screaming out for her in the distance and wondered why she still hadn’t come in to help her. Johanna knew that she hated water.

  Samantha once again focused her Ki and punched Jarrod.

  Blood from his cracked lip trickled into the water. She pushed against him with all of her might. She frantically reached down into her boot and pulled out the only old-fashioned weapon that she carried.

  It was a Celtic dagger that had been passed through her mother’s family for generations. Coincidentally, it was the only weapon that she could trust under water. Family legend stated that it was charmed—just like she was.

  Jarrod was upon her once again. His signet ring hovered inches away from her face. She tensed herself for what was to come and slammed the dagger into his gut. He immediately released his hold upon her. Sickened by what she had done, she swam to the surface. She broke out of the water gasping for air.

  Samantha pushed her wet hair out of her eyes. Reaching for the side of the dock, she noticed Johanna struggling to deactivate the force field that shimmered around her. She climbed up onto the dry land and was touched when Johanna tried to reach for her.

  “791,” she sputtered. “That’s the deactivation code.”

  Johanna nodded her head thankfully, entered the sequence of numbers and then smiled when the force field shimmered out of existence. “I couldn’t jump in or I would have electrocuted myself and perhaps even you,” Johanna exclaimed.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Samantha waved her hand in dismissal. Her cool exterior belied the furious drumming of her heart in her chest. Her teeth chattered and she rubbed her arms briskly to try to warm herself up. She slowly walked toward her sister.

  “Samantha!” Johanna screamed.

  Samantha turned. She stepped backward at the gruesome sight of Jarrod lurching toward her. Before he could reach Samantha, purple lightning erupted out of nowhere.

  It connected with Jarrod. His whole body convulsed.

  Both sisters looked to where the purple lightning had come from and Johanna cried out with joy. She ran toward Dylan and threw herself into his arms. He swung her around and kissed her passionately.

  “You and Samantha were taking too long for my own comfort level. So I thought that you would need some assistance. It’s good to know that I can be of some help.” He boyishly grinned.

  Samantha smiled affectionately at the two of them. Johanna dashed back to the water’s edge, and wrapped her dry coat around Samantha’s soaked, and shivering form. “Thanks,” Samantha mumbled, a ghost of a smile on her lips.

  Dylan turned back toward Aggie and activated her engine.

  She stopped abruptly and tensed. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. A purple glow enveloped her body. Twice in one day her abilities were playing nice with her! Awesome!

  She whirled around and kicked Jarrod so hard that it sent him hurtling back into the sea.

  “Obviously, I was proven wrong again. It seems the two of you are perfectly capable of taking care of yourselves,” Dylan relented, smiling that easy and affectionate trademark grin of his.

  Johanna shivered. She stared out to the sea. “I hate those kind of people. So what do we do now about the money we were owed? Marty has pulled a disappearing act.”

  “We have more pressing problems,” Dylan remarked. Samantha and Johanna stared at him quizzically. A sinking feeling entered Samantha’s gut.

  “Tyler,” she whispered, dread slithering up and down her spine.

  Dylan nodded. “You hit the nail on the head, Sam.” He inhaled deeply. “Seems there is another bounty that has just been placed and it is worth much more. You could even call it a King’s Ransom.”

  Tension rippled off him in waves, and his aquamarine eyes filled with pain. Sighing, he led them back to their hover mobile. His shoulders slumped. The news he had for them wasn’t good. Her heart was still in her throat and she followed Dylan closely.

  She didn’t like Dylan so tied up in knots about this. However she felt about Tyler would have to be put aside while she helped Dylan as she considered Dylan to be family—he was like a brother to her.

  Dylan called up the available bounties on the old fashioned tablet he carried. He instructed it to send the files to the
ir holographic projector in the car. A holographic image filled the car. Samantha’s heart filled with dread. Her stomach lurched. She recognized the roguish face in front of her.

  “I wanted to be wrong!” she murmured, recalling her dream from the night before. She had to reach for the door handle for support. She suddenly felt weak. The day’s activities were taking a toll. She climbed into the hover car, and snapped her safety belt into place, as did Johanna and Dylan.

  “Wrong about Tyler?” Johanna asked, giving her a quizzical stare. Johanna nodded knowingly. “You should have told us you’d gotten a sign that Tyler would be in trouble. We need to get to him before some other bastard does,” Johanna stated, bringing Aggie up into the air. “You get these feelings and you don’t enlighten us so we’re all caught off guard. It’s not good to work like that, Samantha.”

  Tyler’s smiling face continued to stare back at Samantha. She closed her eyes several times and couldn’t erase his face from her mind. His face slowly morphed into Devlin’s.

  Her heart ached. She clasped her hands together to still the incessant trembling.

  “How far do you think this has gone?” she whispered. She closed her eyes. Pain wound its way around her heart.

  “I’d say anyone who subscribes to the daily notices from the Intergalactic Bounty Site the way we do, would have already seen it, Dylan replied. “Every bounty hunter on this side of The Rim will be gunning for Tyler’s hide.” He looked away. She watched him enter some jargon into his tablet.

  “That means we’re up against an army of the most ruthlessly cunning men and women.” Samantha rolled her eyes, and said with false bravado, “That’ll be a walk in the park. Piece of cake.” Yeah, sure it would be. They were walking into a pit of cobras, and she hated snakes.

  She grimaced, as an intricate knot tightened in the pit of her stomach. Soon, she’d be hyperventilating and Johanna would be handing her the paper bag that she kept for these blasted moments.

  “Yep,” Dylan agreed. “However, on the upside we are part of that army and we should be able to beat them at their own game. Everyone knows the Cassidy’s are the best in the system.”