Microsoft Word - RecklessBounty (38 page)

Hot tears streamed down her face and she grudgingly took the white tissue Tyler handed her.

He sat down beside her and gathered her hands within his. Peeling her leather gloves off, he tenderly kissed each hand. Under normal circumstances she would have had a harsh barb for his overt display of affection but for now she wanted to lap it all up, in case she
did
lose him someday.

“I can’t believe Dylan would let you admit to something that you didn’t do!”

“Even Dylan could not dispute scientific conclusions. It’s all there on the footage,” he explained patiently, as she twined her fingers around his long lanky ones. She hated not being able to pass this belief off. Damn it! How the hell did they fake the footage? She was going to try to figure that one out.

“I won’t believe it! I want to see this footage. I’ll find something to prove that you’re wrong. I always do. You know as well as I do that a good hacker could replace the real footage with fabricated stuff.” She locked gazes with him. Certainty shone in his eyes. Why did he believe that he had murdered Lady Devlin? It went against who and what he was. A pain began building up behind her eyes. Where were the blessed pain pills when she needed them?

He released her hand and looked away from her. He reached for a remote control, pressed a button and called up the vintage plasma television set.

“Prepare yourself, Samantha. I really don’t want you to break anything else. This T.V. is worth a small fortune, so for heaven’s sake, please don’t do anything to it!” he stressed, pressing the play button.

“I won’t do anything to it. I’ll just go and break the Red Falcon’s skull for giving you the footage in the first place. I just don’t understand why you don’t remember doing the actual act of killing Lady Devlin. I mean I know that you are absent minded at times, but this is freaking
ridiculous
.” He pressed the pause button, and stared at her with his lips drawn in a thin and unreadable line.

“I didn’t want to tell you I had a good chunk of time that I couldn’t remember. It’s a great big black blank to me. No matter how hard I try, it won’t come back. I don’t remember killing her, so therefore I believed that I was innocent. I do remember leaving the house, but Samantha; I must’ve gone back. Lady Devlin was found dead in her bedroom. I had to have done
it!
” Tyler’s eyes filled with pain, and he raked his left hand through his hair. She sighed.

Gritting her teeth, she searched her brain for anything that might support Tyler’s innocence. So he was missing a chunk of time.
Big deal
. Maybe they drugged him, or he had gotten drunk or...she stopped in mid-thought.

“Maybe someone altered your memory for you,” she suggested. He snorted.

“That kind of thing is outlawed, you know.”

“Hello? We’re on New Monaco, Tyler. Think about it, almost anything goes here.” She tapped her finger against her chin, and then stood up. Placing her hands behind her back, she did the only thing that came to mind. She paced.

“
I won’t believe it!!!
I’ll believe that Devlin is a harmless sweetheart, before I’ll believe you are a cruel and vindictive killer. It isn’t going to cut it with me! Tyler, I’ll do anything, and everything to prove your innocence.”

“You already have. You and Johanna have nearly been killed several times. Dylan almost lost
his
life, and I’m endangering Ross and Veronica. It all stops now! I’ll take responsibility. Samantha, I’ve never asked you for anything before.”

“Yes, you have! You asked me to leave bounty hunting, and you asked me to marry you.

RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 157

So you’re stuck with me.”

“Yeah, and you didn’t leave bounty hunting for me, and I have to say that I’m relieved.

Because if you weren’t a bounty hunter, and you didn’t have nerves of steel, we would’ve never been able to get as far as we have. But you need to do this for me! You have to let me answer for my crimes. You have to let me face the punishment.
Alone
,” he stressed.

She stopped pacing and stared at him as if someone had switched places with him.

“
No!
” Samantha said, planting her hands on her hips and staring at him challengingly. “I won’t hear any more of the shit that comes out of your mouth. You did not kill Lady Devlin!”

“How do you know?” Tyler asked, closing the space between them.

“Because I do. And it’s true because
I
say so.”

“Yes, and your word is law!” he said, laughing half-heartedly.

“It

is
law. I’d know if you were capable of murder. I can pick out a bad seed as soon as I see them. I’ve never been wrong before, and I’m not about to start now, thank you very much!”

“You can’t fight it, Samantha. This is one battle that you
won’t
win. You can’t win it, sweetheart.”

“Yep. Maybe you’re right,” she agreed. “I might not win this battle, but just because you lose a battle doesn’t mean you can’t win the war.”

“Ah, how the mighty fall.”

“Hey, listen up, I haven’t fallen until I can’t get up anymore, and as it is, I keep picking myself up, and brushing myself off for another day. Just because you say I should stop isn’t going to make me!”

“I love and admire you for your determination, but let it go, Samantha.
I’m a lost cause
.

I’m not good enough for you. You’ll be better off without me. You and Johanna should be able to live a life without having to worry about my past coming back to haunt me. Before you came along, Dylan had the task of taking care of my ass, and for once, I’ll take care of myself if you don’t mind.”

“
I do mind!
I won’t ever give up. I don’t give up, and I don’t give in. So buck up, sit down and let’s put our heads together. I have to still watch that footage. I bet you any money, I’ll be able to find something the matter with it.”

“I doubt it,” he said, as she flopped back into the chair in front of the plasma T.V.

“Wait a minute...,” she started, snapping her fingers. “When you mentioned a shady past, something clicked in my head. Lady Devlin used to be a prostitute, think of all of the crummy characters she must have known. Maybe one of them came back to finally finish her off.”

“Yeah, my identical
twin!
” he scoffed, reaching for the cup of coffee that sat in front of him.

“Will you give it a chance for the love of God?” Samantha huffed, chewing her lip.

“Have you geniuses even thought about calling Charlotte? She could solve this whole thing for us. All we have to do is ask her to tap into it, and she’ll be able to say whether or not you’re guilty. Just give me a sec, I can have her on the line in no time.” She leaned forward. “I don’t know why we didn’t think of this before. It’s a pretty obvious conclusion. And here I’ve been running myself ragged. I’d tap into your memories if I wasn’t too afraid of frying your brain while I was taking a tour.”

“I won’t put your sister through that hell!” he said, dismissing the idea.

“Hell? Oh, come off it. You’re family, and she’s strong. She’s the strongest that they’ve ever measured. She’d be able to tell and then Devlin and the whole community of
New Monaco
would
have
to believe that you were innocent!”

RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 158

“She can’t even tell you who murdered you’re father.”

“That’s because the person that murdered my father was
gifted
like her. He cleaned up after himself, and unless I can remember that night, she won’t be able to tap into it, until she’s grown in her abilities and she’s ready to fight him, for the information. Until that day, it’s up to me! And she can’t get into my head, because I’m shielding it away. I might not be able to actively harness the powers that Charlotte can, but I
can
protect you!
I won’t let you die!
Don’t you understand? It might be the only option we have. I’m going to tell Johanna to contact Charlotte immediately.”

“If you do it’s over between us. We do this the normal way, or we don’t do it at all. You might be used to having someone like Charlotte in your family, but it spooks me out. I won’t let her in, and she can’t legally force her way in, so it’s a dead end cause.” His smugness caused her to fight the urge to smack him until he was black and blue.

“I

don’t

know
why I married you. You make me want to
scream!
” she remarked, reaching for her own cup of coffee that he had just poured. “You’re an asinine, annoying, self-fulfilling, arrogant prick! And if Charlotte spooks you out, then, I must as well. You forget I am just as talented as she… I just choose not to use my powers in every aspect of my life. I just don’t know how I keep loving someone that can be such a twit!”

“Yes. But you love me all the more for all of those lovely qualities, and you like it when I make you scream, especially when you’re screaming for more,” he said, his green eye twinkling.

“Shut up, pretty boy. Go ahead and play that footage. It’s time that Samantha Cassidy, showed you how it’s done.”

“When I’m gone, don’t ever stop calling yourself Samantha Cassidy. The name suits you, and you make it sound so damn good when you say it. You can remarry, but don’t change your name, that’ll be my dying wish,” he sighed.

“Yeah, and if you’re not careful, lover boy, you’ll be getting that wish much sooner than you expected. If you ever discuss your death with me again, I’ll make sure that you go out in style!”

He let loose with his husky chuckle, and made an unbearable pain grow within her. She wouldn’t lose him. She wouldn’t lose him this way. Her life had been tragic enough, and she didn’t have any more room for heartache.

As he played the footage, she grew increasingly restless. She kept darting her gaze between Tyler and the image of him on the screen. She watched almost mesmerized as he shot up the stairs, then her eyes followed him into Lady Devlin’s room.

That was when the cameras lost him, since no surveillance equipment was kept in any of the bedrooms in the mansion. But there was audio on the footage, and a loud struggle could be heard followed by a shattering scream, ending with foreboding silence.

Minutes later, Tyler exited the bedroom, rushed down the stairs and out of the front door.

The expression on his face was chilling, and sent a dagger straight through her heart. She watched the T.V. even read the analysis that Dylan and the Jordan had done on the sidebar.

From the tests they had run everything matched perfectly, right down to the inflections in Tyler’s voice.
But something was wrong!

Even though Tyler’s gait, and his movements were identical to the one that she knew, she still didn’t believe the man on the screen was the real deal. She wanted harder evidence. It was an age of unimaginable scientific advancements, anything could account for why it seemed as if Tyler was the murderer.

She glanced over at Tyler, and her heart stood still as she took in the anguish that had RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 159

enveloped his flawless features.

“You aren’t responsible,” she whispered, covering his large hand with her smaller one.

“I did it. Open your eyes, Samantha. That was me,
ME!
” he shouted, pushing his chair back. “I hate myself. I don’t even know what would have possessed me to do such a thing. She threatened me with telling you of our relationship, but I shrugged it off. I didn’t do anything with her, so I wasn’t worried.”

“I wondered if you had cheated on me, but as soon as I saw the look of love in your eyes, I knew that you could never betray me. And that is why I know for sure that you didn’t murder her. You know what I think of people that do something so terrible, and you wouldn’t break my heart. That doesn’t even account for the pure simple fact that you are not a natural born killer.

You’re a no good dirty thief, but that’s where it ends! Just because you steal inanimate objects doesn’t mean you would steal Lady Devlin’s life from her.
That is where you draw the line
.

We’re in this together, and I won’t let you down!”

“I know you won’t,” he said, as something unrecognizable flickered in his eyes.

“Honestly, Samantha, I must’ve been slipping that night, because I never went out the front door, there was too many people hanging around the house, and too many frigging cameras. After all, I am a cat burglar, and old habits are hard to break.”

“Yes, they are,” she said, thinking back to the life that she led.

She couldn’t stop bounty hunting, anymore that he could resist resorting to his own bad ways while they were separated.

“If I hadn’t pushed you away, you wouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place,”

Samantha wanted to scream.

“You didn’t push me away. I wasn’t willing to compete with your career. I used my concern for your life as an excuse. I know now there isn’t anything in this world that could stop you. You’re one tough lady, and I should rejoice in that, instead of giving into my jealously.”

“Oh, Tyler,” Samantha murmured, moving closer to him, she molded her lips against his.

She fell into his arms, and decided that as long as she had life left in her, there would be a way to prove he was innocent. Like her father used to say, as long as there was a will there was a way. And there wasn’t anyone in the bloody galaxy that had a will as strong as her. She was in a class of her own. Even when the sky was falling down around her, she’d still be clinging to the truth. There was truth in their love, and there was truth in his innocence, and she’d stop at nothing in making everyone else see what she had always known.

She wouldn’t lose him, and if she did, then her life would be over. Truly over! And there would be no more Samantha Cassidy.

* * * *

Samantha rolled to her other side searching for Tyler’s warm form to snuggle up against.