Microsoft Word - RecklessBounty (4 page)

Turning on her heel, Johanna walked toward the door, leaving Samantha to follow in her wake.

Minutes later, they were on the bridge and Marty’s face was on the large display screen showing how appreciative he was of their services by flourishing two large sacks of money in front of them.

RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 15

“I’ll go down and make the delivery,” Johanna said crisply, moving down to the exit hatch.

“I’ll go with you...,” Dylan started, but Samantha cut him off.

“The

team
will go down and make the delivery. Dylan, you stay with the ship,” she commanded, gently pushing Dylan out of her way. “How about you try to get some of our outstanding repairs done while we are gone? If I go to use something else and find out it’s broken, I will not be a happy camper, and you know what happens when I am not happy.”

Dylan groaned. “Yeah, you blow up my toys either with your guns or your mind. You can be such a....”

“Dylan!” Johanna snapped her brow wrinkling. “Don’t say it.”

“I was merely going to say that Samantha can be a real witch when she wants to be. I am so glad you don’t have explosive things happen when you blow your fuse, darling.”

Samantha made a gagging noise. “Johanna, let’s go and get this show on the road.”

Johanna gave a small shrug of her shoulders and looked at her husband with a helpless expression. Sighing, she clasped her hands behind her back and followed Samantha out the door.

* * * *

Marty Silvestri turned to his new business partner and watched him warily. The man was twisting his elaborate signet ring that he wore on his pinky finger. Marty shivered. He was no idiot. He realized what was inside the ring. Lethal poison that when released and injected into the victim’s skin, would kill them almost instantaneously.

“So, you said you know Sam and Jo. How close are the three of you?” Marty asked nervously. He popped the piece of bubble gum he’d stuffed into his mouth, and swallowed the belch raising in his throat. Burning acid rolled in his gut. He’d never been this anxious in his sixty-five years of life.

Sweat beaded out across his forehead. He felt like he was trapped in a sauna. He nervously cracked his pudgy knuckles swallowing the thick lump in his throat. Marty fidgeted from side to side and concentrated on keeping all of his bodily fluids right where they were.

“Do you happen to remember the old saying hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn?

Well, I want to rewrite it to hell hath no fury like a man’s scorn. Your Sam thought that she could break up with me three years ago. But she was sadly mistaken. I am not easily deterred.

She is mine. She will be mine,
FOREVER!
” he vowed, slamming his hand down on Marty’s antique walnut desk, and making Marty jump.

“Hey, be careful, I got that at an auction four years ago, for a steal. It’s from the 1940’s and it’s become very important to me,” Marty said.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!!!

His big mouth finally betrayed him. He stopped chewing and tensely watched for the man’s reaction to his blunder. His stomach soured and made a rude noise.

The strange man caressed his hand along its grainy surface, and turned to Marty with a maniacal glint in his eye. “Is it more important to you than your fucking life?”

Marty shook his head and tried to keep himself from shivering with fear or worse yet, finally losing control of his bodily functions. This was
definitely
a man that Marty Silvestri didn’t want to go up against. Not in a million years.

God help Sam and Jo Cassidy, because they certainly didn’t know what they were getting themselves into.

* * * *

“Are you ready yet?” Johanna fidgeted impatiently. Sighing, she leaned against the RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 16

bulkhead.

She glanced over at their two cuffed prisoners and then she stared at Samantha who was fully arming herself. “What battle do you intend to be fighting?” Johanna asked. Samantha added one more of the little gadgets that Dylan continually purchased or invented.

“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 into fully 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 seedy hole in the wall, it makes a shack look like a palace.”

“Come on, 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 said 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 sights. Instead of freezing my nads off, I’d be getting my eyes full of tits and ass.” Clayton’s whiny voice became grating.

“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
sweet
one.”

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’s 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. But maybe we can turn in the prizes for the booty 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 RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 17

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 exchanged prize with bounty 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 harbor 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 goonba’s 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.

Samantha’s senses reeled. It clicked. She realized her weakness.

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 against her temple. Those bloody freaking things really needed to be outlawed.

RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 18

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, she couldn’t risk using them under such extreme duress since 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 man. 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.

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.