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He looked weary and defeated, and Samantha could already guess that he had overheard Lucy’s update.

“That

woman

hates
men,” Dylan said, shuddering. He leaned against the nearest bulkhead, and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, and she doesn’t like women much better,” Samantha declared, instinctively rubbing the spot where Veronica had dislocated her shoulder two years ago.

She hated the woman. Hated her because she had her husband, and hated her because she matched her skill for skill. It would be bloody difficult rescuing Tyler from her. But hell, she was always up for a challenge.

“Veronica’s a definite ball buster,” Dylan continued. Spacecraft flew around them. They approached
New Monaco’s
spaceport. It wouldn’t be long now.

RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 31

“If Veronica lays one grimy finger on Tyler, I’m going to have to give her a few reminders of what happened to her the last time she went up against me,” Samantha threatened.

“Hang on, Tyler, we are coming.”

Johanna began speaking to the space traffic controllers, “New Monaco Space Traffic Authority this is the star ship, Excalibur requesting permission to enter New Monaco’s planetary atmosphere.” Samantha fell silent at Johanna’s gesture to shut it. She pushed herself up from her chair, and yawned while she stretched.

Ambling over to the refreshment bar, she absently poured herself another cup of steaming coffee. Johanna hated the precious brew, but Samantha couldn’t seem to get along without it. It was her life force.

She loved Johanna dearly, but they were as different as night and day. Samantha loved excitement and adventure, and Johanna loved piloting the spaceship, and staying out of the dirty part of the business.

Johanna was as adept at ass kicking as Samantha was, though Johanna hated to put herself to that much exertion. So, they had made an agreement early on, Johanna would do the driving and Samantha would do the fighting. Besides, as Johanna never failed to point out, Samantha
loved
to kick ass. And when she really thought about it, it was one of the highlights of her job. The scum they dragged in usually deserved everything she handed out to them.

They always made sure to use their aliases when on a job, and preferred that their colleagues referred to them as Sam and Jo, since it made them seem more formidable.

Sadly enough, even in their sophisticated age, men still dominated the bounty hunter work force. And if Samantha and Johanna weren’t so competitive the men nearly always made the most cash. Samantha quietly sat back down beside Johanna, and watched Dylan slip back into the hallway.

Samantha knew that he loved his brother, and she knew that he was tormented by the thoughts of what might happen to Tyler. But at the moment she didn’t want to entertain any of those notions.

No one was going to keep her from her man, not even a self-vindictive bitch, who had given her more trouble than she could handle.

“Thank you,” Johanna said, to the amiable man on the other end of the communiqué.

“We’ll find him soon, Samantha. Don’t you worry your pretty little head.”

Samantha smiled over at Johanna. “If anyone else had told me not to worry my pretty little head they’d get a punch in the nose. You, dear sister, get a pass.” Her sister’s upbeat tone almost made her believe in happy endings.

They

entered

New Monaco’s
atmosphere, and Samantha groaned as she stared at all of the flying spaceships. If she kept looking at them, she was going to get a migraine the size of
Earth
.

Samantha leaned back, deciding to let her sister take control until the moment was right for her to take command of the situation.

“Lucy,” Samantha said, as the AI moved toward her, and leaned over her shoulder. “Do you think that you could possibly narrow in on our dear Veronica, and see where she might be at the moment?”

“Only if you promise to never tamper with my systems,” Lucy purred into Samantha’s ear. Samantha bristled, but managed to keep her mouth shut. Why did Lucy have to be so bloody brilliant?

“Fine,” Samantha agreed, wishing that Dylan hadn’t given Lucy such a stubborn RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 32

personality. She hated how Lucy always questioned everything, and never gave in, no matter what.

Then she formed her lips in a thin line, and realized for the first time that Dylan had not only made Lucy look like her. But that he had given the AI her personality as well. This time Dylan had really stepped over the invisible line.

“I’m going to shove your head up where the sun doesn’t shine, Dylan,” she muttered beneath her breath, staring hatefully over at Lucy. “What’s up Lucy Q? You’re taking all damn day,” Samantha prompted, arching her brow expectantly. She took another sip of her java, and sighed with contentment. She locked her eyes on Lucy. The AI made a series of weird humming noises, as her violet eyes lolled back into her head. After about a second, her gaze met Samantha’s.

“They are in the capital city of the Eastern State of
Brunswick
. The capitol city is
York
,”

Lucy answered patronizingly. Samantha glared at her again, and barely managed to hold back her pent up anger.

“I know what the damn capital city is called!” Samantha barked. “I wasn’t born yesterday!”

“That’s quite obvious,” Lucy quipped.

Johanna changed their coordinates, and let out a heavy sigh.

“Samantha, cool your jets. Lucy, pull a map up for me, I haven’t been to
New Monaco
in ages, and I don’t want us to get lost, when it’s so vital we get to Tyler before he’s delivered.

Lord Devlin lives in
York
, and Veronica might already be at the delivery point,” Johanna stated.

Lucy hurried to comply. That was the most frustrating part of Lucy, as Samantha rolled her eyes in disgust. Lucy literally kissed Johanna’s ass, and yet Lucy didn’t even want to cooperate with her, in the slightest. It really ticked her off!

“Crap!” Samantha swore, dribbling coffee down onto her white shirt.

“Oh,

Samantha
,” Johanna sighed, not surprised at her sister’s clumsiness. “Are you sure that you don’t want me to contact Devlin and ask him to go easy on Tyler?”

“Certainly not!” Dylan bellowed from the other side of the bridge.

“Freaking hell!” Samantha cursed, jumping up from her seat, she spilled some more coffee down her front. “Where in God’s name did you materialize from? You disappear and reappear faster than a magician!” she demanded, wanting to have a good old-fashioned fight with him. “Look what you made me do,” she accused, biting her lip, as Dylan strode purposefully over to them. “And you Johanna, you are getting on my last nerve, with your Lord Devlin shit.

We don’t need him, and if you contact him, I will make you really, really sorry,” she muttered, trying to wipe the coffee from her shirt, which only made the spot spread as the stain worked its way into the fabric.

“We are going to have to land
The Excalibur
, and then pursue Veronica,” Johanna said wearily. An angry voice streamed out into the bridge.

A figure of a tall take no prisoners looking man appeared on the large screen, and he scowled down at them.

“You ignored docking procedures!” he pointed out, emphasizing the fact with his index finger. “Land immediately at the nearest docking bay. Though
The Excalibur
is small enough to enter the atmosphere, you are too bloody large to go speeding through our planet. You will cause an accident, if you continue on your current course.”

Samantha was getting ready to have it out with the man, when Johanna put a restraining hand on her arm. “Do you want us to get our license taken away from us?” she muttered, staring RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 33

sweetly up at the ranking
New Monaco
official.

Samantha shook her head, and then allowed Johanna to smooth things over.

“We apologize for the inconvenience, Captain,” Johanna said in her best ambassador’s voice. “We shall hasten to dock.”

The official smiled down at her. “Thank you,” he said. In the next second, he’d disappeared from the screen.

“Why do you have to always do that?” Johanna demanded impatiently.

“Do what?” Samantha asked, innocently widening her eyes.

“Go in with all guns blazing,” Johanna retorted. She gave Samantha a dirty look and began lowering the ship, so that they would be able to dock in the designated bay.

“It’s in my nature,” Samantha said, causing Johanna to groan.

“Lucky me!” Johanna rolled her eyes. The ship shuddered indicating they had settled into the docking bay. Lucy stared over at them.

“Lucy, when we’re gone, keep all security systems on standby. Make sure that Dylan doesn’t fall asleep anywhere,” Samantha instructed, darting her gaze toward Dylan.

“Bite your tongue, Samantha. I’m going with you,” Dylan declared, putting his pistol into his shoulder holster.

“No, you aren’t,” Samantha contradicted. Johanna heaved out a large sigh.

“Stop bickering you two. I swear you act like two naughty children. Dylan, we need you here, someone might be pursuing us, and you will have to be ready for a speedy departure. And besides, you’re the best engineer in the galaxy, and this old bucket of bolts, needs some repairs done. You know that Samantha and I wouldn’t even be able to get into the sky if it weren’t for you. You’re the best at what you do, Sweetheart.”

Dylan made a loud unidentifiable sound, and then fell on his ass, when something hard hit
The Excalibur
rocking them slightly.

“Bloody hell!” Samantha raged, searching the scanners.

Lucy immediately came to attention and brought up the weapons.

“Incoming communication,” Lucy snapped off. In the next instant, a man’s image appeared on the large view screen.

They all turned their heads at the same time, and let out a collective groan.

“Hello, everyone,” Fred Crenshaw said, smiling gleefully at them.

RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 34

“I must say Samantha, you are looking remarkably well,” he drawled out approvingly.

He trailed his eyes down the full length of her body. She repressed a shudder.

“You are such a dirty bastard. When you look at me I feel like I need a full disinfecting,”

Samantha said, staring furiously up at him.

“Why, thank you, my dear,” Crenshaw smiled smugly, turning his attention to Dylan who was just now struggling to regain his footing. “Ah, yes, you’re the other bloody Cassidy,”

Crenshaw remarked, tugging at the moustache that he was quite vain about. “I saw your brother earlier today, and had the supreme pleasure of watching the car that he had stolen explode.”

Crenshaw stopped talking, and smiled with satisfaction. The sick little shit head took great pleasure in basking in their assembled exclamations of horror.

“If you did anything to hurt him you’re a dead man,” Dylan raged, moving toward Johanna and Samantha. Samantha reached out and grabbed a hold of Dylan. She knew how he felt. But he couldn’t lose control. Not yet, anyway.

“Be quiet, Dylan!” Samantha snapped. Hers being the voice of reason made her think of the irony of it.

Her stomach dropped, and her throat constricted. Fury unlike any she had ever experienced welled inside of her, and she struggled to keep herself from pressing a small button and blasting Crenshaw right out of the sky. If she did that she’d never get the answers she was looking for. Sometimes as much as she hated to admit it, patience did pay off. Soon, she’d have the supreme pleasure of watching Crenshaw’s face fall.

“We know who has captured Tyler, Crenshaw. You needn’t feel the urge to toy with us,”

Samantha whispered. She narrowed her eyes. If he had been in the same room with her, she would’ve thrown caution to the wind, and wiped the floor with his pug little face.

Crenshaw folded his arms across his broad chest, and stared at her in complete admiration.

“Toying with you, now that is quite an appealing thought, my dear. I can think of one or two things I’d like to do to you,” Crenshaw said. At his words, a creepy sensation worked its way up her spine. Now she felt as if she needed an hour-long shower. And even then, her skin would probably still crawl at the memory.

“Shove it up it your ass, Crenshaw,” Samantha shot back. She looked out the corner of her eye, and watched Lucy pull up all possible reports on Tyler. So, she’d gone against her advice to Dylan.
Shit happened
.

“You are so eloquent, my lovely little sex kitten,” Crenshaw murmured. He broke off and turned away from them, as one of his assistants came up and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Mark my words, Crenshaw. If I find out that you have touched one hair on Tyler’s head I will hunt you down. Make you suffer. Then I will make sure that you go straight to hell.” Her face felt hot. She was losing it. Dylan had a silly grin plastered on his face. She was glad that at least
someone
was being entertained.

“Oh, do tell me more,” Crenshaw invited eagerly. He sprawled into his gigantic Captain’s chair, and smiled smugly at them. Someday, she’d wipe that trademark smug grin right RECKLESS BOUNTY Marly Mathews 35

off his face, and she’d enjoy every minute of it.

The Excalibur
readied her engines, and discharged a warning shot at Crenshaw’s much smaller spacecraft.

“Beat it, Crenshaw, or someone
will
be scraping you off of the boardwalk,” Samantha threatened.

Fred smiled widely at them, and licked his lips, his eyes glittering dangerously.

“I trust you already know that Veronica has Tyler,” Crenshaw assumed.

One of his over eager assistants handed Crenshaw a brandy. He sipped it at delicately all the while keeping his eyes pinned unwaveringly on the view screen. Samantha winced, forcing herself to breathe. Did the man ever take a hint? What did he expect her to do, burn a hole right through his ship?