Microsoft Word - MaximumVelocity.rtf, page 6
“That just about killed you to say, didn’t it?” she smiled, focusing her gaze on the glint in
his eyes. He was still attracted to her. He would still kiss her senseless if she ever let him get
close enough.
“Damn straight,” Devlin retorted, shuddering. “Don’t ever expect me to pay you a
compliment again Ms. Cassidy. Not while you’re involved with Tyler.”
“That’s Misses, to you,” she laughed, hearing it sound hollow. She wished she were Mrs.
Devlin at the moment. If she were, she wouldn’t have woken up alone.
“That reminds me to ask, how is your despicable husband? Is he suffering much? I do so
hope that’s the case.”
“Tyler is fine. A bit different but he’s fine.”
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“Different?” Devlin looked concerned. He leaned toward her, and she wished she could
put her hand through the view screen and touch him. She’d fought her feelings for him this
long—she could continue the battle. She deserved to suffer as much as Devlin wished Tyler were
suffering. “I trust you’re in good health?”
“I am.” She nodded her head. “Listen, Dev, I would hate to keep you from whatever great
things await you in the next few minutes. I am quite certain you have one of your whores on
standby so don’t let me keep you....”
“You look intoxicating in your pajamas, Samantha. They look a bit like the style you had
on down on New Monaco a little over six months ago. That was one morning to remember,” he
said, his voice soft enough to make her entire body crave his touch.
“I won’t forget that you helped me out that day, Dev, but I don’t know if I can allow you
to help me again once you help Quinn find Rory. I just think us being together for too long is too
dangerous.”
“It’s the kind of danger I look forward to,” he mused, his eyes sparkling with affection.
“I have to go, Dev. We’ll see you soon. Don’t overexert yourself doing the rumba with
one of your lady of the nights.” She cut the link just as he was about to rush in with a retort. She
had to have the last word. It was her cardinal rule. Sighing, she turned around when she heard
the door rattling. Reaching out, she unlocked it and it slid open.
Tyler stood in front of her, “Whom were you talking to?” he mumbled, looking grumpy
as ever.
“Good morning,” she murmured.
“Whom were you talking to?” he repeated.
“Lord Devlin,” she muttered, trying to push past him.
“We should have another bathroom in this suite.... One made up for private
conversations with Mob Lords.” His jab didn’t affect her the way he wanted it to. “What did he
want?”
“He wanted to tell me that he’d be meeting me down at The New Monaco space docks.”
“Oh, so that’s all, then.” He seemed troubled.
“Did you think that I was in there whispering sweet nothings to him?”
“No.” He shifted to the side, and grimaced.
“So, why do you look so bothered?”
“Because I feel as if we’ve just found each other again. I thought that we would be
working as a team from now on.”
“We are a team. It’s a little thing called being married. But now that I have your
attention, Tyler, you haven’t exactly been acting like yourself. You seem like a totally new
person.”
His eyes flared with anger. She took a step back surprised at the intensity of the rage
boiling off him. She stared at his hands. He was clenching them into tight fists. “That’s
something else you’ve recently developed. You are flying off the handle at the least little thing I
happen to say. You’re acting like a pissy little jerk.”
“Well, excuse me for wanting us to be more open when it comes to your profession. I
thought that we’d gotten to the place in our marriage where you would let me in on your business
a bit more.”
“This thing with Rory isn’t business, it’s personal and you know that.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Where the hell do you get off preaching to me about openness between us? For the last
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few months, hell, ever since we left Earth and you went away on that hush hush mission, you’ve
been a mystery to me. You returned from that mission like a bear with a sore bloody ass and you
haven’t come out of that mood at all. I am just about sick of how we treat each other, Tyler. I
don’t even want you sleeping with me anymore!” He took a step toward her. “Why don’t you go
and talk to Dylan? Better yet, why don’t you just get out of my way? You’re staying here on the
Excalibur and if you don’t like it, tough. I am not going to let you pull my strings anymore,
Tyler. I thought that we were on the road to recovery after what happened on New Monaco, and
for a split second while we were on Earth I believed you were the man I wanted to spend the rest
of my life with, but now....” She grimaced and stepped past him. He reached out for her. “Don’t
touch me! I can’t bear your touch at the moment. Can you please just leave while I get dressed?
“Fine,” he grumbled. “I’ll go and be the good little husband and talk to my good little
brother. He’ll probably want to drone on to me about how perfect his marriage with Johanna is,
but anything is better than listening to you bitch at me all morning.”
“Good. Take those stunning catlike moves of yours and make good use of them down in
engineering.”
“I feel useless. I hate, hate being shoved on the backburner. You know what I feel like? I
feel like I am the consolation prize for a man you were afraid of having…and don’t look so
coolly at me. You know exactly whom I am referring to. For the life of me, I can’t figure out
how I fell in love with you in the first place....” She regarded him for a moment. What he was
saying was absurd he was the one that had taken the first step in asking her out. Up until she’d
met Tyler she’d been pretty happy by herself. When she’d met Tyler he’d made a mad dash to
secure her hand in marriage and she’d agreed knowing that she’d hurt Devlin terribly by
marrying Tyler. No one knew that when Johanna had gotten mixed up with Devlin and brought
her to meet him that fireworks had exploded between them during their first meeting. No one had
noticed the chemistry oozing between the two of them except for Devlin and she.
“You don’t need to feel useless. And you’re not just a toy to me. You are my husband for
better or for worse—unfortunately I seem to be dealing with a marriage that’s tilting precariously
toward worse.” She stressed the last word. “I’ll be back aboard the Excalibur in no time at all.
I’m just going to go down and fetch Quinn. We won’t find Rory on New Monaco anyway. New
Monaco doesn’t deal with slave traders. I mean Devlin is a dirty rotten bastard at times, but even
he can’t stoop that low.”
“I’ll anticipate your return.” Of course he would. She eyed him warily, wishing she
could just end it with him now. The only reason she was sticking it out this time was because of
all the trouble she’d gone through to save him from Devlin’s justice on New Monaco. If she
divorced him now, she’d look like a fool—and she hated looking like a stooge.
“Well, if you need to be reminded of me, all that you need to do is look at Lucy. She’ll
bring back memories of me, thanks to good old, Dylan.”
“Yes, and she’s even equipped with your acerbic tongue.”
“Now, you’re just pushing it. Lucy and I aren’t anything alike.” Again he tried to reach
out for her. She took a step back. “I don’t think we have time for anything like what you have in
mind....” Her mind raced. “Tyler, you’re going to make me late for my rendezvous with
Devlin.”
“Oh, wouldn’t that be a crying shame,” he muttered, moving swiftly and grabbing her
hand. His hand felt cold and clammy. She almost let out a shriek.
“I’m serious! Don’t do this to me right now, Tyler.”
“And so am I. Do I revolt you that much?”
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“Come on, Tyler. I am too stressed out to do this. Maybe we shouldn’t have reconciled.
You seemed to be doing okay without me until you ran into Dev’s devious ex-wife. I think we
made a big mistake and now we have to deal with it.”
He stopped, and gazed into her eyes. “Fine. I’ll deal with it, by going and getting lost
somewhere on this hunk of a ship.” He turned to leave when their door chime went off.
Sighing, she pushed past him and walked to the door.
He pulled her back toward him. Rattled, the air started to get colder.
The door chime buzzed again. Then her sister’s voice streamed out over the intercom.
“Samantha, wake up! I need to speak to you right away.”
“You know what, I don’t think I really like your sister right now. We can’t even have an
argument without being interrupted!”
“Well. I don’t really like Dylan most of the time.” She groaned, pulling her arm out of
his grip. “When I get back, we’ll continue where we left off.”
“I am quite sure we’ll have forgotten what we were arguing about in the first place,”
Tyler mused softly.
“I don’t think so.” She walked to the door, and pressed the release mechanism. It slid
open, and she quickly walked through it, before Johanna could get a glimpse of Tyler in his
rotten mood.
“Lucy told me that Devlin called.”
“He did,” she said tersely. “Why did you contact him last night?”
“I had to ask for his assistance. Samantha, he has experience in tracking down lost
children.”
“What do you mean?” She folded her arms across her chest. Sighing, she bit her lip and
thought back to Rory. They needed to get to her like yesterday. Problem was, she was lost in a
big wide galaxy. She could literally be anywhere. It would be like looking for a needle in a
haystack.
“How do you think he found Jordan?”
Samantha tilted her head to the side. Her mind was racing. She still felt half asleep, and
here her sister was, actually expecting her to think.
“What? Are we now talking about the Red Falcon now?”
“Of course. I thought you knew this already, in fact I recall explaining this to you once
before....” Johanna gave her an inquisitive look that made her feel like the freaking village idiot.
“Well, when you start talking about Devlin I sort of tune out stuff. I know that Devlin
took Jordan in when he was a child. Red mentioned something about Devlin being his mentor.
Though, I don’t think that man could mentor a monkey…let alone a ten year old kid.”
“He didn’t take him in. He brought him home. Samantha, Jordan is Devlin’s son, he
didn’t just adopt him when he was an older child, he had him since he was a baby—he is his
child.”
“Impossible! They aren’t anything alike.” Samantha’s temper was rising. She still had a
long day ahead of her.
“Fine. If you don’t believe me, ask Devlin sometime. He doesn’t hide it, but I know that
the Red Falcon doesn’t want it to become public, because he obviously didn’t mention it to you.
I don’t know why he’s ashamed of Devlin but he obviously has issues.”
“Do you think he even knows?”
Johanna rolled her eyes. “He was kidnapped when he was five. He should remember his
real father. Devlin isn’t as bad as everyone thinks. He’s actually quite a softie at heart. His
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family is everything to him. That’s why he understands the seriousness of Rory’s situation.”
“Yes. But sometimes in life there are things that one doesn’t want to remember.” Her
throat constricted and her voice faded away. Johanna’s eyes filled with sorrow.
“Oh…man. I’m sorry, Samantha. I shouldn’t have put it that way. Me and my big
mouth.” Johanna put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and squeezed her gently.
“Don’t worry about it, Johanna. I’m a big girl. How’s Veronica?” She desperately
wanted to change the subject, and knew that this was one surefire way of doing just that.
“She’s in stable condition for the time being. But we’re going to need that antidote, and
soon. We should be going back to Earth to see if they have any Alo in stock, but with Rory’s
current situation we have to go looking for her. Too bad we can’t be in two places at once.”
“I know. So much to do, so little time.”
“Maybe I should call Charlotte up, she might be able to help us with locating Rory. It just
might speed up the process. The longer she’s out there…lost…the longer she’s vulnerable to
having some really nasty things happen to her. I don’t even want to think about what she’s
suffering through right now.”
“Neither do I.” Samantha’s heart fell. They needed their allies right now. If calling in
Charlotte would help to bring Rory home, then they’d have to. Samantha had always been
protective of Charlotte, but Charlotte was an adult. Rory was not. “Why don’t you call up
Charlotte? I think we really could do with her kind of help, especially concerning the
extenuating circumstances. As long as the signal will carry that far, that is.”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything.” Johanna smiled, and hooked her arm though
Samantha’s. “Try to treat Devlin decently. He really is trying to help.”
“Will you keep an eye on Tyler? I feel as if he’s got some harebrained idea concocted.”
“Well, it takes one to know one, doesn’t it, my dear?”
Samantha frowned. “You know, if you weren’t my sister, I’d have to smack you for that
remark.”
“Good thing I’m your older sister, then.” Johanna released her arm, and looked down at
her watch. “We should almost be in New Monaco Space. You should get ready. I don’t think
you’ll want to get into Eleanor in that slinky outfit. And since we can’t draw too near to New
Monaco itself, you’ll have to travel most of the way on your own.”
“Oh, happy days!” Samantha mumbled, turning to walk back into her quarters. And let
the games begin!
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Chapter Six
“For the millionth time, Eleanor, would you let me do the driving?” Samantha asked.
“You are an inept driver when compared to Johanna.” Samantha scowled. She really
didn’t like the way that her morning was going so far.
“I’m a pretty good driver, please and thank you.”
“I beg to differ.” Okay, that was it. She’d had about enough of this bucket of bolts. Why
oh why, did every single AI have to be so damn smart? Even now, the holographic projection of
Eleanor was sitting next to her, giving her a smug little grin.
“There is something different about your appearance today.” Eleanor smirked, and then
craned her neck to the side, to look out the window, as they were cleared to enter New Monaco’s
atmosphere.
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” But then Samantha hadn’t really paid much attention to
herself. She’d gotten dressed, all the while dwelling on the argument she had with Tyler.
Afterward, she had slicked her hair back into her usual ponytail, and applied a little bit of
lipstick. But that was all, and for the life of her, she couldn’t remember admiring herself in a
mirror at all. She was just about to look at herself in the rearview mirror when Eleanor
interrupted her.
“You don’t need to use those pesky things. My sensors will guide us safely to the
docking ports.”
She narrowed her eyes, shrugged her shoulders, and groaned as Eleanor gave all of the
necessary authorization codes out to the port commander.
