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“Got to love that new stealth mode. I’m going to kiss Dylan when I see him!” She was

bubbling over with happiness. Here was Johanna ready to bail her out, just as she’d done for her

so many times before. At least she could always count on one older sibling to always pull her

ass out of the fire.

“We’ll open our hangar doors for you as soon as you’re close enough.”

“Well, I’m sort of bringing company with me.”

“Well, I know you have Quinn aboard. Oh, hi, Tyler. Sam, Tyler is here now…just

thought you’d like to know.” So Johanna had sensed the tension between her and Tyler.

She scrunched her face up. Thankfully,
Eleanor
hadn’t activated visual, or Tyler would

be having a hissy fit.

“Actually, since New Monaco has sort of gone to the dogs and all, I’ll be bringing Devlin

with me.”

Again, for about the fiftieth time that day, she was met with a hanging silence. After a

few dead seconds, she couldn’t have sworn that she heard Tyler swear a blue streak. Silence.

Followed by Tyler making a big show out of clearing his throat. She bit her lip. She didn’t feel

like dealing with his dour mood right now. Not after she’d nearly gotten her ass blown off.

“Beg your pardon? I don’t think I heard that right the first time.” Silence. Samantha

squirmed in her seat. “Please tell me I didn’t hear you right the first time.”

“Listen, Tyler, there’s nothing wrong with your hearing. You need to just deal with it.

Like it or lump it,” she sighed.

“Samantha....” Devlin murmured. She turned to look back at him.

Devlin’s voice boomed through the car. “Not to worry, Cassidy. As Samantha just

pointed out, your hearing is doing just fine. Looks like you’re going to have to get used to

having me around.”

“Samantha. I didn’t tell you to bring back Devlin. I thought you were going to leave his

ass on the planet,” Tyler muttered.

“You didn’t tell me?”

She heard Johanna’s shocked exclamation. “You’ve done it now, Tyler. Welcome to all

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hell breaking loose courtesy of Samantha!”

“Tyler, you don’t tell me what to do. I don’t know what’s gotten into you since we left

Hawaii. You’ve been trying to control me a little too much. Well, listen up! I am not going to

humor you anymore. I just about got my ass blown off down on New Monaco, and I do not need

nor will I take your insufferable attitude. You can just bugger off. Johanna, unforeseen

circumstances sort of popped out. I can’t very well leave Devlin to the mercies of Gregory now

can I? Any other bad guy, sure…but Gregory, I don’t think so. You know as well as I do what

kind of sick dude he is.”

“Yes, I do,” Johanna agreed. “You had no choice. You’re right, Tyler will have to suffer

in silence.”

“Who’s Gregory?” Tyler stalled, and then sighed. “Oh. Hell. Now, I remember.

Samantha, why didn’t you just mention his name in the first place? Honestly, you could have

made the road a lot smoother. In that case, get your asses moving, I think we’ve worn out our

welcome.” With the speed they currently traveled, it wouldn’t be that long before they reached

the
Excalibur.
They shuddered when another volley of laser fire struck them from behind.

“How are you doing, Eleanor?” Samantha asked, totally ignoring Tyler’s mutterings

through the communication channel.

“I won’t be able to take much more. My systems are nearly at the breaking point.”

Samantha bit her lip, nearly drawing blood.

“If you want, I could stick my head out of the window and give you a hand,” she offered.

Devlin looked at her like he wanted to laugh. “Don’t you dare, Samantha.” The levity in

his eyes sobered. He gave her a piercing stare that made gooseflesh erupt across her skin. She

tore her gaze reluctantly away from his.

Okay, so maybe that wasn’t the best idea she’d had in a while. Tyler’s inane mutterings

stopped. Then, he spoke. She winced against hearing his voice. It grated on her nerves now

more than it ever had in the past.

“The planet’s at war and you were actually contemplating sticking your head out the

window? Samantha, sometimes I don’t know why I married you.”

She stuck her tongue out at the communications control. “Sometimes, I think the same

thing,” she whispered, rolling her eyes.

“I do,” Devlin muttered from the back. “She wanted stupid and boring.”

Samantha narrowed her eyes. She looked over at Devlin, and smiled. He caught the

smile and gave her a cheeky grin back.

“I don’t want to fight with you right now, Tyler. I have enough to do without worrying

about giving you a run for your money. Let’s just get off of this planet at the earliest

opportunity.”

“I’ll second that motion,” Quinn grunted.

Samantha was thrown forward again, and her seatbelt nearly dug into her chest.

“And I’ll carry it,” Devlin muttered.

“You’ve just come into view,” Johanna murmured. “Eleanor, we should be undetectable

by your sensors. You’re going to have to do a 360 turn and then you’ll be right near our cargo

bay doors.”

“Right you are,” Eleanor said, pivoting the car so that they could fly right into dock.

Samantha wasn’t really anticipating disembarking. She unlatched her seatbelt, and

waited until
Eleanor
opened the door for her. Tyler was standing up on the gangplank waiting

for them.

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She looked between Tyler and Devlin. Electricity sizzled through the air. If she wasn’t

careful, bad things were going to happen. Right now, she wanted to throw herself into Devlin’s

arms and give him a great big kiss on the lips in gratitude for what he’d said about Tyler back in

the hover car. Instead, she remained stoic and kept the drama to a minimum.

“Uh, Tyler, this is Quinn.” She grabbed onto Quinn and hauled him in front of her. She

had to distract Tyler before he did something she’d later regret.

“Gently, gently,” Quinn drawled, rolling his eyes at her. “So are the two stags going to

go at it or what? My bet is on Devlin he’s. He’s a bigger guy and I’ve seen him kick ass before.

Your husband looks a bit on the soft side. Why did you marry him?”

“Just shut your trap, brother of mine. You don’t happen to have a stash of Alo on you

anywhere do you?”

“Not a chance in hell, would I still have that luscious gold on me. I sold my last bit of

stock two weeks ago. But don’t worry, we’ll find some for your friend.”

“I had some…unfortunately my storage facility that it was in was blown up oh,” Devlin

looked at his pocket watch, “Twenty minutes ago. Gregory has hit all of my storage facilities

that house any precious black market commodities. The twit should have confiscated my stashes

and sold it for himself but I think he got smashed over the head one too many times.”

Right at that moment, Dylan’s voice crackled in over the intercom. “Hey, Tyler, get your

ass back up here. I think we’ve just been detected. I need your help.”

Samantha gasped.

“Well, come on. Tyler, what are we waiting for?” She steered him toward the exit, and

paused when he wouldn’t budge. “Tyler, you’re making a mountain out of a mole hill you

know.” She grunted and put all of her weight into trying to budge him.

“Tell him to keep his big nose out of
our
business.” Tyler’s muscles rippled beneath her

hands. He was so strung out. After a few seconds, she gave up trying to move him.

“Yes, well, I think he heard you. Come on, we don’t have time to diddle fart around. I

don’t know what in the world has gotten into you, but this whole macho male thing is really

beginning to aggravate me. Tyler, if you start something right at this bad moment I will kick you

up the arse so fast it will make your bloody head spin. And don’t think I won’t drag you to

divorce court right after we get this mess sorted out.” His eyes flared at her. Devlin approached.

“Cool your jets, Tyler, you look like you’ve got an almost murderous glint in your eyes. I

think maybe your wife should have let me hang you all those months ago, then, she wouldn’t

have to worry about divorcing you. On the other hand, I love seeing that there is trouble in

paradise.”

“Samantha.” Tyler fixed his eyes on her. “We’ve also had a message from Charlotte.

Johanna intercepted it, when she got it she was down in med bay but after she listened to it, she

took over on the bridge.” He delivered the news with his eyes rooted on Devlin the whole time.

“Do you know if Charlotte found Rory?”

“They were really cryptic. It was like trying to get information out of a stone. I’ve never

seen Johanna so tight-lipped in all of my life.” Samantha sighed. For once, just once, she really

wished that everything in her life could be simplistic. Samantha nearly lost her balance when

something slammed into them. Devlin caught her before she could fall.

“You know, Devlin, sometimes, you really make yourself handy.”

“Good to know,” he muttered.

They walked onto the bridge, with Devlin’s arm still safely loped around her shoulder.

Should she tell him to knock it off or was the infuriated look that Tyler wore too satisfying to see

MAXIMUM VELOCITY Marly Mathews 50

it disappear? She liked seeing him upset. Finally, he had an expression that wasn’t sullen.

“There’s a shit load of bogeys on our tail. I don’t know what we’re going to do,”

Johanna muttered.

“You know what, I rather like it when I’m doing the chasing, instead of it being the other

way around. Devlin, since this used to be your planet, you wouldn’t happen to have any words

of wisdom that just might save our sorry butt’s do you?”

“I might,” he drawled, giving her another one of his charismatic gazes.

Johanna caught and held Samantha’s gaze. “Tyler get your ass over here and take over

the controls.” She stood up watching as Tyler assumed piloting duties. Samantha had to give

Johanna credit, because she was acting as if she hadn’t even seen Devlin or Quinn.

“We need to talk,” Johanna muttered.

“I’m sort of in the middle of something here,” Samantha retorted, plopping her butt down

into the command chair.

“This time I’m
really
serious. The boys can hold them off, until Samantha the Great

returns. You are definitely going to want to hear the news that I have.”

“I take it this has something to do with Charlotte.”

“Yep. You could say that.” Johanna reached for her arm, pulled her out of the chair, and

began swerving her toward the door. “We’re going to need some privacy for this.”

They walked into the ready room, and sat down at the large table. “So, what’s up?”

Samantha groaned as her stomach let out a long petulant growl.

“Charlotte is on her way,” Johanna said calmly, watching her closely.

“On her way, where?” Samantha leaned forward, and quirked her left eyebrow. She

didn’t like the sound of what Johanna was saying.

“Charlotte is due to intercept us within three hours, based upon her current course.”

“Wait a minute. Turn back the clock here. I still don’t understand. Why in the name of

all that is Holy, is Charlotte on her way to rendezvous with us? I never thought she’d actually be

able to come…or that she’d get here so fast.”

“She says that we needed her yesterday. That and the fact that mom insists we need her.

The combination sort of took the majority. No matter how much I advised her against it, they

were both adamant. So, my dear sister, what a tangled web others have woven for us.”

Samantha suddenly felt sick. She already had one person in mortal danger. She didn’t

need Charlotte getting in her way, and making the team vulnerable. The stakes had just gotten

higher with the reemergence of Gregory in their lives. They couldn’t travel down the same path

twice.

“You know, on the upside, her talents could work out to our advantage,” Johanna mused.

“Don’t worry about it. She isn’t going to throw a monkey wrench in your game plan. I will

make sure of it.” Johanna gave her a reassuring gaze. “Don’t let her rain on your parade, Sam. I

know what happens when she meets us when we’re working. You immediately feel like the

broken second fiddle to Charlotte the Prodigy. Just because she decided to go and hone her gift

doesn’t make you any less gifted. The two of you are the same strength; so don’t let her

haughtiness bother you. Hey, if you were like me you’d really feel puny and insignificant. I

barely have any sign of second sigh at all.”

Samantha narrowed her eyes, blew out a gust of hot air, and stood up. Folding her hands

behind her back, she began to pace the length of the ready room.

“Would you please stand in one spot? You’re beginning to give me a headache.”

Johanna rested her head in her hands.

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“Yeah, well, I already have an ass ache, so what’s your point?

“Mom says that Charlotte has a few surprises in store for us. I didn’t want to tell you but

you need to know. Do not get your knickers in a twist, Sam.”