Tempting Bounty (Inter-Galactic Bounty Hunter Series Book 2) (4 page)

Chapter 6

It was hard for Lexi to believe she had left her club around one in the morning. It was now five-thirty in the morning. The sun was already rising. Lexi walked beside Vic and his two bounty hunter friends were just a few feet behind them. “Do I get to know the names of the other bounty hunters?”

Vic sounded like he was growling as he spoke. “The one with short hair is Blade and the one with curly hair like a female’s is Isaac.”

“I do not have hair like a female! Just because I use conditioner in mine like any civilized person would do does not make me like a female!” Isaac’s face turned redder as he was protesting.

Lexi had to smother a laugh. This wasn’t the time or the place to reveal her amusement. These guys were surprising her with their contrary behavior. They teased each other, which showed how at ease they were around one another.

“Which boat is it?” Vic asked, ignoring Isaac’s outburst.

“It’s the last boat on the end — the blue and white one with a swan painted on it. It’s called the Majestic Swan.”

“Do you think he’s gone already?” Blade asked from behind them. Isaac’s sat phone rang and he stopped walking to take the call.

She shook her head. “Probably not. He knows nothing about boats. That’s why I told him to use it because I knew he would get frustrated and find other transportation.”

Blade laughed. “That’s pretty harsh.” Lexi laughed too but their humor was short lived.

Isaac called out for them to stop. “Vic I need to speak with you for just a moment.” He motioned for Vic to walk with him a few feet away.

Vic could tell something was really wrong by the expression on Isaac’s face. “What’s happened?”

“That was Abe. He wanted to let us know that Stratford’s girlfriend Bubbles showed up, left for dead on a river bank.”

“Fuck!”

“She was identified as the woman that signed the bond agreement for Stratford too.”

That cleared Lexi legally but she was in even more danger. “That’s why Roland’s men came here for Stratford, Bubbles told them about Lexi.”

“Shouldn’t we be leaving the planet?”

“Yes but Roland’s men may be keeping an eye on the transport stations. We need to hide out somewhere until we can get transportation out of here.”

“What do you need me and Blade to do?”

“I’ll take Stratford out on the boat. We’ll find somewhere to hide out for a while. You two stay behind and keep an eye out for Roland’s men and work on getting us a way off this planet. Once you have transportation lined up get a boat and come out and escort us in.”

“I don’t like you being out there on your own with no back up.”

“Work quickly then.” Vic and Isaac walked back over to Lexi and Blade.

*****

Lexi smiled as she caught sight of the bow of her boat. “Maybe...but it’s true.” She pointed straight ahead. As she approached the boat she didn’t see any sign of Dan. Maybe he had given up like she had expected him to and left. Then, a very well endowed and barely covered brunette appeared on the deck followed by a blonde with a similar body type. Both were wearing bikinis.

Lexi was furious. Who were these women on her boat? She went up the ramp to board her boat. “Who the hell are you?”

The brunette had bent over to do something with the sun hatch, while the blonde was putting on fingernail polish; both had earplugs in their ears and bopping around to music they were listening to. Lexi looked back behind her at the three males and found them staring intently at the bikini-clad women. She hit Vic's arm with her hand to get his attention. She suddenly felt very inadequate. She was bruised and cut and she needed a bath badly. She faced the women again. She raised her voice and waved her hand in front of their faces to get their attention.

“I asked who the hell you were and why are you on my boat?”

The two women stopped what they were doing, pulled their earplugs free, and glared back at her. “This isn’t your boat, honey.”

“Whose boat is it then?” Lexi demanded.

Both women turned and yelled, “Danny!”

Lexi watched in shock as her ex-husband walked up from below deck, wearing a bathing suit and no shirt or shoes. He was carrying two glasses of what looked like champagne. That was her glasses, her champagne and her boat. It had only been a few hours since she had told Dan to come here. While she was being tortured, he had been collecting bimbos and probably getting laid.
Son of a bitch!

“Dan, explain yourself!” Lexi yelled, startling him. He took one look at the men behind her and dropped the glasses and sprinted to the stern of the boat.

“Get him before he jumps off the boat!” Vic yelled out. Isaac took the left side, Blade took the right, and Vic jumped straight up onto the roof of the cabin.

“Holy shit! Did that guy have horns?” the blonde asked incredulously.

Lexi turned to the two women. “Get off my boat before I have you arrested for trespassing.” The two women stumbled as they tried to run down the ramp. A few seconds later, she heard a scream that was very close to sounding like a girl’s.
Ah, they must have caught Danny boy
.

*****

“Let me go!” Dan yelled.

Blade and Isaac held Stratford down on the lounge chair while Vic stood in front of him. “You gave us quite a chase, Stratford.”

“Look man, you’ve got the wrong guy. My name is Leo.”

Vic looked up as Lexi came around the side. She shook her head at Dan. “Give it up, Dan. They know who you are.”

He glared at her. “You brought them here. You gave me up!”

She snorted. “I gave you up years ago, but yes I did bring them here, so that they could keep you alive. That drug dealer, Roland, you got involved with sent some men to my apartment. They were going torture me until I gave them your location. I would probably be dead right now if it hadn’t been for Vic and his crew.”

Dan stopped struggling and looked at Lexi closely. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, nothing a little healing gel won’t make better.” Lexi tried to shrug it off but Vic saw the emotion in her eyes as she quickly looked away. Vic wasn’t about to let Stratford off the hook so easily.

“They hit and bruised her face, tied her down and cut her,” Vic growled.

Dan’s face paled. “Lexi baby, I am so sorry.”

She put up her hand to make him stop talking. “I don’t want to hear it. This is Vic from the bail bonds company and his friends Blade and Isaac.”

“You’ll be coming back with us,” Vic told him.

Dan looked at him smugly. “You have no jurisdiction here. If you try to haul me back, you’ll be the ones going to lock up.”

“That’s why you’ll be coming with us of your own free will,” Vic told him.

“Why would I do that?”

“Because Roland’s men are coming after you and they aren’t going to take you back alive. They are here to kill you. If you want to live, you will come with us.”

Dan looked at Lexi again. “If Marcus Roland is here with his men, they’ll be watching every spaceport there is. They won’t let us off the planet.”

Stratford was right. Vic ran a hand through his hair. He briefly touched his almost hidden horns. At least those had gone down. He turned to look at Lexi.

“Is there a place that no one knows about and hard to reach other than by boat?”

“There’s an island not far from here. Only way on and off is by boat. A friend of mine gave me permission to use it any time I wanted. Why?” She looked at him curiously.

“I thought I would take the boat out with Stratford, stay out of sight until we have transportation off the planet.”

“I need to come with you.” Lexi folded her arms across her chest and winced from the pain.

“No, you don’t.” Vic was shaking his head.

“Yes, I do. I have to enter a password before landing on the island, into a type of alarm system. Also, I can’t go back to my apartment. They know where I live and they will also be scoping out my club. Right now, the safest place for me is with you.” She looked Vic directly in the eyes.

How was he supposed to say no to that? Everything she said was true. She could have been killed if they hadn’t showed up to her house on time. The idea of something like that happening to her without his ability to get to her made him feel uncomfortable.

“Fine. Set the coordinates and give them to Isaac.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to separate, but you’re the boss,” Blade told him as he walked toward the bow of the boat.

“You have my sat phone number. Contact me only if our position has been compromised or if you have transportation ready and waiting for us. Otherwise, no communication,” Vic told Isaac.

“Be careful,” Isaac told him as he handed Vic a bag.

Vic looked at it questioningly. It contained scanners, detonators, guns and ammo, and explosives. “When did you get time to get me an overnight bag?”

“I got it together in the van on the way to the docks. Just in case you needed to defend yourself,” Isaac told him.

“Thanks.” Vic programmed the coordinates that Lexi gave him in his sat phone and texted it to both Blade and Isaac. He watched as his Isaac and Blade headed off the boat. They would stay behind to keep an eye on things and try to secure them transportation off the planet.

“Are you ready?” Lexi asked him from her position at the helm.

“As I will ever be.”

*****

“What do you mean,
you lost her
?” Marcus Roland yelled at his men who were standing before him.

Ted wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Sir, I was in the middle of interrogating Miss Tanner when the bounty hunters showed up. Lloyd and the others were responsible for securing the rest of the apartment. It’s not my fault they didn’t do their job.” He shuffled an envelope from one hand to the other.

“You son of a bitch!” Lloyd jumped on Ted, knocked him to the ground and began trying to strangle him.

Marcus sighed with frustration. He had idiots working for him. “Enough!” He motioned to his personal guards to break up the fight. The two men struggled against the larger guards to no avail. They tasered each man at a low setting. Both men released each other as they shook on the floor. One of them pissed on himself. Marcus wrinkled his nose at the foul stench.

“Calm yourselves or I will calm you permanently!”

At the threat of their imminent death, both men stopped struggling and stilled. Marcus glared at them both. “I want results, gentlemen. Clearly Stratford made contact with his ex-wife, who is now on the run as well. You two will work together and gather all the information you can on this Lexi Tanner. I want to know what she owns, rents, what kind of things she buys for herself. Get into her financials and see what she is spending her money on, where she takes trips. You both have failed me twice, by first losing Stratford and now his wife. This is your third and last chance.”

Ted tried to straighten his shirt. “I have her basic information. A copy of her driver’s license, her employment history, her marriage and divorce certificates.”

“Let me see what you have.” Marcus held out his hand and waited for the large envelope that Ted had dropped on the floor. He opened the envelope and looked at the documents, then paused at the picture of the blonde. She had to be one of the most striking women he had ever seen. No wonder Stratford had refused to sign the divorce papers for years. He hadn’t wanted to let go of her.

Marcus couldn’t blame him either. He snorted when he read that the divorce was pushed through by a judge while Stratford was serving time for a petty charge.

“Bring me the woman alive, unharmed.”

“Yes, boss.”

Marcus was looking for a new woman to warm his bed, and Miss Tanner would do nicely. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on her.

Chapter 7

Vic kept vigil while Lexi maneuvered them out onto the ocean. Dan sat on a seat next to Lexi and talked to her. He couldn’t hear what Dan was saying, but from the irritated look on Lexi’s face, it was a bunch of nonsense. Once they were clear of the mainland, Vic decided to check out the lower level of the boat.

Lexi’s small boat was a 40-foot boat. Lexi and Stratford were on the fly bridge helm. Vic entered through the small but plush salon. It had a small L-shaped couch and a table. There was a TV mounted on a cabinet. Then the main helm was a few steps up. The other stairs led to below. where the galley was located. He found two bedrooms, one with two twin beds and another, which was the master. Everything was immaculate. He didn’t see anything suspicious so he headed back up top.

He climbed the stairs up to the fly bridge. “Some boat you’ve got here. I didn’t know that your club made the kind of money to afford this.”

Lexi rolled her eyes. “The client who owned the island we are going to left me this boat when he died. He had it for years. I would come with him and his daughter quite a few times on the boat and he knew I loved it.”

“What did you do for him in return?” Dan asked insultingly.

“I don’t have to answer to you anymore. We’re not married.” She looked over her shoulder at Vic. “Just so you don’t ask me the same thing, he was a client that turned into a really good friend. He was older and his wife had died. His daughter is about the same age as me. He came by the club and we struck up a conversation. He was a lonely old man. I never slept with him and he never asked me to.”

Vic held up his hands. “I wasn’t going to say anything.” But he had been thinking it. What kind of man gives a beautiful young woman a fucking boat without there being some kind of benefit to him?

“Well, he died a year ago and left his boat to me. I wasn’t going to accept it but his daughter and I had became really good friends and she insisted that I take the boat.”

“What about the island? Did he leave that to you too?” Dan asked, his interest building.

“No. The island is owned by his daughter, Jan. It is set up as a private island for friends and family to use. I was included in the short list that gets to use it.”

“How much longer before we get to the island?” Vic asked as he leaned against the railing.

“Maybe two hours, if the water remains calm like this.”

“Two hours? I’m going to take a nap then.” Dan stood up and squeezed past Vic. Vic grabbed his arm and stopped him.

“Don’t try to get off the boat. I’ll find you and make you sorry,” Vic warned him.

Dan looked around, seeing nothing but water. “Where the hell would I go? I’m not stupid.” He jerked his arm away and descended down the steps to the salon.

Vic took the seat that was now vacant next to Lexi. He watched her driving the boat expertly, her long blonde hair flowing in the wind. She had a pair of dark sunglasses on. He hated that she wore them because he couldn’t look into her pretty blue eyes.

She spoke into the autopilot guidance system giving the coordinates and the speed. When she was done she turned in her chair to look at him. “The autopilot will take us the rest of the way. I’m going to go down to change then to the galley to fix something to eat.” She hesitated before moving. “I just wanted to say… thanks.”

“For what?” He looked at her, confused.

“Saving my life. I didn’t get a chance to say it before.”

“I wish we could have gotten to you sooner, before they hurt you. How are your cuts? Do you need me to reapply the ointment?” His eyes sparkled at her.

She gave him a half-smile. “You’re such a man, even a Decaros man is constantly thinking about getting a girl naked.”

“Can’t blame me for trying.”

She shook her head and laughed. “I’ve got some ointment downstairs. I’ll reapply when I change. I’ll let you know when lunch is ready.”

*****

She went down to the galley and checked the cabinets. She had some canned items and boxed spaghetti. She felt sweat running down her back, under the leather jacket she was wearing. Even though it was still early in the morning, it was too hot for her to be fully covered like this. Good thing she kept a supply of clothes on the boat.

Lexi walked to the master bedroom and found the door closed. She opened it up and frowned.
What the hell?
Dan had gone to her master bedroom to lie down. He was snoring up a storm. She rolled her eyes. She hadn’t missed that sound once in all the years since they had separated.

She opened her dresser drawer and pulled out her red bikini. She went to the bathroom and undressed. She cringed when her leather jacket pulled on her nipples. The cuts were healed but they were still a little bit tender. She applied more healing gel and sighed as it immediately provided relief to the tenderness. If no one else had been on board with her, she would have gone topless, but she needed to keep her head around Vic. She put on her bikini, then grabbed sunblock and a towel. She might be able get a little sun while they were heading to the island.

She placed her towel and sunblock down on the table by the couch in the salon and went back down to the galley. She pulled out a pot and filled it with water. Then she set it on the burner to boil. She put the box of spaghetti noodles next to the stove. She didn’t have any spaghetti sauce but she found a can of tomatoes that she could spice up for the sauce. It felt odd eating something for breakfast that was usually eaten at lunch or dinner. She hadn’t had dinner the previous night before going to work so she wanted something heavier on her stomach.

She wasn’t the best cook. She knew how to make only a few simple things. In fact, that had been one of the things Dan had complained the most about. He had wanted her to work her ass off to bring home money for him to spend and still have time to cook, clean and fuck his brains out. When she didn’t do enough of the last requirement, he found others who did.

She remembered the last time she walked into their apartment. She had worked at the strip bar but had a bad cough. The owner sent her home to get better. She tried calling Dan to pick her up but got no answer.

Lexi took public transportation back to her apartment. She unlocked the door and knew right away something was up. There were women’s clothing laying all over the floor, and they weren’t hers. She kept hold of her purse and keys and walked toward the bedroom. She could hear sounds coming from there. She knew what she would find, but she still needed to see it for herself.

She pushed open the bedroom door and stood there frozen in place watching as Dan fucked a woman that he had introduced her to as his co-worker. “Did you bring your work home?”

She had actually asked that. He of course grabbed his clothes and swore it wasn’t what it looked like. All his excuses could not erase those images in her mind. It wasn’t the first time he cheated, but it was the last time for her. She had had enough. She packed her things and moved out that night. Though she filed separation papers, it took a while to get the divorce because without Lexi, Dan didn’t have a stable income and had to move around a lot.

She shook her head trying to clear her mind of the past. It wouldn’t help her now anyway. Ten minutes later, she drained the noodles and poured the tomatoes into the pot. She added spices.

“That smells really good,” Vic said from behind her.

Lexi jumped and bumped him in the chest. He was standing inches away from her. The galley was too small for them both to be there, but he wedged himself in. She could feel the heat from his body soak through hers, wrapping her like a warm blanket.

“Go sit on the couch, and I’ll bring you a plate. Is a beer okay? I have water, wine and beer. Nothing else to drink.”

“Beer is fine. You bring the food and I’ll get the drinks. What will you drink?” He asked her.

Lexi stared at him over her shoulder in shock. Dan had never once offered to help. “I’ll have a beer, too. It’s been a long morning and I definitely deserve it.”

Vic grabbed the beer and went back up the short steps to the salon. The glass doors were open and a warm breeze blew through the room. He sat on the couch next to her. His size made the couch seem much smaller. At first neither of them said anything as they ate the food. It felt intimate to her. The truth was that this was the closest she had come to a date in years, and it wasn’t even a date. That was just sad.

“This is delicious,” Vic said in between bites.

“It’s okay, I guess. I didn’t have a lot of stuff to put on it, but it will do for now.” She frowned, thinking about the lack of supplies. “How long do you think we’ll have to be on the island?”

“Hopefully a day or two. Why?”

“I hadn’t fully stocked the boat for an extended stay. It’s usually just me, unless I bring my friend Roxy and her son for a weekend trip. The food we have now will last about three days for three people, if we don’t overindulge.”

“Will the island have anything there to eat?”

She nodded. “There’s fruit trees and I have nets we can use to catch fish every day. The biggest problem will be the fresh water supply. I’ve been meaning to install a solar-powered water purifier on the boat but I haven’t doen it yet. The island will have a water purifier when we get there so all the water we use can be recycled. We’ll have to be careful how much water we use until we reach the island.”

“How long will the water last?” He sat his empty plate down on the table.

“We’ll have maybe a day’s worth of fresh drinking water, if we use it strictly for drinking and cooking. Less than that if we take long showers. As long as we are conservative we’ll make it to the island before we run out.” She turned her head to look toward the steps leading down below. “Son of a bitch!” She stood up and stormed down the steps.

*****

What the hell happened?
Vic followed Lexi down below and to her master bedroom. Then he watched as she jerked the bathroom door open, startling a wet and naked Stratford in the shower.

“Lexi! What the hell?” Stratford didn’t try to hide his naked body.

“We need to save the water supply until we get to the island. Once we get there we can purify the ocean water with a filter to use for cooking but we need to limit the use of showers. How long have you had the water on?”

“Just about twenty minutes or so.”

“You need to limit it to five to ten minutes, but not until we reach the island.” Lexi reached in and shut the water off.

“Hey, I still have conditioner in my hair!”

“Tough!” She spun around, but Vic wasn’t fast enough to move out of her way. She bumped into his chest.

Vic gently held her arms to steady her. He could feel the warmth of her body pressed against his. He remembered how perfect her body was, especially her breasts. He wished he had suckled them when he had the chance. If it wasn’t for her ex who was just a few feet away watching them, he would remove all her clothes and take her right then and there. He had to force himself to let her go. He stepped back so that she could pass him.

“I’m going to catch a few rays up top.”

Vic watched her go, admiring the way her ass looked in her bathing suit. He forgot that her ex was still standing there watching him.

“Give it up, man. She is way out of your league,” Stratford told him.

Vic glared at Stratford, who was wrapping a towel around his waist. “Like I care what you think.”

“Hey, don’t get offended. She was out of my league too, when I married her. It was one of the problems we faced in our marriage. We’re mere mortals and she is a living breathing goddess with unbelievable tits. How could we possibly keep her happy? Best thing you could do is keep your distance. She will chew you up and spit you out. Plus, you don’t have anything to offer her.”

“You’re the one that should have kept his distance. You put her in danger by coming here.”

“I needed help. I had planned to borrow money and disappear. What’s it to you anyway?”

Vic growled his displeasure. “You’re the one that chews people up and spits them out. Did you even think twice about the girlfriend you abandoned?”

Stratford stopped drying himself off. “Are you talking about Bubbles? I told her that we didn’t have enough money for both of us to come here and suggested she visit her sister until I could come back for her. She’s fine.”

“She’s dead is what she is.”

“What?” Stratford reached for the wall. “What are you talking about?”

Vic felt guilty with how he was giving Stratford the news. “Bubbles was found dead near a river.”

Stratford paled. Vic thought the man was about to fall down. “Get out.” Vic turned and walked out of the bathroom to find Lexi glaring at him.

“You could have told him differently than that.”

Vic felt like a shit. “I told the truth.”

“Your truth sucks.” She looked like she was thinking about going back in to see Stratford but then turned and headed back up the stairs.

He wandered the downstairs cabins for a few minutes. He fought with himself as he went to search her out. He denied what he was doing, convincing himself that he was keeping an eye out for danger. He was fooling himself. The moment he walked out onto the deck, his eyes searched for Lexi.
Damn her for being so sexy.