Page 13 of Courting Mayhem

“Six months.”

“Thank you, my lord.” I kicked Derek in the butt.

“Thank you, my lord.”

“Mayhem and her fathers are the best bounty hunters in the galaxy. I have given you an unbeatable team to work with. Use them wisely. You have two weeks to return the Shebu and capture Vrax.” Zarek teleported away.

Derek got stiffly to his feet. “Drop your shields.”

I snorted. “I don’t think so. He gave us six months. All you need to do is free my fathers. We’ll go retrieve the Shebu and you’ll never see me again. It’s a win-win for both of us.”

Derek grabbed my tee-shirt and yanked me close. “Drop. Your. Shields. Or I will personally take your fathers to the Vesta Penal Colony and have them assigned to work in the mines.”

I head-butted Derek, knocking him back a step. “Over your dead body.”

“You little witch!” Derek lunged for me.

Goddess, he was as fast as Zarek. I ducked under his outstretched arms, wheeled around and Derek vanished.

His mocking laughter echoed in my mind.H“You think you can defeat me? I’m three times your size and outweigh you by two hundred pounds.”

“I cheat.”Grabbing the pressure injector Shrek had used on me off a tray, I tripled the dose and waited. My berserker senses flared. Here he came again. I stepped to the left, ducked his swing, and pressed the injector against his side.

“Fuck!” Derek’s arms closed around me as he fell, dragging me down with him. He rolled, pinning me to the floor. “What did you inject me with?”

“A tranquilizer. You seem overwrought.”

“You’re going to be a handful,” Derek mumbled, and his eyes closed.

“Hey! Get off me!” I wiggled, squirmed, and heaved, but I couldn’t move the three hundred pounds of dead weight. “Wake up!” I bit Derek’s neck. “Wake up! You’re squashing me.”

Derek began to snore.

“Are you kidding me?” I mentally scanned sick bay. Where the hell was Shrek? There. He was in the next room. “Help!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Shrek! I need help!”

Shrek ran into the room and stared. “What happened to Derek?”

“It’s a long story.”

Zarek appeared in the room and picked up the pressure injector. “She injected Derek with a tranquilizer.”

“Get him off me. I can’t breathe,” I pleaded.

Zarek lifted Derek, allowing me to scramble out from under him. “How do your fathers keep you under control?”

“Chocolate.” I backed away from the Overlord. “Lots and lots of chocolate, and I try not to disappoint them.”

Shrek selected another injector. “Because you love them.”

“Yes, and they treat me like a valuable member of the team. Not a stupid child.” I kicked Derek. “I hate bullies.”

Derek’s snores got louder.

A no nonsense glint in his eyes, Zarek said, “I will have a contract drawn up with a two-million-credit bonus if you can retrieve the Shebu and Vrax within two weeks. You will still work for me, and you will still report to Derek.”

“Yes, my lord.” I pointed at Derek. “What crawled up his butt and died?”

“Derek still mourns his lost love.”

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