Author's Note: Thanks Afro-Rican this goes out to you…..

There were eight of us all together, Nathan and I followed by six others that he said were his right hand men. I met the guys but wasn't to fond of them especially when I was left alone with them. I sure as hell didn't miss the lustful glance some of them threw at me. I'd have to keep my eyes open. On the other hand Nathan seemed at ease most of the time and even showed me the right ways to kill a guy. Sure, it was nice to know but I wasn't into as deeply as these guys were. My train of thought was if anything I would know how to protect myself properly by the time I got off the ship. I wasn't sure if I'd like the deep space runs but I would shortly have my answer. Everyday was pretty much the same routine, get up, work out, eat, work out, check the course, eat, find our next victim, sleep. It took me a couple days but I got use to it. Had to there really wasn't anything else to do on the damn ship. Sometimes I felt like a caged animal and the only way to release my frustration was to beat the shit out of the punching bag. That's when I heard about our latest, Roger Caine.

"Got another one babe." Nathan walked in holding up a vanilla folder.

"Who?" I asked out of breath.

"Roger Caine, he's a big one, one of the top ten men wanted in the universe and our new payday."

"What he do?" We went through the same thing every time.

"Does it matter? He's a wanted man that's all we need to know."

"Yea but don't you at least want to know? Find out why were bringing him in?"

"It's not our job to ask questions." He told me many times, still I asked.

"Yea yea I know just get it done." He smiled then walking the short distance between us gave me a quick kiss on the lips.

"Go to bed Laura we have a long couple days ahead of us." Was all he said when he turned and left.

"Couldn't agree more." I whispered before doing what he said except my mind wouldn't sleep. Thoughts of many things kept me awake but the biggest one was 'Is this really me?'

The next couple days were long ones and with me not having anything to do I started to notice things. We were close to catching this guy Roger Caine, we knew the planet he was on but weren't to sure exactly where. All we had to go on were recent sightings and our gut instincts. Which were all over the place. Of course I gave my input but I never let it get to me like these guys did. Nathan started to become a little to into the job when he started not to sleep but instead trying to figure out where this damn guys is. I tried to coax him to bed a couple different times but he was edgy and snapped quite easily. Catching this guy seemed to be the prime focus of his existence like nothing else mattered. I was starting to see the real side of him , the dark side and I wasn't sure I liked it.

On our fourth day, we docked on the planet, Kaleri, not a large planet but one you could definitely get lost in. Our guy was somewhere on it, Nathan thought in the outer most city near the planets mountains. Made sense, many places to hide out there. I had a choice to either go out on their wild goose chase or stay with the ship. I chose the better of the two and stayed with the ship. I was alone for two days and had every damn light I could find turned on. Didn't like the dark, couldn't accept it cause with it came my memories and I didn't want to remember them. I slept in the pilots chair with lights surrounding me awaiting their return.

It was early morning when the ramp lowered and in came the convict. Well I thought it was him. He was chained, blindfolded, gagged, and drug into the ship looking like he had the beating of his life. He didn't even look like the guy in the picture we had but instead a bloody mess.

"Nathan!" I called out watching the six guys drag him down to the cargo hold.

"Yea babe?"

"What the hell happened to him?" I couldn't hide my anger.

"He got mouthy that's all." He answered without a second thought.

"He got mouthy so you guys beat the shit out of him? Convict, or not seven to one isn't fair in my book. Who the fuck are you to call the shots?" I hissed at him palming my knife. I never saw the look come across his eyes before, he was out of control and slammed me up against the wall so hard I yelped.

"I don't give a fuck what's fair or what isn't in your book. I'm running this expedition, I call the shots. If I say jump you ask how high and don't stop till I tell you to. Are we clear?" He boomed, I could feel his heartbeat running wild, adrenaline out of control, scared the shit out of me and he knew it. Bastard.

"Yes crystal." I whispered wondering what happened to my Nathan. He let go of me and headed to the cargo hold without another word. I sank to the floor in tears, I finally realized I was on a ship with fucking psychos and no way out. What the hell did I get myself into?

A little later that night after I was done having a nervous break down I snuck down to the cargo hold. Nathan was there alright, drunk off his ass I might add, babbling on about god knows what. The convict was curled in a ball on the floor getting the shit kicked out of him. I was hunched by a few boxes watching the whole thing, I definitely didn't want to let Nathan know I was there. As I watched I felt sorry for the convict in chains with no way to fight back and fierce disgust to the man I thought I knew who was enjoying the convict's pain. From then on I swore I would never let that happen again. From then on I put some distance between Nathan and I. I kept myself locked up in the computer room for most of the days only leaving to work out, eat and sleep. We were headed to the nearest Slam to drop Roger Caine off and collect the bounty. It didn't take long only a week to get there and I was glad for that. Maybe we could take a break for awhile and sort a bunch of shit out. No such luck. After we dropped Roger off and collected the 500,000 we were set up with another hunt. Except this one excited the boys, made some even a little weary and unsure. The thing that got me was all the warden did was say the guys name and everyone looked like they seen a ghost. Riddick. According to the warden the most wanted man in all the systems, the hardest to catch, but the biggest pay day yet. If he brought him in alive we got 5 million, dead was only 2.5. Nathan didn't even take a minute to think before he agreed saying he'd have Riddick on his ship in a month. The warden laughed, not a good sign. We headed back to the ship to start our search on our new victim. So much for the break!

While they dug through reports trying to figure out what system Riddick might be in I did some other homework. I wanted to know who I was dealing with, wanted to know everything I could about him. I wanted to be prepared. Trying to think from every angle except from just the one, which Nathan and team always did. A feeling I got was we weren't placing with the fish anymore instead we were going after a shark. They all knew the name while I had no idea whose he was. So I found some articles and started reading.

I was in that damn room for hours reading whatever I could find. The guy done it all, name it and he's done it at least ten times. What intrigued me was he started out life with his own cord wrapped around his neck and was dumped in a liquor store trash bin. Since birth he's been fighting to survive and he was still going with no sign of slowing down or letting up. In slam most of his life and the only one ever to escape, not once but a couple times. I clicked on a picture to see what I was looking for and damn did he look the part. He was dressed in all black with a shiv in hand, goggles covered his shined eyes, with a shaven head to complete his truly dangerous look. He had many names, Big Evil, Dicky, Sir shiv a lot and so on. I also read he liked to be up close and personal with his victims, fed off their fear before shiving them to death with a smile. Hmmmmm…..definitely sounded like trouble…..