Chapter One

"Empty. Always bloody empty."

Faye Hatchett glared at her mailbox as if the box itself were responsible. Seated on the mailroom floor, she cross her arms over her chest and fumed. Her gaze swept over the wall in front of her. The fullest mailboxes were on the top, stuffed to the bursting point with assignments, paychecks, and invitations to awards ceremonies. The boxes grew more and more empty the further down they were. Faye's was in a bottom corner, and always seemed to be stubbornly empty.

What have they got that I haven't got? she thought, staring at the select few on the upper level. Oh yes, she reminded herself, they have the biggest bounties, the biggest checks, and the highest rankings in the whole bloody department.

Faye pulled herself to her feet with a sigh. Her department's structure was rigid, although she had noticed that the higher your rank, the more leeway you were given. This had been gathered by observation; Faye knew she was low-level and unlikely to rise in the hierarchy. Her boss had told her she was the first woman to join the Bounty Hunters' Department since its creation. She only got the job because he had pulled strings for her. Jack Holland was a dependable, hard-working man. He wasn't the only one who supported her; most of the men she worked with did. He stood out for the simple reason that he had worked hard to make sure she kept a job in the headhunting business. Faye was notorious for getting into trouble and stepping outside the boundaries of protocol, which kept her on the lower levels.

With one last hateful glance at the upper-level boxes, Faye strode out of the mailroom. She lingered as the mail carrier passed her, but all he had were flyers. She was turning the corner at the end of the hallway when she heard her name.

"Hatchett!"

It was one of the highest-ranked hunters. He leaned over from his desk to shout at her through the door, an empty coffee mug in one hand.

"Yes, you. Come here please."

Faye rolled her eyes but turned and walked over to the man's office. She disliked him on principle; he was the sort of man who believed that women should not have careers, especially a man's career. She loathed everything about him. His smug, pompous attitude coupled with overbearing mannerisms disgusted her. He went out of his way to annoy her, and it often took every ounce of self-control not to give him the satisfaction of getting to her. On top of all that, the man was, unfortunately, very nice to look at. She tried not to linger as she walked past his office but many times inadvertently let her eyes wander over his trim figure.

Often she had dreamed of putting him in his place, but she knew where hers was. The "people upstairs" had been putting pressure on Jack and trying to find an excuse to fire her. She wasn't about to give them the chance over something so trivial.

"Yes? What do you want?" She tried not to scowl as she stood in the doorway, arms folded.

"I seem to have run out of coffee."

When Faye didn't move, he waved his mug in her direction.

"Do I need to repeat myself, Hatchett?"

Faye did not trust herself to speak. She turned on her heel and left in a rage. How dare he? This went beyond teasing. She could feel the blood pounding in her ears as she came to a stop. She wasn't some coffee girl! Why couldn't he just accept her as a bounty hunter? Why did he have to humiliate her at every opportunity, talk down at her like she didn't belong there?

Faye was walking back to his office before she knew what she was doing.

When she arrived, two other men had just stepped in and the three of them were chatting. Faye stood in the doorway, trying desperately to keep her hand away from the gun on her hip. The man turned to look at her, a grin pulling at the corners of his mouth.

"Well! Have you come changed your mind?" He offered her the mug, and the other men smirked.

"I'm not your coffee girl," Faye muttered through clenched teeth.

"Sorry, what was that?"

"I said: I'm not your coffee girl!"

"Oh, well, that's a shame! I hear you'll be out of a job soon, and I thought you might want a little extra cash on the side!"

She stopped, thrown. "What? Who told you that?"

He laughed and set the mug down on the desk. "Never mind who told me. I have connections, you know! Are you still turning me down?"

She felt her breathing slow; he was bluffing. She was sure of it. "Nothing," she spat, "could ever make me accept petty cash from you! You can get your own coffee."

The other men chuckled at Faye's daring. She cross her arms as she thought again about the gun on her hip. The man raised an eyebrow, taken aback.

"Very well, no one's forcing you to stay here. Although, I suspect that after much longer, we won't be seeing you in this building at all!"

Faye couldn't help it. Her hand went to the gun but before she could draw it, all three men had drawn theirs and trained them on her heart. She withdrew her hand slowly, but the men did not lower their weapons. Hunters outside the office, who noticed what was going on, scurried out of the line of fire.

One by one, the men lowered their weapons and clipped them back in their belts. The two other hunters promptly left, leaving only Faye and the man. Her stony expression mirrored his as his cold eyes bored into her, daring her to retaliate. He didn't say a word, and Faye decided it would be in her best interests to remove herself from the office before the man got it in his head to report her.

Faye was about to turn and leave when a large hand gripped her neck and shoulder from behind.

A voice growled in her ear, "Office. Now."

The hand whirled her about and steered her down the hallways past the curious, frightened eyes of her coworkers. She squirmed, but she was held in a vice-like grip. The hand propelled her forward through the glass door of an office at the end of the hall and pushed her down into a chair. Faye hunched her shoulders and grimaced as Jack snapped the blinds shut and turned to face her.

He looked tired. Faye couldn't help noting the dark circles under his eyes, the worry lines etched across his face, or the resigned expression he wore. She couldn't meet his gaze; she knew that she had caused most of his troubles. He always covered for her and kept her from being fired.

"Faye…" His voice was quiet, almost exasperated. Faye fidgeted in her chair. "What has been going on with you?" When she didn't speak, he continued. "I've had a hard enough time as it is, trying to keep you in the department. Lately, it's been one thing after another after another. There's only so much I can do! If my superiors had their way, you'd be sitting behind the receptionist desk if you had a job at all!"

Fay shuddered as she thought of the cheery, blonde receptionist. Things were more serious than she thought. Jack was staring at her, and she realized that he was waiting for a reply.

"It's not all my fault!" she began, but stopped. Jack was shaking his head, and she knew she sounded like a child. "Look, I know I screwed up, all right? A lot. And this isn't any excuse, but you know things have been bad for me!"

Jack sighed and ran a hand over his shaved head. "The guys aren't out to get you, you know. Most people on the same level are fine with you being here."

"I know it isn't everyone." She paused and shook her head. "You know who I'm talking about! He's always going out of his way to ridicule me." Faye leapt to her feet as she spoke, her cheeks flushed. Jack placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back down into the chair.

"You need to take a vacation," he said gently. He held up his hand as she protested and raised his voice over hers. "A vacation would do you good."

"But that's what they want me to do!" She stopped, her mouth falling open. "This is just another scheme to get rid of me, isn't it? And you're another piece in their game, aren't you? You just-"

"Listen to yourself, Faye! I'm under heavy fire here, but don't think for a minute that I haven't done everything I can to keep you here!" Faye lowered her gaze and mumbled an apology, but Jack didn't hear her. "Go home, Faye. You don't have to take vacation time, but take the rest of the day. Go."

Faye hurried out of the office and raced toward her cubicle. Jack was right; she just needed to go home for the day. She had just shut down her computer when another hunter appeared behind her. Faye jumped.

"Michael! What have I told you about sneaking up on me like that? Faye planted her hands on her hips. Michael was a bit of a nuisance, but at least he was kind to her.

"Sorry!" he said cheerfully.

"Look, I'd love to chat, Michael, but I need to be going."

She brushed past him without a backward glance. It as still fairly early, and the cool air blew lightly across her face as she stepped outside. Faye was careful to keep her gun visible on her hip as she made her way back to her apartment. It tended to discourage would-be thieves, but she kept checking over her shoulder all the same. She thought longingly of her car; she had left it in its death throes at a scrap yard a few weeks back.

When Faye reached her apartment, she dug in her pockets for her keys and found them after a minute's rummaging. She dropped the keys in a small bowl on a table as she went inside.

The entire apartment could be taken in at a glance. Faye pulled back the curtains to try to coax some light into the room. The single window sported a new lock, heavy and strong, that Faye had put in herself. A small bed lay shoved into a corner, jostling for space with a chest of drawers. The other side of the room housed a small refrigerator, microwave, and sink. A stack of dirty dishes balanced on the counter, in danger of toppling to the floor. Crossing the room, Faye turned on the water in the sink and tipped in the dishes. She shivered; the landlord had turned off her heating after she failed to pay the rent the previous month. Even through her boots, she could feel the icy cold of the floor. The threadbare rug did nothing to cushion the unforgiving concrete.

She kept her jacket on as she switched on her bounty scanner and started washing the dishes. She had bought the scanner her first day of work, that first day when she had had so many dreams, so many wild fantasies of what it was going to be like, being a bounty hunter. She had never been assigned one of the expensive bounties from the scanner, but she listened all the same.

As Faye scrubbed at a stubborn spot on a plate, the broadcaster announced a newly discovered bounty. He launched into a description of the bounty's crimes, and as he did so, Faye turned to stare at the scanner. The list continued on for so long that she though it must be a joke. When it finally ended, the broadcaster mentioned the price on the bounty's head.

Faye dropped the plate.

In her entire career, she had never heard of a bounty so expensive. Bitter disappointment rose in her throat and choked her as she realized she wouldn't even be close to the assignment. This one was going straight to the top. She turned off the scanner in annoyance and, feeling confined, left the apartment.

The sun had just started to set, and the people of the city were one their way home. Faye decided to walk by the department, reasoning that her chances of being mugged were slightly lower in that part of town. As the large building came into sight, she couldn't help feeling sorry for herself, stuck in the low ranks. She glanced inside as she passed the front door, and she caught a glimpse of the hunter who had harassed her. She hurried past, hoping he hadn't seen her. She chanced a look back after a block, but he was gone.

She continued on, letting herself tune out as thoughts raced through her head. What was she going to do about him? He drove her absolutely insane, but there wasn't really anything realistic that she could do. Harassment was not a crime, as far as the department was concerned, and he hadn't done anything to interfere with her bounties. Her mind wandered as she walked, drifting to the bounty she had heard about on her scanner. She had never known what it was like to be dealing with expensive, sophisticated bounties. The criminals she brought in were lowlifes, petty crooks.

Suddenly, she stopped, feeling eyes on her back. She turned her head slightly and glanced over her shoulder. A tall man rested against a light post a few yards back, but she couldn't remember passing him. She set off again and then stopped, looking back. He had moved with her, carefully trying to look as though he was just minding his own business.

Faye could feel her pulse quicken as the thoughts came to an abrupt halt. She forced herself to slow down, quickly scanning the street in front of her. Suddenly, she saw a small alleyway and, without thinking, slipped inside.

She saw his shadow as he moved closer. Her heart was beating so loudly she was sure he could hear it.

He turned the corner.

Her arm shot out before she could process what was happening. The punch caught him just below the eye, and he staggered. Faye was frozen; the first punch had been on instinct, but her mind refused to function as the man turned and lunged for her. He pinned her to the wall and clumsily sifted through her pockets, horribly disappointed when all he found was spare change.

Faye struggled but could not break free from the man's iron grip. He yelled in frustration and threw her to the ground. She fell in a heap in front of him, striking her head off of the grimy concrete. He rushed from the alley, unwilling to be caught at such a scene, inadvertently stomping on Faye's outstretched wrist as he ran. She screamed and jerked her arm toward her on a reflex but found herself unable to move it.

Faye wasn't sure how long she lay there in the alley; it could have been half an hour, it could have been a few minutes. When she pulled herself to her feet, the sun was sending its final rays across the sky. She held her damaged arm against her chest and raised a hand to her head. Luckily, there were no cuts, and she didn't think she had a concussion.

She hurried home as quickly as she could, taking a different route. She knew she should at least go to Jack, maybe even the police, but she didn't want to think about anything. All she wanted was to go home and sleep away the pain.

When she reached her front door, she pushed her keys angrily at the lock but kept missing and ended up dropping them. As she bent to pick them up, she suddenly realized the difficulties this was going to cause her. Her left arm lay cradled against her, horribly bruised and twisted. Faye was left-handed.

She finally unlocked the door and stumbled inside. She hunted about until she found a bandage and a ruler and clumsily tried to splint her arm. It was difficult with her right hand, but she managed to create a weak support that would hold her wrist in place.

Faye sank onto the bed and lay back, her eyelids heavy as they slowly closed. Her thoughts drifted as she fell into a deep sleep, bringing her trouble at work back into her consciousness. The image of the man swam in front of her and she realized sleepily that she did not know his name. She had never bothered to read the sign outside his office. She wondered if she had ever heard it before and was just forgetting, but nothing came to her.

The thoughts faded as she slipped into a dreamless sleep.

The glowing numbers on the clock flashed 3:00 as Faye sat up with a jolt, clenching her teeth to keep from crying out. She grabbed her arm with her right hand and immediately let go as pain shot through her wrist. She half climbed, half fell out of bed and staggered across the room to the sink. Without bothering to remove the weak, improvised splint, she turned on the icy water and held her arm under its numbing flow.

Faye clutched the countertop with her right hand for support as the feeling slowly faded from her wrist. Sweat beaded on her brow as she shut off the water and shuffled back to the bed, panting. She needed to see a doctor and have it properly taken care of, but she didn't have any sort of insurance and knew she couldn't afford the trip to the hospital. Not to mention she'd be missing work, and she barely made enough when she was working overtime.

She groaned as she lay back on the bed and thought about work, the difficulties she would have to cope with the following day. Faye was too tired to think about it any longer. She slept fitfully, plagued by puzzling dreams that she couldn't remember in the morning.