Theirs to Ransom

by Stasia Black

  Sophia turned to Finn, her face alight with relief. “Oh thank God. Finn, I told you we’d be all right. See? They’re here to guide us safely the rest of the way.”

  Then she turned back to the man in black. “Thank you, Governor Jagger.”

  The man smirked. “Just Jagger’s fine.”

  Finn scowled at him, glancing between the man and Sophia’s beaming face. This didn’t feel right. Finn didn’t like this guy.

  It all felt just a little too slick, a little too convenient. If they’d really headed out as soon as the Governor of Santa Fe told him about Sophia coming, why hadn’t they made it further south?

  A man could cover thirty miles on a horse in a day, easy, more if he was determined. But Finn still had the map in his head and if they’d hit the river where he thought they had, then Carlsbad was only about a five-mile walk up the road.

  So either this guy was lying or he had a really bad sense of direction and had been riding in circles for a day and a half.

  “So you have a sat phone,” Sophia went on. “Can we use it? I need to talk to my father and let him know I got here safely. I don’t want him to worry.”

  “Damndest thing,” Jagger said. “It went on the fritz a couple days ago right after we talked to you. Got our top tech-head on it but he can’t figure it. Thing’s solar and the battery cell seems all charged up. Just can’t get sat signal for shit.”

  How convenient.

  But Sophia was just nodding. “Same thing happened to our sat phone. What on earth?”

  Jagger shrugged. “Main thing is to get you to town and settled in for the night. I know a lotta people who’ll be mighty happy to see you.”

  Sophia grinned wider and Finn wanted to punch Jagger in the center of his smug face. His story seemed to add up. How else would he know Sophia’s name? But Finn had known too many guys like this growing up with his dad and his uncle—smooth talkers who’d shake your hand with one hand while stealing your wallet with the other.

  Beware friendly strangers had long been his motto.

  His other? Like he’d told Sophia: Trust no one.

  When Finn walked into Jacob’s Well five years ago, he hadn’t believed the rumors that it was a place where law and rule reigned again, set apart from the madness of the rest of the world. He was just as suspicious of it as he was of every other place he’d been, so he kept waiting for the seedy underbelly to show itself.

  And then he’d seen her.

  Sophia Wolford.

  It was his first night in town and he was so hungry. He’d been on the road for days and the last time he’d eaten was when he’d caught a rabbit in the woods. He’d been in the process of skinning and preparing to roast it when another man came upon him and attacked him over the kill.

  The man had a knife and in the surprise of the initial attack, had sliced Finn’s shoulder. But the guy was weak from starvation, and other than surprise, he didn’t have any more tricks up his sleeve. It hadn’t taken much for Finn to get the knife away from him and force him face first into the ground.

  Finn hit him over the head with a nearby rock to make sure he was down and then took his rabbit and lit out.

  But that was days before and the rabbit had been small in the first place. All he could think about was getting to the front of the soup kitchen line and getting that food.

  And then he saw her.

  She was brunette with warm, tawny skin and the face of an angel. Her smile hit him straight in the chest.

  She looked so genuinely delighted to see every person she handed soup and bread to. She was young, too. Maybe around his age or just a little younger.

  Too young or maybe just too protected to have developed the layers of deceit and artifice everyone on the outside world had.

  That was when he realized the genius of this place. A security officer had explained the Marriage Raffle system to him when he’d signed the papers applying for citizenship, but he hadn’t really fully understood it until he saw Sophia Wolford.

  This wasn’t some utopia where men’s base natures suddenly changed as soon as they stepped over the territory line. No, Commander Wolford had just channeled those desires into an orderly system. The same way societies used to.

  You wanted the good life? You could have it. Or at least a chance at it, if you worked hard. Two years and you could be entered in the largest pool for the Raffle. That meant no matter who you were, you had a chance at a wife all your own. Regular sex. Affection. A home.

  In the meantime, there was nothing saying you couldn’t try to charm one of the handful of unattached ladies in town.

  But Finn only had eyes for Sophia.

  The only reason he went to that stupid school was to be close to her. He knew how to survive on the outside, what did he need more book learning for? No, he went for her. He lived for any glances she shot his way or the sound of her coquettish giggle. Or on the rarest occasions, he might get a word here or there with her.

  He got a job afterschool in the stable but was soon volunteering for Scrapper runs. He knew the terrain and how to survive. Plus he knew where there were cashes of old scrap that could be useful. Not always in Central Texas South but the Scrapper Teams didn’t mind venturing out of the territory.

  And maybe it was just his imagination, but Sophia always looked especially anxious before he left on the runs and relieved when he got back.

  Everything he did was to improve his rank in the Marriage Raffle pools and level up so that by the time Sophia was of age, he’d have the best chance for being chosen as one of her husbands.

  Stupid probably. Idiotic.

  But that was how Jacob’s Well got to people. It made you hope. It made you hope for ridiculous things, but even the hope was enough to have the roughest men behaving.

  That was Jacob’s Well, though. Out here in the lawless West? Without a system in place to protect Sophia?

  How the hell was he supposed to keep her safe now?

  Jagger held down an arm to Sophia and, as trusting as always, she grabbed it, put her foot in the stirrup, and swung herself up onto the horse behind him.

  Finn took a step forward but it was too late. She was already up on the man’s horse. At least her hands didn’t slide around the man’s waist. She was just holding on to the edges of the saddle underneath her thighs.

  “Who can Finn ride with?” Sophia asked.

  Oh, so at least she remembered he existed.

  “We brought an extra mount,” Jagger said. “He ain’t the steadiest. Ain’t been gelded yet so I figured it’s safer for you to ride with me. But if your servant man here knows anything about horses, he should be able to handle him for the five miles to—”

  “I’m not a servant,” Finn grumbled at the same time Sophia piped up. “Oh, he’s not—”

  Finn would bet the man knew he wasn’t a servant and was just trying to get under his skin. Establish his dominance. Well he’d soon find Finn wasn’t the kind to go down without a fight.

  Finn mounted the horse. Or at least tried to. Every time he put his foot in the stirrup and went to lift himself up and over, the horse took a few steps forward or backward, making him have to jump back down and try again.

  “Finn—” Sophia started but Finn just growled out, “I got it.”

  He grabbed the saddle even harder this time and hiked himself up. When the stallion started it’s dance back and forth, he just held on and finally swung his leg around. The stallion didn’t like that at all. Finn barely got his hands on the reins before the damn thing started bucking.

  “Whoa, boy whoa!” he said, but he didn’t have a good enough seat or hold on the reins and the next thing he knew he was flying through the air.

  THUMP. He landed on his ass.

  Owwwwwwwww.

  Jesus fuck. Everything hurt.

  “Finn!” Sophia cried but he winced and held a hand up.

  “Fine,” he coughed. “I’m fine.”

  He didn’t miss the outright chuckling from the guy
on the horse behind the one Sophia was sitting on. Thanks, asshole.

  “Can he just ride double like I am?” Sophia asked but Finn shook his head and said, “No,” loud enough so they’d all hear even though he was still struggling to get his breath back.

  It wasn’t just for his pride’s sake, either.

  He had more than a sneaking suspicion that the barely broke horse had been brought on purpose. And not just as a test. These men had to know Sophia wouldn’t be coming alone. What better way to render her even more helpless and dependent on them than if her companion was say, injured? Or even dead?

  Trust no one and always suspect the worst. There was a reason he’d survived as long as he did even when he was smaller and weaker as a teenager.

  But that didn’t mean he’d give up and ride bitch to any of these bastards. Because them writing him off as weak and not a threat wasn’t acceptable either.

  So he stood up, dusted himself off, and walked back toward the horse, approaching slow so the horse could see him coming. The horse snorted and danced back and forth on his heels, nervous and skittish.

  Finn put out his hand and paused. It was several long moments before the horse calmed long enough to investigate, nosing closer to his hand and sniffing him.

  Finn slowly reached for the reins, keeping his movements smooth as he gathered the reins and stroked down the horse’s neck.

  “Don’t have all damn day for you to seduce the horse,” said the squat man behind the leader. “You wants we leave the two of you alone, that’s fine, you can have ‘em all to yourself, but only after you get ‘em to the stable.”

  Raucous laughter broke out among the men but Finn didn’t take his eye or hand off the horse. No matter how much he wanted to go stab the man for saying something so foul in front of Sophia.

  “All right, there we go,” Finn murmured in a soothing voice to the horse as he moved around and grasped the saddle again. “Nice and steady.”

  Really getting to know a horse took a helluva lot more time than he had but maybe the small moment he’d taken would help? Only one way to find out.

  He pushed up and swung his leg over the saddle. The mount stayed still. He grabbed the reins up, leaving the smallest bit of slack and he held on with his calves.

  “That’s a good, good boy,” he said soothingly and the horse neighed.

  “Fucking finally,” said the same man who’d made the crude joke earlier. He turned his horse around and started galloping away.

  Finn finally turned his attention from his horse and looked toward Sophia. Her head was swung back toward Finn, eyebrows scrunched in concern.

  Finn didn’t know if she was going to try to say or communicate something to him, though, because the next second, the horse she was on leapt forward, too. She swung her head back, arms flying around the man in front of her, clinging to him as the horse took off.

  Finn knew exactly what it felt like to be that man. She’d held him just as tightly when they’d been on the motorcycle.

  And now she was clinging to someone else.

  Just like how, in a matter of days, the girl of his dreams would be marrying someone else.

  Chapter Five

  SOPHIA

  It had been awhile since Sophia had been on a horse and she’d never ridden like this—on the back of a saddle, which forced her body up against the man in front of her, with no control over the reins or how fast they went.

  And they were going terrifyingly fast.

  It was all terrifying.

  Ever since they’d lost the truck, she’d been in a permanent state of fear. The shooting and then losing their supplies and then walking through the desert and now, now being with these strangers.

  That one man who’d made those terrible jokes was just awful. And some of them smelled bad. Not the man who’s back she was all but cemented to, thank God, but a couple others who’d passed by her stank so strongly it had been all she could do not to hold her nose. Holding her breath was hard enough.

  And she was going to marry men like this?

  Stop it, she chastised herself.

  She was making snap judgements off of what? How some men who’d obviously been out riding horses in the heat smelled? Or the off-color jokes of one man among a whole group?

  She rarely spent time in the company of men back in Jacob’s Well and she’d probably find the same there if she did.

  Finn wasn’t wrong about the fact that she’d been sheltered.

  But she also knew how evil men could be. Though she’d hid from the memories for years, she was ready to confront the world again.

  Maybe there weren’t a lot of good people out here in the world. But didn’t that mean that people like her father and Drea were more important than ever. Good people of strong, unswerving character were needed now more than ever if good was going to win the day.

  Besides, a man could be taught to bathe more regularly. Love could transform people. Hadn’t she always grown up hearing about what a slob her dad had been before he met Mom? But her mom didn’t put up with that and soon he was cleaning dishes with the best of them and their house was always spotless. Of course the military might have helped with that some, too.

  Still, her mom had always talked about how a good marriage was about communication and give and take. Partners made compromises because they loved the other person and wanted their happiness more than they wanted to continue a particular habit.

  That was the kind of marriage Sophia wanted. And she knew she could have it, no matter whether it was arranged by a raffle or not. It was all about your willingness to bend and the love you poured into the partnerships.

  Sophia was ready.

  So she held on, closed her eyes apart from the times she looked back to make sure Finn was still with them, and tried to be brave in spite of the terrifying ride that seemed like it would never end.

  And finally, finally, they rode into the town of Carlsbad.

  It was… well, it was a town.

  It didn’t have the homey character of Jacob’s Well. There weren’t trees everywhere or a town square or anything.

  There were streets and sidewalks and buildings. Evidence of the riots and looting were still obvious everywhere. Blackened burned out buildings stood half-falling in among abandoned ones with all the glass shattered.

  No matter where Sophia looked, it was just all so… grim. Everything was covered in a layer of dirt or soot so that even the buildings that were in better shape all had a brownish gray quality to them.

  People bandied about the word apocalypse, but here it looked like it had actually happened. The end of the world.

  Where were the children running around and laughing? Or the people chatting and gossiping in the streets?

  The streets were abandoned on the outskirts of town. It was only as they got further in town that she saw some activity. Tarps had been set up, no doubt to shield from the burning sunlight, and men lounged underneath them along the sides of buildings.

  A lot of men.

  Sophia’s breath caught at the sight of them. So many men. For a second, she froze, then her hands around the waist of the stranger started to shake. What if these men were like the kind that had chased them down by the border?

  But no. No. These men were civilized.

  She frowned and took a better look. Most of the men weren’t wearing shirts and even from the distance of the road, she could see they were filthy.

  Did they just… live out here? On the sidewalk, under their tarps?

  Sophia shuddered.

  And then immediately felt guilty for how judgmental she was being.

  She should be glad there were so many men here.

  Men meant bodies who could fight in a war. The more the merrier. This was the whole reason she was here. She could give these men purpose and resources if they’d come to Texas to fight for the right side.

  She took a deep breath and sat up straighter.

  The deep breath was a mistake, though.


  The whole town… well it stank.

  She grimaced and then immediately tried to train her features.

  Because all those men on the side of the street? They’d all sat up, too, and were watching them like they were a parade.

  Which, come to think of it, maybe they were.

  When was the last time these men had seen a woman?

  Much less, a clean—or relatively clean—well put together, respectable woman? Sophia swallowed hard at the thought. Because the men scrambled and shoved one another out of the way to get a look at her.

  Yet none stepped one toe off the sidewalk. They pushed right up to the edge but no further.

  And though she could hear the hum of excited chatter, no one called out anything rude. So see? That meant they were civilized after all. They were just poor and there was no shame in that.

  Hard times had fallen on them all. And if she could bring them hope of a future, then—

  BANG.

  Sophia screeched at the gunshot. The man on the horse in front of them had whipped out his gun so quickly, Sophia could only watch in horror as a man who’d stepped off the sidewalk fell dead.

  She didn’t know if she felt more or less horrified when she saw that he was naked and that he’d had his hand on his— on his exposed manhood—

  “Oh my God,” she whispered.

  “Don’t look,” Jagger said. “These kind are an unfortunate reality of any settlement these days. Desensitized by the mobbing and violence. We deal with them the only way we can. In the only language they understand.”

  Even though he’d told her to look away, she couldn’t. Her eyes were fixed on the man in the street and the pool of blood growing around his head. He was so skinny she could have counted his ribs if she’d wanted.

  She only looked away when her vision was blocked by Finn coming up to ride beside her. She breathed out in relief at the sight of him. Finn, so familiar and steady. She might be in over her head, but he’d lived for years in this world. She wanted to reach out for his hand but Jagger clicked his teeth and their horse jumped forward again, forcing Sophia to fling her arms around his waist.