Theirs to Ransom

by Stasia Black

  “No!” he shouted right as Travis cocked the hammer and pressed the barrel of the gun even harder against Sophia’s temple.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  SOPHIA

  For the past ten minutes, Sophia could only stand helplessly by as her father and Travis rehashed the past, growing more certain with every passing moment that neither she nor her father would walk out of this alive.

  But no. Her father couldn’t die. It couldn’t have been for nothing. Wasn’t that what she’d told Jagger? That she believed that life had meaning? Even her life?

  But standing uselessly while Travis held a gun to her head, her presence having lured her father from safety into Travis’s lair… it all had her questioning everything she’d ever believed.

  She’d wanted to believe she was strong. She’d wanted to believe it so hard. But when it came down to it, here she was, a damsel in distress to the end.

  She’d tried one last time to fight against Travis’s hold when he revealed it was him who’d set the raping, killing mob on her mother, but he’d only bent her arms behind her back at such a painful angle that if she even twitched, pain screamed down her arm.

  Then he taunted her father one last time, calling himself God.

  “No!” her father screamed and the click of Travis cocking the hammer was as loud as if he’d fired it.

  This was it.

  She was about to die.

  And no doubt her father soon after her.

  By the same man who’d killed her mother.

  It wasn’t fucking fair.

  And no one was coming to save them. Unless…

  “Noooooooooo!” she shrieked, fury lighting every cell in her body as she wrenched her body downwards.

  The snap of her arm breaking and the blinding pain only registered peripherally.

  Gun.

  She shot back up and hit the startled Travis in his elbow, knocking the gun from his hand. Then she dove for it.

  She screamed in agony as she landed on her broken arm, but scrabbled for the gun with her good hand anyway. Her fingers closed around it and she swung around right as Travis’s eyes widened and he held his hands up.

  “You won’t—”

  She pulled the trigger.

  Travis looked down at the red that began to blossom in the center of his chest. Sophia pulled the hammer back and shot him again. Then again.

  And finally, finally, he staggered and fell to his knees, then he slumped to the floor.

  Sophia immediately swung around and saw her dad was grappling with one of his guards. Dad must have kicked the guy in his nuts because the man was on the ground, clutching his privates with one hand—while reaching for his gun with the other.

  Sophia didn’t think. Couldn’t think. She just ran forward and screamed, shooting him in the head right as he got a hand on his gun.

  Then she pulled back the hammer one last time and aimed it at the head of the man still grappling with her dad.

  “If you don’t want your brains on the fucking wall, you’ll untie him right this fucking second.”

  Both the man and her dad froze.

  “Now!” Sophia shouted, the rush of adrenaline and terror and giddiness making her shake from head to toe.

  The guard immediately did as she said and her dad took the man’s gun.

  “Dad!” she shouted, shooting at two other of Travis’s personal guards who were running down the grand central staircase, no doubt at hearing the gunshots.

  Her shots went wide in her panic, but her father took down one and then the other, bang, bang. When he turned back to the guard whose gun he’d taken, the man had his hands up.

  “How many guards on the house?” her dad barked.

  “Four inside,” he pointed to the three on the ground and himself, his hand trembling, “four more on the perimeter, more at the gate.”

  Dad pointed at the walkie talkie at the guard’s hip. “Tell them to stand down. You’ll bring out Travis’s body.”

  Then he turned to Sophia. She was still shaking. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to stop. He grabbed her face, tears in his eyes. “You did good. You did so good, baby.”

  She smiled shakily and he nodded, pressing his forehead to hers. “I love you, Dad.”

  But then, they both heard coughing and sputtering.

  Sophia looked over in shock to see that Travis. Wasn’t. Dead.

  Dad walked over to where he lay, and Sophia followed, feeling half in a trance. Her arm hurt. She had a feeling if everything wasn’t so floaty and surreal, it would hurt a helluva lot more.

  She’d shot him three times, but the bastard was still breathing. At least for the moment. The pool of blood around him grew bigger with every second and he wasn’t so much breathing as heaving bloody gasps of air.

  “Brother,” Travis panted.

  Her dad just looked down at the man impassively.

  “I’m not your fucking brother.” And then he put his boot on Travis’s chest and shot him between the eyes.

  Dad looked to the guard. “Take his body outside and make it known far and wide—Arnold Travis is dead.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  FINN

  Finn couldn’t stop staring at Sophia where she lay in her hospital bed. She was sleeping but even in sleep, she was the most riveting sight he’d ever laid eyes on.

  He wasn’t alone, either. Mario stood on her other side, eyes locked on her sleeping face. Leo was on the couch behind him and Jagger was in another hospital bed beside Sophia’s, also asleep.

  They were in a real hospital, too. One with electricity and everything.

  Drea’s Army had taken Fort Worth. Finn still almost couldn’t believe it. He, Mario, and Leo had joined the soldiers who’d snuck into the city through the old underground subway tunnels. They’d swarmed the Omni Hotel from the basement up and secured the building with far more ease than they’d expected.

  And then they realized why—Travis wasn’t there. And neither was Sophia.

  Mario went nuts. He ran straight into the street and started fighting anyone and everyone. Drea had sent battalions to other key points in the city through the tunnels, so they weren’t the only ones fighting, but still.

  They’d intended to cut the head off the snake before engaging in battle, which would hopefully cut a third of Travis’s forces since the mercenaries wouldn’t fight if there was no one left to pay them.

  But since the snake wasn’t in the snake hole they thought, they were left fighting Travis’s full force.

  Not that it mattered to Mario, apparently. He didn’t have any more idea where Sophia or Travis was than any of them, but he cut his way through the enemy as if he did. When he ran out of ammo, he used the giant machete he had sheathed at his back. Finn and Leo followed in his wake, doing their best to give the big man cover.

  They were pinned down in an old parking garage when the soldiers they were fighting suddenly pulled back.

  It took Mario grabbing one of the men before they all escaped and slamming him up against the wall to learn what was happening—at first it had just been a rumor but there were more and more eyewitness reports coming in, from the top brass, or well, whoever was left among the top brass—President Travis was dead. The mercenary soldiers had already pulled out and most commanders who were left were recalling their troops.

  Finn learned later that General Drea took advantage of the confusion and had her entire force march on the capitol en masse.

  But all Finn, Mario, and Leo had been concerned about at the time was finding where Travis’s dead body everyone kept talking about had been last seen.

  Mario grabbed another fleeing soldier and held him off his feet by his neck.

  “Where’s Travis? Where’s the body?” Finn yelled.

  “I don’t know! Maybe the Mansion. He lives there, so maybe that’s where he died? Or where they’re holding the body?”

  Mario shook the man and Finn demanded, “Where’s the Mansion?”

 
; “Just take this street that way about a mile, then turn left on 8th!” the man choked out. “I swear!”

  Finn pointed his gun at the man’s head. “Take us.” The guy didn’t need to know he’d run out of ammo fifteen minutes ago. It wasn’t like Mario wasn’t lethal enough anyway.

  There was sporadic fighting all the way there but usually it was just gunfire in the distance. A couple of enemy soldiers saw Mario, gigantic and covered in blood, his huge machete at the ready and simply ran in the other direction.

  And finally they came to the Mansion, surrounded by a big yard and a wrought iron fence.

  Mario ran straight up to the door and banged on it. “Sophia! Sophia!”

  Finn about passed out with relief when he saw Eric open it, gun in hand.

  Mario shoved him out of the way. “Sophia?”

  Finn hurried after him and almost fell to his knees when he saw her.

  “Mario?” Her face was pale as she looked from Mario to Finn. “Finn?” She didn’t look good. Well, fuck, she was beautiful, but her features were tight with pain and she held her arm awkwardly.

  “Shit, Soph, are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine. It’s just my arm.”

  “I’ll make it better,” Mario said decisively, stepping back and then running up the grand staircase off the foyer.

  “Mario,” Leo called after him after kissing Sophia on the forehead. “Sorry about him.”

  “No, he’s perfect,” Sophia laughed, a tear running down her cheek as Leo ran after his brother.

  “God, Soph, what happened?” Finn asked, pulling her into his arms but then freezing when she winced.

  She leaned her head against his chest and breathed out like she was finally letting go of everything that ever troubled her. “It’s over. That’s all that matters.”

  Mario came back down five minutes later with a variety of pills. She took a couple that were for pain and when the fighting died down outside and they’d established coms with General Drea, Mario carried her to the hospital six blocks away.

  That was two days ago and Finn could still barely believe it was true.

  Had they all really survived? Was it over, for real?

  Was Sophia actually his?

  His to keep?

  “Hey there stranger,” she said, her voice a rasp as she blinked her eyes open.

  “Water,” Mario said, leaping to action and holding a cup with a straw to her lips.

  She smiled at him and sipped obediently.

  “Did I actually sleep any?” She looked back and forth between them. “Because I’d swear you two were in the exact same place when I fell asleep.”

  Finn smiled. “You’ve been out for a few hours. We were just enjoying the scenery.”

  She blushed and dropped her eyes.

  “Hungry?” Mario asked.

  Sophia blinked like she was thinking about it. “Maybe a little.”

  “I’ll go get food.” Mario immediately turned and rushed from the room. Sophia just shook her head at him.

  She’d been in and out of it over the past two days. She’d had to have surgery for her arm. The doctors had to put a steel rod in, the fracture was so bad. She should have been screaming in pain when they’d found her two days ago.

  But Sophia was always stronger than anyone gave her credit for.

  Still.

  “Soph, why did you leave like that?” Finn sat on the edge of her bed. “I would have gone with you. To the ends of the earth. Don’t you know that?”

  Her forehead scrunched with pain and she looked away. “No you wouldn’t have. You would’ve tried to stop me.”

  “Soph, I—”

  “Don’t patronize me.” Her eyes shot back to his. “Jagger was the only one who would do what I asked. And even he—” She broke off, looking over to the other hospital bed.

  Finn’s jaw clenched. “Because it was suicide, Soph. You walking in there like that. We could have come up with another plan—”

  “There was no other plan,” Sophia said obstinately. “The odds were against us. There was no other way to end it than to at least try to make a go for Travis. Even if it didn’t work. I had to try.” Sophia searched his eyes. “Please tell me you understand that I had to try. I did the only thing I could.”

  “But it shouldn’t have been you!”

  Her mouth dropped open and Finn could see that fuck, he’d hurt her. He was saying it all wrong. “Soph, I—”

  “You making Sophia sad?”

  Mario yanked Finn backwards by his shirt. Finn stumbled back so hard he almost ran into the wall.

  “Mario, no!” Sophia cried, sitting up in bed, and then crying out again because she must have jolted her arm.

  “Sophia!” Both Leo and Jagger woke with her name on their lips and Finn backed away. Her luminous green eyes were locked with his as he spun and left the room, the hospital door slamming behind him.

  Chapter Thirty

  SOPHIA

  Sophia was back home. Her real home.

  Jacob’s Well.

  Drea and Dad had stayed in Fort Worth. They’d held actual elections for once and Drea had been elected President. It looked like they’d be there for awhile fixing the mess Travis had made of the Republic. Well, the guy before him hadn’t done much better.

  It was time to see what a woman could make of the country.

  But meanwhile, Sophia was just glad to be home. With her family. Mario and Leo and Jagger and… and Finn.

  They hadn’t talked one on one since their argument at the hospital. It was stupid. She didn’t even know really what they were fighting about. He was mad at her for leaving and going to try to take on Travis herself.

  He didn’t believe in her.

  Okay, so maybe she did know what it was about. Her heart squeezed, the hurt still stinging as fresh as that day. He’d always see her as a helpless, spoiled kid who needed protecting.

  She walked around her house—her new house. As a Marriage Raffle bride, she and her husbands had been given their own home. It was a cute little split level on the edge of town. The river was just down the hill. At night sometimes, when all was quiet, she could hear the rushing water.

  In the month since they’d all been home, she’d been avidly cleaning and decorating—well, as much as she could with her arm in a cast.

  The guys had taken to town life well. Mario and Leo had easily fallen into construction work and Jagger already had a bunch of trade contacts so he was working with Audrey’s husband Clark who’d taken on Trade Secretary duties after Henry… well, after Henry died.

  And Finn?

  He’d gone back to his old job at the Scrapper Yard but it seemed like there was a perpetual storm cloud over his head.

  He was always the first to excuse himself from dinner and the first out the door in the morning.

  Because of her arm, she and her husbands hadn’t done much more than kiss since they’d been home. They were all overcautious with her, much to her dismay.

  But Finn barely even touched her.

  She scrubbed mindlessly at a living room window—part of her efforts to clean the whole house top to bottom—thinking about everything that had happened when movement in the front yard caught her eye.

  “Finn?” she said in surprise as he pushed open the front door.

  He took his Scrapper gloves off and threw them to the foyer floor, then he stalked over to where she stood.

  “I’m done with this bullshit. You’re my wife.”

  He stomped over to her, grabbed her face, and kissed her.

  She was so surprised, she couldn’t help gasping and he took advantage of it, slipping his tongue between her parted lips.

  When his tongue made contact with hers, it was like he’d made her come alive. Boom. Electricity zinged up her spine, up and down, from the top of her head to her toes and back up again.

  Dear God, could she come just from a kiss?

  She plastered her body to his, angling just the slightest to avoid her cast
. But that was the only consideration she gave. She dropped the cloth she’d been scrubbing the window with and dug her fingers into Finn’s hair.

  He grabbed her ass and pulled her up and into him. He was hard. Rock hard. Feeling how she affected him made her groan into his mouth. Seriously, she was thiiiiiis close to coming. She lifted a leg around his hips and ground herself shamelessly on his shaft until oh— oh—

  “Ohhhhh!” she cried.

  Finn pulled back in surprise. “Holy— Did you just—?”

  Sophia buried her face in his chest. Oh God, she was so embarrassed. She hadn’t talked one on one to Finn in weeks and then the first time he so much as kissed her, she—

  “Jesus, I love you, Soph,” Finn chuckled, pulling her lips back to his and kissing her again.

  It wasn’t the first time he’d said it but… he hadn’t said it since and that had been right after he’d almost died and she’d thought he just—

  He stood up straighter, his erection still poking her. His eyes searched hers. “I’m done with the bullshit. I love you, Sophia. You know it was always you for me. I’m sorry if me not wanting you to go off and get yourself killed pisses you off. But if we’d had it to do all over again, even knowing what I do now about how everything turns out, and I’d had a chance to stop you, I would’ve.”

  She jerked back out of his arms. Or tried to. He held her fast.

  “Just listen to me,” he said, glaring down at her.

  “I love you. I never had much in my life. And everyone I ever loved either left me or betrayed me or fuck, tried to fuckin’ sell me. I never had much good in this world. And I never thought I’d have you.”

  He tugged her tighter against him, dropping his forehead to hers. “So I’m sorry, but no, I’m not sorry if once I got you, I wasn’t willing to let you go. I woulda let the whole world burn. So maybe you were right to do what you did. Sneaking off like that. It about killed me waking up and finding you gone, but it all turned out okay. And if you promise you’ll never leave me again, then maybe we can stop this fighting and be proper man and wife.”