Theirs to Ransom

by Stasia Black

  Her face flamed as she eased her body off of him. He slid out of her at last and his eyes opened. He didn’t smile or even look her way, though.

  He looked behind her and his eyes went hard.

  Which was when she remembered that, right, it was another man’s voice that had woken her.

  She looked over her shoulder and saw Jagger standing there, Leo and Mario flanking him. Was spontaneous combustion an actual thing? Because she was pretty sure she was about three seconds away from it.

  She jerked the sheet to cover herself, but Finn was laying on it, and she couldn’t seem to yank it out from under him.

  “Good morning, everyone,” she said. “I hope you all slept well.” Oh God, what if they’d asked how she’d slept? Oh fine, you know, I’ve just been screwing Finn for about five hours if you want to get technical about it. Because it still counted as screwing if his cock was inside her, right? Even if neither of them were conscious or, ya know, moving?

  “So what’s on the agenda for today?” She swung her head around to Jagger. Anything to get out of her own head. “Are we going to take a tour of the town? That’s what we usually do in Jacob’s Well whenever we get any newcomers. But I suppose every township has different customs. I’m happy to learn whatever yours are.”

  Sophia finally got the sheet out from under Finn and wrapped it around herself. “Or will we be starting off for Santa Fe first thing? Well, right after breakfast I mean. I really am very hungry. And thirsty. Though I imagine everyone around here is. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. The running water here is amazing. Does it come from an aquifer like ours does in Central Texas? It really is amazing that underneath all this desert are these underground rivers—”

  She was rambling, she knew she was. Her friend Gail always got annoyed when she rambled but no matter how much she told herself to stop, words just kept erupting like some godawful fountain.

  Thankfully, Jagger cut in.

  “Actually we’re heading back to Texas, not on to Santa Fe.”

  Wait, what? Sophia could only stare up at Jagger in confusion after his pronouncement.

  “But…” It was really saying something that he’d rendered her speechless. It didn’t last long though. She climbed off the bed, holding the sheet tight. “But the men! That’s where all the soldiers are, right? We have to go get them so they can start marching toward—”

  “We bring the women here first. The brides, I mean. Then you’ll get your men.”

  Sophia’s mouth dropped open.

  “That’s not what you said yesterday,” Finn said, scrambling off the bed to stand beside Sophia.

  Sophia nodded. Yeah. What he said.

  “Actually,” Jagger said, “We didn’t really discuss it. We were busy with the…” his eyes scoured Sophia’s body until she felt naked even though she had the sheet clutched as tightly as possible around her “…festivities.”

  “But that was the understanding,” Sophia said. “I came here as an ambassador, to show you the process. Then the men from New Mexico come and fight, and they’ll get to come back with brides.”

  “The ones who make it back alive,” Jagger said, squaring his jaw and settling his calculating eyes down on Sophia.

  His height advantage wasn’t fair. She couldn’t help that she was five foot five. But the fact that he was so much taller suddenly made her feel like she was a child arguing with her father.

  “It’s hard to convince a man to fight for any reason, but for the promise of a far-off bride who may or may not exist?”

  “They do exist!” Sophia protested. “I’m proof!”

  “It’s not me you have to convince,” Jagger said, eyebrows narrowing in apparent sympathy. Sophia got the cold feeling that he was just humoring her, though, like her father sometimes did. Like he was already bound and determined to get his way and nothing she said would ever matter one way or the other.

  Which made her absolutely furious.

  “You’ve already decided, haven’t you? This isn’t a discussion. You’re just informing me.”

  She tucked the sheet tighter around her body. What a pompous, arrogant— And this was the man she’d let into her body last night, who she’d so wantonly begged to—

  “I’m sorry, love.” Jagger’s voice softened. “I can’t change the way the world works. But the only way you’ll get your men is if you bring the women here first and hold lotteries or raffles or whatever you call them. Then the men will go, knowing they have something worth fighting for waiting back at home.”

  Sophia spun away from him.

  Did this mean she’d been right yesterday to be distrustful of him? But what did he have to gain by taking her back to Texas first?

  If Jagger thought to trick her, surely he wouldn’t want to go directly into foreign territory and go bargain with powers stronger than him. He had to know he’d be dealing with her father if they went back to San Antonio and that such a man would be more difficult to fool than one naïve girl.

  Maybe that meant Jagger was legitimate after all? If he thought he had a strong enough case to convince even the Commander of an entire territory?

  But if she didn’t go to Santa Fe, then how could she report back about the stability of the new government and the city first hand?

  She bit her lip and looked around the big room, all but glowing as sunlight poured in the windows that lined two walls.

  “What if we compro—” she started to say but Finn cut her off before she could finish the word compromise.

  “Going back to Texas sounds good to us,” Finn said.

  “Finn!” Sophia swung around to look at him.

  He didn’t meet her eyes. He kept looking around the room at the other men. “We’re already neck deep in this, Sophia. If they won’t take us to Santa Fe, what are we gonna do? We don’t exactly have any bargaining chips here. We’ll get back to San Antonio and talk to your father. If he thinks bringing the women back is a good idea, then that’s what we’ll do.”

  Finn finally looked at her right as she stepped back from him. They’d talk to her father? After everything, that was still what it came down to, didn’t it?

  She’d always be the naïve, foolish daughter of the brave and fearless Commander. He’d rescue her from this like it was just another foolhardy misadventure. Sure she’d gotten herself in more trouble this time than when she and some friends stole extra rations of sugar to bake a cake for Davina’s thirteenth birthday party, or when she stayed up past curfew and snuck out to go swimming in the pool at Jacob’s Well by moonlight with her friends and some boys.

  But the principle was the same. This was probably what Finn had been planning all along—to get her to a point where she realized her own stupidity and uselessness and finally turned back. So what was last night? He was just playing along until he could find any opportunity to get her back to Texas? Oh God, and when she’d attacked him and kissed him like that, he, what? Was just keeping her pacified and having sex with her was the path of least resistance to keep up the ruse?

  “Congratulations,” she turned on Finn and spat in his face. “I guess you’ll be rid of me sooner rather than later.”

  “Soph, what? No, I—”

  “I’ll be in the kitchen preparing rations.”

  And then she swept from the room before any of them could see the hot tears burning in her eyes actually escape down her cheeks. God, she didn’t know what to think. She wasn’t sure if what she’d just accused Finn of even made sense, but everything was so mixed up. Why couldn’t he have talked to her first and backed her play? Or at least figured things out together before just declaring what they wanted to do?

  Her escape was short lived, though.

  She ran down the hall almost blindly in the direction of the kitchen.

  And ran right into the solid wall of a man’s chest.

  She yelped as she looked up.

  It was Toby. Her fifth husband, who’d passed out after his fourth cup of homebrewed whiskey last night
.

  “Oh, sorry—” she started to say, but he cut her off with a nasty grin and by reaching around and mauling her ass with his big hands.

  “Hey!”

  She tried to swat his hands away but he only gripped her ass cheeks tighter, swiveling her and pressing her up against the wall. He followed with his body, crushing her to the cream-colored wall.

  “Leo said you and me had lots of fun last night.” His breath was foul and she turned her face away from him. “Shame I can’t remember any of it. Guess you’ll have to give me a repeat performance.”

  He ground himself against her and she shoved against him uselessly. God, this couldn’t be happening. This man was her husband. He was supposed to worship her, not—not assault her. If this happened in Jacob’s Well, her father would have his ass banned in three seconds flat.

  But you aren’t in Jacob’s Well anymore.

  “Get off me!” she screeched. After last night and this morning, there was only so much she could handle. And if this bastard thought for one second that she was going to let him—

  “Toby.” Jagger’s sharp voice came from behind them and for a second, Toby tensed at the sound.

  “You know we need to get going,” Jagger continued. “If we’re going to make it even halfway to Jal before sundown. You got the two men you’re bringing along ready?”

  Toby shrugged, finally stepping away from Sophia. The breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding shuddered out of her chest.

  “They will be,” Toby said, picking something out of his teeth.

  “Go check or I’m leaving without them,” Jagger said. “I’ll take Ramirez and Johnson instead.”

  Toby scowled and stalked toward the door that led to the stairwell.

  Leo had come in right before Toby left and he looked toward Jagger. “You sure that’s the best idea, boss?”

  “Not now,” Jagger snapped, his eyes shooting Sophia’s direction.

  Leo followed his gaze and nodded, leaving as silently as he’d come.

  “There’s breakfast in the kitchen,” was all Jagger said to Sophia. “Eat up. We leave in fifteen.”

  Sophia lifted a shaky hand to push her hair back from her face.

  Dear God, just what had she gotten herself into by marrying this group of strange and violent men?

  Sophia didn’t feel so good.

  Four and a half hours into their journey and Sophia was so saddle sore, she couldn’t imagine another hour riding the beast beneath her, much less a whole day.

  Horses.

  They were riding horses back to Texas.

  She’d looked at Jagger like he was nuts when he’d led them out to the stables down the street from the courthouse.

  Leo, Mario, and a couple of men that Sophia didn’t recognize were carrying plastic bladders of water over their shoulders, so maybe that should’ve given it away but still. Sophia’s mouth had dropped open and in spite of her determination to ignore Finn, she couldn’t help her eyes shooting to Finn and mouthing, he’s kidding, right?

  But no, Jagger was most decidedly not kidding.

  Nor did he take into consideration the fact that she’d lost her maidenhood last night and she was already sore down there.

  No, he just hoisted her up on his horse and then swung up right behind her.

  It had only given her the briefest satisfaction of seeing Finn’s eyes flare when Jagger had taken her to ride on his horse. But then Sophia laughed at herself for her foolishness. Finn wasn’t jealous. The anger she’d seen there had probably just been some sort of misplaced righteous fury on her father’s behalf. Daddy’s little innocent princess, getting even more sullied by the big bad wolf.

  She’d sat up taller in the saddle at that thought and tried to look unaffected by the whole thing.

  But her stoicism could only last so long because, dear God, it hurt.

  Jagger and the others took a relentless and punishing pace and every time they jolted with the horse’s cantering, Sophia’s sex cried out in soreness. Her womb had taken a battering last night and this was just torture on top of it.

  Still, she was determined to be just as strong as Drea would be in this situation. Drea, who was everything Sophia wasn’t. No way Drea’d let a little thing like a broken hymen slow her down when the world still needed saving.

  Though Sophia was growing less and less assured that any of this was going to be able to help anyone—not even herself, in the end.

  That man, Toby, terrified her, if she was honest.

  But he was her husband. He had as much right to her body as any of them. So that meant she had to submit to him, right?

  It was the way she’d been raised.

  But she’d also been raised to believe that a man should love and cherish his wife. That he should want to give all material wealth to her and sacrifice anything, even his own life, if it meant he could save her pain or injury.

  But then, that hadn’t been part of their vows, had it?

  There had been no vow to love each other in sickness and health, in good times and bad, for richer or for poorer.

  There had been no vows at all.

  These men had promised her nothing.

  And you promised them nothing in return.

  So what about last night?

  Because in reality, hadn’t she offered them everything?

  And they’d taken it, the four of them, each snatching a little piece of her heart. Because she didn’t know how to divorce her mind and body. And she’d never wanted to. She’d looked forward to her marriage for so long because all she’d ever wanted was a family of her own, and to be loved.

  And now?

  The horse landed especially hard after taking a little leap and Sophia couldn’t help grunting in pain as her thighs tensed around the large gelding.

  “What’s wrong?” Jagger asked.

  He’d sat Sophia in front of him this time and she looked over her shoulder at him incredulously. “Are you kidding?”

  He met her frown with one of his own.

  “Um,” she started but then trailed off. For all intents and purposes, Jagger seemed like a very intelligent man. But he was sure slow on the uptake with this one.

  Her face went so hot she was sure she practically glowed pink in the midafternoon sun despite the long-sleeved linen shirt and hat Finn had tossed her way before they left the house this morning. She looked forward again when she saw Jagger’s face soften some. She couldn’t figure him out. Today he was taciturn and barely said a word to her. How did she reconcile that with the man who’d been so commanding and in charge of her body last night?

  Riding for hours through monotonous terrain only gave her time to replay everything that had happened the night before in excruciating detail.

  And the fact that Jagger had been the first to breach her sacred place, and then how he’d gone on to… She’d had him in her mouth… and what was more, she’d liked it.

  The whole first hour of the ride, all she could think about was that that part of his body was nestled right up against her rump as they rode the horse.

  But then the saddle-soreness quickly set in and the bloom was quickly off that rose.

  “Ever consider I might be sore because yesterday I was a virgin and three men mounted me?” she finally finished, her face averted. Jagger must have tightened his thighs sharply on the horse or something because the gelding, usually a placid ride, suddenly reared backwards and Jagger grabbed the reins from Sophia just in time to keep from being tossed off the horse.

  “Jesus Christ,” Finn swore, bringing his horse over to theirs in spite of threats from Jagger’s two other guards, aka Toby’s men, to stay put.

  But Finn didn’t stop. “Soph, are you okay?”

  She winced, because though she and Jagger had managed to stay on the horse, landing had been another harsh reminder that she wasn’t nearly as used to horseback riding as she ought to be. When she was younger, she’d loved riding horses but after The Fall, checking out a horse
from the stables was a lengthy affair and besides, her father wouldn’t let her go anywhere beyond the township’s city limit, so what was the point?

  Jagger slowed the horse down but trotting made it even worse and Sophia couldn’t hold back the cry this time.

  “Stop,” Finn demanded. “Can’t you see she’s in pain?”

  Jagger sighed, obviously frustrated, and Sophia wanted to both apologize profusely and to smack the man. It wasn’t her fault she wasn’t prepared to be hauled all over a foreign country on a smelly animal right after— Right after they’d—

  Finn got down off his horse and then held out his arms for Sophia.

  And in spite of how frustrated she was with him, nothing in the universe sounded better than getting off the horse. She was less than graceful as she slid off the horse and all but collapsed into his arms.

  Hearing Jagger curse from behind her wasn’t helping matters, especially when she could barely stand up once she was beside Finn. Almost immediately she collapsed to the ground.

  “Shit, Soph!” Finn caught her right before she hit the dirt. “Water! Somebody get her some water!”

  “We ain’t got time for this.” Sophia barely registered Toby’s voice. Her whole body felt wrong. Floppy, like she was made out of jelly.

  “Come on, let’s get her out of the sun.” Leo’s voice. Another pair of hands helped Finn lift her and then she was being carried.

  “Where? There’s nothing, fucking anywhere. It’s just flat, for miles.” Sophia had never heard Finn sound so frustrated. Okay, that wasn’t true—but apart from when he was arguing with her, she’d never heard him sound so upset. And there was an edge of panic she’d never heard in his voice before, ever.

  “The trailer’s coming up, right, boss?” Leo asked.

  “About a half mile up.”

  “You think we can get her there?”

  “Not sure. Don’t think she’s getting back on a horse today.”

  “We ain’t got fuckin’ time for this bullshit,” Toby whined.

  “I’ll carry her,” Finn said.

  “Just sling her over a fuckin’ horse an’ be done with it. We got miles to make. You said so this morning, Jag.”