Ransom Ranch

“Greg, if she came with the Ransoms, you need to leave her alone. Seth will beat the crap out of you.” The Ransoms were well known in the small town of Deadwood and Johnny knew better than to mess with them. He had Seth’s personal cell phone number and quickly dialed it.

“What’s your name, honey?” he asked Stacie as the phone was ringing.

Stacie managed to get her name out and laid her head on the bar, why was she so tired and dizzy.

“Come on honey, I got a room. We’ll take you there and let you rest,” Greg told her, lifting her by the waist and trying to stand her on her feet.

Even though the idea of lying down sounded wonderful, Stacie knew it was not a good idea to go with this man. He was not her friend. The bartender seemed to be more concerned about her.

“No, I need Seth or Jake or Grant. I want my men.” She tried to get out, not sure if she was making sense.

Johnny told her he had called Seth and that Seth was on his way. Greg was still insisting she come with him and trying to pull her away from the bar. Stacie grabbed onto the barstool, and it started to drag across the room with her. “I need to wait,” she tried to tell Greg, looking to Johnny for help.

About that time, Seth and his brothers came up to the scene and Jake quickly pulled Greg off of her. “Call the cops, Johnny. I want him arrested for attempted kidnapping, and attempted assault,” Jake told the bartender, looking at the man on the floor. “Also, call an ambulance. I think he may have drugged Stacie, and I want her blood tested.”

Grant and Seth quickly agreed with him. Stacie was not herself and had gone limp in Seth’s arms the minute he touched her.

Johnny quickly made the calls, and soon the place was in chaos with the police and ambulance. Everything got straightened out quickly and the ambulance personnel were able to take a blood sample without taking Stacie to the hospital. Johnny arranged for a hotel suite for Stacie and the men, and she was taken there to rest and recover.

When they got to the room after they had Stacie settled in one of the bedrooms, the men all sat on the bed around her. “She is not to be left alone ever again, agreed?” Seth told his brothers quietly, not wanting to disturb her.

Jake and Grant nodded, all too aware of what could have happened to her. When Stacie started gagging, the men quickly got her to the bathroom. The paramedics had warned them this might happen and not to leave her alone so she didn’t choke if she threw up.

“Grant, run a shower. We’re going to have to clean her up after this. She’s soaked with sweat,” Seth told his brother. Maybe she would have been better off in the hospital, but the paramedics had assured them that she would be fine in the morning, just hungover, and gave some recommendations to help that, too.

Holding her long, black hair out of the way, Seth felt helpless and, other than holding her, was not sure what to do.

When she stopped vomiting, Seth sat back on the floor and held her, while she cried, still not fully awake.

After letting her cry a few minutes, he got to his feet, pulling her with him. Jake and Grant helped him undress her and she swatted at them at first. “No, don’t touch me, only my men, no one else touches me. Leave me alone. I want Seth. Grant, help me. Jake, I need you,” she cried incoherently, swatting at their hands.

“Shh, baby. It's us, we have you. We’re going to help you shower and get you back to bed,” Seth told her in her ear, grabbing her hands so Jake and Grant could strip her sweat-soaked clothes from her.

“Oh, Seth, you came for me. Why am I so tired?” She stopped fighting and leaned into him.

“It’s okay, honey. We’re going to get you in the shower and then you can sleep. We’re all here for you,” Seth told her.

As soon as Jake and Grant had her stripped, they quickly undressed and Seth handed her over to them to shower while he went and checked out the bed to see if they could put her back in it. It wasn’t too wet—her clothes had absorbed most of her sweat—and Seth decided it would work for the four of them. It would be tight, but Stacie seemed to need all of them.

Jake and Grant no more than got Stacie under the warm water and she started shivering uncontrollably. Sandwiching her body between theirs, they did their best to warm her up and clean her quickly.

“What’s the matter with me? Why am I doing this?” she asked, teeth chattering.

“Honey, you’re not used to drinking alcohol and your body is reacting to the poison in it. Have you ever drank before? The paramedics said you might react like this. It’s okay. We are all here for you,” Jake tried to explain to her.

“No, I don’t like the taste of it, and when I go out with my friends I usually just sip one glass of wine all evening. I have a very low tolerance for it. I don’t remember paramedics. What happened?” Stacie was starting to get upset.

“Let’s shower, and then we’ll all explain it to you, babe. Let’s get you warm first,” Jake told her, while washing her hair.

Stacie let Jake and Grant wash and dry her while she tried to remember what happened. Nothing was coming to mind. The last thing she remembered was playing the game and drinking what she thought was a smoothie.

“That was a smoothie I was drinking, wasn't it?” she asked Jake.

Jake shook his head no, and then the men helped her out of the shower and were wrapping her in towels, before drying her hair with the dryer supplied by the hotel. While they had been showering, Seth had gone to the truck and gotten their bags. They had planned on staying in Rapid city a couple nights and had each packed a small bag. The stop in Deadwood had changed their plans a little, but nothing big.

Going through Stacie’s bag, Seth didn’t find anything he wanted to put on her, so he grabbed one of his shirts for her to wear.

Grant carried her out wrapped in a towel, and Seth quickly helped her into his shirt.They settled her in the bed and all cuddled around her. Slowly, Grant started telling her what had happened.