The first time Jonah Reed saw the woman, she was standing beneath a broken lantern with a rope around her wrists.

It was nearly midnight when Jonah rode into Red Hollow.

The town had once been busy enough to boast two saloons, a general store, a blacksmith, a church, and a small hotel.

Now only half the buildings were still occupied.

The railroad had passed twenty miles south, taking most of the trade with it.

What remained in Red Hollow was mostly dust, tired horses, old men, and people who had nowhere else to go.

Jonah preferred it that way.

He had no interest in crowded towns.

No interest in politics.

No interest in women who asked questions about where he had been or why he lived alone.

He wanted land.

Silence.

And enough distance between himself and other people that nobody could make him remember the things he had spent years trying to forget.

That night, however, he had ridden into Red Hollow because he needed medicine for one of his horses.

He had intended to stay no more than twenty minutes.

Then he heard a woman scream.

Not loudly.

Not the kind of scream meant to attract attention.

It was the sound of someone trying not to scream.

Jonah stopped his horse.

The sound came from behind the old freight warehouse.

He turned.

The street was almost completely dark.

A single lantern burned beside the warehouse door.

Three men stood beneath it.

One held a rifle.

Another was tying something around a woman's wrists.

The third was counting money.

Jonah's hand moved toward his revolver.

He had seen enough.

He dismounted.

"Let her go."

The men turned.

The largest one laughed.

"You lost, cowboy?"

"No."

Jonah walked closer.

"I heard her."

The woman looked up.

She was young.

Perhaps twenty-five.

Her dark hair had fallen loose around her shoulders.

Her dress was dusty and torn at the sleeve.

There was a bruise beneath one eye.

But what caught Jonah's attention was not the fear in her face.

It was the anger.

She wasn't crying.

She was watching him carefully.

As though she was trying to decide whether he was another threat.

The man holding the rifle stepped forward.

"This doesn't concern you."

Jonah looked at the woman.

Then at the rope.

"Looks like it concerns me now."

The man laughed again.

"You planning to buy her?"

Jonah glanced at the third man.

"How much?"

The men exchanged looks.

The woman suddenly spoke.

"Don't."

Jonah looked at her.

Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Don't pay them."

The rifleman grinned.

"Smart girl."

He leaned closer to Jonah.

"She's expensive."

"How expensive?"

"Five dollars."

Jonah reached into his coat.

He pulled out a silver coin.

Then another.

Then stopped.

He had three dollars and seventy cents.

He removed a single dollar coin from his pocket and held it up.

"I'll give you one."

The men stared.

Then they laughed.

The woman stared at him as though he had lost his mind.

The rifleman stepped forward.

"One dollar?"

"That's what I have."

"You expect me to believe that?"

Jonah shrugged.

"I don't care what you believe."

The man's smile disappeared.

"She's worth more."

"Then keep her."

Jonah turned away.

The woman suddenly whispered:

"Please."

He stopped.

He looked back.