Asher woke up early the next morning and immediately looked over to Mina's side of the bed, almost afraid she slipped off while he slept. She was still sleeping, although at some point, she had relaxed enough to be stretched out on her stomach instead of the tight little ball she had gone to sleep in. He had laid awake for a long time last night, wondering what to do about her and trying to sort out his feelings.
Lengthy bouts of depression in his teens and early twenties with no support or therapy left his emotions permanently suppressed, and he existed on a neutral plane. The only feeling that came to the surface was anger, and even that was like lightning, popping up, doing damage, and gone within seconds. Being forty-two and suddenly feeling things was confusing and frustrating for him.
His possessiveness over Mina was not surprising. He hated to share what he saw as his. He was selfish, his every action, at its core, was to benefit him. Agreeing to Mina's deal had been easy; he wanted to fuck her from the moment she looked up at him when he gripped her chin, and he saw the raw desire in her eyes. She was a sub, he knew in that instant, and a sub who would want to please him. Every scream, every moan, every whimper he got out of her fueled his ego and fed his arousal. The fact that he was making her feel good meant nothing to him. He needed to hear she wanted him, needed to know it was him making her react in ways she couldn't control because that was what turned him on, knowing he could make her have such an intense reaction to him, his presence, his touch, and his cock inside her.
His sudden desire to see her happy, to have her be happy with him, was selfish because he wanted her to stay. But he didn't understand why he wanted her to stay or felt the need to right wrongs against her. The therapist he had seen in his mid-twenties had told him he was capable of empathy, but he had spent so long mired in his own negative emotions that he had suppressed his ability to feel for others because he didn't want their pain on top of his. So being upset that she had been hurt was a new and uncomfortable feeling.
His anger at the people who hurt her confused him. Wanting to keep her with him and not turn her over to Draco, he was putting down to the fact that he wanted her so no one else could have her. But his fear that she would attempt to hurt herself again, the panic he felt with the realization that she was giving up and resigning herself for the inevitable and for what he was pretty sure was her solution, pissed him off.
Mina shifted beside him, and he looked over to see her face was pointed toward him, but she was still sleeping. He also had a weird desire to touch her all the time. Typically, a woman was sent from his bed and home if she wanted to cuddle after sex. Mina rolling away from him last night had irritated him, and he had almost rolled over to cuddle her. Asher reached out and moved a lock of hair off her face and delicately brushed his fingers along the curve of her cheek, fuck she was gorgeous. He felt a wave of possessiveness wash over him. There was no way in hell Draco was getting her. Nobody took what was his from him.
Setting his jaw, he rolled out of bed and got dressed. When he stepped outside into the cool March air, he was surprised to see the others waiting for him and checked his watch. "Sorry guys, I overslept." Asher was twenty minutes late for the meeting.
"Can't imagine why." Greg grinned at him while the others chuckled.
"If any of you says anything to her about it, I'll cut out your tongue." Asher glared at them. "This entire operation rests on my ability to make her scream, make her self-conscious about it, and we lose our easy advantage."
"I'm sorry, what?" Eric chuckled in surprise.
"That was the deal I made with her. Derrick was less than satisfying, so she said she would happily cooperate and help, but first, I had to make her scream my name." Asher smirked. "Seemed like a win-win to me."
"So what did she give you last night?"
"I haven't asked her anything yet. She'll tell us where to look next if he's not with Mommy. So to that end, Greg, are you ready to go?"
"All the gear is loaded in the SUV. When I get there, I'll connect with Lexi to hack into her systems."
"Alright. See you tonight." Greg nodded, got aboard the car, and drove off.
"Joe, we're going grocery and supply shopping, so let's get on that. You two keep an eye on her. She's still asleep and hasn't had her pills yet, Les."
"Got it." Les and Eric nodded.
"We'll see you in a couple of hours." They got aboard the car and left. Eric and Les smirked at one another as they moved to the picnic table.
"This is gonna be a long job." Eric rubbed his jaw. "After that response from her, he's not gonna want to give her up."
"He's already asked me to renegotiate our contract with Draco, so we don't have to turn her over. " Les yawned. Mornings weren't his thing. "We're gonna have to figure out a way to soundproof their RV unless Greg can find those earplugs he talked about last night."
Eric chuckled. "Who would have thought Asher Christianson could get attached?" Les's phone rang, and he pulled it out.
"It's Draco." He answered the call, and Eric fell silent. "Draco. How are you?"
"I'm well Lester. How goes the hunt? Has she broken yet?"
"Depends on how you define broken. She's pissed that her husband put her in this situation and is willing to help, but only on the condition that we don't turn her over to you. She's given us enough information that we know we're going to need her, he will be impossible to find without her help, and we rather do this the easy way by keeping her happy and healthy."
"Yes, Derrick has proven to be a slippery little eel. We traced him to her, and he vanished after he emptied her accounts." Draco fell silent, and Les let it stretch. "What's the offer?"
"If she works with us, it will keep your cost lower. Instead of us using resources to get information from her and then follow it up, she's willing to come with us and help us find him."
"Each call girl brought in over a million dollars a year. Is my final bill going to be more than three million dollars?"
"Well, so far, we've kidnapped a woman and arranged to have her disappear from her life so no one will look for her, flown to Albany, so we have federal kidnapping added in because we've gone across state lines. There's a potential four other states with numerous locations to search, plus twenty or more people we have to interrogate and keep from passing information about us along to Derrick. We're dealing with conspiracy theorists and nutjob cultists who live off the grid and believe Canada will attack from the north if they aren't there to defend our borders. It could very well reach a million dollars plus by the time we've found him. Hazard pay for five people adds up. We need her help, she's willing to do it, but her terms are she gets to go free."
"She's still worth more to me than that. According to Derrick, she will go catatonic if left in handcuffs long enough. Do you have any idea how much someone will pay to be able to do whatever they want to a beautiful woman while she lies there unresponsive? A living doll they can molest and abuse?"
Les felt his stomach curl. "Is she worth more than Derrick is to you? Causing her mental health to break like that will only work for so long before she becomes useless to you. You might get six months out of her, maybe half a million dollars."
There was another silence, and Draco sighed heavily. "Derrick owes me close to four million dollars. He never paid for his experiences, and those girls were three grand a night. He cost me three of them and their pimp, who we had to make an example out of, what not to do because the john is your friend type thing, plus hiring you to find him. So, no, she is not worth more to me than Derrick, she is, however still worth money to me."
"How much?"
"Right now, four million. Find Derrick and we'll talk."