Suddenly feeling cold and empty, she put on her sweatpants, tank top, and hoodie and moved to the couch. There was a knock on the door, and Les opened it cautiously, poking his head in. Seeing her sitting, shivering violently, he hesitantly came in. "Mina? Is everything okay?" she shook her head and swallowed.
"I don't know what happened." she whispered. "He just left." She looked up at Les, and tears slipped down her cheeks. "He asked what I did to him and got dressed, and left. I don't know what I did, I swear."
Les came over and sat beside her. "Oh honey, you didn't do anything. It'll be okay, I promise."
"I can't do this." she began crying in earnest. "I can't; I can't, I can't." Les quickly hugged her and held her while she sobbed on his chest. "Please, I want to leave."
Fuck. Les wasn't sure what to do. He let her cry and tell him how much she wanted to leave; she couldn't be with someone who would leave her like that without explaining anything. Then, when she calmed down to soft hiccups, he gently untangled himself and went to the glove compartment. He grabbed her sleeping pills and handed one to her. "Here. Take this." She looked up at him and shook her head.
"I want to leave."
"I know you do, honey, but I can't let you go when you're in this state of mind. I wouldn't feel good about it." She reluctantly took the pill from him and swallowed it. "Look, what's going on with Asher is complicated. You have a man who has never felt anything ever as strong as you make him feel things. He's fallen so hard and so fast for you that it's scaring the crap out of him. What happened before he left?"
"We had sex, and when he…" She swallowed, and her cheeks turned red. "While he finished, he looked into my eyes, and his face got all soft and loving. Then he collapsed on me, hid his face in my neck, and said: "What have you done to me?" He didn't answer me when I asked what he meant. He just shook his head, got dressed, and left."
Les nodded. "Hold on a second, okay?" She shrugged, and he left the trailer. He came back ten minutes later with a very reluctant Joe.
"She needs to understand." Les folded his arms and glared at him.
"He needs to be the one to tell her." Joe shook his head and looked at her apologetically.
"Just give her the broad strokes. Then, if she still wants to leave tomorrow, I'm taking her to the nearest airport, and she'll walk away from him."
"He'll kill you."
"Oh well. I'm not keeping her somewhere she doesn't want to be, and he already gave he permission to leave." Les shrugged. He had told Eric and Greg to find and warn him that she asked to go. He couldn't imagine what had come over Asher.
Joe sigh. "Has Asher told you anything about what it was like growing up in our house?" Mina shook her head. "Of course not." He ran his hand through his hair.
"Joe, you don't have to tell me."
"I can't tell you; he has to, just know there's a very valid reason that we are the way we are. You're making him question things about himself, and it's very uncomfortable for him." He hesitated and then sat in the chair across from her. "When I met my wife, it was like a piece of me became whole, and the world filled with color. I knew within an hour I had to marry her and hold on to her no matter the cost. She wanted to be with me, but I couldn't understand why, and I became her jailer, afraid that if I let her meet new people, she would leave me, or if she hung out with her friends and family, they would convince her to leave me. So, as a result, I isolated her and made it, so she just had me to rely on."
"I regret that so much now." He shook his head. "She was loving, patient, and compassionate enough to help me work through it. She genuinely loves me more than anything, including herself. She made me get therapy and better myself, so I could be the husband she deserved."
"Asher has always been the opposite. While I wanted to keep her with me and never let her go when I was afraid she'd leave, Asher rejects people before they can reject him. He thinks he's bought everyone's loyalty here by helping them out of the worst situations in their life, and that's why we all work for him, but that's only partially true. We're all grateful but know he's just as loyal to us." He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. "I know he hurt you, but it's because he just figured out how deep his feelings for you run, and he doesn't know what to do." Seeing Mina's eyes get heavy, he smiled. "Sleep on it, see how he behaves tomorrow, and decide from there." She nodded, and he lightly patted her knee as he stood up and left the trailer.
"Go get some sleep, Mina. I promise this will be better in the morning." Les reached down and squeezed her shoulder.
"I doubt it." She mumbled. She lay down on the couch and pulled her hoodie tight around her.
"You're going to sleep there?"
"Bedroom smells like us."
"Right." He chuckled softly and grabbed her jacket off the back of the chair, throwing it over her. He quickly shut off the lights and walked outside. Greg, Joe, and Eric were standing around looking anxious.
"Did you get a hold of him?"
"He's in a hotel." Eric said quietly.
"She asleep. I gave her a sleeping pill." Les reassured him. "What did he say?"
"Take her to the airport." Eric shifted. "If she wants to leave, then it's better for everyone if she does."
Les shrugged. "Well, she can't go now. She will be out cold for the next eight or nine hours."
"We still need her, and she'll be a sitting duck if she goes back home, not to mention what Draco will do to us if he finds out we just let her leave." Eric pointed out.
"From what she told me, he's panicking right now because he's a monster, and she couldn't possibly have any feelings for him."
"He told me they were doomed from the start because we kidnapped her." Joe nodded.
"Yeah, well, she's either got Stockholm syndrome or just as in love with him. She wouldn't have cried that hard or long if she didn't care about him."
"Could it be Stockholm syndrome?" Greg asked quietly.
"She wouldn't want to leave if that was the case. However, she knows Draco is out there, knows she'll be in danger if she leaves us, and she wants to help her nieces and sisters-in-law and still insists on leaving."
"I mean, if she leaves, it might help pull Asher pull his head from his ass."
Les chuckled. "Man I guarantee you, he will come screeching up here first thing in the morning demanding to know where she is. He is way too possessive and crazy about her to actually let her go. He's panicking right now that's all. He's afraid at the end of this she's just going to walk away and if her reaction to him leaving her that way was any indication of her feelings, he has nothing to worry about. She's genuinely devastated that he left her like that. He messed up, but I think if he apologizes sincerely, she'll forgive him."