Mina took her turn driving, and Les and Asher filled her in on the meeting with the FBI the next day. "Okay." She nodded. Is there anything I need to say or not say?"
"No." Asher said firmly. "I want you to be one hundred percent honest about everything."
"Even the kidnapping?" She smirked at him.
"Even the kidnapping." He nodded. "I'll cover that, don't worry."
Les raised an eyebrow. "How do you plan to do that?"
"Don't worry about it." Asher smiled. "I have a plan that ensures everything comes out exactly how we need it to. But part of that means she has to be honest because it makes everything I say look honest too."
"Right." Les nodded as he understood. "By not stopping her from telling her story, you get to hide under her umbrella."
"Exactly." Seeing the look on Mina's face, he smiled and hastened to reassure her. "Don't worry Princess; I will be ninety percent honest. You have to remember I have two people on my team who are dead as far as the government is concerned. I can't have them digging too deeply into us."
"Two?" She frowned. "I know Eric is one; who's the other?"
"Greg." Asher rubbed his chin, and she made a noise of comprehension and nodded. "What exactly is your relationship with Eric?"
"Um, one-time running partner?" She furrowed her brow.
"That's the only time she's been alone with him, Asher." Les rolled his eyes.
"That's not why I asked." Asher shook his head. "He had a… surprising reaction to me leaving."
"What kind of reaction?" Les frowned. "I told him to find out where you were and tell you she wanted to leave."
"Eric has never been shy about telling me his opinion, but he cussed me out, told me I was an idiot, and he didn't know if he could work for someone so stupid before Greg took the phone from him."
Mina let out a small chuckle and quickly turned it to a cough when he raised an eyebrow at her. "What? Why do you think that has anything to do with my relationship with him?"
Les sat back with a grin. He had a feeling Mina was about to serve Asher some truth he refused to see and was genuinely curious to see how it went over.
"He was angry I hurt you."
"I'm sure he was but was it because I was hurt or because you hurt me?"
"It's the same thing."
"It's not. One is about my reaction, and the other is about your actions."
Asher looked at Les. "Care to interpret that?"
"What she means is he is angrier about what you did than what happened after you did it. He's disappointed you were willing to walk away from something good for you."
"None of them have any reason to be upset you hurt me." Mina added. "Except maybe Les, 'cause he held me while I cried and has spent more time with me."
"Now, Mina, we all like you, and we're worried about what would happen if you insisted on leaving. That's why I made you take the pill." Les grinned. "But yeah, the concern was mostly about what Asher would do when he figured out how badly he fucked up."
"Aw, I like you guys too." Mina grinned as Asher rolled his eyes. "The point we're trying to get across to you is that they were more worried about you than me."
Leaving Asher to think about that, she started conversing with Les about how he joined Asher's company.
When they switched again, and Asher took over driving, Mina set to work finishing the drawing of Greg's niece and nephew. Les sat across from her and watched as she worked on the shading, switching between pencils carefully as she went over different areas.
"Did you have any art training?" He asked curiously.
"I moved in with a second cousin when I was sixteen after I was hospitalized for six months following a suicide attempt. While in the hospital, my therapist and Doctors encouraged my drawing as a therapeutic outlet - those drawings were very dark - and my cousin was enthusiastic about it. There was no formal training, but I was allowed to do art classes both in school and outside it, and he was willing to let me pursue it if I wanted."
"Why didn't you?"
"Benji, my cousin, was a gay man who lived through the New York Party Scene of the late eighties and early nineties after escaping his parents and the church. Unfortunately, he contracted HIV and passed away while I was in my second year of university, but before he died, I was determined to cure him." She smiled sadly. "He was the kindest, sweetest, gentlest man I've ever known. He took me in and did his best with a damaged teenage girl. He had so many sleepless nights with me, and he never showed me anything but empathy and compassion."
"I'm glad you had the time with him that you did." Les said gently.
"Best four years of my life." She said softly.
"Can I ask about your suicide attempts?"
"Sure." She shrugged. "What do you want to know?"
"How many times?"
"Officially two. In actuality… probably dozens."
Asher almost drove off the road as he whipped around to stare at her. "What?"
"Asher, Jesus Christ! Pay attention to the fucking road!" Les yelped as he and Mina bounced in the seats.
"Sorry!" Asher quickly straightened the RV out as Eric's voice came over the CB, asking if everything was okay. "Yeah, I just had a surprise, that's all." Asher responded. "What do you mean dozens?"
Mina frowned as she began to erase a line she made when she bounced. "I took pills at twelve and slit my wrists at fifteen. There was also an attempt by jumping off the bridge, but I said I was dared to do it. But I also took pills two or three other times, but I always vomited or went to sleep for a few hours. I ran away in the winter, intending to freeze to death, but I was found before hypothermia set in. I deliberately skated over thin ice repeatedly, but I wasn't heavy enough to go through. I would cross the road without looking both ways, stopped eating and drinking a few times, and say I was fasting when I was brought to the hospital and I was just reckless in general. Riding my bike without a helmet in traffic, walking through paddocks with bulls in them, that kind of stuff."
She spoke so nonchalantly that Asher and Les didn't know how to respond. After a few minutes of silence, Les leaned back with a low whistle. "Wow. You were determined."
"I didn't want to die, not really, my goal was to get someone to pay attention to what was going on in my house, the problem was I didn't care if I did. Either someone would finally pay attention or it would all end."
"Why didn't anyone step in?" Asher asked angrily
"When I took the pills at twelve my parents weren't allowed to be in the room with me. The EMTs found all my bruises and CPS was called and I was able to tell them what happened. I was removed from my parents' home for a while, they had to do parenting classes, I had to go to an actual school, and there were monthly visits and doctor check-ups for a year."
"After the checks stopped, to punish me for what I put them through they would handcuff me to a radiator and leave me there overnight, or all day and beat me. I would do things that would end with me in the hospital but only if someone called an ambulance. My parents would refuse to leave me alone with the doctors so I'd have to make up a lie about what I'd done." She laid the pictures carefully to one side. "Or get beaten when I got home."