Page 27 of Durango

When I first met Tyler, I thought he was such a thoughtful, great-looking guy. It’s been over six months since I escaped. He’s probably still in the honeymoon phase with his next victim. He’s getting her hooked. I need to stop him.

Durango is leaving tomorrow and will be gone for a while. I have some vacation days I could take off from work.

I sigh. What exactly am I going to do?

My friend walks in the front door.

“Samantha?” She’s never home in the middle of the day.

She slams the door shut. “I can’t believe that asshole!”

I follow her into the kitchen, where she throws her purse on the kitchen table. Then she spins around to me.

“We dated for two months. Today, I found out he’s married. And you know how I found out? When I was called into a meeting with HR to discuss my behavior. My behavior!” She goes to one of the kitchen cabinets, opens it, and then slams it shut. “And I don’t have any liquor here.” She spins around. “Want to go to a bar and get drunk?”

“What happened?”

She falls onto one of the kitchen chairs. “It’s a mess, and I might get fired. But it’s all his fault!”

I knew Samantha was seeing someone, but she hadn’t really given me too many details. I sit down across the table from her. “Start from the beginning and tell me what happened.”

“I met a guy as we walked into the same office building a couple of months ago. He asked me out, and I’ve been seeing him ever since. I thought he was wonderful. Today, his wife reported me to HR for harassing her husband. I had no idea he was married! Or that he worked for my company! He lied and said he worked at another business in the building. Apparently, the wife found some texts he sent to me, and she did some digging and found out where I worked. According to HR, now this guy claims I’m stalking him. I told HR what really happened. They told me to take the week off while they investigate.”

That doesn’t sound good. “Did they give the guy a week off, too?”

She shakes her head. “He’s a department head. They said his job was crucial to the company and he had to stay. The writing is on the wall. I’m getting fired because of that asshole.”

“A department head? And you didn’t recognize him?”

Her eyebrows shoot up. “Do you have any idea how many VPs we have? It’s insane, and I only know those in my chain of command.”

I’m shocked I’m hearing this for the first time. “Why haven’t you mentioned any of this before? I’ve told you all about Durango and my issues. Oh no, did I dominate our conversations?”

Samantha and I met right after I moved to Portland ten years ago. We became instant best friends, but that all changed when she moved to New York and Tyler cut me off from everyone. I’m so thankful she has been so open to renewing our friendship and giving me a place to stay.

“No, you didn’t dominate conversations. I just wasn’t ready to talk about him yet. I was worried it was too good to be true. Looks like I was right.”

It comes to me fast. “You have the week off?”

“Apparently.”

I grin. “Want to help me with something? Involving my asshole ex?”

She smiles, too. “Does it involve getting revenge? Because that’s all I want right now is revenge on this asshole, but your asshole might work, too.”

“Something like that. We need to go to Portland.”

She grabs her phone from her purse and starts typing. She smiles. “There is availability on a flight to Portland today, and wow, it’s cheap. I’m in.”

Glad to hear they are cheap because I’ll have to put mine on my credit card.

“What’s the plan?”

I already told her about Tyler and everything he did to me. Somehow, after telling Durango, it’s easier to talk about now. I explain how I need to stop him from doing what he did to me to someone else.

“What is your plan for stopping him? Because if it involves murder, I’m sorry, but I’m out.”

I chuckle. “Murder? You think I’d fly out on a commercial flight that can be traced and murder my ex?”

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