Page 53 of Durango

CHAPTER 17

Willow

“Holy shit!”Samantha yells from her bedroom.

I sit up, realizing I fell asleep on the couch. According to the clock on the wall, it’s only nine.

She runs out of her bedroom with her laptop. “I found something huge.” She sits next to me.

I rub my eyes as I sit up. “I don’t want to watch a sex video.”

“There’s no sex, and trust me, you’ll want to see this.”

She plays the video, and it begins with Tyler staring at the camera. A doorbell rings and his attention turns to his front door. This video is not in the bedroom like the others but is in what appears to be the living room.

From what I can see, it’s a large apartment with modern furnishings. I bet this is where his family thought he lived or lives.

Tyler moves off camera, but a moment later, a man I don’t recognize comes into view with Tyler right behind him.

“You have to get rid of that intern. She’s already caused us two missed shipments,” the man says.

Tyler crosses his arms. “That intern is my niece. We don’t fire family.”

The man steps very close to Tyler until their noses are practically touching. “Then bring her into the business. Because if she doesn’t stop interfering, the next order I get will be to eliminate her.”

“Jesus,” Tyler says as he walks away from the man and closer to the camera. “You would kill my niece for doing her job?”

The other man frowns. “No, for screwing up our deal. Our boss doesn’t tolerate any mistakes. You knew that the moment you agreed to this. You promised your family wouldn’t interfere.”

“No, Benson, I promised to get the job done. That’s it. How I do it is my business.”

Benson’s hands go to his hips. “Well, here is your chance to fix how you do your business. You have one week to get everything back on track. If his drugs are not on your delivery trucks by then, he may go after more than just your niece.”

Tyler turns to face the man. “What the hell does that mean?”

Benson shrugs. “He doesn’t like leaving a trail.”

“Before he does anything rash, he needs to consider how easy it would be for him to find some other company willing to transport his goods across the country.”

Benson laughs. “The demand for fentanyl is high these days. Trust me, he can find someone else. He’d just rather not deal with the hassle of training someone new. So, fix this.” The man walks off camera, and the door slams shut.

Tyler stares into the camera. “If anything happens to me, that man’s name is Benson Hyde. His boss is Zavier Carte. I didn’t want to get involved in any of this, but they threatened to kill my family if I didn’t. Now they are threatening them again.”

The video ends. Samantha glances at me, smiling.

“Why are you smiling? This is horrible.”

She closes her laptop and sets it on the coffee table. “Don’t you get it? We leak this and Tyler will go down.”

A wave of nausea hits me as I realize what she’s saying. I stand up and go to the kitchen. I need tea for this conversation. As I fill the kettle with water, Samantha steps into the kitchen and boosts herself up onto the counter.

“You don’t like the idea?” she asks.

I shake my head. “If we leak this video, it will likely get Tyler killed. And if they figure out who leaked it, they’ll come after us.”

Samantha stares at the floor, frowning. That’s her thinking look. She doesn’t say anything more as I get a green tea bag and put it in my favorite mug. It says, “World’s #0 programmer.”

She frowns at my mug. “What does that mean anyway?”

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