Daphne stood in front of the big window in her office and watched the sun rise over the Rockies. Sometimes she forgot just how beautiful it was here in Denver. They were truly blessed with the best scenery in the world and weather that was second to none. Here it was at the end of May, and even though the days were balmy, the nights were cool and the mornings were still almost downright cold.

Soon enough, it would be time for everyone else to come in for work. For some reason, she had missed her morning workout. She had been awake, but she just hadn’t felt like going to the gym. So, she had come to work instead. It was quiet when she was here this early in the morning. Sometimes it felt like this was the best time to get things done. She had already sent over a dozen e-mails about the possibility of finding several good human interest story opportunities for Met Hernandez.

Wandering back toward her desk, Daphne picked up her coffee and took a sip. The bitter flavor burst on her tongue and made her feel awake and alive. She put her hand on the mouse and moved a few things around on her computer screen. The layout of this particular ad still wasn’t right. It didn’t give off the vibe she was going for. A few more mouse clicks had it though.

That was one of the things that Daphne liked so much about her job. She put people into their best light. Even when the whole world thought that they were the devil, Daphne got to focus on the good. She polished it, amplified it, and then she showed it to everyone.

“You’re here so early, and yet you stayed so late. It begs the question of whether or not you ever went home. Don’t you think?”

Daphne jerked to attention as she looked up to find Justin hovering once again in her doorway. He did not belong there. Every warning bell in her head was jangling at full volume, and she could not imagine what this man wanted.

“Good morning.” Justin stepped into her office and suddenly pulled a huge bouquet of flowers out from behind his back. “I brought you something. I wanted to leave them on your desk. You know, to apologize for the misunderstanding last night.”

Daphne swallowed. Her skin was crawling with unease. She knew this was all wrong. Everything was all wrong. She could not offend him. She could not afford to when there was nobody else here to save her. She could not count on Met to suddenly show up once again to save the day. This time it was all up to Daphne.

“Thank you, Justin.” She stood up but kept her desk between them. “I really appreciate the thought, but I’m not sure you had anything to apologize for.”

“You seemed angry at me last night.” His eyes narrowed. He had certainly pulled out all the stops on his wardrobe and his hair product this morning. His slacks were pressed within an inch of their life, and his hair was slicked back and looked almost wet with the amount of product he’d put in it.

“I wasn’t angry.” She struggled to find her next words. They were so important. Her palms were sweating, and her heart was pounding in her chest. She could hardly breathe. She was so frightened without knowing precisely why.

“I want us back together, Daphne.” Justin walked closer. He was still carrying the flowers. “I know you know that I didn’t mean a lot of those things I said after we broke up.”

“No?” She kept her voice mild. She wanted to scream. The sun was now hitting the glass of her window and seemed to fill her office with a golden glow. “It’s hard to believe you weren’t sincere, considering the very serious smear campaign you started right here in the office.”

“Those things”—he waved a hand dismissively as though none of that mattered—“weren’t said by me.” He was nodding his head as though he actually expected her to buy what he was selling. “There was another woman down in accounting who had designs on a relationship with me. She started a lot of rumors about you in an effort to make sure that you and I didn’t get back together.”

“Oh, really?” Daphne nodded her head as though she were actually giving this bullshit some credence. “And so she was spreading rumors about me? How awful that must have been for you!”

“It was!” He was all astonishment. “You have no idea how awful it is to hear someone slander a woman that I loved just because she wanted so badly to take your place.”

“And so you eventually went out with her, right?” Daphne pulled her brows together as though she were trying to think about this instead of knowing absolutely that it was true. None of Justin’s movements after their breakup were secret to her. He had made certain to let Phyllis and Ruth know every single detail, which they had of course passed along. “I mean, you probably felt like you had no choice, and I’m sure she hid her true nature from you.”

“She did.” He was nodding his head. Justin walked forward a few more feet and rested his hip against her desk. “It was very pathetic.”

“Oh, absolutely pathetic.” Daphne could feel her anger rising. She was so sick and tired of this jerk trying to make her life miserable. It had been years since they’d first met, and he had been so accommodating and attentive. Then, when she had broken things off nearly nine months ago, he had turned into the biggest asshole on earth. “The thing I can’t understand is how she could know so many personal things about me, Justin. There were some pretty embarrassing things floating around this office. People seemed to know what kind of expressions I have during sex. They were talking about the fact that I apparently smell bad in an intimate and personal way. And they were all telling me that you were the one talking about it.”

“It was all lies, baby,” Justin murmured. “You know how people will lie to keep two people apart when they belong together.”

“I’m more inclined to think that you were pissed off because I broke it off with you and you wanted to win the breakup!” Daphne was suddenly and completely done with this. She pointed to her door. “Please. Leave. I want you out of my office. I do not want to see you back up here unless you are required to speak to me for some official company reason. And if you don’t go right now, I’m going to call security.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” He slammed the flowers down so hard on her desktop that the buds exploded.

Petals and leaves flew into the air and sprayed across her computer keyboard. Daphne refused to back down. She set her jaw and remained firm. What could he do? He could not physically assault her. And if he tried, she was a whole lot more in shape and capable of fighting him off than she had been back when they had been a couple. He had abused her then, emotionally and physically, but since then, she had grown. Daphne was a survivor, and she would be damned before she allowed him to take that power back from her.

“Your tantrum isn’t going to get you anywhere, Justin.” Daphne narrowed her eyes and pointed at the door. “Get. Out. Now.”

“You’re making a huge mistake with that ridiculous cowboy,” Justin told her snidely. “He’s a loser. And when I tell the whole company that I caught the two of you having sex in your office, it won’t matter what you think anymore.”

She refused to react. It would only let him score a point. If he actually spread that rumor, she could hope that her boss would know that she wasn’t that much of an idiot or a slut. This was Justin. He had kept her a prisoner for years with this bullshit line of threats and the cycle of violence and reconciliation.

Justin flung the bouquet at her and turned on his heel to leave. Of course, before he left, he tossed one last thought over his shoulder. “Did you tell your cowboy about your sexual preferences? He probably won’t be as lenient about your lack of skills as I was.”

She squeezed her eyes closed. Of all of the nasty side effects of being in a relationship with someone like Justin, he knew exactly where to hit to leave the biggest impact. He had spent the first six months of their relationship learning every single weakness she had, on the pretense of being the one who loved and cared about her the most. Once she believed that he was only trying to be warm and caring, she had spilled all of her secrets. He had spent every single second since turning those into weapons of mass destruction.

“Hey!” Phyllis appeared in the doorway behind Justin. “What are you doing up here, Justin Sorenson? You don’t belong up here in the morning. I told you if you needed to deliver those papers, you could just leave them on my desk last night. There was no need to bother Ms. Evans.”

“I’m not bothering Ms. Evans.” Justin turned around and sneered at Phyllis. “And last night she was too busy screwing one of the clients to care where I put those papers.”

“What are you talking about, boy?” Phyllis was growling with her hands on her hips and fire in her eyes. “Don’t you dare say something ugly like that!”

“You have to be joking,” Justin said with his trademark dramatic flair. “I walked in on her and that drunk cowboy in flagrante delicto! It was vile, and I’m sure it violates dozens and dozens of ethical policies within this firm.”

“Get out of here,” Phyllis told him. “And so help me, if I hear that rumor around this company, I will be the first one to tell the whole world that you’re just jealous that Daphne moved on from your laughable lack of equipment to a real man.”

Justin’s outrage showed up only in his bulging eyes as he turned and stomped out of the office. Daphne watched in horrified silence as he sped off down the hallway and eventually disappeared into the elevator.

“I am so sorry, sweetheart.” Phyllis wrung her hands together as she came the rest of the way into Daphne’s office. “I tried to stop him last night. I thought I got through to him. I thought he was getting into the elevator to go to the parking garage.”

“Last night I got lucky,” Daphne murmured. “Met came back to see if we could have dinner to discuss the media engagements. He kind of walked in on Justin’s tantrum and ended it pretty decisively.”

“Well, good for him!” Phyllis crowed. “It’s too bad that big strong cowboy didn’t plant a facer on Justin.”

“I think he would have, but you know what Justin is like,” Daphne moaned. She put her hands over her face. “Why is he suddenly doing this all over again?”

“I called Frieda last night,” Phyllis told Daphne. The woman was busy picking up the stray shrapnel from the bouquet and throwing the pieces into the trash. “Frieda works down in accounting. She says that Justin just dumped that other girl he’s been dating since you broke up with him.”

“Great. So, he’s feeling wounded and in need of a new source of fun for his sick and twisted mind games.” Daphne shivered.

She could not ignore the panic beginning to erode her reason. The problem with someone like Justin was that even if she kept saying no, he would not take no for an answer. And at what point would she decide she would rather just cave and go out with him than deal with the constant stalking and harassment? Sometimes it was only possible to withstand a certain amount of browbeating. Plus, nobody ever believed her when it came to his abuse. Everything with him was in the realm of emotional and psychological abuse. There were no physical scars or marks. There was nothing for a cop to photograph or document. It was all just he said, she said bullshit.

“I’m screwed,” Daphne whispered. “Maybe I should just quit and move out of town.”

“I feel like your cowboy would disagree with that idea,” Phyllis said softly. She reached out and gently touched Daphne’s arm. “Maybe he would have some ideas as to what could be done?”

“Are you kidding?” Daphne put her cool palms against her hot face. “Do you have any idea how embarrassing it would be to fully lay out that whole situation? There are things I don’t want to think about, much less talk about.”

“All right, sweetie.” Phyllis sighed. She had the remains of the bouquet in her arms. “I’ll get rid of this at least. Why don’t you just go home? You’ve probably been here for hours anyway. Not even Mr. Abernathy would want you working a full day after coming in hours before the day actually began.”

“No. That would look bad.” Daphne steeled herself. “I’ll wait until I’ve at least got my eight hours. Then I’ll go home. I promise. But I don’t want Justin to think that he got one over on me. That just makes him feel more powerful.”

“Well, if I hear anything,” Phyllis began doubtfully, “I’ll let you know right away. I still think we need to tell Mr. Abernathy what’s going on. I know you wouldn’t let me say anything last time, but the man needs to know that one of his accountants is an absolute asshole who stalks women and tries to scare the crap out of them for no good reason.”

“I wish it was that simple,” Daphne murmured. “I really do. I’ll be fine. I promise. I just need to get back to work. Now that it’s actually after seven, I can start making some phone calls. Doing normal things will make me feel better. You’ll see.”

Phyllis did not look convinced. “You just wait until I tell Ruth. We’ll get the secretary pool on your side, and those rumors will turn around fast!”

Phyllis bustled out of the office, and Daphne went back to work. She purposefully left the door open. She didn’t want to be alone. She didn’t want to feel alone. She needed to hear Phyllis moving around out there and talking on the phone. That would help keep Daphne centered in reality. At least until she could eliminate the horrible man who wanted to turn her reality into his dream world.