Ema sat in her hotel room, scrolling through pictures of her nieces and nephews on her phone. She clicked on a video she’d taken of some of them last Christmas, and thankfully the little cuties could still make her smile despite how crappy she was feeling. Maybe she should forget the shoot with Brady and Hailey Giles this weekend and fly home to see her family. Her career didn’t feel as important right now, which was so dumb, because that was a big part of the issue with her and Knox.

When she wandered out of the woods this morning and back to the house, determined to talk to Knox and see how they could work things out, the gray-haired security guard with the young-looking face, and as many muscles as Knox, had been waiting. He had kindly escorted her to a car and driven her to her hotel. Knox and Shelby hadn’t even said goodbye. Yes, there were lots of issues with her and Knox. She couldn’t think about it.

Mike had tried to call her and text her repeatedly; she’d ignored him. She didn’t think he was dangerous, but he had been completely out of line and disgusting and she didn’t want to keep working with someone who would do something like that. She’d talked to the show’s production staff this morning and they said they had some great footage for Knox’s episode. They’d be sending it to her later tonight for approval. Normally when she wrapped up one show, she’d either go home to San Diego for a few days, enjoy the city she was in, or travel and enjoy the city her next shot was at. She loved to travel and explore new places.

Instead of exploring, she sat morosely in a dark, lonely hotel room. She missed Knox and she missed Shelby. Yes, Knox had reacted too strongly this morning, but he had been protecting her and that was a beautiful thing too. She wished she could tell him that she wanted to fly back and forth to Dallas on his private jet, schedule as many Texas shows as possible, spend the next year or so getting to know him and Shelby better and falling deeper in love. But she was still scared and uncertain. Not scared of Knox, but scared of how quickly she’d fallen in four days. If that rate of infatuation continued, she’d be proposing to him before they’d known each other a month. Craziness. Already she couldn’t stand the thought of being away from him, and that wasn’t right. She needed to get her head back into her career. Research her next assignment—Brady and Haley Giles—so she could pull off a dynamite show. ABC was calling her name.

Her phone rang and she fumbled with it, looking at the caller ID. She swiped it open. “Claire!” she all but yelled into the phone.

“How dare you?” Claire spit at her.

“How dare I … what?” Yes, she’d left Knox’s ranch and she’d said some things she shouldn’t, but she hadn’t deliberately hurt him. She would’ve tried to work things out with him if the security guy hadn’t escorted her away. She still wanted to talk things through with Knox, see if they had a chance.

“Of course it would mean nothing to you, slandering a great man like that, but did you seriously not care about Shelby at all?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t slander—”

“Save it!” Claire yelled into the phone. “I blame myself. I thought you were a good fit for him. I thought you could be happy together.” Claire laughed sarcastically. “Silly me, I thought you had a heart.”

“Claire, stop, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Claire sighed. “It’s heavy, Ema.”

“Please tell me what’s going on.”

“You really are clueless?”

“I guess I am.” Ema’s temper flared up. “What is going on?”

“Google yourself. You’ll figure it out.” Claire hung up on her.

Ema felt chilled and out of her head, like she had a sudden flu bug. She pushed off the bed and grabbed her laptop off the dresser. Why would Claire treat her like that? Ema typed in her name, and the top link robbed her of oxygen. Before clicking on it, she scanned through the links on the first page. Different social media sites, but all reposts of a YouTube video she’d supposedly produced featuring Knox Sherman, the Beast.

She clicked on the video and watched it, her gut churning and her hands clammy. No. Oh, Knox. Would he think she would do this to him? Mike. It had to be Mike. She’d kneed him and Knox had flattened him and thrown him around, then off, his property. Could the guy she’d worked with for years have done something this petty and underhanded?

She found Knox’s text stream with her and pushed the button to call him. It rang, then went to a voicemail. His deep, husky voice filled her with longing and fear. Would he hate her? Hanging up, she texted him quickly: Please call me. She waited a full twenty seconds, then hit the button to call him again.

It rang once, and she heard him growl, “What do you want, Ema?”

“Oh, Knox, this wasn’t me.”

He didn’t respond, but she could still hear his breathing, ragged and loud.

She needed to go to him, explain. “I would never do this to you. You have to believe that.”

A long pause stretched on before he finally said, “It doesn’t matter what I believe. Shelby’s been exposed because of you.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Paris showed up.”

“Oh, no.” Ema sucked in a breath. “She didn’t get to Shelby?”

“I scared her away, but who knows what other predators are going to come.”

Ema’s heart felt heavy and her hands were shaking and cold. Even though she hadn’t released that video, she’d brought this on Knox and Shelby. “I’m sorry,” she said again.

“You were right.” Knox’s voice was cold and distant. “A relationship is never going to work for us.”

The line went quiet. “Knox? Knox!” Ema cried his name, but there was no response. She sank onto the bed and curled around her phone. Tears pricked at her eyes and her throat felt raw. She’d brought pain on Knox and danger to Shelby. Quiet tears slid out of her eyes as she felt sorrier for herself than she ever had in her life.

This was her fault. All her fault. Long minutes passed and the tears kept coming, but deep inside she felt a reassurance. This wasn’t her fault. It was Mike. All Mike. He’d lied to Knox that he deleted the footage of Shelby. He’d tried to manipulate Knox’s staff into saying demeaning things about him. And she knew that he’d created and uploaded that video. Maybe she’d been wrong to become part of Knox’s life, but she hadn’t done any of this deliberately to him.

Clutching her phone, she turned on the voice recording feature and stormed out of her room and down the hotel hallway. She pounded on Mike’s door.

He swung it open. “Hey, Ema,” he said, greeting her as if nothing had happened.

“Mike.” She shook her head, disappointment tracing through her. “You put that video together about Knox and posted it on YouTube and all our social media sites.” Her phone was clutched in her hand and she prayed it was recording.

Mike leaned against the doorframe. “So what if I did?”

“That’s slander, Mike. He’ll sue you.”

Mike laughed. “Ooh, your big, bad boyfriend is going to sue me.” He leaned toward her. “I don’t care. You both got what was coming to you. The whole world knows what a beast he is now, and you’ve lost your job with VH1 and any hope of ABC.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

He sneered at her. “Check your emails. VH1 dropped us and ABC wants nothing to do with you.”

“You idiot.” He’d ruined both of their careers. “You’ll never work in the film industry again.”

“Neither will you.” He slammed the door in her face.

Ema stood there in shock for a few seconds. He’d taken himself down to try to sink her. She pushed stop on the recording, then walked quickly back to her room and shut the door. Lifting her phone to her ear, she played the recording back. Mike’s voice was clear and she’d said his name twice. At least she had something to help her redeem herself. She might be able to rescue her career, but could she resuscitate her relationship with Knox?

It had been a miracle she’d been able to breach his reclusive barriers in the first place, that he’d wanted to make a relationship work. She doubted it would ever happen again.