Please call me at 915-555-2000 ext. 34 to discuss. I would like to present your side before I run the piece in the newspaper.

Pedro Medina Reporter, El Paso Tribune To: Julia Boudreaux From: sara@KVSMFM.com Subject: Response Dear Julia: We met at a cystic fibrosis luncheon last year. I enjoyed talking to you, which is why I am writing now to provide you with an opportunity to respond to the word on the street that the new show you have created took advantage of a young woman.

Please let me know when we can set up a meeting.

Sincerely, Sara SaraWeston News Director KVSM FM news radio To: Julia Boudreaux From: Andrew Folly

Sincerely, Andrew Folly Station Manager, KTEX TV, West Texas To: Julia Boudreaux From: Katherine Bloom Subject: Problem

Julia: I heard this afternoon that your Primal Guy, Rocco Russo, used the techniques you taught him along with the new haircut, redecorated house, and new clothes to lure Fiona Branch in, have sex with her, then dump her the next day. Apparently the woman was so upset and angry that she went to the El Paso Tribune. The El Paso Times has gotten wind of the story as well. Sounds like she wants her own form of retribution on Rocco, and she doesn't care if you get caught up in the process.

As soon as you can, come into the office and we can work on damage control. As you can imagine, we can't run Primal Guy on Thursday night as planned, since we certainly can't add fuel to what can easily tum into a fire. We will run something else in its place.

I hate that this has happened. Call me as soon as you get this.

Katherine C. Bloom News Anchor, KTEX TV, West Texas

Chapter Twenty-two.

Julia paced back and forth across her kitchen on Meadowlark Drive. It had taken hours before she had been able to leave Sonja's house. Hours of statements and officers asking if she was all right while she stood there in shock. Ben had kept his eye on her, but he had been wrapped up in the investigation. The minute the lead detective said they didn't need her any longer, she had left without a word to Ben. He had called her cell phone, but she hadn't answered. He had left a message saying he would be home as soon as he finished up at police headquarters.

But Julia didn't want to see him. She didn't want to see anyone. She didn't want to think about or talk about the memory of staring down the barrel of that gun. She also had to sort through the staggering betrayal of what Rocco Russo had done.

Her heart raced so fast that she felt light-headed and short of breath. Her palms were clammy, her head ached, and she felt very much like she was on the verge of panicking.

But she wasn't going to panic.

"Get a grip, Julia," she chided herself.

Her head spun with what was happening. How could Rocco have been such a bastard? But she should have known. Assholes remained assholes. Leopards didn't change their spots.

She'd been a fool ever to believe she could turn a primal caveman into a sweet and sensitive guy.

Once a jerk, always a jerk.

Roses and tuxedos from a man who had been insensitive before was a ridiculous dream. Her father had proved that over and over again. And even the roses that he had sent had been a fraud. She should have known when Trisha ran over her foolishly beloved rosebush that she was headed for a fall.

Every inch of her being was on edge when the kitchen door swung open. She wheeled around.

"Whoa," Ben said, that wonderfully cocky smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "What's the wild woman look about?"

Just like a caveman to think that teasing was an appropriate way to show affection.

"Yeah, that's me," she said unkindly. "I'm a regular wild woman."

Every bit of humor evaporated and he looked at her with intensity. She expected a biting rejoinder.

"What is it?" he asked with kindness.

The simple concern just about undid her. She felt a lump form in her throat, and if she had been a

weaker woman she might have thrown herself in his arms and cried.

But that was the thing. She wasn't weak. She was Julia Boudreaux, and just like it was impossible to

change a primal guy into a sweetie pie, it was ridiculous to think that she could ever be a sweet, innocently blushing good girl.

Odd despair kicked at her heart. She had wasted a month of her life trying to reinvent, and all she

ended up with was a worse mess than when she started.

"Julia, talk to me."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Sure there is."

Her jaw tightened. "Fine. If you have to know, you were right about Rocco."

"The Primal Guy?"

"None other. He turned out to be trouble, just as you predicted, and more than that, he slept with his

date, then dumped her the next morning." She laughed bitterly. "I didn't turn him into a sweetie pie. All

I did was give him better techniques and ammunition for screwing his female conquests. God, how

could I be so stupid!" She threw her arms up and started to pace again.

Ben caught her arm gently and pulled her in front of him. "You can't blame yourself for this."

"Of course I can!"

"You didn't know. And you went into this with the best of intentions."

"What's the saying about that? The road to hell is paved with good intentions?"

"Julia-"

"No!" She shook him off. "Don't you see? I was on the verge of making a new life for myself. Then

wham. Folly is pulling the show. It won't even air."

"I'll find a way to make him air the show-"

"Of course they can't air the show! I can't have some woman's total embarrassment and horror

displayed on television. I can't do that to her. It's my fault that it happened."

"It's Rocco's fault."

"Again," she said sarcastically, her traitorous voice breaking, "he never would have gotten a cup of

coffee with her if I hadn't shown him how to be the kind of guy who could attract women. I might as well have lured her into his bed. The jerk!" She dropped her face into her hands and tried to breathe. "And by not running the show, by putting some rerun in its place, KTEX will lose all that revenue. And KTEX can't afford that."

"Sterling can afford it." He wrapped his fingers around her upper arms. "Don't worry about that."

She jerked away. "I can't afford it! Don't you see? I have to be good enough. I have to succeed. I can't

keep my job because the new owner is my best friend's husband. I have to succeed on my own!"

He understood the need to stand on your own two feet-to not be dependent on family or friends for self-worth. That was why he was a cop and not an employee of his family's business.

"You will succeed, Julia."

She leaped away when he tried to touch her. She headed for the back door, but he caught her again.

He trapped her against the wall, his arms on either side of her head.

"This is about more than Rocco," he stated.

"You don't think betrayal is enough to get upset about?" she asked with a scathing glare.

But he didn't let her off that easily. "What else, Julia ?"

She tried to look away, but he turned her chin back. Her eyes narrowed against emotion.

"Tell me," he persisted with that kindness that undid her.

"It was like you wanted to eat a bullet," she whispered, hating that her voice was betraying her.

His spine straightened. "I didn't want to eat a bullet. I knew backup was out there, and I had to get the

truth about Henry. I knew what I was doing."

She snorted, though the sound came out like a choke through her tear-clogged throat.

"Everyone is safe, Julia. No one got hurt."

Tears burned in her eyes and she tried to break away. But he held her firmly.

"Talk to me, Julia."

That's when she exploded, relishing the anger that replaced the tears. "Talk to you! No one got hurt!

By sheer luck, no one got hurt! You could have been killed! You always have to be the big guy who isn't afraid of anything."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're just like my dad!"

The words burst out of her, surprising him, allowing her to duck away, leaping for the doorknob.

He stood there for a second, his arms still braced on the wall, and absorbed her words. She was afraid.