The anger that welled up nearly brought her to tears. There was no escape from what she was going through—no way out and no way to counter the threat he and others posed. She’d grown up a nobody from a Mennonite family that was more devout and superstitious than educated, yet she’d never felt more impotent. “You have no right to be here,” she said.

“I have every right to be here,” he argued. “We all gotta eat. What difference does it make to you, anyway? Someone’s gonna get a picture of the mess that accident made of your face. Might as well be me.”

Seth wheeled around to confront her. “Get back in the car. Now.” Although he spoke much more gently to her, there was no mistaking the authority in his voice. “I can handle this,” he said, but that short change in Seth’s focus was all Kouretas needed to pull out his camera.

He started snapping pictures immediately. Tia could hear the click of the shutter again and again—until Seth ripped it out of his hands and smashed it on the pavement.

“What’d you do?” Kouretas gasped, incredulous. “How dare you! That was a two-thousand-dollar camera!”

“Move your car,” Seth ground out. “Or that camera’s not the only thing I’ll break.”

Kouretas’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head. “Now you’re threatening me?”

Seth stepped forward while hitching a thumb in her direction. “You don’t think she finds what you’re doing threatening? Give her a break, for god’s sake. She’s been through enough.”

Kouretas gaped at the pieces of his camera. “I’m going to the police!”

“Be my guest,” Seth responded. “Just don’t ever come back here. Do you understand?”

“You’ll be spending the night in jail!” Kouretas said as he scrambled back into his car.

“It won’t be the first time.”

Seth had spoken that last bit under his breath, but Tia heard him.

Kouretas fired up his engine, giving it more gas than necessary. The sound alone was enough to frighten Tia, but Seth merely propped his hands on his hips and glared at the paparazzo, which was probably why Kouretas swerved toward him, nearly hitting him before skidding onto the road.

Seth kicked the back end of his car as he tore off, but fortunately, the ugly encounter ended there.

“Oh, my gosh!” Tia pressed a shaking hand to her chest. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

“I had it handled,” Seth said. “You should’ve stayed in the car.”

He obviously wasn’t pleased with her attempt to help him. “I didn’t want you to get into a fight on my account,” she said.

“He deserved what he got.”

“I’m afraid the police won’t agree. Now what do we do?”

“Nothing.”

She bent to gather the pieces of the camera. “He’s going to report this.”

“Let him.”