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Grady kept his hand on her elbow and urged her forward, resisting the temptation to turn around and tell the man to go to hell. Any response would give them another story to run with, and he wasn’t about to make Amanda’s afternoon worse.

“Almost there,” he told her.

She nodded and kept walking.

Erin held the outer door open for them. Once Amanda was through, she stopped beside them, her expression troubled. “I’m sorry. Both of you.”

“For what?” Grady asked.

“For bringing this circus to your school and dragging your department into it.”

“You called before you got here. That gave us time to get the kids out of the line of fire.” He checked the parking lot through the door windows. Markham and Zigler still had the reporters contained near their vehicles. “Go inside. I’ll take care of this.”

She hesitated, then touched his arm. “Don’t let them get to you.”

That would be a tall order. “Go on.”

He waited until she and Erin passed through the inner doors, then headed back outside.

Markham and Zigler still had the reporters contained near their vehicles on the street side of the parking lot. As soon as Grady stepped outside, several cameras swung toward him. By the time he reached his deputies, the questions had started all over again.

“Sheriff, is Amanda Sparks really doing community service here?”

“Is she getting special treatment because she’s a celebrity?”

“Is the network filming her sentence?”

He stopped beside his deputies and raised his voice. “That’s enough.”

A few questions continued, but most of the group fell silent. He waited until he had their full attention, taking stock of the cameras, the haphazardly parked vehicles, and the people who’d apparently decided a school was a perfectly reasonable place to chase a woman for photographs.

“If you want to ask Ms. Sparks questions or take her picture from somewhere you’re legally entitled to be, that’s between you and her. But you followed her onto school property, and you don’t have permission to be here.”

A reporter near the front sneered. “We’re just doing our jobs.”

“And I’m doing mine.” Grady let his gaze travel across the group. “There are hundreds of students in that building trying to get through their school day. They have nothing to do with whatever story you’re chasing, and neither they nor the staff need a parking lot full of reporters disrupting things.”

“We can photograph from the street,” someone called out.

“You can do whatever the law allows you to do from public property.” Grady held the reporter’s gaze. “I don’t know how things are done in California, but you’re in Rockland County, Wyoming—my jurisdiction. And I’m ordering you to leave.”

That silenced a few more.

“If any of you refuse to leave or come back onto school property without authorization, you'll be charged with trespassing. Am I clear?”

A few exchanged looks, but nobody answered.

He raised his voice another notch and hardened his expression. “I asked if I was clear.”

Muttered acknowledgments came from several directions.

“Good. Now get in your vehicles and get out of here.”

Nobody moved at first.

Grady gave Markham a short nod. The deputy understood and started directing the reporters back to their vehicles. Zigler joined him, and the group finally began to disperse.

A few continued shouting questions about Amanda as they packed up, but Grady ignored them. He and his deputies stayed put until the last vehicle pulled onto the road.