“No, bruised or maybe cracked. They’ll do an x-ray at the hospital.”
“I'm not going to the hospital,” Rylla said immediately.
The medic frowned at her and was no doubt about to give her a lecture when Matthew suddenly burst into the room.
“Rylla. Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she answered firmly, reclaiming her t-shirt and managing to struggle back into it. “A little sore and a bit banged up but I'm fine.”
“If you won't go to the hospital, then ice your ribs for the next seventy-two hours. Have someone check out your neck tomorrow, and see your doctor if you get worse,” the medic told her.
“She will,” Nate assured him, he’d make sure of it.
“I'm sorry,” Rylla told her partner as soon as the paramedics had packed up their stuff and left. “I shouldn’t have blamed you for Mila’s death. It’s not your fault, we did everything we could to find him. I'm sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Matthew assured her as he sat beside her on the couch. “You were lashing out in grief.”
“That doesn’t make it okay, I'm really sorry, Matt.”
He took her hand and squeezed it. “I forgive you.”
Rylla relaxed a little, settling back against the couch cushions, her face was pinched, she was obviously in a lot of pain. “Could you grab some ice and painkillers?” he asked Matthew, who nodded and left the room.
Nate pulled over an ottoman and gently lifted Rylla’s injured leg so it rested on the soft cushion. He put some pillows behind her and propped her against them, then slipped her shoes off and sat beside her. Rylla immediately leaned into him. Matthew returned and Rylla swallowed the pain pills without protest, while he positioned the ice against her injured ribs.
“You said it was the Fairytale Killer who attacked you. How do you know that?” Matthew asked as he pulled an armchair closer to the couch and perched on the edge of it.
“When he grabbed me, he said, ‘Hello, princess’.”
“Does anyone else call you that?”
“No one’s ever called me princess. Rylla, Ry, when we were kids Elliot and Mila would sometimes call me crybaby because I went through that baby of the family stage of crying to get my way. Josh would call me honey or babe, but I've never been called princess before.”
“Did he say anything else to you?”
“He told me that my sister told him a lot about me.”
He wouldn’t have felt the shiver that sliced through her if she hadn’t been plastered against his side. He shivered too. The Fairytale Killer had chosen her as his next victim. Nate put his arm around Rylla’s shoulders and held her as tightly as he dared without aggravating her injuries.
“Did you get a look at him?”
“No, it was too dark.”
“I'm going to stay here tonight,” Matthew announced.
Although he appreciated that, Nate wanted Rylla all to himself right now. “I'm going to be staying, I'm a trained bodyguard, she’ll be safe with me. And Sam has sent someone to watch the house.”
Matthew looked like he wanted to argue but chose not to. “Anything else you can tell me about him?”
“It all happened so quickly,” Rylla said softly. “He was big, and strong, I got away from him twice, but if that man hadn’t come outside when he did, I think the killer would have gotten me in his car.” Nate would forever be grateful to that man for saving Rylla’s life.
“Okay,” Matthew stood and patted Rylla’s uninjured knee, “you should get some rest. Kane is coming to collect your clothes. I'm going to have a patrol car posted outside your house as well as whoever Sam is sending.”
“He, uh, he said something else right before he ran off,” Rylla said.
Nate stiffened, not liking her tone. “What?”
“He said he’d be back.”