“I need to ask her some personal questions,” Tamsyn said in that calm, capable voice, “so I can see if she needs any other meds.”

Ria’s fuzzy brain cleared. “He didn’t get that far. Just knocked me around some.”

A growl filled the air. She jolted upright, heart thudding at a hundred miles an hour. “What was that?”

“Emmett.”

Blinking at Tammy’s tone, she glanced at the man who held her. “You?”

“I am a leopard,” he said, as if surprised by her surprise.

“Forget him,” Tamsyn said, catching Ria’s gaze as she disinfected the scratches on her knees. “You sure about what happened, kitten? No one’s going to judge you.”

It was impossible not to trust this woman. “I threw my handbag at him, kneed him in the balls. After that, he was more interested in hurting me than . . . you know.”

Tamsyn nodded. “Alright, then. But if you ever need to talk, you call me.” She slid a card into the giant handbag someone had retrieved and put in the ambulance while Ria hadn’t been looking.

“That’s—” Ria began when there was a commotion outside.

“Where’s my daughter? You! Where is she? Tell me right now or I’ll—”

“Mom.” Ria felt tears rise for the first time as her mother entered the ambulance, pushing Tammy out of the way as if the other woman wasn’t stronger and taller.

“My baby.” Alex patted her all over, kissing her forehead with a mother’s tender warmth. “That piece of shit.”

“Mom!” Her mother never swore. When Ria’s grandmother was feeling wicked, she called Alex a “tightass” simply to see her explode—her grandmother was a firecracker.

“You!” Alex fixed a gimlet eye on Emmett. “Why do you have your hands on my daughter?”

Those hands cuddled her even closer. “I’m looking after her.”

Alex huffed. “Didn’t look after her very well, did you? She got attacked right here, almost on the main road.”