Adios Pantalones (Fisher Brothers 3)

“Ryan, what happened?”

His amused expression turned solemn. “What do you remember?”

Frowning, I looked at the ceiling, thinking. “Just bits and pieces, mostly. Derek. You. I lost control of my car, I think.” I met his amazing blue eyes, which winced with pain when I said those words. “Is that right? Did I crash into something?”

“Yeah, you hit a tree. The force of the impact sent your head back, and you slammed into your headrest before you crashed into your steering wheel. Knocked you out cold.”

“The airbag didn’t deploy?” I had no idea why I even thought of that question when I should have been thinking of a million others.

“No, it must be faulty. We need to get that checked while they’re doing the repairs. What if Matson had been in the car?” Ryan asked.

I shuddered at that, shaking my head to chase away the thought. “I can’t go there.”

“Me either,” he said, and I couldn’t believe the way this man cared about my son.

“Where’s Derek?”

I asked the one question I’d been avoiding, afraid that Ryan would tell me he was still out there, waiting for us to leave so he could hurt us both. Ryan still didn’t know the truth about why I asked him to stay away; he believed my reasons were all centered around Matson.

I needed to be completely honest with Ryan and apologize profusely for lying. I’d never felt good about the lie, but it had been the only way to get him to listen. Still, I hated myself a little for doing it.

“There’s no easy way to say this . . .”

As Ryan struggled to find the words, I had no idea what was coming next. But I found myself comforting him, running my hand up and down his arm. “Just say it.”

Ryan met my gaze, his forehead creased. “Derek’s dead.”

“What?” I looked at Ryan, finally taking in the worry I hadn’t noticed until now. Apparently, he was concerned with how I’d react to the news. “He’s dead? How? What happened?”

“You lost control of your car. You remember that, right?”

“Kind of, yeah.”

“Well, when I got to you—” His voice broke with emotion, and I could tell how hard it was for him to relive those moments again. “When I got to you, you weren’t moving. You were slumped over the steering wheel, and I couldn’t get in. I tried so hard to get to you, but I couldn’t.”

A single tear rolled d

own his face, and my heart broke at the thought of all he must have gone through.

“Derek showed up with a gun. I thought he was going to shoot you, Sofia. I thought he wanted to kill you. But he wanted to shoot me.”

Ryan’s anguish brought tears to my own eyes. “Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?” I pawed at him like a madwoman, checking him over for bandages or injuries.

He grabbed my hands and held them tight. “I’m fine. When I left the bar to chase after you, Frank called the cops and had them follow me. If he hadn’t done that, I don’t know what would have happened. Probably would have been too late. But they weren’t . . . they showed up just in time. They told Derek to drop the gun, but he didn’t. He put his finger on the trigger, and they shot him.”

I couldn’t believe that I remembered none of this. Why hadn’t the gunshots woken me up? I’d been passed out unconscious while chaos erupted around me, and I had no idea. Ryan could have been killed, and I wouldn’t have even known.

“Are you okay?” Ryan cupped my cheek, his brows pinched with concern. It was so sweet, how worried he was about my reaction. But if our roles were reversed, I would have felt the exact same way.

“Is it wrong that I feel relieved more than anything?” I whispered.

He shook his head. “No. He told me he warned you to stay away from me or else he’d kill me.”

My eyes flew open wide. “He told you that?”

Ryan nodded. “He got a lot of pleasure out of telling me that. But he wouldn’t tell me why.”

“I’m so sorry I lied to you about that.”