Page 10 of Deadly Protector
Then… “Where are you?” Elisa asked.
“Oh…ah.” Zamira shot him an odd look, then looked back at the screen. “I’m just out with a friend.”
There was a pause, then, “You’re wearing one of the dresses from Tia C! Oooh…okay, we love you and we’ll talk to you later!”
“Wait, I’m not done telling Mama—” Andres started, but the call ended.
Zamira let out a sigh, then tucked her phone away.
“What is it?”
“Nothing. Elisa knows I’m on a date. It’s why she hung up.”
“Is that a bad thing?” He was new to this whole “dating a single parent” thing.
“No, not really. I’ve just…” She gave him a weird look again.
“What?”
“It’s embarrassing, but I haven’t really dated since Lucas died. I’ve never brought anyone around my kids, ever. I just…I don’t know, I thought Elisa would be weird about it, but she seems almost happy. Which is great. Just surprising.”
He didn’t know what to say to any of that. He knew she was a widow, but didn’t know all the details of her life. He cleared his throat. “So tell me what you know about this Kurt Ryba and his relationship to your husband.”
“You sure you want to hear all this? It’s a lot for a first date. And I might be out of practice, but even I know this isn’t first date talk.”
“We danced a few times at Juan and Angel’s wedding, so this could be considered a second date. And this is appropriate second date conversation.” He kept his tone light, which made her laugh.
“That was not a date, but I appreciate it. Okay, fine… Right before my husband died, I found out that he wasn’t who I thought he’d been. The twins were barely a year old, and after they’d been born things had started to fracture between us. Not…big stuff, at first, but I started seeing red flags that I should have seen before we got married and I got pregnant. But I was eighteen when I fell for him and we got married fast. He was my first everything and I fell hard. Probably had actual stars in my eyes.” She rolled her eyes at herself.
“Don’t be hard on yourself. When I was eighteen, I got arrested for breaking into a celebrity’s house on Star Island.”
She blinked, her gorgeous mouth falling slightly open. “Seriously?”
“Yep. So whatever you’re going to tell me, I promise I’m not judging.”
“Okay, well, we’re going to go back to that later because I want details.”
A grin tugged at his mouth. “That’s not a problem.”
She nodded, then took a breath. “Anyway, he came home one night and things just suddenly shifted. He’d been in a big fight apparently and was worried for our safety so I packed up the kids and headed to my mom’s. We talked some over the next couple days and he said he was ‘fixing things’ and then he died. Just like that. It was a car accident, but I never really knew for sure.” She looked at him, her dark eyes wide. “And I never wanted to know if it was more. I was scared of the answer, scared of the kids knowing their father was a criminal. I was able to figure out that he stole cars and sold them either for parts or just changed the VINs and resold them as different vehicles. And Kurt, he was friends with my husband. Or I assume they were. I swear I don’t know their connection, but I do remember him from the funeral. He attempted to talk to me, but I don’t remember much about that day. I was still in a state of shock. Then he got sent to prison almost immediately after, and I only know that because he mailed me a couple letters.”
Dimitri shot her a surprised look as he pulled up to a stoplight. “What did they say?”
“No idea. I tossed them. I didn’t want anything to do with Lucas’s former life. I was still reeling, trying to keep it together. Then after I moved with the kids into a bigger house, I never heard from him again. I figured whatever it was he wanted, it wasn’t important. And I haven’t thought of him in over a decade.”
Dimitri digested everything, and as his cell phone buzzed with an incoming text he pulled up to another stoplight. He quickly read the message and froze at Lyosha’s text.
“Change of plans. We’re headed to my place.”
