Page 173 of Reign

I step into the doorway and look around once.

The crib sits against the far wall in pale wood and hard lines, severe enough to look more like containment than comfort.

Then I remember whose house this is.

Santo would call it safe. He’d probably list the specifications without pausing for air. Overbuilt frame. Cameras wired into the ceiling. Everything researched to death before he let it into his house.

The crib isn’t the problem.

The room is.

It faces the front of the house. Too many windows. Too clear a view of the drive.

It takes me less than three seconds to dislike the entire layout.

Elena stands by the window with her arms crossed, staring out over the front of the estate. She doesn’t turn when I enter, but her shoulders tighten.

She’s wound too tight to miss anything.

I close the door behind me and cross the room without speaking.

She keeps her gaze on the glass. “Did Adriana send you?”

“No.”

“Did she confess?”

“No.”

“Shocking.”

The bite in her voice eases something in me.

I stop behind her and put my hand around the back of her neck.

Her whole body locks.

“Elena.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re doing that thing where you lie badly.”

“I’m related to professionals. I’m allowed to be bad at it.”

My thumb moves once, slow, beneath her ear.

She melts slightly beneath my hand and finally exhales.

I drag my thumb along the side of her neck again. Her pulse jumps against my hand. She knows I feel it, because her eyes narrow.

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Act like my neck is a lie detector.”

“It is.”