Page 179 of Reign

Mrs. Keen appears with Elena’s clutch. Elena accepts it and hugs her quickly before joining me at the door.

Her first full breath follows us down the steps.

Worth every lie.

She looks up at me as we descend the front steps. “You lied to all of them.”

“Yes.”

“No speech about honesty?”

“Do you need one?”

“No.”

“Then why would I give it?”

Her expression softens. I hold her gaze for a beat, then open the passenger door.

“You asked me to get you out,” I say, smiling. “You even said please.”

As if there were ever another possible result.

Chapter 28

Elena

My sketchbook is missing.

Again.

I stare at the empty spot beside my bed, then check beneath the pillow, beneath the blanket, beside the nightstand, and finally my office.

Nothing.

Of course.

Of course he took it again.

Because Luciano Castillo has no respect for private property, boundaries, or my very reasonable need to keep my sketches where men with criminally attractive hands can’t flip through them like light reading.

I leave my room and start searching the house.

He isn’t in his office.

He isn’t in the kitchen.

He isn’t in the sitting room, the library, or any of the absurdly masculine rooms that somehow still feel warm, like they were designed by a man who understands comfort even if he pretends not to.

Then I hear it.

A low, rough sound from somewhere beneath me.

A grunt.

I freeze.

No.