Page 405 of Reign

“I don’t know,” I admit.

She closes her eyes.

That’s the wrong answer. I see it land.

“I don’t know,” I repeat. “And in that moment, I didn’t care enough to find out.”

Her eyes open again.

“It was wrong.”

“Yes.”

The word costs me nothing because it is true.

She studies my face as if she expected resistance.

“Would you do it again?”

I look at the bruises forming on her arm. Marks left by a man who intended to take her somewhere I might never have found.

“I would choose you again.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“It’s the only honest answer I have.”

“He was on his knees, Luciano.”

“I know.”

“There wasn’t a choice between his life and mine.”

“There absolutely was.”

Her throat moves as she swallows.

“If he was innocent—”

“Then I killed an innocent man.”

The words sit heavily between us.

I don’t ask her to forgive them. I don’t defend them again.

I stand and turn on the shower, letting the water run until it warms beneath my palm. Then I strip out of the clothes still streaked with another man’s blood.

Elena watches me now.

I step back to the tub and slide one arm beneath her knees, the other around her back.

“Come here.”

She lets me lift her.

No complaint. No argument. No sarcastic comment about being capable of walking.

I would give anything for her to tell me to put her the fuck down.