Page 417 of Reign

“Only if you want to,” Vasilisa adds around a bite of snack cake.

I sink farther into the sofa.

Then I tell them.

I don’t make myself relive every second, but I tell them enough.

Felipe. The gun. The blood. Luciano continuing after Felipe was already dead. Dario and Miguel in the basement. Miguel saying it wasn’t him.

When I finish, Vasilisa is working through her third and final snack cake.

Adriana looks thoughtful. Ayla is still watching the hallway.

“This is embarrassing.”

Adriana frowns. “Why?”

“Because I was horrified by the blood. By watching Felipe die. But not by Luciano.” Heat moves into my face. “Some part of me wanted him more after I saw that side of him.”

Vasilisa swallows. “I understand.”

“When Jude came after me at La Serenata, you were there. You remember?”

I do.

Gunfire.

Glass shattering.

Riot forcing me onto the floor and covering me with his body while the restaurant erupted around us.

I knew Vasilisa had been attacked in the bathroom. I never knew much more than that.

“The shooting was a distraction,” she says. “Jude was trying to get to me.”

“I knew something happened in the bathroom.”

“He tried to kill me. Santo came in before he could.”

Her fingers move over the curve of her stomach.

“He shot Jude, picked me up off the floor, and had his men take him to the estate.”

“For questioning?”

Vasilisa hesitates. “Of course not.”

“He drugged me because he didn’t want me awake while he dealt with him.”

“My brother drugged you?”

“He had reasons.”

Fuck consent then, I guess.

“Of course he did.”

“I woke up hungry.”