Page 561 of Reign

The thought should allow me to stay here and wait for help.

It doesn’t.

Elena is alone in the dark.

She heard every gunshot. She has no way of knowing whether I’m alive. Every second I’m silent becomes another second she believes I left her the way everyone else has.

I roll onto my stomach.

My left arm barely holds my weight. My right leg works. The other drags uselessly behind me as I pull myself through the wet leaves.

The culvert is downhill.

Close enough that I should already be able to see it.

Far enough that the distance feels impossible.

I pull again.

Dirt grinds into my palms. Branches catch against my shirt. Blood warms my arm and leg before the night air turns it cold.

My body wants to stop. But my wife is waiting. I drag myself another foot.

Then another.

There’s no room left in my mind for the men behind me or whoever may still be coming. Pain fades beneath the image of her gripping my shirt and begging me not to leave.

I told her I would come back.

I’ve never broken a promise to my wife. I won’t begin with this one.

“Elena.”

Her name leaves me rough and too quiet to travel far.

I pull myself forward again.

The dark mouth of the culvert appears through the trees.

Elena is inside. Waiting for me.

So I crawl.

Chapter 75

Elena

This can’t be happening.

This can not be happening.

I can’t lose him.

Everything is silent.

The gunfire has stopped. The shouting is gone. Even the water moving beneath me sounds too quiet now, trickling along the bottom of the concrete pipe as though nothing has happened.

As though Luciano isn’t somewhere outside.