Page 65 of Reign

“Yes,” I say.

Adriana is quiet for a beat too long. I feel her sharpening, listening for the shape of what I’m not saying.

I don’t give her time to find it.

“She should stay with her brothers.”

“She can’t. One is married to me and being stubborn. The other is Santo, who is worse than usual with Vasilisa pregnant. Elena staying there would probably turn into a security lockdown by breakfast.”

“She has to have other options.”

“I mean, yeah a hotel.”

“No.”

The word leaves me before I can stop it.

Adriana goes quiet.

“No?”

Fuck.

“I have a solution,” I say. “A hotel with guards.”

“She has a guard.”

The man from the wedding flashes through my mind.

Ryatt.

Quiet. Watchful. Entirely too familiar.

“Then increase them.”

“Angelo won’t. He’s being an ass because she’s doing this last minute, and I have to work on him. Elena is too proud to beg him for anything, and if I push too hard, she’ll dig in.”

That sounds exactly like her.

I know because she crossed a ballroom rather than tolerate being dismissed.

Adriana softens her voice. “She’s flying in tomorrow. Almost the same time as you.”

I say nothing.

I can feel her satisfaction through the phone. “Convenient, isn’t it?”

“No.”

“It’s extremely convenient.”

“It’s irritating.”

“Same thing, in this family.”

I could still refuse.

Adriana waits, already sure I won’t.