“Oh,” she laughed. “So it was just aprofessionalfalling-out, then.”
Dieter shrugged. “Mostly.”
Flicka glanced down the long hallway, but the doors were all closed. Even the staff was elsewhere. Dieter knew that Wulfram was still in his home office that housed the enormous computers from which he controlled a great deal of wealth and maybe the world. Rae was either studying or gestating somewhere else.
She asked, “Does he know about—”
Her arms wrapped the enormous binder that had papers and corners sticking out of it like an old cookbook, but her finger twitched between the two of them.
Ah.“No, that’s not what caused it. I’m still alive, as you can see, so he must not know.”
She giggled prettily. “He wouldn’t kill you.”
“I don’t know. You were his first-born.”
“I’ll bet he knows. He knows everything. He knew that I kissed Maxence that one time when we were fifteen.”
Dieter laughed.“Icould tell you’d been necking with Maxence. You were a giggling mess with smeared lip gloss andI’ve-got-a-secrettattooed on your forehead.”
She ducked behind her photo album. “Maybe that wasn’t a good example.”
“I always got a weird vibe from that kid.”
“He’s always been intense and driven, even obsessive. You should meet him now. He’s doing some spectacular work in Africa and South America. I mean, he’s in there, hands-on, in addition to throwing all his wealth at problems. He’s really—” she thought about it for a minute, “—persuasive about some of the causes he’s into.”
“Sounds like you like him now.”
“I do like Maxence, a lot. We’re good friends.”
“He’s closer to your age than Pierre.” Maxence was Pierre’s younger brother. Pierre was the same age as Wulfram and a year younger than Dieter.
She looked straight at Dieter with her clear, dark green eyes. “Age has never bothered me. If the person is right, they’re right.”
Dieter glanced down the hall, looking for Wulfram or anyone else who might appear.
However, to anyone listening, they might have been talking about Pierre.
Flicka said, “Besides, Maxence never was right for me. We both knew it. We dabbled a little because people thought we should, but we both knew we wanted other things.”
Dieter nodded. Flicka should have ruled the world, or at least the sliver of it that was Monaco. Maxence was the second in line for that throne, but Pierre would inherit it.
“So, you’re just here to watch the soccer game with Wulf and theWelfenlegion?”
Dieter said, “Wulfram and I have been conferring about his wedding plans.”
“I thought you weren’t his head of security anymore.”
“I’ve started a private security firm, Rogue Security.”
“Ooo.Sounds dangerous and sexy.”
Dieter leaned back against his side of the corridor and folded his hands in front of him. Dieter was married. He should not be talking with Flicka, now also married, aboutsexythings.
“Not sexy,” he said. “Not particularly dangerous. We’re providing extra security for the wedding. I’ve hired some of the guys that I knew from my special forces days, both in ARD-10 and some of other countries’ groups that we trained with.”
“I always thought it was weird that you trained with other countries’ militaries,” Flicka said. “Swiss neutrality is sacrosanct.”
“Yeah, but there were only a few hundred of us in ARD-10 when I was there, including support,” Dieter said. “We trained with the US Navy’s SEAL Teams and FBI Hostage Rescue Team, the British SAS Forces, and the Israeli Special Forces, mostly. I employ over a hundred people with Rogue Security now, more people than are currently in ARD-10. Mostly personal protection, but we’ve done some black ops, too. Mostly kidnapping rescues.”
