Jeez, Flicka had wanted the word to get out to her friends or maybe to the public, but basically to everyone except Pierre.
Maxence whispered, “Is there a problem?”
Flicka looked up at the balcony, where Sophie had come out and was holding Alina’s hand.
The four Russian guards—twofrom inside the suite and two from outside—strode into view behind Sophie.
Four new guys, all wearing black suits with odd bulges under their armpits, stepped forward from where they had been standing at the corners of the room. One nodded to Maxence, while the others hovered their hands near their weapons and watched the Russian guys on the balcony for any slight twitch.
The man who was secondin line to Monaco’s throne always traveled with an armed security detail.
Flicka said to Maxence, “No. There’s no problem.”
“Should I get you out of here right now?” he whispered.
Alina was still upstairs. There was no way Max’s men could fight their way past the Russian brutes before one of them put a bullet in the child’s head or snapped her neck. “No.”
She relaxed her arms, and his handsslid around her waist as she stepped back.
If things had been just a little different, iftheyhad been slightly different people, she might have ended up with Maxence, she knew.
They both knew it.
From upstairs, Alina called, “Flicka-mama?”
Maxence glanced at the balcony above them, and his hands dropped away from Flicka. He asked her, “And who’s this?”
Alina let go of Sophie’s hand andbobbled down the stairs, calling, “Flicka-mama?”
“That’s a long story,” Flicka told him.
Alina peered up at Maxence from his feet, and her blond, baby hair floated in even the smallest breezes that infiltrated the house.“Bonjour.”
Maxence crouched and spread his hands a little, inviting her but not grabbing.“Bonjour, je m’appelle Frère Maxence.”
Flicka said, “Her English is better than herFrench.”
“Oh? Then hello, little one. Who are you?”
“Alina,” the toddler said.
“What a pretty name, Alina,” Maxence said, smiling at her.
Alina’s eyes were wide, and she stepped forward into Maxence’s arms and hugged him, holding onto his neck.
Maxence closed his eyes and rested his cheek against the top of her head for a minute.
Even from where Flicka was standing, she saw Alina’s armstighten around his neck, holding on.
Even the toddler felt Maxence’s—whatever it was.Interesting.
Maxence waited a beat and then set the baby back from himself, smiling.
As he looked down at her, his expression changed.
His gaze went from the open and guileless expression of a man who obviously liked little kids, the kind who would make an excellent father someday, to an examining look, likehe was calculating something and was suddenly more interested in this particular child.
As Alina gazed up at him with her pale green eyes and heart-shaped face, Maxence looked quickly from the child to Flicka, his eyes widening in shock. “Flicka?”
