At Midnight

by Blair Babylon

Flicka looked over Alina’s shoulder.

  Raphael kneeled in the center of a circle of men. The dim lights overhead glinted off their weapons dangling from straps. His blond hair and beard glowed gold in the dim light, and even so far away, Flicka could make out the storm-cloud gray of his kind eyes.

  He mouthed, Thank you, Durchlauchtig, but didn’t make a sound.

  Flicka held Alina tightly against her chest, turned, and followed Quentin Sault out of the warehouse.

  Forcing her feet to walk away from Dieter Schwarz was the hardest thing she’d ever done.

  Raphael, her mind reminded her, his name was Raphael Mirabaud.

  No.

  She would remember him as Dieter Schwarz, her Lieblingwächter, her first and only love. “Come, Alina.”

  “Flicka-mama,” Alina sobbed into her neck. “Daddy is over there. Flicka-mama, Daddy is over there.”

  “I know, Alina-baby. We have to leave now. We’ll see Daddy later.” She walked away. “You should call me Mama now.”

  “Mama,” Alina said, her tiny arms so tight around Flicka’s throat.

  Flicka swallowed hard, trying not to let her voice choke. “Yes, Alina. I’m your Mama now, and I’ll protect you no matter what I have to do.”

  The Last Time I Saw Flicka

  Raphael Mirabaud

  You know what I didn’t hear?

  Little girls crying.

  Raphael watched Flicka walk out of the warehouse, carrying his daughter. Her quick footsteps were drowned out by the stomping boots of the men converging around her.

  The Monegasque snipers disengaged next, as Raphael expected. Their boots thundered down the metal spiral staircases at the ends of the catwalks as they ran. He looked up from where he kneeled with his hands behind his head and watched them evacuate the high ground.

  Engines roared outside. Headlights swept through the doorway where the men were retreating.

  Flicka and Alina were gone and safe.

  Safe from Piotr Ilyin, at least. Flicka had sold herself to buy safety for his daughter. His soul raged, and yet he was so deeply grateful to her that she had saved his baby’s life.

  Something nudged Raphael’s knee.

  He looked down. A tiny, six-wheeled drone like a flatbed tank repeatedly bounced off his leg. A small Beretta 92FS handgun and a cell phone were strapped to its back.

  The number 60 was visible on the screen.

  Then 59.

  58.

  The numbers synced with his heartbeat.

  While the Ilyin Bratva’s men watched the retreating Monegasque army soldiers, Raphael grabbed the cell phone and the gun and stuffed them in his pants pocket, returning his hand to the back of his head before anyone noticed.

  He couldn’t shoot his way out yet, not with fifty men with Kalashnikovs all aimed at his head.

  Not until the end of that countdown, he suspected.

  The tiny drone zipped underneath the van the girls had arrived in.

  The two outer shells of the Monegasque formation retreated, guns pointing at all areas of the warehouse as they trotted backward. The last soldier filed through the doorway, and the rifle barrels withdrew as the door closed.

  Piotr Ilyin’s men grabbed their guns and ran for the door, but Raphael could hear that the trucks were already driving out of the parking lot. He imagined that the last few guys were being hauled into the backs of the rolling trucks while their buddies aimed over their heads at any of the Bratva’s men stupid enough to leave the cover of the warehouse.

  That’s how Raphael would have staged it, anyway.

  30.

  When the men returned, walking slowly with their guns held low and across their chest, he knew that the Monegasques had gotten away cleanly.

  Good for them.

  Piotr Ilyin turned on Raphael, his face a rictus of rage. “Did you plan this?”

  He shrugged. “Flicka rescued herself.”

  As I have taught her to do since she was twelve.

  20.

  Piotr snarled at him, but something caught his eye. His anger dissolved in incredulous, wide-eyed shock as he looked up. His head swiveled, surveying the entire warehouse. “Where the living hell are the girls?”

  15.

  Raphael glanced at the van and the half-open bay doors.

  Moonlight trickled in through the crack between them, wide enough for two men to walk through shoulder-to-shoulder. The Bratva men had not finished closing the doors when Piotr began his little show. They had left their duties to watch Raphael’s execution.

  Footprints marred the dirt where the girls had been standing, where large-soled boots had trampled the gravel and dirt around them into complex swirls.

  Raphael snapped his head up and diverted his gaze away from the few clues as to what had happened. He stared straight ahead and tried not to grin.

  10.

  While the Monegasques had stormed in with their enormous operation involving perhaps a hundred men with high-power weaponry, creating a disturbance and a diversion, Rogue Security had quietly snatched the girls to freedom.

  Raphael wanted to laugh, but he didn’t. He had no real information about Magnus’s operation for Piotr to beat out of him before he shot him in the head, and there was no use inviting him to torture Raphael longer under the mistaken assumption that he did.

  Piotr turned back to him and pointed a pistol at his forehead. “Where are my damned girls?”

  The inside of the handgun’s barrel was a silver tunnel into the darkness above.

  5.

  Raphael drew a breath to deny all knowledge of what had transpired.

  Something clattered on the cement floor behind him.

  Ticking.

  He knew that sound.

  Piotr was lifting his gaze, and the pistol drifted away from Raphael’s eyes.

  3.

  2.

  1.

  Raphael grabbed his ears just as the first flash-bang grenade blasted the air out of the warehouse.

  Flicka has managed to save Alina,

  but not Raphael,

  and is headed back to Monaco

  to the man she so desperately tried to escape.

  Will Flicka and Dieter ever get their

  Happily Ever After?

  Read more about

  Happily Ever After

  at Google Play.

  A Note From Blair Babylon

  Hi again,

  Most writers have between three and five themes that they revisit and mine for stories their entire careers.

  One of mine is names.

  My characters rename themselves as they move through different phases of their lives, as what is important to them changes, or to try to hide from their pasts.

  In the very first romance that I wrote, Billionaires in Disguise: Rae, Wulfram von Hannover has renamed himself “The Dom,” an anonymous fetish name, as he tries to leave his past and his heritage behind. He slips almost right away because Rae is unlike anyone he’s ever met, though she doesn’t realize the significance of what he says.

  Prince Casimir renamed himself “Cash” to avoid scrutiny. Elizabeta Pajori calls herself “Lizzy” to hide her name in the series that begins with Falling Hard. Georgiana Oelrichs changed her name legally to “Georgie Johnson” in the series that begins with Every Breath You Take.

  And then there’s Alex Valentinois / Xan Valentine / Alexandre Grimaldi, my deepest dive into names and the splits of personality, also in the Georgie books. That is some of my best work to date. Xan was a complex, convoluted character to write, and many more of my “themes” took shape in his story.

  And then there’s Arthur Finch-Hatten, the Earl of Severn, whose true name conceals who he really is. I had fun turning the theme inside-out, there.

  I have renamed myself several times. I began going by my initials in real life in sixth grade. There were two other girls with the same first name in my sixth-grade class, so two of us got to choose new names. Pretty much everyone in my daily life calls
me by my initials now and has for decades.

  I renamed myself “Blair Babylon” as a writer. That was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. “Blair” has given me the freedom to write wild, crazy, long stories about some of the most important issues I’ve ever wanted to talk about. Romance readers saved me as a writer. I am grateful to Romancelandia and my readers for the deep, intelligent, ongoing conversation in my novels and through my readers’ Facebook group and newsletters.

  Here’s the funny thing about it: when I first started writing Billionaires in Disguise: Rae, I made Rae a Western girl because I knew Westernisms would creep into my language, and I might not catch all of them. By making the main point-of-view character Western, I figured her character would mask my slips, which are everything from an easy relationship with guns, to an assumption that one should take care of oneself to a ludicrous extent, to horse-centric phrases like “faunching at the bit.”

  But in characters’ names and renaming, I revealed myself.

  I’m part Native American, a small part.

  Renaming oneself is common in many Native American cultures. When someone close dies, people often rename themselves to confuse the deceased person’s chindi, the evil spirit in them (and everyone has some) that did not pass on to the next world with their soul and thus haunts this world.

  In some Native American cultures, when one has made a momentous decision, one often renames oneself to reflect this new facet of one’s character and change in one’s life. The Nez Perce chief called himself Chief Joseph when he sought peace and negotiated with settlers and the American government, but he returned to calling himself Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain, when he led the Nez Perce in a brilliantly fought retreat into Idaho, trying to save his people from genocide.

  Renaming and aliases were just an accepted part of my life that I hadn’t analyzed, but there it was. For me, in my family, it’s perfectly acceptable to change your name to reflect changes in your life.

  And so my characters do, too.

  To be fair, name changes are also a staple of literature. In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatz reinvents himself as “Gatsby” when (it is written) he decides his given name is too short and ethnic for the grand future he envisions for himself. In the New Testament of The Bible, Saul becomes Paul upon his epiphany on the road to Damascus. In Lolita, Nabokov tells us that the title character’s name was variously Lo, Lola, Dolly, and Lolita, though she was born Dolores Haze.

  But in my family, people rename themselves a lot, and they do in my books, too.

  Names have power. Adam named the animals, and we name ourselves.

  Thank you again for reading, and I hope you’ll read the conclusion to the Flicka series: Happily Ever After.

  Blair Babylon

  Blair Babylon Books

  ~

  BILLIONAIRES IN DISGUISE SERIES

  READING ORDER

  Here’s the theoretical and chronological reading order:

  Working Stiff (Runaway Billionaires #1, Casimir)

  Stiff Drink (Runaway Billionaires #2, Arthur Duet, Part 1)

  Hard Liquor (Runaway Billionaires #3, Arthur Duet, Part 2)

  “Rae Falling” (The first, free part of Billionaires in Disguise: Rae) ~FREE!

  Billionaires in Disguise: Rae, Complete Omnibus Edition (includes “Rae Falling”)

  “An Extravagant Proposal” (A Side Story for Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)

  Falling Hard (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #1) ~FREE!

  Playing Rough (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #2)

  Breaking Rules (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #3)

  Burning Bright (Billionaires in Disguise: Lizzy, #4)

  “Alwaysland” (Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, A Prequel)

  What A Girl Wants (Rock Stars in Disguise: Rhiannon)

  Somebody To Love (Rock Stars in Disguise: Tryp)

  Every Breath You Take (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #1) ~FREE!

  Wild Thing (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #2)

  “Skiing in June, A Rae and Wulf Epilogue #1” (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)

  “Kidnapped, A Rae and Wulf Epilogue #2” (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)

  “Rae and Wulf: At the Hospital”

  Lay Your Hands On Me (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #3)

  Nothing Else Matters (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, #4)

  “Montreux, A Rae and Wulf Epilogue #3” (Billionaires in Disguise: Rae)

  The Rock Star’s Secret Baby (Rock Stars in Disguise: Cadell)

  “Dream On” (Billionaires in Disguise: Georgie and Rock Stars in Disguise: Xan, Epilogue #1)

  “Keep Dreaming”

  Santa, Baby (Rock Stars in Disguise: Peyton)

  Runaway Princess Bride (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)

  In Shining Armor (Runaway Princess #2) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)

  In A Faraway Land (Runaway Princess #3) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)

  At Midnight (Runaway Princess #4) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)

  Happily Ever After (Runaway Princess #5) (Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka)

  Stiff Competition (Runaway Billionaires #4, Maxence)

  You don’t have to read everything perfectly in this order. I try to recap or make books as standalone as possible. The mini-series within this overall list, such as the Lizzy books or the Georgie books, should be read in order. ~BB

  Also, just so you know what you’re getting up there, novel-length books are in italics, like this, but “short forms,” like short stories and novellas, are in “quotation marks.”

  Check for New Releases by Blair Babylon at Google Play

  ~~~

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  From Blair Babylon!

  Q. Are Blair’s Billionaires Books erotic romance or erotica?

  A. Blair’s Billionaires Books are all erotic romance or contemporary romance.

  Erotica generally centers around the sex act, a preponderance of the page count is given to the sex act, and the main characters usually do not build a life together after the sex act. The main character usually discovers or accepts something new about herself or himself, thus it is a journey of self-discovery.

  Erotic and contemporary romance concerns itself with the two people falling in love and, usually, building a life together in a very, very sexy way. Romance novels generally end with an HEA (Happily Ever After) or at least an HFN (Happy For Now).

  Q. I want to read more of The Billionaires in Disguise Books. How can I be notified when another one is published?

  A. Sign up for the email mailing list HERE. Email subscribers get discounts or free episodes in addition to special deleted scenes and epilogues.

  Q. I want to tell you how awesome The Billionaires in Disguise Books are. Where can I tell you this?

  A. The best way to support writers whom you enjoy is to leave a review at your ebook store, even a short one. Blair reads all her reviews at all the ebook stores and appreciates every one of them.

  You can email Blair Babylon by putting her name in the subject line when you email Malachite Publishing. She loves to hear from readers, reads every email, and does her best to respond to everyone. You can also connect with Blair via her Facebook Group or Goodreads Page.

  Q. Do you have a study guide for book groups?

  A. Seriously? You’re reading The Billionaires in Disguise Books in a book club? Blair wants to hang out with your awesome dirty book club. Email her above. She likes to Skype or do Google Hangouts with book clubs.

  About Blair Babylon

  Blair Babylon is an award-winning author who used to publish literary fiction. Because reviews of her mainstream fiction usually included t
he caveat that there was too much deviant sex in her novels, she decided to abandon all literary pretensions, let her freak flag fly, and write hot, sexy romance novels. She’s having much more fun, now.

  You can chat with Blair Babylon at:

  Website | Mailing list | Goodreads | Twitter

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  ~~~~~

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading Billionaires in Disguise: Flicka.

  If you’d like to know when my next books come out, please visit my website or sign up for my newsletter.

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