Free To Catch a Princess by Caridad Piñeiro

she would be fine for an hour or so, especially since he had called down and asked Tony to put guards on their door and beneath their balcony, just to be on the safe side.
    Now it was time for Peter to prepare for the coming week, but first he had an important call to make.
    He speed-dialed and waited, but Alexander answered almost instantly. “Is something else wrong?”
    “You tell me. What were you thinking, sticking us in the same suite?” Peter challenged. He had kept silent while Tatiana tore into her brother, almost feeling sorry for his friend, but he had to let Alexander know he also didn’t appreciate his matchmaking.
    “I was thinking you’d make sure my sister was safe, just in case this thing is about more than a jewelry heist. You never know what some crazy will want to do,” Alexander answered smoothly, although a slight trace of irritation colored his tone, confirmed by his next words. “Do you have any idea what time it is and that you woke up the baby?”
    He listened more carefully and heard the muffled wail of the baby in the background. Oops . “Sorry, Sasha. I didn’t mean to wake the baby or inconvenience Kathleen.”
    “Obviously you didn’t care about bothering me?” Alexander said wryly. “What do you think of the security preparations?”
    “They’re good, but I’ll double check them just to be safe. I’ll let both you and Tatiana know so you can make decisions about what to do,” he said, and they ended the call.
    He wanted to do his walk around before they ate. Before he did that, however, he had to look the part of someone who belonged in this exclusive environment.
    Much as his slightly disheveled, wrinkled appearance let him blend in along the Atlantic City boardwalk and the places he had to visit as a detective, he needed to upgrade his style for this posh location. For the first time ever, his background helped his undercover work. Once a prince, always a prince. He frowned. Although, strictly speaking, it wouldn’t be undercover. For once, it was the real him.
    A scary thought.
    First stop, the barber shop in the hotel’s lower level. The shop was a throwback with its striped barber pole and straight razor shaves. Peter didn’t do fancy hair salons, but a good old-fashioned shave might be relaxing and the haircut would go a long way toward turning him back into a blueblood.
    As the barber wrapped his face with a warm towel to soften his beard, Peter closed his eyes and let himself unwind. Something he rarely did. Always being on was both a curse and blessing of his job, since it made him a good detective, but was also way lonely on account of the time he spent working.
    In fact, if it weren’t for Alexander and his fellow detectives inviting Peter to various parties and family gatherings, he was the male equivalent of a spinster. Although he still had lots of his life left and he didn’t regret his choices. At thirty, he still had plenty of time to settle down. If his father, the Grand Duke, had his way, he’d settle down much faster than he had thought. Of course, there was no way he was going through with the marriage bargain between his father and Tatiana’s parents. His attraction to Tatiana wasn’t enough to make him want to publicly reveal the identity he had worked so hard to hide.
    As the barber used the hair dryer to blow away the last strays of clippings from Peter’s neck and brushed on some powder, Peter glanced at himself in the mirror and smiled. He rubbed a hand across the smooth skin of his face and nodded.
    “Nice job,” he said, rose, and handed the barber a handsome tip in addition to payment for the shave and haircut.
    When he exited the barber’s, he took the long way around to the shops on the lower level of the casino and hotel complex. It was an exclusive mini-mall of sorts for hotel guests, with a high-class boutique for virtually every amenity they might need. Later tonight he’d walk the same path on the floor above and check out the