Page 1 of The Geek and the Sheikh

Prologue

Andrius Bronislav's elegant home,

Near the capital city Vilnius in Lithuania

Andrius Bronislav reached out one hand and gripped the mantel of the fireplace. Gas logs flickered behind the tempered glass and the heat rolled over him, but nothing seemed to penetrate the chill that had settled into his soul. The authorities had shut down his profitable mining operation in Brazil and confiscated all of his assets. Millions of dollars disappeared in a matter of hours.

He closed his eyes as a wave of bitterness swept through him. His hatred burned, leaving a sour taste in his mouth as he opened his eyes. He would kill the family behind his destruction if it was the last thing he did!

"I'm tired of your excuses! I want results! Everyone I have sent against the Saif-Ad-Din family has failed," Andrius raged.

The small group of mercenaries he had assembled remained silent. Andrius threw his crystal goblet of wine against the wall, and the men shifted with unease.

I am surrounded by imbeciles,he savagely thought.

Andrius glared at the group. The three men standing near the door of his office either lowered their eyes or looked away in response. The lone woman, sitting on the couch near the window, remained unfazed.

His hand tightened on the handle of the cane he was heavily leaning on. His crippling pain and severely scarred skin were gifts from the government, given during their attack on his former compound.

Colin Coldhouse, owner of Cold Methods Security, had disappeared shortly after the attack. Andrius didn't know where the man was… or if he was still alive, but Colin's reckless brother and dozens of other highly trained members of Cold Methods Security were dead.

Andrius had lost billions of dollars' worth of equipment and facilities. They had all been destroyed or confiscated by the Lithuanian government. His vast fortunes were virtually gone, along with his ability to move unhindered around the world.

He was confined to the very few countries willing to look the other way—as long as he spread some of his dwindling cash reserves against the palms of greedy government officials. Not even bribery was enough for him to remain in his home country, however. For that, he had needed his few remaining loyal contacts and the dirty secrets he held on a handful of powerful politicians.

"Perhaps the others failed because you are approaching the… situation… from the wrong angle," the woman suggested.

Andrius turned his ire on her. She was young — the youngest of the group — and she stood out from the others. The three hardened mercenaries were not unlike the ruinous Colin Coldhouse. She was the young hacker he had hired to stop the digital attacks that continued to drain his wealth. Her ebony skin was smooth, her curves were pleasantly round, and her eyes were highlighted by wide-rimmed glasses. She wore a bright red, orange, yellow, and black tie-dyed t-shirt dress and black leggings.

The only characteristic she shares with these men is the look in her eyes,he observed.Cold, hard, and calculating.

"Leave us," he ordered the men with a dismissive wave of his hand.

He kept his eyes locked on Allison's as the men silently retreated from the room. She returned his stare with a cool one of her own.

Andrius painfully walked over to the chair near the window and sank down onto the plush, floral-patterned fabric. He stretched his injured leg out and rubbed his thumb along the handle of his cane.

Allison rose from the leather couch, crossed the room, and poured two glasses of scotch from the crystal decanter on the side bar. She returned, holding out one glass for him in her right hand while she sipped from the left. He took the offered drink.

"What angle do you propose?" he inquired.

Her lips curved in a self-possessed smile, and she returned to her former position on the couch. She kicked off her ridiculously high, bright red heels and curled her legs up onto the couch. Her dress rode up over her leggings.

No, she is nothing like the professionals I have dealt with in the past,Andrius irritably thought while appreciating the young woman's unusual confidence.

"You're going after the Saif-Ad-Din family with brute force. Granted, that will be the end result, but it is like hitting a six-foot-thick concrete wall with a rubber mallet and expecting the wall to crumble. They… on the other hand… have been slicing away at you like a surgeon with a sharp scalpel—cutting you where it hurts without ever needing to come at you directly."

Andrius gritted his teeth and gripped the handle of his cane until his knuckles turned white. Allison wasn't telling him anything he didn't already know.

"Get to the point."

Her features froze at the acid in his voice, her eyes flashing with unease, before she shrugged her shoulders and dipped her head in acknowledgement that she was treading on thin ice. She took a sip of the scotch before cradling it in her hands.

"Everything in this world is digital now. Hell, even your refrigerator and washing machine talk to the web! If there is a connection, there is a way in, and a way to follow you. You've been focusing on the guys making the decisions, not the guy getting the information. Information is the key. No one else can do a thing without it! You need to cut the legs out from under the Saif-Ad-Din family, and the only way to do that is to take out Jameel Saif-Ad-Din, their personal computer guru. I know what kind of person Jameel Saif-Ad-Din is. I know the way he thinks, and I can put a tourniquet on what he is doing. However, if you really want to stop the Saif-Ad-Din family from draining you dry, you need to stop him permanently," she said.

Andrius frowned. "That is what I hired you for."

Allison swung her legs off the couch. An excited gleam appeared in her dark brown eyes. She leaned forward, as if afraid to say what she was about to tell him out loud.

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