Page 10 of The Geek and the Sheikh

My brother. I mean it, Bugs. Stay safe til I get there.

I will. CU soon.

Butterflies blossomed in her stomach and took flight. After six long years, she was finally going to meet Jam-man! She lowered her cell phone to her lap and sat back against the bench seat.

Tilting her head back, she marveled at the mixture of old and new architecture. It wasn't that different from New York, but it was different.

Forty minutes later, the bus pulled up in front of the Hilton Hotel. She rose when the girls in front of her did and exited the bus. Descending the steps, she followed the group across the street and into the hotel.

Once inside, she veered off and found an empty, plush chair. Less than ten minutes later, she was checked in and taking the lift to her room on the tenth floor.

She hummed as she stepped out of the lift and walked down the corridor until she found the corner suite she had booked. Flashing the key over the lock, she entered the room with a sense of awe. This was the first time she had ever been in a hotel room.

There was a modest-sized bathroom to the right with a tiled shower unit, toilet, and sink. She paused and pulled open the full-length mirror. There was a closet behind it with an ironing board, extra blankets, pillows, and a safe. Closing the mirrored door, she walked into the main room. She had picked a room with a king-size bed. Sleeping in an enormous bed would be another first for her.

She placed her backpack on the long table and walked over to the bed. It was humongous! She giggled as she turned and fell on top of the covers.

"I could get lost!" she laughed.

Lifting her feet off the floor, she kicked off her shoes, twisted, and climbed to the top until she could lay her head on the pile of feathery-soft pillows. She stretched her arms out. She couldn't touch either side. The grin on her face grew larger and she kicked her feet up in the air.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" she crowed with delight. "I did it! I actually did it."

She had gathered her courage, flown the safety of her nest, traveled across the ocean, and was finally… finally… going to meet Jam-man. Her smile faded.

"What if he doesn't like me?" she whispered, staring up at the ceiling. "What if I drive him crazy the way I did Harlem?"

She groaned, burying her face in the pillows. Harlem Jones had loved her and Midnight's mother, Rainbow. They had lived with Harlem from the time she was five until she turned thirteen. She wasn't sure what happened, but one day their mom came home, packed them up, and they left.

Junebug wasn't sure if it was because of what happened to Midnight or because of her. She suspected it was a little bit of both. She was also sure that her mom knew what Harlem did for a living… and that he was teaching Midnight things that upset her mom's gentle soul.

Rainbow Rain hated violence. She tried to see the good in the world… in vivid colors that were reflected in her paintings and the gardens around Harlem's brownstone. Rainbow looked and acted like a hippy from the 60's. Harlem had been the opposite of her mom. If her mom was sunshine, Harlem was the dark.

Her mom had kept her as far away from Harlem as she could. Junebug hadn't understood at first. She wanted to be like the other kids that came through the house. Idella and Raja… her sister, Midnight… and dozens of others. Some kids kept returning after they were sent off. Others… well, others didn't. She knew Harlem sent them to places that Junebug never wanted to go.

The memory of Harlem's rejection hurt. Pushing her unpleasant thoughts back into the iron box she envisioned in her mind, she rolled over and slid off the bed. Picking up her backpack, she pulled out her laptop and a hotspot.

In her hurry to leave, she had only brought the essentials: her electronics, a brush, two pairs of panties, a pair of leggings, a belt, an extra-long tie-dyed shirt she had made, and an even longer t-shirt from the zoo. The one thing she regretted leaving was her bunny slippers. She adored the huge, fluffy slippers that looked like white rabbits.

"I'll have to find some more," she murmured, looking down and wiggling her bright pink toenails decorated with tiny flowers.

With a sigh, she carried her electronics over to the bed, propped the pillows up, and climbed onto it again until she was sitting crossed-legged in the center. Soon, she was logging into the British Defense systems server. She had been in and out of the server for years monitoring the baddies in the world, but in the past year she had received permission to enter legally—with some restrictions, of course.

Her new gig had come as a surprise. One of the gamers that she played with turned out to be a friend of Jam-man's and worked in the cybersecurity division of MI6. RC had gotten her a sweet temporary job tracking down a group of scammers preying on seniors. One thing led to another and more jobs came in. She loved having the extra income to help Midnight and to fix up their hidden home.

Of course, she had used all fake identifications. Her security clearance was courtesy of the U.S. Government Defense Department, and her college degrees were from MIT and Caltech. It had been fun creating Skylar James, aka Bugs. She had even used a super cool AI image modeled after her favorite avatar in Thor's Hammer II: War Games of the Gods.

She checked on Andrius Bronislav. The jerk was being awfully quiet lately. She kept her running search for Bronislav and Colin Coldhouse open while she checked on several other issues. The ping of an incoming message made her grin.

Hey, are you playing DW tonight?

I wasn't going to.

Aw man.

Sup?

New level the developer wants me to test. It's a private one. I need someone really good to play against.

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