Page 33 of The Geek and the Sheikh

Sunlight filtered through the access cover above them. Junebug looked over her shoulder and smiled at them in the dim interior of the tunnel running under the street. She looked up when a car passed overhead.

“I ordered a ride-share. They should be in front of the house in ten minutes,” she said.

Yahya barked a laugh and cast an amused look at Jameel. “I like her.”

“Get in line,” Jameel joked back.

“What about Bronislav’s men?” James asked, drawing them back to the danger they were in.

“They are beating a hasty retreat. The police are on their way,” Junebug said.

“When did you do all this?” Jameel asked, impressed.

Junebug shrugged. “As soon as I realized Allison must be tracking the car, I sent the alarm notification to the police, double-checked the blueprints on the house that I downloaded from the building inspector’s archives… that took some real digging! Then once I realized there was a tunnel and that if I knew it, Idella would know it, and Allison might but I doubt it because I deleted the blueprint so unless she was thinking way faster than me which I really doubt because Midnight says no one’s brain works as fast as mine does, we should be in the clear. After I finished that and ordered the tickets, I ordered the ride-share, got my backpack, and met up with you guys on the stairs.”

“Won’t Allison be watching any credit card that you might use?” James asked.

Junebug grinned. “Of course. That’s why I’ve been charging everything to one of Bronislav’s obscure accounts. The guy has a ton of miscellaneous ones for shell companies that I’ve been keeping an eye on but haven’t touched yet. It was a way to keep track of who was working for him.”

Jameel snorted out a laugh. Junebug had a wicked sense of humor. She smiled back at him. There was a split second when their eyes connected that the world around them seemed to fade away and they were the only two in it.

The universe-tilting connection lasted until another car passed overhead. A flicker of vulnerability flooded him. Doubts, fed by years of living in the shadows of his over-achieving brothers, caused him to look away. He stepped aside when Yahya touched his arm.

“I’d like to scout the area before the rest of you.”

Jameel nodded. Yahya, like Qadir and Tarek, had field experience in things like this. Junebug had turned to silently follow Yahya. Lost in thought, he did the same with James following behind him.

Nine

Junebug held her backpack in one hand, slid across the backseat of the rideshare, and gripped Jameel’s extended hand. She stood on the sidewalk outside of St Pancras International train station. The beauty of the exterior building took her breath away. The building was slightly older than the Brooklyn bridge. Beautifully restored, the station buzzed with activity.

“We need to hurry if we are going to catch our train,” James said.

“Have you heard from Hyder yet, Yahya?” Jameel asked.

“Yes. He said he would meet us at the platform.”

Junebug listened to the men as she scanned the pedestrians in the train station. She had seen more people in the past two days than she had seen in her whole life! She hugged her backpack closer to her chest and peered through the fluffy bunny ears of her slippers that were sticking out of the top.

“Man-oh-man, would I love to be her backpack,” a snickering twenty-something-year-old man with a thick Cornish accent joked to his two friends.

“I know what you mean. I’d love to see her in nothing but a pair of bunny ears and a fluffy tail.”

Junebug was a little shocked that people spoke like that in real life, but she wasn't really fazed. People were pretty perverted in the gaming world, or at least they pretended to be. It got so outrageous sometimes that it was like a smack-talking art form. Nobody reallymeantit.

But she did know a couple of female gamers who were tempted to stop playing 'cause the guys were just too gross and there were too many of them being gross at the same time. Bugs had a tendency to log in to those servers sometimes and scare the guys straight. She was something of a boogeyman at this point, so they often kept each other in line with stories of her when she wasn't even there.

What was interesting was that the man’s words had no sooner left his lips than he muttered a curse and twisted away, pulling his two friends with him. Junebug watched curiously as they hurried away, looking thoroughly spooked.

She was a little confused at first, knowing that they couldn't have known she's 'the scariest bitch on the internet,' but glancing around, she noticed the expressions on her three companions’ faces. She peered through the bunny ears at Jameel's thunderous face in particular, his anger making her feel surprisingly excited. She looked away.

“What?” she said, lifting one shoulder. “It’s not my fault. They won’t fit all the way in my backpack.”

“I know it's not your fault,” Jameel growled.

Junebug glanced speculatively at where the rude people had practically run from the men she traveled with.

“You guys are really scary, huh? I hadn't really noticed,” she said with a laugh.

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