Page 38 of The Geek and the Sheikh

“I feel sorry for you," Junebug stated softly. "It must be hard living with so much hate and anger. It must be even more difficult knowing that your mother and sister would be horrified at what you've become. It would hurt your family deeply to know that you aren't satisfied with the kind of life you could make without trading in the lives of innocent people. It wasn’t your fault that your mom and sister ended up the way they did—or that they died so young—but the things you are doing nowareyour fault. You chose them. You are not the victim anymore. And you could choose differently. It's not too late to save the people that you haven't yet hurt. It's not too late to protect people from the bad guys of the world. That's a lot of power, Allison. A good power.”

Allison’s lip curled into a sneer and she laughed. “You two really are made for each other. You probably still believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, too.”

“You mean you don’t?” Junebug asked.

Jameel snorted out a laugh at Junebug’s wide-eyed retort. There was no sarcasm in her tone. She had such a perfect expression of puzzlement and incredulous disbelief on her face that it seemed as if she were genuinely shocked by Allison’s mocking dismissal of their childhood beliefs. The only way he knew she was deliberately pushing Allison’s buttons was the slight squeeze of her fingers around his.

His lips twitched with amusement when he noticed the anger in Allison’s eyes. To his surprise, Allison twisted in her chair and rose to her feet. She studied both of them in silence for several seconds before she flashed them a smile.

“Thanks for the meal,” she said, turning away.

“That’s it? No threats?” Jameel called, ignoring the fact that everyone in the coach could hear him.

Allison shook her head, the smile still on her lips. “I don’t do threats, Jameel.”

Hyder, Yahya, and James moved to block her path.

"Neither do I," Jameel replied. "I think it's time you took a vacation from attacking my family, Allison. You're going to be offline for a while."

Allison smirked at him and stepped closer so only he and Junebug could hear what she had to say.

"There's a bomb hidden on this train. If I'm not there to disarm it in person, your goody-goody conscience will not be treating you very well. I sympathize, but the facts are what they are. It's up to you."

Jameel growled and reluctantly signaled to his men. Allison nodded to the three men scowling at her as she exited the train car. It wasn't until the door to the coach slid closed behind her and he couldn't see her any longer that he realized how tightly he was holding Junebug's hand.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

“No worries." She sighed. "Boy, she’ssomething, isn't she? Do you really think she put a bomb on the train?”

“I don’t know. She’s crazy enough to do it. She had someone put one in my office, so it is possible. I don’t think she would detonate one here… especially if she is on the train. If there is one thing I’m sure of, it’s that she isn’t suicidal. Still, I’ll have James notify the authorities to search the train when we arrive,” he replied under his breath.

“Good… that's good. Do you really think she's crazy? I mean she seems crazy... now... but before this she was... I thought that we had so much in common. Maybe this is all 'cause her mom and sister died last year? That can affect people.”

He shook his head. “She was like this before her mom and sister died.”

“Oh," she said thoughtfully, her voice tinged with despair. She bit her lip. "You know we’ve been playing games with her for the last few years. She was going under RC.”

“Yeah, I know… now,” he muttered.

“So... maybe she wants a little bit more—or a little bit less—than our downfall? This is the second time that she found out where we were and came to talk instead of coming out guns blazing. It would have been smarter to keep us in the dark while her goons surprised us, and we both know sheissmart."

"She couldn't stop herself from gloating about how she fooled us," he said angrily.

"What happened that made you less than enthusiastic to talk to her again?” she curiously inquired.

He shrugged and pushed his plate away. He waited while the attendant reappeared and silently collected their partially eaten meal. The tension radiating off of him must have been enough to warn the server that he wasn’t interested in chitchat. He thought of how to condense the unpleasant story of his last knowing encounter with Allison.

“We were in college together. It was our last semester and there was a huge project due. I had been working on a new app for a couple of months,” he began. He swallowed down the bitterness of betrayal that still stung him when he thought about what Allison had done.

“Which app?” she finally asked, bringing him back to the present.

“T.O.” he said.

Her eyes widened. “You created Titan One? That is like… the biggest social media news app in the world. It's worth over a billion dollars!”

“Yeah. I designed the interface. I had just finished it and was doing the last round of testing on it when Allison came by my apartment. We had worked on numerous projects while at Uni and we enjoyed playing the same games. She had invited a couple others over and we were having an early celebration with pizza, beer, and games.”

He sighed and shook his head. She reached over and held his hand again. His eyes followed the movement of her thumb against his skin. The simple touch melted some of the tension he was feeling.

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