Page 50 of The Geek and the Sheikh

Her hands tightened on his and she inhaled a shaky breath before lifting her head. “He’ll kill me.”

Fourteen

Junebug stood in the shadows of a doorway while Jameel talked to the driver who had delivered a car to them. The Essais Peugeot 208 II GT Line Bleu Vertigo was another gift from Idella. If anyone knew how to get around without being followed, it would be Idella.

She shivered when a cold breeze wrapped around her. Paris, even at nearly five in the morning, was still a busy place. She hugged her taffy-colored faux-fur coat around her and scanned the area with a wary eye. She brought her backpack to her front as another barrier between herself and the world.

After her confession about what Harlem would do, Jameel had insisted on knowing everything about the man. She had shared everything she could remember about Harlem while they showered, dressed, packed, arranged for a car, and silently slipped out of the hostel.

Jameel had asked a hundred questions and she had answered every single one knowing that she was likely endangering Jameel with each tidbit of her knowledge. A man like Harlem didn’t live as long as he had without keeping his secrets.

Just like Idella and Midnight.

The thought of her friend and sister being in danger caused her to shiver again—this time with fear. She wasn’t afraid of them, but for them. Midnight had always warned her that what they did would make a lot of bad people very, very angry. Knowing that fact was one thing. Living with those bad people chasing you was another. Midnight had always told her this wasn’t like her games. There was no medic to resurrect her or token to give her extraordinary powers.

“We’re all set.”

She blinked at Jameel and nodded. He slid his hand along the small of her back and guided her to the car. Opening the passenger side, he gently pried her backpack out of her nervous embrace.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

She nodded. “Just cold.”

“The seats are heated,” he told her as she got in the car.

When she was settled in her seat, he shut the door, opened the back door and placed the backpack in the backseat. He closed the door and rounded the back of the vehicle. Junebug found the heated seat controls and turned it on for both of them.

“This feels much better,” she said.

“Yeah.”

“Next stop… Jawahir.”

He chuckled. “Well, Jawahir will be the last stop. We have a ways to go before we get there. Especially traveling by car. We may have to rethink our mode of transportation once we get to Barcelona.”

“I always dreamed of going on a road trip. I never thought it would be with assassins on our tail. I guess that makes it even more exciting,” she said with a thoughtful expression.

Jameel shook his head and laughed. “I’ve never thought of being chased by assassins as fun, but if I’m doing it, I couldn’t think of anyone I’d rather be on the run with than you.”

“Aw… I think that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,” she replied with a grin.

He squeezed her hand before he released her so he could operate the car. She had never been in a car with a stick-shift before. He handled it without a single grinding of the gears.

“I guess you’ve driven one of these kinds of cars before,” she said, observing how he pressed the furthest left pedal to the floor before he changed gears and then slowly eased up on that pedal while he pressed on the furthest right pedal. There were a total of three pedals.

He chuckled and nodded. “I might have one or dozen cars with a stick in them,” he confessed.

“A dozen! You never mentioned liking cars before,” she said.

“I told my parents I wanted to be a race car driver when I was younger.”

He shifted again when they reached a higher speed. She tilted her head at the very subtle differences in sound before and after he shifted gears, her mind fitting the sounds together with all the numbers on his dash and the timing of his actions.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” she asked.

“Yes… which is why I am not a race car driver.”

He laughed again, shifted, and further increased their speed as they merged onto the highway. She stared out the window as they passed several slower vehicles. From Jameel's surprised and intensely satisfied hum of appreciation, she guessed Idella must have modified this car to make it perform better than what he had expected.

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