As usual, Jonah quickly changed the subject. “So, where are you planning on going?” she asked him.
Gary shrugged and answered, “I’m thinking I’ll fly out to Dubai in the Middle East. The place looks awesome, and I understand it’s a tourist haven for the world now.”
Jonah nodded and was not troubled by the idea. Dubai was considered safe ground as an international tourist destination in the middle of the desert. The Middle East literally connected Africa, Europe and Asia.
“Good choice,’’ she said, always caring about Gary’s safety. “Are you taking your lady friend from D.C.?”
She took a sip of her drink, anticipating an interesting answer from Gary. She knew he would have one. In the half-dozen years that she had watched over him, the young man had been as allusive with the opposite sex as she had been in her own personal life.
Gary paused and grinned. “That’s where the problem is,” he answered. “I really need to get away and find myself before I can truly commit to anyone like that. I don’t think it would be fair to her to have a man who’s obviously still searching to find himself.”
“I bet she wouldn’t agree with that, especially after you tell her you’re traveling there alone.”
“Yeah, well, at least I’m going to a place where all of the women are covered in sheets,” he joked.
Jonah chuckled and said, “Not all of the women. I’m sure they have enough tourists over there who are not in sheets.”
“Well, that’s not what I’m going there to look for. I just need to clear my mind for a minute. And I haven’t done that in a while.”
“You sure have the money to do it,” Jonah hinted with another sip of her drink. “Are you gonna stay at one of their seven-star hotels?”
Gary had barely spent any of his inheritance from his mother’s estate, let alone the millions more that he would get from his father. Money would never be an issue. He never liked to talk about it. But he had definitely been spoiled, and he knew it.
He frowned and said, “I may spend one night at an ice hotel just to see what it feels like, but for the rest of the time, I’ll just stay at a four-star place or something.”
Jonah chuckled and joked, “Yeah, a Motel 6 in Dubai, right? As if that even exists over there.”
Gary laughed along with her. He joked, “Maybe they call theirs Motel 16.”
Jonah asked him, “Does this girl even know how well-off you are?”
“Oh, of course not,” he answered. “Look at how I’m dressed.”
Jonah looked over Gary’s typically casual dress code and grinned.
Gary was more embarrassed and apologetic of his windfall, especially in light of the recent economic struggles in America and around the world. So he never bragged about it, contributing more than a million dollars to foundations for charity. After the tragic deaths of his mother, Gabrielle, and his best friend, Taylor, Gary was always thinking about ways to help others. His humility had been strengthened by his painful losses.
Jonah said, “Well, whenever you want to buy a top-grade suit and shoes, you just go do it. That’s definitely how your father would want to see you.”
“Yeah, when he finally agrees to it.”
Jonah changed the subject again. “Okay, so let’s get to the hard part now. Do you want to change your name for this trip? I can help you do to that if it’ll help you to feel safer.”
After what happened to Gary and Taylor in Colombia, Jonah was very cautious of his travel out of the country. But now he had years of military training and instruction in mixed martial arts to help protect himself.
Gary joked and said, “What, and become Jared Heath or something?”
He laughed out loud at the idea.
“If that’s the name you want,” Jonah responded seriously. “Of course, we would have to search it first to make sure there’s nothing crazy attached to it.”
Gary frowned and said, “Yeah, but I’m not a spy or anything. That would be more of a liability than me using my own name. What if someone asked me some hard questions?”
Jonah said, “I’m just trying to protect you.” She paused and added, “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”
Her comment forced Gary to think back to his painful visit to Colombia again, five years ago. He could still hear the Colombian man’s voice in his head: Now you can travel alone in pain and fear. Those words were followed by the single gunshot to his best friend’s head.
During his training, Gary had often shot at targets with the Colombian in mind. The torture in South America was his main purpose for receiving military instruction, to learn to protect himself at all times and in any given situation. But he also knew that he had to move on and let it go … unless he ever came face to face the Colombian man again.
Shaking off his thoughts of pain, fear and revenge, Gary wanted to imagine a beautiful time of healing, discovery and wonder in Dubai instead.
“All I have to do is mind my own business and behave myself like a respectable tourist, and I’ll be all right,” he stated. “So I’ll book a room at the most obvious place and do what every other tourist does to stay out of trouble.”
Jonah nodded, agreeing with his strategy. “You do that. So when are you planning to go there?”
Gary shrugged, thinking spontaneously. “I don’t know. Next week, maybe.”
Jonah nearly choked on the last of her drink. “Next week?” she repeated. “Well, that’s not enough time to—” She stopped herself. “Oh, I forgot. You can afford the last-minute travel. It must be nice.”
“Well, if you need to fly over there and save me from something, I’m sure my old man can afford to get you there,” Gary teased.
Jonah grilled him and said, “That’s not funny. And if I have to fly somewhere to save you, your butt’s not going anywhere but Disney World from that point on. So stay out of trouble and leave the exotic women alone.”
Gary chuckled, attempting to keep it all light. “Yeah, I’ll do my best.”
. . . Welcome to Dubai by Omar Tyree, coming this Fall from Koehler Books …
Acknowledgments
From
Omar Tyree
I would like to thank the following individuals for their enthusiasm and feedback on our international thriller series, The Traveler. We hope that even more supportive readers will continue to provide us with suggestions on how to make our future novels in the series even better. So thank you:
Anita Alphin / Karen Alston / Laura Atchison
Sharon Badlu / James Bacchues / Linda Barr / Jessica Beall / Fantasia Blackson
Tallulah Blige / Dewanda Blye / Twilight Bob / Tina Moye Branch / T. Brawner
Bill Brown / Cheryl Brown / Anthea Bryte / Zia Burleigh
Sherry Cannon / Joe Coccaro / Shanna Collins / Tonya Cosby / LaTasha Crutcher
Milan Danel / Raoul Davis / Shelley Davis / DeShantell / Michelle Dovishaw
Tressa Epps / Shantae Esannason / Ernia Evans / Karen Evans
Roger Fernandez / Rokia Foster / Kelly Friedman / Edmond Frost
Mary Jane Garces / Author G.D. Grace / Tiffany B. Grantham / Robin Green
Jami Greene / Fallon Guess / Gustavo
Jason Harrell / Pamela Hawkins / Janiece Henderson / Tijuana Henderson
Cedrix Hill / Darielle Hill / Aura Holmes / Charade Hopkins
Heather Houston / Tamela Hurtt
Theresa James / Desiree Johnson / Jerval Johnson / Letitia Johnson / Shonn Jones
Kelicia / Victoria Kelly / John Koehler / Kimmi Koehler
Lakila / Renee Lawrence / Holly Layman / John Leonard / Kenyetta Lewis
Keesha Littles / Robyn Lucas
Trina Manor / Michael McGrew / Bernard McLaurin / S. Ladie Moe
Rahsheeda Muhammad
Nady Nataly / Stormy Neal
Debra Odom
Donielle Pace / Tasha Campbell Parker / Sadie Pink / Alisa R. Phillips
Kevin Porter / Dana Purdom
Simone Reed / Lakisha Richard /
Crystal Richardson / Rosalind Richmond
Deyonna Roberts / Andre Robinson / Ryan
Brian Sanders / Edward Sargent / Jerry Scicchitano / DJ Simba
Reuben Simmons / Sahar Simmons / Verlean Singletary
Kenyetta Singleton / Andrea Smith / Chanel Smith / Taniqua Smith
Kim Spano / Marilyn Sparkman / David Stevenson / Marcallus Sunday
Arlene Taylor / Terell
C.W. / Kim Washington / Jen Wasserman / Wendy / Monique Williams
Rosemarie Williams / Rovella Williams / Shanell Naomi Williams / Tiara Williams
Jennifer Wilson / Kim Wilson / Larry Wilson / Monique Windley
Twanja Windley & DeMeekie Wylie
About the Author
Long before Omar Tyree was a New York Times best-selling author, he was a college student at the University of Pittsburgh, with aspirations of playing professional football. Mocked by his peers for his extreme interest in movies, storytelling and writing, Tyree was told, “Football players don’t write books.” A few decades later, Tyree still loves and watches football, boxing, basketball and track and field, but he has broken the jock mold and makes his living as a successfully published author of eighteen novels, a children’s book, a business book, and dozens of newspaper and magazine articles. More than two million copies of his books have sold worldwide. Among his most noted works is Flyy Girl, a novel that helped to define the genre of urban literature.
A child of the free-flowing 1970s, Tyree was born and raised in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley region by a pharmacist mother and a strong blue-collar stepfather and role model, who established the responsibility and discipline that gave Tyree the structure to succeed as a cum laude graduate from college. In his early adolescent years, Tyree became a fan and collector of Marvel and DC comic books and popular films, including a large collection of kung fu, science fiction and action movies. Through his love of film and stories, Tyree developed an incredible knack for memorizing dialogue and mimicking voices, which he now uses in his own stories.
After transferring to Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he graduated from the School of Communications with a degree in Print Journalism, Tyree worked as a reporter and writer to make ends meet before deciding to borrow money from family and friends to start his own publishing company, MARS Productions. Using the bare living room of his one-bedroom apartment in Hyattsville, Maryland, as a storage facility, Tyree sold more than twenty-five thousand copies of his books on Greyhound bus trips before buying a Ford Probe hatchback where he could distribute ten boxes of books from his car to sell at book events and book stores.
While developing a cult following in the Mid-Atlantic region from Virginia Beach to New York City, Tyree continued to write a book a year and develop a mostly word-of-mouth marketing campaign that eventually led to the doors of publishing powerhouse Simon & Schuster. Tyree then became—at age twenty-six—one of the youngest authors of the explosive 1990s to sign four consecutive book deals worth millions of dollars.
Tyree is currently optioning and producing several of his early titles as stage plays, television shows and feature films. But he is most excited by this long-awaited opportunity to develop The Traveler series with Koehler Books with No Turning Back in e-book form this January 2013, before releasing the first traditional title, Welcome to Dubai next fall.
Tyree is a popular speaker who enjoys readings and fan-friendly events at bookstores, libraries, conventions, expos and colleges nationwide. He lives with his wife and two sons in Charlotte, North Carolina. In his spare time, Tyree enjoys reading, traveling, going to movies and sports events with his sons, and advocating the importance of literacy in public, private and charter schools across the country.
STAY TUNED for an early 2013 interview with Omar Tyree, all about his excitement, development and future plans for The Traveler series. Koehler Books is extremely proud to offer you this work by one of the nation’s most accomplished, talented and versatile writers.
Omar Tyree, No Turning Back (The Traveler)
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