Page 11 of Edge of Danger

Eyes narrowed, she said tightly, “Thanks for the diversion, but it’s time for me to get back to work.”

“I’ll walk you back to your place.”

“I don’t need a chaperone.”

“Yeah,” he said flatly, “you do. Particularly since you’re wearing western garb.”

“I’ll put my hair up back under my hat and on one will know I’m a girl. Iamwearing combat boots, after all.”

He snorted. “One look at that tush, andnobodywill mistake you for a guy.”

She glared at him and he glared back.

She took satisfaction from the fact that he was first to speak. “This is a Muslim town,chica. An extremely conservative one. Unescorted women are asking for trouble. As much as I’d enjoylaughing at your funeral, my John Wayne genes won’t let me send you out there alone.”

“Neanderthal,” she muttered.

“Feminist bitch,” he muttered back.

Glaring at each other, he opened the door for her and she stepped past him onto the landing outside. Even brushing by him without touching him made her pulse accelerate alarmingly, damn him. Ian McCloud was trouble with a capital T.

He did walk her home, and she didn’t know how she felt about that. But she definitely feltsomething.

3

As the sun set, Ian looked around his rooftop perch. All set for the night to come. Should be quite a show. There was nothing quite like sitting smack dab in the middle of a war zone to get the adrenaline pumping. He, not for the first time, doubted that Uncle Sam was paying him enough to hang his ass out to dry like this.

Latest intel reports from higher headquarters said rumors were rumbling about some sort of coordinated attack against the United States, originating somewhere in North Africa. Which was interesting. The western intel spotlight was shining so brightly on the Middle East right now that a camel couldn’t take a dump without someone in D.C. knowing about it. An attack generated from a less closely watched place like Sudan spoke of a sophistication and understanding of western methods that was, frankly, alarming.

Where was Piper right now? He hadn’t seen her for a week, and God knew, he’d kept an eye peeled for her ever since their epic encounter at his place. He still dreamed of her every night. Hot, sweaty, wake up with the mother of all hard-ons dreams.

But since that one time when their ships had crossed in the night—or more accurately, collided in the blinding light of day—she must have been laying low. Way low. Or maybe she’d actually taken his advice and gone home?—

--Nah. She was too stubborn for that.

As for him, he could only explain away their hook-up as a bout of temporary insanity. His life had no room for a woman in it, let alone a relationship.

Sure, he thought about life after the military, sometimes. Finding a nice hypothetical woman, settling down, and having some rug rats. But he didn’t get distracted in the middle of a dangerous as hell op in the one of most deadly corners of the planet.

At least, not until Piper Roth had looked at him through a sniper’s scope.

Was she still out there in the city, somewhere? Hopefully she was done for the day, tucked safely in her hidey hole. Except knowing her, she was out here somewhere, too damned close to the action for her own good. He’d sent an e-mail back to Navy Intel asking who she was but had never gotten an answer. Which was a partial answer in and of itself. His guess was CIA.

Although, she was hotter than any CIA agent he’d ever met. That crowd tended to go for low-key, understated looking people. The kind who could slide under the radar without attracting attention. But not Piper. She looked like a television version of a spy with that sleek body, fashion model face, and come-hither sex appeal.

God knew, she’d blown his mind. It wasn’t that he hadn’t had his fair share of hot chicks. All he had to do was go to a known Special Forces bar and the groupie babes lined up, panting to have sex with a real, live SF operator.

Of course, Piper Roth wasn’t just a CIA anomaly. She was a complete anomaly in the entire male bastion of Special Forces operations. How the locals hadn’t already made her for a woman was beyond him.

He wished her luck remaining anonymous. And he wished her back into his bed. Fiercely. Desperately. But he would have to actually know where to find her to be able to hook up with her again.

He’d promised himself he would stay away from her and the danger she posed. But he’d broken down after two days and two sleepless nights and gone to the hidey hole he’d walked her back to that first day. She had either taken him to a decoy location or she’d packed up and moved on. Either way, she’d disappeared from the radar in Khartoum.

What was her story, anyway? Where did a hot number like her learn to shoot like a sniper? What drew a woman to this sort of danger? His baby sister, Katie, had insisted on getting involved with a dangerous man and his even more dangerous life, but the whole McCloud clan was soldiers and adventurers. Katie was bound to absorb some of the adrenaline junkie tendencies of her family. What was Piper’s deal?

As the sun completed its blood red descent in the west, the day’s last dust devils wound down. He propped his binoculars on the edge of the roof and waited for the latest horror to unfold. It didn’t take long for the show to start.

The first act unfolded innocently enough. A pair of black-robed, veiled women hurried home with plastic bags of groceries.It was nearly time for evening prayers, and a car with markings of the religious police turned onto the boulevard, cruising slowly.

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