Page 12 of Edge of Danger

The vehicle stopped abruptly beside the women. A man jumped out. Started screaming. Ian couldn’t hear all of it, but it sounded like some sort of tirade about showing too much flesh.

Huh?Both women were in full black moving object mode.Voluminous robes, head scarves and face veils swathed both women. Apparently, however, the taller one’s robes were too short and too much of her ankles was exposed.

Ian snorted at the cop’s hysteria. Must be some set of ankles.Asshole.

The religious cop whipped out a cane and took a vicious whack across the back of the knees of the tall woman. Her legs collapsed out from under her, and she cried out. The thug hit her several more times while the other woman flinched away in terror. The rattan cane bent like rubber under the force of the guy’s blows, emitting an ominous, buzzing whine as it whipped through the air.

Damn, he’s hitting that woman hard. He’ll kill her if he hits the wrong spot.

A new player entered Ian’s circular field of view. A running figure dressed in black slacks, black turtleneck, slouchy hat, and a black flak vest made a flying tackle that sent the cop to the ground. A second religious policeman piled out of the car aggressively.

Here we go.

This was just the sort of incident that could blow up into a mob scene. He adjusted the binoculars to a wider field of view. The first cop and the mercenary who’d tackled him engaged in a short, grossly one-sided fight. Seconds later, the unidentified foreigner stood over the cop, who writhed on the ground in pain. Ian got his first good look at the unidentified attacker.

Shit.

He knew that profile. He’d watched it over fruit and crackers at his table. Watched it writhe in his bed in the throes of pleasure. Piper. What in bloody hell was she doing?

The second cop took a swing at Piper’s back with his cane, but her reflexes were superb and she ducked under the blow, spinning and coming up with a sharp jab to the guy’s gut.

Piper started yelling in Arabic.Holy Christ. She was berating the religious cops.

Nonononono. Not good.Shut your mouth, chica. But no matter how hard he mentally exhorted her to stop, she continued. In fact, she gathered steam as she got in the cop’s face. And her voice started to rise in pitch toward shrill.

Fuck. In a second, everybody within earshot would figure out she was a woman beneath that soldier’s garb. Then they’d all turn on her.

Please, honey. Shut the hell up!

When backup for the cops arrived, the authorities were going to beat the living shit out of her. And when they made her scream, all doubt that she was a woman would be erased. Then she was fucking done for.

The Sudanese residents sure as hell weren’t going to help her. Nobody messed with the religious police. The locals might be happy to slaughter each other like sheep, but they were all good Muslims when the religious police were around.

Damn, damn, damn.

Panic built in his gut as the disaster unfolded below. Piper was going to die. Or if she was unlucky, she wouldn’t die. At least not right away. Not before they tortured and debased her in the most inhumane possible fashion.

He could say a lot about the overall level of ignorance in this town, but the bastards were freaking geniuses when it came to thinking up creative ways to torture another human being in the most barbaric possible fashion.

He had to dosomething. Pressure built in his chest until it felt like his ribcage was going to explode.

Time slowed to a crawl as he weighed the options. He’d always been a proponent of keeping work and his personal life separate, and here was exactly why. Save the woman he’d slept with, or stay out of trouble, stay invisible, keep doing his job and just observe. But Piper was forcing his hand. He couldn’t let her die…or worse.

Dammit, hehadto let her go down to whatever fate she’d written for herself. He had a duty to his career. Hell, his country. The proper thing to do was sit tight right here and let the chips fall where they might…

…and fuck it. He so wasn’t going to do the proper thing.

Spy or not, independent operator or not, interfering with his mission or not, Piper was an American national. And a woman. He couldn’t sit here and watch them beat, torture, and kill her because she was too stupid to keep her big, fat mouth shut. He was going to save her, and he was going to blow his own cover in the process. His bosses were going to be royally pissed.

Shut.Up.Piper.

Nope, she didn’t hear him silently shouting at her one last time. Crap. And now she had a finger under the cop’s nose and was shaking it at the guy.

They would flay her alive right there in the street. She’d be lucky to live long enough to get hauled off to jail and passed around among the guards. As a western woman, she would be classed a whore and used as such.

Swearing in a continuous stream, he jumped up and bolted for the stairwell. He had an idea, but it all hinged on getting to her before another carload of religious cops arrived. He raced down to the street, sprinting for all he was worth toward the crowd gathering around Piper and the two cops. He shoved forward, knocking people out of the way like bowling pins.

He bellowed in Arabic, “These police are El Noori stooges! They came into this neighborhood to attack Dharwani women. They misuse their position to show disrespect to our women and blaspheme the name of Allah. They are frauds!”

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