Edge of Courage (Edge Security Series Book 5) by Trish Loye Read Free Book Online

outer limits by full dark.”
    “Then you’ll travel south?”
    “The SAS have arranged a squad to meet up with us near the farthest checkpoint. They’ll take her through the back country and ship the girl back to England. Stupid twit.”
    The UK’s Special Air Service was one of the best special ops units in the world. Claire would be safe with them.
    “Try to keep your opinions to yourself,” she said dryly. “She’s a teenager who’s been through a lot. Handle her like she’s a grenade without a pin.”
    “Wilco,” he muttered.
    She left Rakin out front prepping for his journey while she cleaned up the small cooking area and prepped for dinner. They usually shared the household chores, but right now he needed to focus on getting Claire out of the city.
    By the time she’d finished washing up, they could hear the adhan , the call to prayer, over the loudspeakers placed on the minarets of the mosques all over the city.
    “You should go to prayer first,” she said. “I’ll have the girl ready for you when you get back.”
    “Make sure you put out the prayer rug in case anyone comes by,” he said before he left.
    She pulled aside the curtain of the front window and watched Rakin leave through the front gate. Through it, she could see men walking down the street toward the mosque. The gate shut and closed off her view of the world outside.
    She took a small rolled rug from a bookshelf that also held a cloth-wrapped Koran. She shook out the rug and set it on the floor so that it faced toward Mecca. She was about to go check on the girls when someone pounded on her door.
    “Open up,” a heavy voice shouted.
    “Dammit,” she muttered, grabbing her niqab and hastily throwing it on. It was never good to get a knock during a call to prayer. The pounding on the front door continued until she hustled over and opened it a crack.
    She swore inwardly. Three ISIS fighters stood in front of her door. On the street beyond, watching through the open gate, was her neighbor Ahmed, the man who wanted to marry her. His potbelly bumped out the front of his dishdasha .
    “ As-salamu alaykum, ” she said, keeping her chin down, but discreetly surveying her visitors.
    “ Wa-alaikum salaam .” The soldier in front gave the usual response to her greeting of peace upon them. “Where is your mahram ?” He leaned on the door, and craned his neck to see beyond her.
    She kept her voice calm and quiet, and let the door open a little but not all the way, just enough for them to see she was alone. “My brother has gone to the mosque. Did you need him?”
    “A female slave escaped yesterday from a sabaya house,” the leader said. “You belong to the al-Khansa, correct?”
    “Yes,” Sarah said. “But what does that have to do with me? I wasn’t at the sabaya house yesterday.”
    “We are checking in with your whole unit and anyone else who might have gone into the house.” The man narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. “Where were you yesterday afternoon?”
    Her heart rate accelerated, but she kept her voice even. “I was at the souq, shopping with my brother.”
    “Which one?”
    “Najafi,” she said, naming a large street market in the southern part of the city far from where they’d rescued Claire and Jalila. “There’s a vendor there who sells the best spices.”
    Ahmed, who’d moved closer while they’d been speaking, stepped up with a sneer on his face. “I think they should both be questioned. Her actions are suspicious.”
    Asshole. She should have silenced Ahmed long ago, right after the nosy dick had peeked in their front window and seen her without a veil. The peeping tom had been pestering Rakin about marriage ever since.
    The leader looked back at Ahmed. “And you are?”
    “Ahmed Mahmood. I belong to the hisbah. And I think Rakin isn’t a true believer. I don’t think he teaches his sister proper respect. She might be a member of the al-Khansa, but I’ve caught her without a veil on.”
    She