Read Detective Danny Cavanaugh 01 - The Brink for Free Online

were no doubt coming for her, and fast. They didn’t have time for whatever was transpiring here in the woods. Her legs were brimming with nervous energy. She wanted them to carry her far away from this place.
    “Drop the fucking knife!” Danny snapped. Sydney watched both men’s eyes. Each sighted the other’s stare. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Danny’s body tense. She dare not shift her head for fear of the guard figuring out what he was doing.
    Then it happened.

Chapter 12
    Danny lunged at the man and used his rifle like a bat, knocking the knife from the man’s grip. The impact sent it flying into the bushes. Danny then swept his legs out from underneath him, knocking the man to the dirt. Danny pounced on top of him and wrapped his arm around the man’s throat. He had used this hold only a half dozen times over his career. He had subdued a father who nearly beat his six-year-old son to death, he kept a husband holding his wife hostage from blowing off her head with a shotgun, and he had used it to restrain a few violent drunks. He learned the highly illegal hold at the police academy in Houston. While it walked all over the rights of the suspect, it was the most effective way to gain control of a situation without the use of lethal force.
    “Did you kill him?” the woman asked.
    “No,” Danny answered as he guided the man’s limp body to the ground. “I made him pass out.”
    She edged over to the man. “How long will he be unconscious?”
    “Long enough.” Danny retrieved the knife from the bushes. It was a Junglee Extreme Forces model, a favorite weapon of military types. Although a weapon like this one could slice through rope or saw through a small tree limb in seconds, it was intended for only one use: close combat.
    Danny glanced at the woman. She was still studying the motionless body at her feet. Suddenly, she held the log away from her chest and let it drop. It landed with a thud on the guard’s chest. He didn’t move an inch. She’s thorough, Danny thought. I’ll give her that.
    Danny walked toward her. “I take it this isn’t the first run-in you’ve had with our friend.”
    “We must get out of here now.” She strode past Danny and clipped away from the monastery.
    “Listen, lady, I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know what’s going on here. Until I do, I’m not going anywhere. Neither are you.”
    She stopped and turned toward him. Danny tried putting her mind at ease. “Look,” he started, holding up the knife, “this guy’s a professional. There’s only one reason why he’s carrying a knife like this. It’s to kill in silence. He didn’t want to alert anyone to his actions. He’s working alone—”
    “He’s not working alone! His captain fired a gun at me!”
    Explains the shots I heard, Danny thought. He looked around in all directions at the quiet terrain. There was no one in sight. “Still, I think we’re safe for the moment.” He closed the knife and jammed it into his pocket. “I can help you. But I need to know why this guy and his captain are after you.”
    Sydney took in a huge breath, let it out, and walked back to him. Danny had to fight the very male urge to leer as her toned muscles worked underneath her butterscotch tan.
    “I’m Sydney Dumas.” She glanced toward the monastery. “I was meeting with two other members from our group here at the monastery.”
    “What group?”
    “The International Court of Justice.”
    International Court of Justice? Danny had never heard of it, but then again he had never heard of half the clandestine groups that he learned about during his short tenure with the Texas Rangers. There’s a whole big world out there, Danny boy. A world about which you know damn little.
    “What’re you meeting about?” he asked.
    “We’re here to discuss the implications of a lawsuit.”
    “So, you’re a judge?”
    She huffed. “Even out in the middle of nowhere people are surprised to learn