Bare Nerve by Katherine Garbera Page A

mountains had been long: despite the fact that Yazid had been welcoming, the rest of the people they encountered in Algeria weren’t trusting of the foreigners.
    They were now on their way into the Sahara, and Anna felt as if she were caught between two worlds. First, the old-world architecture of Algiers’s European-inspired city, and now this place, which was near the heartland of Islam.
    Anna would rather have kept moving, but the majority of the team knew it would be better to rest now. They weren’t that far behind Andreev, and to capture him, they needed to be rested. Well rested. Yet she couldn’t sleep.
    She had been staring at the ceiling of her room for over an hour now. The sounds outside her window were foreign, and the room itself didn’t feel secure to her. She was restless and edgy.
    Anna tried to block out those feelings, but the only other subject her mind wandered to was Jack Savage, and she didn’t want to think about him. Or about his scarred body and face. Or the intensity in his eyes whenever he looked at her.
    She really needed to just focus on the mission, but there was nothing to be done right now. They were all on their way to capture Andreev, and that was it.
    Frustrated with herself, she got out of bed and dressed in a pair of black jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt.
    She went downstairs and out into the night, where their vehicles had been left. There was barbed wire everywhere and the kind of security lights that cast no shadow. The world of tourism was foreign in Algeria, but the businesses—like this hotel—that wanted to encourage visitors made it their number-one priority to protect guests.
    Anna felt less trapped out here. And she felt safe with her semiautomatic handgun at her side. This was what she needed. Fresh air and exercise.
    “Can’t sleep?” Jack asked, his voice coming out of the darkness just off the doorway.
    “Obviously,” she said. She didn’t want to see him. He was part of what had her so edgy, and she needed respite from him and the circumstances of this mission.
    How had Justine and Charity handled this? The feeling of other things…men…interfering with a mission? And she knew that they both had been dealing with stuff from their pasts at the same time. Anna felt inadequate as she realized she couldn’t cope with it all. She needed the barrier she always used to insulate herself. But there was no computer to hide behind. And Jack Savage wasn’t leaving her alone.
    Even when they weren’t physically together, he was still affecting her. She thought about him when they were apart.
    “I’m not much of a sleeper either,” Jack said.
    “Do you have insomnia?”
    “Yes. No doubt because of being such a savage,” he said.
    “I’m sorry for the comment I made.”
    “It’s okay, I meant it to be self-deprecating.”
    “Why?”
    “Probably the same reason you’re wandering around down here instead of sleeping.”
    She wasn’t sure what he meant. “I’m not…You want to know what my problem is?”
    “What?”
    “I’m used to everything falling into place the way I want it to. I like being the one with the most knowledge on a mission.”
    “Levels the playing field and gives you an advantage?”
    “Exactly. But you’re something I didn’t count on.”
    “Me?”
    “Yes, you. Everything would be so much easier if you really were the savage you call yourself.”
    “Why would that be easier, Anna?”
    “Because then I could ignore you like I usually do men who make me uncomfortable. But you aren’t just some dumb macho warrior.”
    He chuckled. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
    “Well, for me it is. I don’t like things that don’t make sense. There are pieces of you I can’t understand that don’t fit with what I know.”
    He walked out of the shadows and over to her. He was wearing a pair of skintight jeans and a dark T-shirt that molded to the contours of his chest.
    “You’re the same. All precise manners and