Bare Nerve (6 page)

“Andreev ditched the cell phone. We need to work our contacts and see if he’s still heading back to his base in Algiers. Do you still have your contacts?”

“Yeah, I’ll go see what I can find out,” Kirk said, but he made no move to leave.

“What?”

Kirk rubbed the back of his neck. “The guys and I have been talking.…We need to be operating on our own. Let the Liberty Investigations team go to France and follow the leads there.”

“Well, it’s not up for a vote,” Jack said.

Kirk stared back at him. “For Christ’s sake, Jack, you’re acting like a horny fool who’s thinking about getting laid. We don’t work with another team. And those girls might be good in the corporate world or acting as snipers, but Andreev is a different kettle of fish. And the Jack I know would agree with my assessment.”

“Are you questioning my judgment?”

Kirk shook his head and turned away but turned back. “Yeah, I guess I am. Something’s not right with you now. Why is that?”

“Maybe because we’re going after the one guy who’s eluded us for so long. The one guy we all have a score to settle with.”

Kirk nodded. “I’ll give you that.”

Jack was the leader, and the group wasn’t a democracy. The only way this team worked and thrived was through his leadership. They needed to know who was in charge, and the leader—he—could show no weakness.

He briefed his team on the latest, but Kirk still was restless and kept making comments under his breath. Finally Jack pushed to his feet and got in Kirk’s face.

“You have a problem with me, Kirk?”

Kirk stretched his arms out in front of him and pushed Jack back. “I don’t like the way you keep talking with Anna.”

“We’re working with her team.”

“Yeah, but the look on your face says you have more than just teamwork on your mind.”

“Again, is that a problem?” Jack didn’t want to have this conversation in front of all his men.

“It could be. Men who are distracted are dead.”

“I know that better than anyone here,” Jack said.

The other men just sat between him and Kirk, quiet, tense, waiting. Jack didn’t know if he was going to have to fight this out with Kirk or not. Physicality was the one language his guys always understood.

“I think Kirk is just saying we want Andreev, and letting him slip through our fingers again isn’t something we’re going to let happen,” Hamm said.

“I’m not about to. What’s up, guys? Suddenly you don’t trust me?”

Hamm shook his head. “It’s not that. We’ve just never seen you lose focus before. You want to chase a piece of tail, fine. But we’re not willing to die so you can get lucky.”

Jack grabbed Hamm by the shirtfront and drew him to his feet. “Never question my leadership unless you are willing to back it up.”

“I’m willing, you son of a bitch,” Kirk said, grabbing Jack’s arm and throwing a punch at his jaw.

Jack responded with a punch to Hamm’s gut that dropped Hamm back in his seat. The tension exploded around him as Jack and Kirk slugged it out. Jack used the fight to clear his head until they were both bloody and Kirk was forced on his ass. Jack glanced around at his men.

“Do I really seem like I’ve changed?”

All the men muttered no and went back to checking their weapons. The tension on his team had dissipated.

Jack had needed the fight as much as Kirk had. The guys were used to cursing and acting like men, but with the woman around they were trapped in the manners that had been drilled into them since they’d entered boot camp.

Even Jack had a hard time letting go with the women around. They were changing the dynamic of his team. And he knew it was a new world and one that they had to get used to.

Women could do just about any job these days, but that didn’t mean men were ready for it.

Well, not all men,
he thought. But he wondered if he’d ever really be able to accept the fact that a woman like Anna could defend herself. He had spent a lifetime protecting people he didn’t know, and now that he’d found a woman he wanted to protect…she didn’t need him for that.

“C
an I talk to you?” Anna said, taking Jack by the hand and drawing him through the sprawled knot of his men toward the bedroom at the back of the plane.

She heard Charity offering first aid to Kirk, who had a broken nose and bloodied lip. Jack didn’t look much better. Anna was angry at herself for thinking he was more than the savage he seemed.

Justine had said that men just needed time to settle things between themselves, and, to be honest, Anna knew that, but Jack’s team operated at a level above hers. And physically kicking your own team member’s ass wasn’t something she understood.

She was angry at Jack for not being the man she’d been hoping he would be. But she wasn’t surprised. Deep inside she knew that any man who looked and acted the way he did was a savage.

She let go of him once they were in the bedroom, and she closed the door. “Have a seat.”

“I’ll stand, thanks,” he said, wiping his hand over the back of his lip.

“What was that about?”

“A little matter needed to be settled.”

“And talking wouldn’t work?” she asked.

“Nope,” he said, walking around her to the bathroom. She watched him wash his face and realized she had no idea why she’d brought him in here, except…

No idea….

“I don’t understand you.”

“Maybe you aren’t supposed to.”

“Jack, don’t be more difficult than you already are.”

“Am I?”

“Yes, you are. Why didn’t you just talk to Kirk or let him think about whatever was between you two?”

“Sometimes getting physical is the only answer, babe. Haven’t you found that?”

She shook her head. “I’m not a physical person. I’d rather pump some raucous music and give my emotions free rein.”

He shook the water off his hands and glanced over at her. “You’ve never gone into the gym and hit the punching bag?”

“Well, sometimes I go for a run on the treadmill, music screaming in my ears.”

“That works at times, but there are some situations that require a man to step up and settle things the old-fashioned way.”

“How is hitting old-fashioned?” she asked. His lip was swelling, and she was a little worried about him. She brushed by him into the intimate quarters of the bathroom and opened the cabinet above the sink. She pulled a freeze pack out of the first-aid kit, snapped it in half, and rubbed it until it was cold.

“Put this on your lip. It’ll keep the swelling down.”

“Why’d you bring me in here?” he asked.

“Fighting like that in close quarters is dangerous.”

“I know. My guys are used to using aggression to break the tension before a mission.”

“What tension?” she asked. Men had always been a bit of a mystery to her. Even her father had been a shadowy figure. She didn’t understand how her father could just pat her on the head when she’d been returned from the kidnappers in Algiers. But that had been her father’s only outward reaction.

“We’ve been after Andreev for a long time. To know we came so close to him…Well the guys are just jazzed to get out there and catch him. And losing him at the airport…”

“I’m not sure we lost him. I’m tracking two commercial flights and one charter. We’ll find him. We always get our man.”

“Do you?”

There was something in the way he said it that made Anna blush. “Yes. We are the best at what we do.”

“I’ve heard that about your team, but looking at three gals and trying to remember they can kick ass is hard.”

“What’s hard about that?”

“I was raised to protect women.”

“Good. Most women do need someone to protect them.”

“But not you?”

“No, not me. I learned early on that no matter how much someone else might want to help you, there’s really only one person you can rely on.”

“Yourself,” he said.

She nodded.

“Me, too. But you didn’t strike me as the cynical kind.”

“I’m not. I’m the self-preserving kind.”

He gave her a crooked half smile that made him seem very handsome. She didn’t want to think about the fear she’d felt when he’d been brawling with his men. Not because she’d feared for him—Jack Savage wasn’t the kind of man who could be hurt physically—no, she’d been afraid because watching him act like a savage hadn’t made him less attractive to her. It had only strengthened what she felt for him.

She needed him.

She didn’t know why. Didn’t really want to, but there was something about Jack that made chasing Andreev more than just a mission.

For the first time she realized this was what Justine and Charity had experienced. A man had changed their lives.

And she wondered if this mission was her turn. Or was she simply too afraid to be alone? To be the only one of the girls at Liberty Investigations who didn’t find something more on a mission?

She’d always been alone…and looking into Jack’s eyes, she wondered if finally she might find someone who could make her feel safe when she was with him.

Jack was still riding the rush of energy from his fight with Kirk. While it had relieved part of his tension, something new had started to grow as soon as Anna had led him to this secluded room. He’d wanted to be alone with her since the first moment he’d looked into her eyes.

It had changed him, and he wasn’t sure he was happy about that change.

“There’s something about you,” he said under his breath.

“I know. Something annoying, right?”

“Not necessarily.”

“Well, there’s something about you, too. Something that makes me question things I’ve always taken for granted.”

“What things?” he asked.

“Self-knowledge stuff. Nothing you’d be interested in.”

She was wrong. He was interested in everything about Anna Sterling.

There was a loud knock on the door, and Anna gave him a curious half smile before pushing around him to answer it.

“You two okay?” Justine asked

“Fine,” Anna said. “How is Kirk?”

“Good. And believe it or not the men actually seem a bit calmer now.”

“It’s apparently a guy thing,” Anna said, glancing back over her shoulder at Jack.

He fought the urge to grab her waist and pull her back into the bedroom. Fought the urge to slam the door shut and lock it and finish what had never really had the chance to get started.

He wanted that woman. And it wasn’t just lust for her curvy body. The more time he spent with her, the more he realized he was attracted to every fiber of her.

But she was already seated back at her desk, fingers moving rapidly over her keyboard. He suspected she felt safe there at her desk and in control of the mission as she tracked various flights and coordinated ground transportation for them.

He was impressed by the way she could compartmentalize and focus on the job when just a moment ago he had been concentrating on kissing her. He wanted her mouth under his. Wanted to learn the taste of her so that when she was gone, he’d always be able to recall her flavor.

He shook his head and pushed Anna out of his mind. Despite the fact that Kirk had been out of order with his comments, Jack realized the other man had a point. His men weren’t used to working closely with other teams.

Trust had been hard-earned among his guys, and his drooling over a woman on the other team wasn’t going to send the right message.

“We good?” he asked Kirk as he took a seat next to the other man.

“Yeah. I think we are.”

Hamm cleared his throat. “They want to use the existing trail rail from Algiers into the wilderness area where Andreev’s base camp is located.”

“What are the options?”

“The train is too public, and after the string of bombings in that area, it is heavily policed now. Getting off when we want to and where we want to will be an issue. I’m working one of my contacts in Algiers to see if we can get two Humvees. It’s hard enough to procure one,” Hamm said.

“I know. But you’re the man for the job.”

“That’s what she said,” Hamm said with a quick grin.

“Indeed,” Jack said.

When Hamm left, Jack turned to Kirk. “Once we’re on the ground, I want you to use your contacts to set up a buy. Get as close to Andreev as you can.”

Kirk nodded. “It’s been a few years since I’ve been in that business, but I’ll do my best.”

“That’s all I ask. We need to play this one close to the chest. I want you in radio contact every six hours.”

“Do you want me to stay with him once I find him or take him out?”

“Don’t take him out. We need to ask a few questions. Liberty Investigations wants to bring him in alive,” Jack said. Sam Liberty had been very clear that they needed Andreev alive to find out how far-reaching his network was.

“Well, that’s what Liberty wants. What do we want?”

Jack gave Kirk the savage smile he was famous for. “We want Andreev out of business. But we can’t go rogue unless there’s no other alternative.”

“Roger that. I’ll see if I can meet some of my contacts in Morocco. If I disappear…”

“I know how to get in touch with you if I need you. Be safe, Kirk. I’m not going to lose another team member to Andreev.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not ready to get out of the game yet.”

When they landed at a private landing strip just to the west of Algiers, Anna had a moment’s pause as she stepped out into the February afternoon. Maybe it was the angle of the sun, but for a moment she was eleven years old again and seeing the White City for the first time. She paused on the stairs of the gangway.

“What’s the matter?” Charity asked, pulling her Glock and scanning the area.

“Nothing. Just a bit of déjà vu.”

“You have been here before,” Charity said. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yes,” she said and walked down to the end of the gangplank. There were two Humvees waiting. There was also a small group of men. Two of them held machine guns and were clearly militia. A third man was dressed in Western garb—a very nice Armani suit, unless she missed her guess.

Charity and Justine closed in on either side of her. The Savage team closed ranks on the women, and Anna was surprised to find herself staring at Jack’s back as they approached the Algerian official.

“Welcome to Algiers. I am Yazid Zerhouni with the immigration office,” Yazid said in Arabic.

For Anna, Arabic was familiar, but she knew Justine didn’t speak the language, so she quietly translated what was being said.

Jack obviously spoke Arabic. He grabbed Yazid’s forearm in greeting. “Thank you for welcoming us. Sam Liberty has spoken highly of you.”

“And you as well,” Yazid said. “Two men from our office will accompany you into the mountains. They are waiting for you inside the main building. Your paperwork is being processed as we speak.”

“Thank you, Yazid.”

“It is my pleasure. We want the American government to know Algeria isn’t a haven for terrorists.”

“Our government appreciates that,” Jack said.

Yazid led the way to the small buildings at the end of the runway. Anna and the others followed, but she felt the tension in her teammates and in the Savage group. They all knew that no matter what Yazid and his government proclaimed, this part of the world was one where power and firepower went hand in hand. And peace was hard won.

“The women will need to enter through that door. You can meet up in the common area.”

Jack turned around to face the three of them. “I’m not sure what we can expect. I know you are all armed, so be careful.”

“This isn’t our first rodeo,” Justine said.

But Anna wasn’t offended by his warning. Something about being back in her own personal hell was making it easier for her to accept Jack’s traditional male attitude. She knew how quickly the tide could turn here.

“You be safe as well.”

The women were separated and then passed through customs. They met Jack’s team on the other side, and Anna noticed they were one man short. She wanted to question Jack, but Louis Edmonton was waiting for them. The Interpol agent had been on the same flight as a man matching Andreev’s description from Paris.

“Bonjour,
bienvenue
à Algiers. I am Louis Edmonton.”

“Bonjour, Louis,” Anna said. She noticed that Yazid was talking to Jack. “I’m Anna Sterling, and this is Charity Keone and Justine O’Neill.”

One man stood off to the side—a veiled man.…She knew the robes were traditional Tuareg garb. She remembered the blue men from her childhood.

“This is Bay Ag Akhamok from the Tuareg. He works with us occasionally. Andreev’s base camp is the terrain of his people. He will serve as your guide.”

Anna remembered little of Tamasheq but was able to recall the words of a common greeting. Bay stepped forward and bowed to her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said in English.