Free Bare Nerve by Katherine Garbera Page B

relive. And no matter what traumatic event was in Anna’s past, it was nothing compared to the horrors he was hiding.
    “Where’d you get that scar?” she asked.
    “In Afghanistan.”
    “What were you doing there?”
    “My job.”
    She reached over and stroked her finger over the one-inch scar on the side of his face. Jack proudly wore the scars of every battle he’d fought in. He was proud of the warrior he was. But when Anna touched him, he felt some of the emotions he liked to pretend he didn’t have.
    “Your job has taken a toll on you.”
    “Hasn’t yours?” he asked.
    She shrugged and looked down at the minicomputer on her lap. “It’s different for me. I’ve been involved in some gunfights or physical fights, but for the most part I spend a lot of my time catching crooks with my computer knowledge.”
    “You’re insulated from the action,” he said.
    “Yes.”
    “You live your life that way. Tucked safely away behind your computer while the rest of the world is dirty.”
    “That makes me sound…not very nice.”
    “I didn’t mean it as a criticism,” he said. But a part of him did. He was the kind of man who could never stand on the sidelines and let life pass him by. He didn’t want to catch Andreev via some sophisticated computer-tracking program. He wanted to be out there in the field. He wanted to cuff Andreev and maybe beat a little justice into his hide. Any man who made his fortune on the blood of others deserved to be brought down in a violent manner.
    “Okay,” she said.
    “What?”
    “We’re about as different as two people could be. I know that, and you do, too. There’s nothing between us.”
    He glanced over his shoulder, confirming that the occupants of the backseat were occupied.
    “We have something between us, Anna Sterling. An attraction even you can’t deny.”
    “I’m not someone who gives in to my baser instincts,” she said.
    “Yeah, right. We have something else in common.”
    “What?” she asked. She looked tired, as though she wanted to be anywhere but there. He didn’t take it personal, because he sensed there was more to this mission than just catching an arms dealer.
    “We both are willing to fight for justice. To make sure the innocent of the world have someone to stand up for them.”
    “Justice? With a gun?”
    “So I’m more aggressive about it than you are. At the end of the day we both want the same thing.”
    “And that is?”
    “For the world to be a better place. A place where children are safe and people can go to sleep without worrying about being shot in their sleep.”
    She tipped her head to the side. “Maybe there is more to you than your warrior body projects.”
     
    Demetri hated the mountainous region of the sub-Sahara. There was a reason he’d left this place. And whenever he was drawn back to Algeria, he had that same strangling rage that had first motivated him and Maksim to go into their line of work.
    The men around him were leery that he was here; he hadn’t been back in three years. He’d seen these men in other parts of the world, but this base camp he had avoided.
    It reminded him of the fact that this was his true self. In Seattle, with his wife and children at his side, he could pretend he was a different man. That he’d changed from the boy he’d been.
    But here there was no escaping the truth. This crude system of caves was his world now. He was angry, but at the same time he knew this was the way of the world. He was in a part of the world the Americans would have a hard time finding him in.
    Unlike the mideast, where there were oil reserves at stake, there was little in Africa for the Americans to come after. And as much as he resented being sent back to this place, he knew he was safe.
    He would lie low, continue to broker his arms deals, and take on a new identity. He would have to give up his wife and children, and that bothered him, but he’d lost his family many times, beginning with the small, angry