Chapter 18
Barry shook off the thought. He wouldn’t be thinking about love right now.
He had a mission to complete and Mac to help.
He had nothing against them having some fun in the meantime, but that was all he could offer her.
His team was important to him. There, he felt like he belonged.
He had a purpose. Outside of this mission, what could he have?
He didn’t know anything about fishing, and he felt too young to retire.
He knew next to nothing about shark research.
No, his life was back in Vegas and with the next mission, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t always hold a special place in his heart for Mac.
“Well, partner, you’re not going to like this next step, but I have to ask the secretary out.” Annabelle was their best chance of getting answers about what Miles was up to, or at the very least, give him access to her files stored on her phone.
Mac’s smile dropped. He could see that mask of indifference slip back on. He hated seeing it, but this was their only chance short of getting close to Miles, and with the bodyguards surrounding Miles, that would be next to impossible. “I told you before, I don’t care.”
He knew that to be a lie. He didn’t like it any more than she did. Barry left the desk to grab his laptop on the bed.
“What are you doing?” Mac asked.
“Looking up her phone number,” he replied, not looking up from his laptop as he searched Annabelle’s name in the database.
“I’m surprised she didn’t slip it into your pocket at some point,” Mac mumbled.
Barry would have noticed, wouldn’t he? He stopped mid typing and set his laptop down to grab the pants he had been wearing yesterday. He dug around in the pockets and, sure as shit, in the big cargo pocket was a business card with Annabelle’s name on it. Sneaky woman. He hadn’t even felt her do it.
He tried wracking his brain when she might have done it. The only time he could think of was when she’d called him back to grab his tools.
Barry glanced over at Mac, but she had given him her back and was working on her laptop, or most likely pretending to. He didn’t want to have this conversation in front of Mac, but the sooner he called Annabelle and set things up, the better.
Barry pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Annabelle’s number. She answered on the second ring. “Hello,” she answered sweetly.
“Annabelle, hi, this is Sean the handyman.” Mac shifted in her seat to look at him over her shoulder with confusion before looking back ahead. Now wasn’t the time to explain his fake name.
“Oh, Sean,” she purred. “I was hoping you would find my number.”
“Very clever how you did it,” he praised, still shocked that she had put her card in his pocket without him realizing.
“Well, do the unexpected and get unexpected results.”
“It got my attention that’s for sure.” Barry looked up when he heard Mac make a distressed sound, but she kept her focus ahead so he couldn’t see her reaction. “Hey, I was wondering if you would like to have dinner.”
“I’d love to.”
“How about tonight?”
“I’m afraid I’m booked tonight, but how about tomorrow?”
He’d rather get it over with, but it was what it was. “Tomorrow it is. Seven?”
“Seven is perfect.”
“Great, I’ll text you the details on where to meet.”
“I look forward to that.” Her voice dripped with sexuality as if her words held another meaning. It made his skin crawl.
“I have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Bye.”
Barry hung up already dreading this meeting.
“So tomorrow?” Mac asked, appearing nonchalant.
“Yeah, I was thinking of meeting her at the bar we met at.” It was open, public, and full of exits if he needed to escape.
“Not exactly the atmosphere I’d imagine for a date.”
“It’s not a real date.” He felt the need to remind her.
“Whatever.” She shrugged.
Mac was now in a mood, and he needed to fix it. “What are you working on?” Getting her to talk about sharks always helped brighten her mood.
“We tagged some new sharks yesterday. I offered to input all of the data into our system. What are you working on?”
He was looking up everything he could on Annabelle, but she was a trigger for Mac. “I’m looking into the fishermen on the island.” Maybe he could narrow down his search for boats to look into that were trawling the ocean floor.
He imagined it had to be a decent-sized boat, which left out places like Jacques.
Maybe for the right price, the man could point him in the direction for the type of fishermen he was looking for.
It would be faster than trying to go through hundreds of registered fishermen on the island.
There was also the chance the person trawling wasn’t from this island but somewhere else.
The fish could be going to any number of islands and not necessarily here. “Who would you say is the most profitable fisherman on the island?” he asked Mac.
The sound of the keyboard clicking stopped, and Mac turned sideways in her seat to face him. “Price, Sampson, and Gaines.”
Maybe one of them could be the culprit. “Do you know much about them?”
“Reputation mostly for Price and Sampson.” Mac shrugged. “I buy my fish from Gaines for the boat.”
“Do any of them seem like the type of person to trawl the ocean floor?”
“No, but then, like I said, I don’t know them. From their reputations, they are good, honest fisherman. There is a bar on the north side where the fishermen on the island hang out after they bring in their haul for the day.”
“Do all the fishermen go there?”
“I don’t know.” Mac shrugged her shoulders once more. “I’ve never hung out with them. They fish the north side of the island, and we do our research down here. We all kind of keep to our own.”
If the big fishermen were there, then it was a good place to scope out.
“Are you thinking about going?”
“Yeah, why?” he questioned when she looked at him skeptically.
“No offense, but you stick out like a sore thumb amongst fishermen.”
Barry looked down at himself, not seeing what she meant. “How so?”
“You don’t look like a fisherman.”
“How does a fisherman look?”
“Weathered,” she replied quickly. “They’re in the sun constantly hauling up fish. You look like a city slicker.”
She wasn’t wrong. He did live in the city. He was sure-footed on a boat, but he was an Army man. He was more comfortable in a plane or a Humvee, not a boat.
“I can just sit in the back and listen.” Get some heavy clothes to cover his body and no one would be the wiser.
“If you don’t fit the part, they aren’t going to talk around you.”
“I can conceal myself.”
Mac shook her head. “They’ll spot you a mile away and probably kick you out of the bar. And don’t even think about looking around their boats,” she quickly added as if she were reading his mind. “That’s a sure way to get your throat cut.”
He had thought about looking at their boats, but he wanted to avoid that grisly end. He forgot fishermen could be protective of their livelihood. “How else can we get close to the boats up there to see if one could be the trawler?” He was open to suggestions.
Mac looked away thoughtfully when Barry heard Miles’s voice coming from his laptop. He could only hear Miles’s voice. It must be from the plant in the vent. Miles must be in the room closest to it. He turned up the volume to listen.
“What’s the problem? That’s not what we agreed on. No. Where are you; I’m on my way.” There was a beat of silence. “Alright, I’ll be there in twenty. It takes a bit to drive up to the north shore at this time of night.” Barry closed his laptop and headed toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Mac asked, looking shocked that he would just get up and leave without a word.
“I’m headed out, you’re more than welcome to stay if you like.”
“What are you doing?” she pressed.
“I’m planning on following Miles.” This might be his chance to get close to him and get access to his phone or find out who he was meeting with.
Mac looked baffled by his response. “How do you even know where he’s going?”
“He said himself. The north shore.”
Mac raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Do you have any idea how big that area is?”
“No.” But he had a map. He could figure it out.
Mac shook her head as she stood up to follow him toward the door. “We’ll go together.”
“We?” Had he heard her correctly?
Mac planted her hands on her hips and jutted her chin out, looking defiant. “Yes, we. Partners, remember? I know the area; you don’t. Maybe while we’re there, we can look at the boats or something. Deal?”
Barry didn’t necessarily want Mac following him since he didn’t know what he was walking into, but he worried if he left her behind, she would just try to follow, making his job that much harder. “Alright, partner, let’s go.”
Mac hesitated a moment. “Do I need to bring anything?”
“I have everything we need. You just need yourself.”
“Okay.” Mac smiled, looking eager to go on her first investigation. He wondered if he’d looked the same once upon a time. It had been so long since he’d started in this business, he could no longer remember.