Chapter 24
Mac fixed her hair for what felt like the hundredth time in five minutes as she sat in her metal chair, watching Barry flirt with Annabelle. She was questioning her sanity in coming here. She should have just stayed home and waited for Barry to come to her and tell her what he’d learned.
But she stupidly thought she could come here and watch them without feeling anything. Barry had kept assuring her there was nothing between him and Annabelle, that he didn’t like her and was just doing this for information.
Mac had wanted to see it with her own eyes. What Mac saw pierced her heart. Mac knew Annabelle was a beautiful woman. She had stared at her picture long enough to memorize it.
The woman sitting and flirting with Barry was vastly different from her work portrait. She wore a revealing dress with her makeup artfully done to draw a man’s gaze.
Mac had dressed up and done her hair, but she still felt severely lacking. How could she compete with a woman like that?
Barry smiled and let Annabelle run her fingers over his arm like a lover. He stared adoringly into his eyes as if he really did find her beautiful and enjoy her company. If he was faking it, he was doing a hell of a job.
“They look quite cozy, don’t they?”
Mac looked up at the man who’d spoken. “Banks.” She was shocked he had approached her out of all the women here. It was a popular restaurant with a bar where several young single women were currently sitting. Yhey appeared to be more of Miles’s type than herself.
“You can call me Miles.” Miles Banks smiled down at her as if he found himself to be charming.
There were many things she wanted to call him; Miles wasn’t in the top ten. Play nice, he might give himself away. “And where is your entourage, Miles?” She looked around; his normal two bodyguards were missing.
“Everyone is busy tonight leaving me alone,” he replied, looking glum.
“Would you care to join me? If anything, it might make your boyfriend jealous, and he’ll realize his mistake in leaving you.
” His gaze lifted to Annabelle and Barry.
Mac didn’t look in their direction. It hurt too much to see them together.
“He’s not my boyfriend. He can see whomever he likes,” Mac said with an air of indifference, though inside her heart was breaking seeing Barry with another woman. She knew it was for information, but it didn’t stop the stab of jealousy even when she had no claim on him.
Mac took a sip of her wine as if to prove her point.
Miles bent down so their heads were only a foot apart. Mac eyed him warily, wondering why he was so close to her. Her unease went up when his gaze drifted to her mouth. “Your mouth says he’s not important, but your eyes say otherwise.” His dark brown eyes gazed into hers as if he could read her.
“And now my mouth is saying it’s thirsty.” She mocked cheers to him and took another sip. The Moscato did nothing to ease the ache in her chest.
“Then allow me to cater to your wishes.” He stood up and waved his arm toward a table that looked like it was already set up for him. “Please join me.”
Mac would rather feed herself to sharks, but again, he might let something slip. Wasn’t this part of spying?
“Very well.” Mac rose from her seat and followed him with her glass in hand. Miles played the perfect gentleman and held her seat out for her. She sat down and allowed him to scoot her in.
Miles claimed the seat across from her. A waiter rushed over and stood at the ready. “Would you care for something besides wine? Champagne, perhaps? Or oysters?”
Mac raised an arched eyebrow at his last suggestion. Was he trying the seafood aphrodisiac on her? Barry had done the same thing. Another pang pierced her heart. “Wine is fine, thank you.”
“You are not hungry?”
“Not at the moment.” Mac didn’t think she could eat right now anyway. Her stomach felt like it had a lead ball in it.
“Brandy,” he ordered. Miles sat back in his chair and seemed to study her. “You seem familiar to me.”
“I don’t know how.” She shrugged. “This is the first time we’ve met.” Though she had seen him plenty of times. “Maybe I just have one of those faces.”
“Perhaps,” he mused but didn’t look convinced. “What’s your name?”
“Mackenzie Grant.”
“Well, Mackenzie, you obviously know who I am.”
“I don’t think there is anyone on this island that doesn’t know of you.” And that wasn’t a compliment.
“Oh yeah.” Miles grinned, taking it for that. “What do they say?”
Oh uh, this was where she had to play it smart and not let her mouth run away with her. “You’re a cutthroat businessman who goes after what he wants.” And didn’t care who got hurt in the process.
“It’s true,” he chuckled as he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small brown leather pouch. He removed the lid to reveal a row of cigars.
His brandy arrived along with an ashtray and cutter.
“Do you mind?” he asked, waving his cigar.
“Knock yourself out.” Literally.
Miles chuckled again, putting the pouch back into his pocket and cutting the end of his cigar before lighting it. “That is how you must be if you hope to gain anything in this world, my dear. That is how I amassed all of this.” His hands expanded out, pointing at the island around them.
“You have a hotel on this island; you don’t own the island itself.” She felt the need to point that out to him. “Just a money pit that is sinking into the ground.”
“Minor setback. Once my hotel is complete, it will be the jewel of the island and a beacon for travelers worldwide.”
“You think people will come here just because your name is written on the side of a building?”
“No, not just the hotel, but for the other luxuries on this island.” He puffed on his cigar, blowing a cloud of smoke up into the air.
“Like what?” It was small island; there wasn’t much potential. It was all forest and homes. Nothing that could interest a person like Miles.
“Why’s a pretty thing like yourself worrying about the particulars?”
“Humor me,” Mac requested dryly.
“Wait until there is a Starbucks here, restaurant chains, shopping malls.”
She’d rather not. One of the things she liked best about this island was how small and local it felt. No one wanted big corporations coming in here. They could go to the bigger islands for that. “Why here? Why this island? Why not anywhere else in the world?”
Miles had connections throughout the world. Why had he chosen here?
“Because there is untapped potential here. I can build this island into a metropolis like the Bahamas. People from all over the world will come here.”
“We don’t want the world. We like things the way they are. This is a fishing community. No one wants or cares about those things.”
“And what do you think would happen when the fishing dries up?” he asked with a raised eyebrow in question.
It was the way he’d phrased that question that gave her pause.
Why did he say when and not if? Was he admitting to having something to do with the trawling?
“What? Do you plan on taking the fishing away from this island so they have no choice but to turn to you for work?” That was a new sales tactic she hadn’t seen.
Force people to give up their jobs, then like a hero, he’d create jobs for them and bring in more revenue.
Miles leaned his elbows onto the table, folding his nonsmoking hand under his smoking hand. “I don’t control the oceans, Miss Grant, but I’m a business opportunist.”
“Tell me something, Miles.” Mac planted her hands on the table and leaned forward. “What’s the potential in the southeast coastline?”
Miles blinked innocently. “How do you mean?”
“What is in that cove that you’ve banned researchers from going to it?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why buy it?”
“It’s my property to do with as I choose.”
“It belonged to the sharks first.”
“That’s what separates the lions from the lambs, Miss Grant. I saw potential there and bought it. Nothing more.”
“Cut the bullshit, I know you did it,” Mac accused, not willing to play nice anymore.
“Did what?” He seemed to look baffled by the accusation.
“You are responsible for the sharks disappearing in that cove.” If he was responsible for the bottom trawling, the boats could have picked up the sharks by accident or drove them out by overfishing that area.
“How do you figure that?”
“Once you started building here, they’ve been disappearing. What is there that you needed to get rid of them to get to?”
“Do you have proof I’m doing this?”
Proof of trawling, but it was by illegal means. “No, but I will.”
Miles gave her a condescending smile that said he knew he had her beat.
“Miss Grant, I can assure you, I have nothing to do with the shark population decline, if that is even happening,” he explained in a calm smooth voice.
He didn’t give a hint that he was lying, but Mac didn’t believe him for a second.
“It is,” she snarled.
“I couldn’t be behind it.” He pointed at himself then leaned back in his chair. “In fact, I am trying to help save the species.”
“You are?” That was news to her.
“Yes, I’ve just donated four million dollars to the research department. Now why would I be trying to get rid of them if I just spent that kind of money to help them?”
It was a trick. It had to be. He was just saying that to keep her off his tracks. “Liar.”
Miles took a drag of his cigar. “I am many things, Miss Grant, but a liar isn’t one of them.”
She doubted that very much. Lies probably came easier than breathing to him. “You could donate your money to anything; why sharks?”
“They are important in this area and all oceans. We must do everything we can to preserve the species.”
“You go from a businessman to a philanthropist?”
“It’s smart business, nothing more.”
“How are you helping the species by bottom trawling and driving the sharks out?”
Miles’s face turned hard and his cheeks flush with anger. “Where are you getting this information?”
Shit, she couldn’t tell him it was because she had dived there. He could have her arrested. “Which species?” she asked, changing the subject.
Miles froze with the cigar halfway to his mouth. “I’m sorry?”
“You said preserve the species. There are over a thousand species of sharks, so which ones?”
“All of them?” Was he telling her or guessing?
“And how are you coming up with the funds to do this? That hotel is so far behind, it has to be bleeding money. Or are your other investments going to pay for it?”
“Are you a reporter, Miss Grant?”
“Researcher.”
“Ah,” he replied as if that explained her probing questions. “There, you see, we’re on the same side.”
They couldn’t be more polar opposite. “Tell me, Miles, if you’re so interested in the preserving of shark species, why did you ban researching on the cove by the hotel where sharks migrate to the most?”
“Really? I didn’t realize that.” The man was good at acting and pulling off the baffled look.
It was all bullshit. Just a ruse to make her think he cared about sharks when he couldn’t care less. “I’m shocked; for a man of your status, you’re not informed of every nuance of everything you buy.”
“Some things I don’t pay attention to.”
“Like the fact your hotel is built on a marsh field?” she asked innocently as she sipped her wine.
“There are ways around it. Money can solve many problems, Miss Grant.”
“Really? I figured common sense would. Like building on the north side of the island for one, or better yet, leaving this island.”
Miles’s face turned hard as granite. She could see anger radiating from every pore. “I think this evening is over, Miss Grant.”
Mac had done exactly what she’d told herself not to do. Piss him off. The man now knew her name and what she did for a living. She had just royally fucked up. She should have just stayed home.
The only thing she could do now was graciously bow out. “I think you’re right. Enjoy your evening, Miles.” Mac rose from her seat and headed for her house.
She glanced out of the corner of her eye to see Barry leaning across the table, talking softly to Annabelle. She seemed to be hanging on his every word as if he’d hung the moon and stars. They were so intent on each other, Barry didn’t seem to notice she was leaving.
It was just as well he didn’t see her probably ruin yet another mission. Miles would be ever cagier now that he knew she was on to him. Why hadn’t she just kept her damn mouth shut? Maybe she really wasn’t cut out for this spy business.