Chapter 38
Mac’s eyes widened in fear when she saw the mouth full of teeth, opened and waiting for her.
She was falling right straight for it. At the last second, another shark came up and bumped into it, and Mac hit the side of his body instead and sank into the water.
She felt like a pinball in a machine as she was tossed about.
Or better yet, on the spin cycle in the washer.
Her body twisted and was pushed around as dozens of sharks clamored over her to get to the food. They weren’t as interested in her as they were getting through her, but it wouldn’t stop them from biting her. She needed to get out of the danger zone.
Mac kicked her legs, trying to dive down below them.
With her hands tied behind her back, it wasn’t easy.
She grimaced in pain when a tail fin smacked into her side, and she felt air rush out of her lungs she couldn’t afford to lose.
Another fin hit her from the other side when she was pushed back.
She finally broke from the group and came back up along the side of the boat taking in a lungful of air.
She couldn’t keep herself upright without the use of her hands, so she floated onto her back, kicking her legs and making her way toward shore. Her hands throbbed from the tightening of the wet rope.
She tried wiggling her fingers through the pinpricks of pain. The rope was now cutting off circulation.
No one on the boat seemed to notice her. All of their focus was on the back of the boat as another shark was dragged onto it.
If only Mac had use of her hands, she’d get back on the boat and make them pay for their cruelty.
Instead she was alone in the middle of the ocean and miles from shore and help.
She should have called the coast guard when she had the chance.
Or at least let someone know where she was.
If she drowned out here, no one would ever find her.
Not only that, but no one could save the sharks. Her sharks.
She and Barry had assumed it was overfishing to control the island. No one had guessed the sharks were being pulled on purpose. If she died out here, no one would know. She had to survive.
Mac kicked her legs harder when suddenly something grabbed her under her arms, and she was pulled out of the water.
“Burt?” she gasped in shock, standing on the back of his boat. “What are you doing here?” How was he even here?
“I ti e I hid ur ba,” he explained, turning her around to cut the rope that bound her. Mac rubbed her wrists, trying to get the circulation back into them. “U her.” He tilted her chin to the side and touched a sensitive spot on her temple she hadn’t noticed until now.
“I’ll be fine.” Her ribs were bruised, but nothing felt broken or cracked.
“Bes, der a cud in yur aim.”
Mac looked down to see a gash across her bicep.
One of the shark teeth must have gotten her.
She moved past him into the galley and grabbed the first aid kit.
Burt assisted her with cleaning and dressing the wound since it was awkward with one hand.
“Thanks, Burt, but how?” How did he know where she was?
“I folled u,” he said, as if that answered everything.
“From the bar?”
Burt shook his head. “Bey tat. I be kep’n in eye n u sin u reded ta bo fri, Jac. I wan te prote u.”
“I appreciate that, Burt. I really do.” She should have known she couldn’t keep her investigation quiet.
She should have suspected Burt was looking after her since she’d rented the boat from Jacques.
It was sweet that he had her back like this.
She hadn’t wanted to involve anyone from her team because of Miles, but it turned out, she needed the backup.
As sweet as this moment was, they had to move. “We need to call coast guard. They are dragging the sharks out of the water with hooked meat. I don’t know what they are doing with them, but it can’t be anything good.”
“Aledy on id.” He stood up and pointed behind her through the window.
Mac turned around to see two coast guard boats coming toward them, but they were still a little way out. Carver could get away if he saw them. She turned back to Burt. “We can’t let Carver get away.”
Burt nodded and ran back into the quarterdeck and drove the boat alongside Carver’s. Mac jumped onto Carver’s and looked around for him. Several of the crewmen noticed the coast guard coming and were raising the alarm.
Carver cried out, “Get the boat started!” He turned to the crewman who were dragging a shark onto the boat. “That’s the last one. Close the doors. We’re getting out of here.”
“No, you’re not,” she whispered under her breath. Burt jumped onto the deck next to her with a baseball bat in his hands. She hadn’t even thought to grab a weapon. “Burt, get to the quarterdeck; don’t let them turn this boat on.”
“On id.” He nodded and took off toward the front of the boat.
Mac ran for the back. Carver was marching that direction with determined steps, but she wasn’t letting him escape. “Not so fast, Carver.” Mac braced her feet apart and planted her fists on her hips, glaring at him like an impenetrable force.
The color drained from Carver’s face. “Impossible.”
“You’re not going anywhere. You will pay for your crimes.”
Carver glared at her with a look of determination. He wasn’t going to go down without a fight. His other crewmen saw their stand-off and abandoned their duties to give Carver aid.
“Finish tying everything off.” He waved them away. “I can handle one little woman.” He smirked at her.
The men complied, grabbing a hook pole to close the tank behind her. Mac didn’t wait but charged after Carver. He caught her by the shoulders and tossed her away as if she were garbage. Mac rolled across the deck, feeling new bruises forming.
Carver grabbed her by the back of her neck and stood her up. “Let’s see if the second time is the charm,” he hissed and started toward the back of deck. He was going to toss her in again.
Mac tried to break his grip by punching his wrist, but it might as well have been made of granite. What had she been thinking going after Carver on her own?
She shouldn’t think like that. She could get out of this. All men were vulnerable. Mac balled up her fist and drove it between his legs. Carver immediately released her as the air rushed out of his lungs, and he made a god-awful groan of pain as he hunched over.
He glared up at her with venom in his eyes as drool pooled from the side of his mouth. “You fucking bitch.” He gritted his teeth and stood up.
Mac kicked him in the chest. He stumbled back a few steps to the edge of the shark tank. The shark started thrashing as if it sensed a meal was about to fall into its mouth. Carver windmilled his arms to try and save himself, but gravity won out, and he fell back into the water with a loud splash.
Carver sunk under the water and didn’t immediately resurface. The shark continued thrashing, either chewing on Carver or crushing his bones.
As much as Mac would have liked to watch him get his just end at the mouth of the shark he had just captured, he needed to pay for his crimes in jail. He needed to confess his crimes and give up his accomplices.
“We need to get this man out of here,” she yelled out, looking around for help. The crewmen looked at her like she was crazy and that Carver was already a dead man before they took off running. The coast guard docked next to the boat and filed out with their guns at the ready.
“Help,” she called out to one of them. “A man is in the water. We need to pull him out.” Like the crewmen, the guard looked at her as if she had just spoken a dead language.
“The shark doesn’t have room to maneuver in there.
Just reach in—fine, I’ll do it myself,” she finally said when no one made a move to reach their hand into a shark tank.
Mac dropped to her belly and reached into the water until she felt cloth and pulled. It was a pant leg. As soon as it surfaced, the coast guard took over and dragged Carver out and onto the deck. He didn’t appear to be breathing, so they started CPR.
The lower half of Carver’s arm was missing, and blood was pumping from the artery.
Mac couldn’t say she felt bad for the man, but she needed him alive.
“We need a torniquet,” she shouted and pointed to his arm—or at least what was left of it.
Another member of the guard started applying pressure while a torniquet kit was brought out.
“He’s breathing,” the woman doing CPR announced. At least there was that bit of good news. As long as he didn’t bleed out, they were safe.
An air evac showed up, hovering over the boat. The guards placed him in the basket and lifted him out as the others started rounding up the crewmen.
“Burt,” Mac called out, hoping a guard didn’t mistake him as one of Carver’s crewmembers.
“Id her.” He waved to her from the side of the boat and came toward her.
“We need to get these sharks back into the water.” They didn’t belong in the tanks.
“Ser.” He nodded and dropped down to his belly, reaching into the tank without even blinking. Burt was as comfortable around sharks as she was.
Burt grabbed the tail and started pulling. The shark didn’t appreciate it and started thrashing, drawing the attention of the guard. “What are you doing?” one of them demanded.
“We are trying to release these sharks,” Mac responded as if it should be evident.
“You can’t; we need pictures for evidence.”
“Oh tah?” Burt said, jumping to his feet and getting in the guard’s face. “Is te gown te sten en fron ov a jewge an til em we hab? Hmm?” Burt planted his hands on his hips, glaring at the guard.
The guard’s eyes were wide with panic, and he looked at Mac as if wondering if she understood him.
“These sharks need to get back into the sea or they’ll die, and then stopping Carver now would have been for nothing.
If you need to take pictures, then by all means, do it as we move them.
” She waved him on. “But we are putting these sharks back where they belong right now.”
Mac moved to the back of the tank to help Burt drag the shark out and to the back of the boat before easing it into the water. They went back for another, and a few guards offered to help. With the added people, it was less strain on their backs and easier to drag them to the water.
“Thank you,” she said the guards.
The one closest to her nodded. “Do you need a ride back to shore?”
“No, we have our own boat.” She pointed to Burt’s boat.
“Alright, we’ll be in touch to get your statements later.”
“And I’ll be happy to give it.”
“You should consider going to the hospital.” He nodded to her bandaged arm.
“It’s a scratch, I’m fine.” She waved off. She felt the sting now, but it wasn’t all that bad. It could have been worse like Carver.
“You seem to know best.” The man chuckled, referencing her handling of the sharks.
“Edy te o him bes?” Burt asked as they headed back to his boat.
“I can’t. I have to do something first.”
“Bes,” he said in a pleading tone.
“Miles is involved. Once he learns about what happened, he can destroy all the evidence. I have to get to the hotel and get it before he does.”
“Didn o aledy fin id?”
“I did, but it’s digital; he could erase it. I’m sure there are physical backups.” A smart businessman always made backups.
“Yo kin go der. He ha gerds.”
“I happen to know he is on the west side of the island right now, leaving the hotel vacant. Now is the perfect time.”
“Alrid.” He nodded. “Bu I goin whi u.”
Mac wanted to argue but knew having backup had proven invaluable tonight. She wasn’t much of a fighter, but Burt seemed to be.
“Alright, let’s go.”