Chapter 39
Mac parked on the side of the road near where Barry had when they’d broken the window.
Following his directions, she stayed in the brush and walked up to the building.
Burt stayed close behind her, following her instructions.
They stopped next to a truck when they could see the entrance.
There were two guards outside the doors.
“I distra m. Yo ged in.”
“Burt, they have guns, and you have a baseball bat. You’ll never get past them.” They needed a better plan.
A coconut fell next to Mac as a gentle breeze swayed the tree above them. Mac looked down at it, and an idea came to mind.
She picked up the coconut and another that had landed next to it. “Follow me,” she whispered and broke through the brush, staying low as she crept toward the side of the building.
They eased along the wall until the entrance was right next to them.
The awning with pillars blocked the guards’ view of them, but she could hear them talking softly.
Mac took one of the coconuts and flung it toward one of the machines parked in front of the hotel.
It struck the side of it with a loud bang.
The guards stopped talking, and she heard the sound of their guns being drawn. Mac nodded to Burt, and they came outside the awning and looked in the direction of the vehicle she had struck.
Mac came up behind one of the guards and bashed him in the back of the head with the coconut. Burt swung his bat and cracked the other guard, knocking them both out. Burt collected their guns as Mac grabbed one of their access cards.
She slid the key card through the slot, and the front doors clicked, signaling they were unlocked. She held the doors open as Burt dragged the guards inside. “We can’t just leave them like this. Do you have any rope?”
“No og meh.” He shook his head.
Maybe the guards had something. She felt around their pockets and found a set of handcuffs. Burt searched the other guard and found a pair as well. They cuffed their hands behind their backs and pushed them into a closet.
“Miles’s office is on the eighth floor.” She remembered Barry saying that the night before.
They ran to the elevator and rode it up. “He.” Burt held one of the guns he had taken from the guards out to her.
“Oh no, I don’t do guns. You can take them, and I’ll take the bat.” Not that they should need either.
Burt shrugged as if it didn’t make a difference to him and handed over the bat. The elevator pinged, and they both stood away from the door and peeked out. The hall was empty.
They walked swiftly down the hall, Mac’s eyes constantly scanning around her, waiting for someone to jump out from one of the rooms to stop them, but no one came.
At the end of the hall, Mac swiped the keycard, saw the green light, and heard the click.
She pushed open the door and let herself in but froze when she saw Miles sitting behind his desk.
He looked just as startled to see her as well. “Miss Grant, this is an unexpected surprise.”
Burt stepped in behind her; she saw the glint of the gun in his hand from the overhead light.
“You’re supposed to be on the west side.”
Miles sat back in his chair, an evil grin crossing his face, not at all seeming to care there was a gun aimed at him. “And why would think that? Do you have my phone bugged or perhaps just my office?”
He knew he had been bugged. The meeting on the west side had been a ruse. Barry was walking into a trap. She had to warn him. Mac reached for her phone only to realize it had gotten destroyed by the sea water, and she hadn’t memorized Barry’s number.
“Why? Why go through all of this?”
“Because you and your friend are becoming a problem with my business. I tried warning you, multiple times.” He pushed up from his desk. “But you wouldn’t listen.”
“Steb movig,” Burt warned, his gun following Miles’s movements.
“You’re not going to shoot me,” Miles said confidently. “You need me alive to confess to my supposed crimes.”
“It’s not supposed. I have proof.”
“The agreement with Carver? Yes, I know. It seems it wasn’t just my office you had bugged, but my computer as well.” Miles tsked. “You know with one little touch of a button, all of that evidence goes away, and Carver is left hanging out to dry.”
So, Miles didn’t know Carver was in custody yet; she could use that knowledge to advantage. “You don’t worry about him talking when he’s found?”
“He has to be found first, and there has to be a connection. The files will be destroyed momentarily, and no one can prove my involvement.”
“Except if the backups are discovered?”
“Backups? What makes you think I have backups?” Shit, was he bluffing? Was what was on his computer all he had?
“You’re going to throw your business partner under the bus like that?”
“I can always find another business partner to make me wealthy. Fishermen in these parts are a dime a dozen, and many are eager to make a dollar.” He grinned.
“How could you?” Mac shook her head in disgust at him.
“How could I what?” he countered, raising one eyebrow in mock question.
“You’re already a rich man, why do this?”
“Not that you would know anything about this, but when you’re rich, Miss Grant, you can never have enough.”
“At the price of selling a living thing? You’re no better than a human trafficker.”
“Please, they’re fish. They don’t know anything,” Miles remarked without feeling. He didn’t care he was selling animals to the highest bidder. They were just a commodity to him.
“What are you doing with the sharks?”
“Sharks?” He looked baffled. “I’m not doing anything with sharks.”
“He’s not, I am,” said a new voice from behind them.
Mac turned around and came face-to-barrel with a gun. “Oh shit.” She looked up at the person holding it and knew she was dead.