Chapter 41
“Amber,” Mac sneered the word as if it were bitter on her tongue.
“I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not.
You do look like the money-grabbing gold digger bitch.
” Mac’s eyes raked over Annabelle who stood in a grey pencil skirt and a light blue blouse with six-inch black heels.
Her hair was twisted back into a bun and her makeup artfully done like a supermodel.
The woman always looked put together, never a strand of hair out of place.
“It’s Annabelle, actually.” Annabelle smiled. “And you look like a drowned rat.” Burt shifted from foot to foot. “Drop your gun, or Mac here gets a bullet in the head,” she told Burt while continuing to stare at Mac. Her hand was steady as a rock, holding the gun to Mac’s head.
“Annabelle, what are you doing here?” Miles asked her, sounding shocked she was here.
“Cleaning up some lose ends,” she replied, watching Burt set the gun down. “And the other.”
Burt’s features pinched, but he removed the other gun from the back of his waistband and tossed it on the ground.
“I have everything under control; there’s no reason for you to be here.”
Annabelle scoffed as she kicked the guns away. “You have nothing under control.”
“What are you doing with the sharks?” Mac demanded to know.
Annabelle smirked at her as if she held all the cards, and she was right. She was the only one with a gun now. “They are a lucrative business.”
“Business? Sharks?” Mac wasn’t following.
“Do you know what a live shark sells for?”
“Thousands.” Mac had heard of shark selling, but it wasn’t a widespread business. Some people liked them in their fish tanks, but those were small two-foot-long sharks, not the seven-footers she had saved tonight.
“Try millions.”
“How does Carver figure into this?” He was a fisherman, not a shark seller.
“I knew he and Miles had gone into business, taking all the fish. A few sharks got caught in the process. Especially on the southeast side. There are lot of sharks there. Well, used to be.” She mock-pouted, knowing how much the thought of all those sharks’ deaths would hurt Mac.
Mac took a step forward, wanting to plant her fist into Annabelle’s face. Annabelle raised her gun, reminding Mac she held the power.
“I went to him with the proposition of selling them instead of killing them and splitting the profits. He used to pick them up in his nets and sell the fins, but after I spoke to him, he realized what he could make for them alive. Thanks to Miles, I know a lot of people who are always looking for a new trade.”
Mac saw red. “You son of a bitch. You’re gathering and selling sharks like they are cattle. These are their waters. They were here first. How dare you,” Mac snarled; she tried stepping forward again, but Burt wrapped his arms around her and held her back.
“Not for much longer. With Carver’s help, the shark population in the Caribbean will dwindle, and the fish will be nonexistent.”
“What the hell, Annabelle? I didn’t authorize this.” Miles pushed up from his desk and stepped toward her, only to stop when the gun was aimed at him. He seemed to realize that while Mac hadn’t been willing to shoot him, Annabelle was.
“People will notice you’re behind this. You can’t just get rid of sharks and fish, and think no one will notice. People will come and investigate. Other researchers will report you,” Mac threatened, though it might be empty. Some of the researchers already didn’t believe Miles was capable of this.
“But not at me.” She pointed at herself. “Miles’s name is on all of the paperwork. I’m just the secretary kept out of the loop.” She pouted.
“Annabelle, what have you done?” Miles snarled.
“Secured my future,” she replied without hesitation. “You always thought yourself better than me, smarter than me. You’d be nothing without me. A penniless man living on the street corner. I made you. You owe everything to me. It’s time I collect my comeuppance.”
“You’re a monster.” Mac shook her head at her.
Annabelle’s lip twitched in humor as if she found this situation humorous instead of serious. Mac wondered if the woman had a few screws loose. “Monster is a relative term. To a mouse, a cat looks like a monster. I’m the apex predator now, and you’re the prey.”
“And what about when all the sharks are gone? You just lost your profit.” Annabelle obviously hadn’t thought this whole plan through.
“Oh, Mac, no vision at all.” She tsked. “You of all people should know there is an ocean full of sharks, and quite a few have trackers on them, making them so convenient to find. And just think, if we find the breeding grounds, I’m sure people will pay a fortune for a baby shark.
Oh, that makes me think of the song.” She started humming the baby shark song and swaying back and forth.
“You’re delusional if you think you could get away with something like that.”
“And who’s going to stop me?”
“I will stop you,” Mac said, pulling out of Burt’s arms.
“No, Miss Grant. You will not. You are just a ripple in a pond no one will ever notice is gone.”
“There’s one little problem in your plan.”
“And what’s that?” Annabelle sighed now, sounding bored with their verbal sparring, but Mac knew something Annabelle didn’t.
“Carver is out of business.” All of the color drained from Annabelle’s face. “Authorities have him in custody. It’s only a matter of time before he sings like a canary and tells of your involvement. Miles’s name on the papers will mean nothing.”
“But you won’t live long enough to see it.
” The gun centered on Mac’s heart. Mac stiffened her spine, knowing the end was coming.
There was no way to avoid it. Mac closed her eyes, not wanting to see the end.
She conjured up an image of Barry in her head, wanting that to be the last imagine in her mind before she died.
Mac wished she had told him she loved him, but now it was too late.
She only now realized the feeling she was fighting for him was love. She had just been too scared to realize it. Too little, too late.
“I beg to differ,” came another voice Mac recognized. Her eyes popped open to see Barry standing behind Annabelle. Annabelle whipped the gun around with a look of determination. Mac feared she was going to watch Barry be shot to death, but Barry was faster.
He batted the gun out of her hand as easily as swatting a fly. Her fist came up quick to punch him in the jaw. Barry easily overpowered her and grabbed her fist, tucking it between his arm and side. She swung her other fist, and he did the same thing and headbutted her.
He released her to watch her stumble back, unsteady in her heels, blood dripping from her nose before her legs buckled, and she collapsed onto the floor. Burt took advantage of the moment and picked up two of the fallen guns, aiming one at Miles and tucking the other into the back of his pants.
Miles held his hands up in surrender, knowing there was no way out of this now. Barry stepped over Annabelle and gripped Mac’s arm just under her bandage.
“Are you alright?”
“I am now.” Mac grinned, never so happy to see him.
He gingerly touched her bandaging. “What’s this?”
“Grazing from a shark tooth after Carver threw me into a food frenzy. I’ll explain later.” She waved off his concerned look. “The point is, I’m fine.” That’s what they needed to focus on. “We need to call the police.”
“Already done.”
“How?” Mac asked; how did he know they would need police, or even that she was here?
“They didn’t find one of the of audio recorders,” he explained. “I heard everything as I was racing over here.”
“The buyer meet was a setup.”
“I know. I found out too late. I tried calling you, but your phone was dead.”
“Yeah, sea water will do that to electronics.”
“I raced here as fast as I could,” he said softly as if he had to explain himself.
“I’m just glad you’re here.” Now was the time to tell him before anything else happened. “I love you, Barry.”
She waited with bated breath to see what Barry was going to say, if he said anything at all.
Neither of them had planned on loving each other.
They both had their own lives. She belonged here and he in Vegas.
How could they make a future work? Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything at all. Love just complicated matters.
Barry leaned down and kissed her briefly, well aware of their audience. “I love you too. We’ll talk later.”
“Aw, how romantic,” Annabelle snarled, sitting up and wiping the blood from her nose. “Makes me want to puke.”
“How did you know I was listening in?” Barry asked her.
“You’re cute, but not that bright, Barry. You put a bug on me, so I figured it was only fair to do the same to you.”