Finally, the engines cut off, and Mac heard footsteps coming toward her.She ducked back down and pressed herself as close to the wall as she could.The footsteps stopped in front of her, and she heard the rope holding the barrels to the wall being loosened.A man grabbed the top and started rocking it side to side toward him until another man joined, and then they lifted the barrel.One of the men holding it turned their head to the side and started gagging.“Damn, that shit is nasty.”
“Get it over the side,” someone yelled from further away.
The men carried it out of sight.Mac snuck a look between the barrels to see the barrel being carried to the stern and the men dump the contents into the water.Mac pulled out her phone and started recording them.
Carver stepped up toward them, watching them work.“Throw more chum in the water.We want to lure as many sharks as we can.I have a quota to meet,” Carver shouted out at his crew.
She thought he was going after fish and catching sharks by accident, but he was purposely going after sharks.Why would he want sharks?
The two men came back toward her.Mac ducked down and stowed her phone in her lap.The men grabbed another barrel.She needed a better hiding spot.She didn’t know how many barrels they planned on using, but soon, she would be revealed.
As the men carried the barrel away, Mac crawled to the far side of the barrels and peeked out to look for a new hiding spot, then froze in horror as she watched one of the men lower a rope with meat on the end of it, dangling it over the back of the boat.
The meat had hooks sticking out of it.So if the shark bit into it, it would hook them, and they couldn’t get away.It was beyond cruel and brought tears to her eyes.
One of the sharks latched onto it right away and started thrashing as more men joined the first and dragged the shark onto the boat.Another group of men inserted a hook pole into a loop on the deck and pulled it toward the front of the boat.Mac couldn’t see what was in it from where she was standing, but the men dragging the shark pulled it right to it.
Two men jumped on top of the shark and held it down as someone forced a board into the shark’s mouth to keep it open so they could remove the hooked meat from its mouth.Once free, the men dragged it forward.
She heard more thrashing.So it was water they were dumping them into.They were keeping the sharks alive.A flash of the tiger shark she’d seen in the cove came to mind.Had it been one of the early victims but gotten away?Outright fishing sharks as if they were sport before luring them.
“Stowaway!”a cry went up.
Mac looked up to see a man standing in the crow’s nest, pointing down at her.She didn’t even know someone was up there.Mac stood up, ready to run though she didn’t know where, but before she could decide to jump ship, two men grabbed her arms.
“Bring them here.”Carver waved them over.
The men dragged her to Carver and stopped in front of him.He eyed her up and down.He stepped closer and gripped her ponytail, ripping the hair tie from her hair.Mac cried out as several strands of hair were yanked from the root.
“A female,” Carver snarled as if the word were dirty.Obviously, he didn’t care much for the fairer sex.
Mac looked at the men pouring chum from another barrel into the water That was three barrels.Talk about excessive.There was already a swarm of sharks in the area.She could hear them all thrashing.Fighting each other for the meat.The man lowered the hooked meat into the water.Mac turned away, not able to watch the horror again, and looked down to see the shark in the tank on the deck.
“You’re purposely luring them to capture them.”
“What a smart little miss,” he remarked in an almost-bored tone.
“I thought you were just in the business of overfishing, but sharks, Carver?”She shook her head at him.“Why?”To what end?It was the only thing she couldn’t figure out.What good was a shark to a fisherman?Especially a live one.
“It’s none of your business,” he growled at her.
“I’m making it my business.”She tried to step closer to him, but the men on either side of her held her back.
“And who might you be to be making demands?”
“Mackenzie Grant, shark researcher.”She tilted her chin up, looking defiant.
Carver chuckled without humor and stepped back.“She’s not a stowaway but a spy.Miles warned me about you.Said you’ve been a pain in the ass.”Carver sneered at her.
“Good,” Mac said, sounding braver than she actually felt.She was alone on a shipping barge miles from the shore.No one would be coming to her rescue.Barry was back on the island following Miles.She’d stupidly thought she could stow away on his boat and not get caught.“You might as well let me go now.The coast guard has already been notified of what you are doing and will be surrounding this vessel soon.Let me go now before things get worse for you,” she bluffed.
Some of the men looked around for the coast guard.Good, she had them scared.Maybe she could get herself out of this.
Carver stepped closer.He smelled of fish and the sea.Normally not an unpleasant smell, but on him it was repugnant.“No one is here but you,” he called her bluff.Carver came around behind her and tied her hand behind her back with rope.
As a seafaring man, he knew how to tie a knot.“Tell you what, since you love your little sharks so much, you can swim with them.”Carver came back around to her front and dragged her to the back of the boat before tossing her into the water in the middle of the feeding frenzy.
Chapter 38
