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.
