She’d said she understood why he’d made the decision, but he had still heard the sadness in her voice that he wasn’t following her lead.Mac didn’t understand the crime world.Carver was just a worker.To end the corruption, they needed to cut the head from the snake—which was Miles.Once he was captured, the others would be next.Mac just needed to be patient.
Barry felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.He turned around just as a fist was swinging toward his face.Barry rolled to the side and narrowly avoided it before coming up to his feet.
A man slammed into his waist, driving him back into a tree.Barry grimaced in pain, feeling like his spine had been broken, but he pushed past it as another fist came at him.Barry ducked down and heard the cracking of bones as the fist connected with the tree.
The man cried out, holding his injured hand.Barry brought his knee up into his attacker’s solar plexus, then punched down into his jaw, knocking him out.
The other attacker released his broken hand and swung a meaty fist at him.Barry ducked out of the way and delivered three consecutive blows to the man’s ribs.He stumbled back, and Barry pressed his advantage.
He drove his foot into the man’s knee, smiling in satisfaction when he heard it crack and the man’s leg buckle, dropping him to his good knee.Barry spun and kicked him across the face.He spun with the kick and fell onto his back with his arms spread open and his eyes closed.
Barry looked down at the men who’d attacked him and realized these were Miles’s guards.How had they known he was there?Barry looked up at Miles and saw he was still just standing there.Time to put an end to this.Barry marched through the brush and charged at Miles.
The man saw him at the last second and threw his hands up in surrender.“Don’t hurt me.”
Barry gripped the front of his shirt and walked him back against a tree with his fist raised, then froze.That hadn’t sounded like Miles.He looked closer and realized this wasn’t Miles.Barry had just assumed since he was supposed to be here, and with the jacket collar high covering half his face, Barry couldn’t tell the difference.
“Who are you?”Barry demanded.
“Denny, Denny Graves.”
“Did Miles hire you?”
“Yeah, he gave me some of his clothes and told me to stand out here.”
It was a damn setup to lure him away.Somehow, Miles knew he had put a bug under the desk and taken advantage.Fuck all these hours wasted.He could have gone to the north side and tracked down the fishing boat.Now he was back to square one.
“Where’s Miles?”
“I don’t know.”Denny shook his head.
The guy was useless to him.“Get out of here.”He pulled him from the tree and tossed him away from him.The guy didn’t linger past that.
Barry cursed himself for not seeing the potential of a setup.Miles was crafty.Barry should have known he wouldn’t be so easily fooled.
He returned to his car and headed back to town, not happy to have to tell Mac she had been right, and he’d lost the element of surprise.
He called Mac’s phone, but it went straight to voicemail.Was she that mad at him she was blocking his calls?“Hey, Mac, I’m on my way back.”He sighed heavily.Maybe if she heard his apology on the voicemail, she’d call him back.“You were right; we should have followed the boat.Miles was a dead end.He knew I was listening in and lured me away from that side of the island.Call me back, please.”
Barry was halfway back when his phone rang.It was a number he didn’t recognize.“Hello?”he answered, hoping it was Mac from a different line.
“Barry?”
“Who’s asking?”Barry responded, not ready to reveal anything.
“This is Jalen, Elsie’s grandson.”
“I’m surprised you called.”The kid had made it sound like he’d rather chew glass than speak to him.
“I hadn’t planned on it, but I figured I should warn you.”
“Warn me about what?”
“Your girlfriend is walking into a trap.”
“What trap?”he asked, focusing on the more important question and not his status with Mac.
“Just get to the hotel before something happens to her.”
