Fear gripped her insides, as Jenna’s trembling fingers struggled to hold the small picture of her younger brother, Austin and his fiancée, her best friend Kelly. Tied with ropes around their wrists and ankles, and gagged with handkerchiefs as they lay in the back of Austin’s car. The most distressing part of the picture was a mysterious hand holding a gun to Kelly’s stomach, threatening the life of her unborn child. Jenna clenched her teeth. “How could he do this…to his own daughter and future grandchild? What kind of a man…?” Chase Garrett shook his head. Jenna’s anchor in her otherwise tumultuous life, Chase was speechless at the moment. Austin and Kelly were missing, and the picture presented its own horrifying theories he dared not mention. Jenna was right…this latest turn of events had Mason Hamilton written all over it. Just a few months earlier, Jenna had received unsettling news inside another tan envelope. At that time, a picture of Austin indicated he had been abducted and Hamilton was the prime suspect. Déjà vu. Mason Hamilton was up to his old tricks again, all for the sake of the precious treasure pieces. Mason Hamilton’s obsession. Five small gold animal figurines believed to be the Lost Treasure of Blackbeard. Reportedly worth millions, Hamilton had proven he was willing to stake the lives of anyone in order to collect all five pieces. Regrettably, Jenna had been the one to find the treasure pieces hidden for over thirty years in the basement of her family’s beach house. Purposely buried in the bottom of an old metal cabinet by her mother…at the request of her best friend, FBI Agent Maria Turette. The pirate treasure still casting its fateful curse for centuries. Death comes to those who dare to hold all five pieces of tainted gold. “The pirate curse…,” Chase began. “It’s holding true. I told you, Jenna, and you didn’t want to believe me.” “Well, I’m a believer now,” she said firmly. Slipping out of Chase’s grasp, she fell flat on her ass on the hard wooden floor. Staggering to her feet, she steadied herself by placing both hands on the kitchen table. “He’s not giving up…and neither am I,” she asserted, resisting the temptation to tear up the picture into tiny shreds. “He’s pushed me too far this time. For God’s sake, Chase! Kelly is pregnant!” Jenna wanted so badly to scream. Maria Turette had been right; this was all just a game to Hamilton. He knew exactly which pawns to use and what moves to make keeping everyone on the verge of exploding. “I’m not giving up, Chase! Not now, not ever! He’s not going to win.” Chase covered her hands with his own. “But at what price, Jenna? You know what Hamilton is capable of…and he has people on his payroll who are ruthless. Every step you make is met with a lethal maneuver. Are you sure you want to keep baiting him?” Jenna turned and swallowed hard. Chase was right, of course. She knew it deep down, but at the same time there was no way she could stop now. She had vowed to finish what her mother had started. To keep the treasure pieces far away from Hamilton for as long as possible. “I’m in this to the end. Just like Maria.” “Then I’ll stand with you.” Chase closed the distance between them. Drawing her back against his chest, Chase planted a light kiss on the back of her head. Jenna attempted a small smile. She spun around and lifted her hands to Chase’s neck. “Might not be the best decision you ever made.” “Oh, I don’t know about that,” Chase said with a twinkle in his eye. “Meeting you was one of the best moments in my life. And spending time with you certainly has added a dimension of thrill to my lifestyle. I wouldn’t trade a minute of it.” Chase paused for a moment, then squeezed Jenna’s waist. “Actually, I could have done without the gun threats, finding you unconscious inside the museum and watching you bleed from a gunshot wound. But other than that…” Jenna didn’t wait for the rest of the sentence. She grabbed Chase’s face then kissed him long and hard. “That’s for being my anchor and keeping me sane.” Jenna picked up the picture from the kitchen table and took a deep breath. “We need to find my brother and my best friend as soon as possible.” “Hamilton is playing you, Jenna.” “Maybe…but he has no idea what I’m capable of…this time.” Jenna ran her fingers over the picture as rage emanated from her pores. Turning it over, she re-read the taunting message as she grimly imagined the fate of Austin and Kelly.
Welcome Home, Jenna Reed. I’ll be in touch.
The insidious cat-and-mouse game which had begun in early summer was now escalating to a new distorted level. Jenna had no doubt Mason Hamilton was at the controls once again, primed and pumped to inflict his wrath upon those who dared to defy him. The first figurine, the gold elephant, had been forcibly taken from her in New York when she had gone to Hamilton’s office to plead for her brother’s release. Suffering mercilessly at the hands of Hamilton’s side-kick, the hideous ogre Hans Kliric, she finally passed out, almost dying from the multiple wounds he inflicted across the top of her chest with his honed knife. The scars had only just begun to heal when Jenna offered her help to Damian Pierce to find his wife Maria. Heading to Texas, Jenna risked her life in an attempt to rescue Maria, narrowly missing an explosion at a storage facility. Assuming the coast was clear after the dust settled, she made the critical mistake of jumping from her hiding place too soon. A bullet from an unknown assailant burned into her shoulder, and yet again, Jenna found herself in the hospital. Most sane people would have given up by now, her conscience bellowed.
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