MR. PETRIE, HAVE YOU EVER BEEN A PIRATE?

Before December 2, 2002, Roger Petrie would have laughed off such a question as absurd. But, although he and his older brother Tom were sea-faring men, their experiences in the Navy and Merchant Marine were far from the stuff of pirate legends.

That was before their cargo ship MV Belvedere foundered during a violent eastern Caribbean storm that fateful winter night. Before the brothers woke up the following morning to find the Belvedere under attack by a vessel commanded by a bloodthirsty rogue with no business being there. Their lives were forever changed. The brothers had to rely on their twenty-first-century wits and technology to escape death, both at the hands of their new, sadistic captain and crewmates and the governmental authorities' intent on their destruction.

As far as their family and friends knew, the Petrie brothers had been lost at sea, and the Belvedere disappeared without a trace. So people were shocked when, through a bizarre set of circumstances, the brothers were found and rescued from an uncharted island close to where the Belvedere had vanished two years prior. Not wanting to recount what had happened to them in those lost years, the brothers returned home. Roger resolved to forget the past and build an everyday life, marrying Rebekah, moving to Sarasota, FL, and raising two children. Tom also moved to Sarasota to be near Roger's family and start a new chapter in their lives.

The past proved more challenging to ignore than Roger imagined. His new wife and her friends were mystified as evidence—ancient weapons, valuable coins, names of ships, and captains long since vanished—kept surfacing. As the evidence mounts, Rebekah is left to wonder; did something unbelievable happen to her husband and his brother after their ship was lost?

And can Roger deflect her suspicions without destroying his family and driving himself insane?