Secret Service agent Cassidy McShane's last assignment just ended in disaster. Not only did she lose her primary in Cartageña, but she earned the pledged revenge from Tomas Macondo, the brother of an assassin she killed. When she returns home to Phoenix, Macondo's men are there. She flees across the country, stopping on quiet Cutlass Island, off the Georgia coast. There she meets minor league soccer hopeful Nick Hatch. In a hidden crypt underneath his great aunt's home, they discover treasure from the region's infamous seventeenth century pirate, Crust. Suddenly, there is widespread interest in Hatch's property, including Romanian industrialist, Vlad Rasick, and Father Dominic Brigio, an elderly priest from Rome. When Hatch's home is stormed, Cassidy barely escapes with her life. She teams with Brigio-a Shepherd, one in a long line of the Church's protectors.