1 | No Holds Barred [Among Thieves]

Prologue

❝ The true secret to seeking the unknown is in the looking, not the finding. The journey is what matters. ❞

Prologue

SINCE SHE WAS A little girl, [Name] always had a love for the ocean, mountains, and everything wild in between. Most would say she inherited her hunger for knowledge and natural curiosity from her mother, Mila.

        As an archaeologist, she would tell her daughter bedtime stories about her expeditions and adventures.

        From unearthing a perfectly preserved pre-Roman tomb to discovering thousand-year-old artifacts in the Amazon, her stories fueled [Name]'s thirst for adventure. She'd spent hours in her backyard digging up the grass, finding old bottle caps, coins, and pretending to dig up dinosaur bones and ancient artifacts.

        It was during this time that [Name] became fascinated with the greatest legends on earth. Was the world searching for Amelia Earhart in the wrong place? Had Captain Morgan's lost flagship really been found? Could there have been truth to the tales of a supernatural relic in the jungles of SouthEast Asia?

        By the time she was thirteen, [Name] had accompanied her mother on numerous expeditions during the summer, traveling to more than twenty-three countries. On one such trip, she was introduced to Victor "Sully" Sullivan, a treasure hunter and fortune seeker—as well as an old friend of her late father, Howard.

        Mila was impressed by Victor's skill, and his willingness to bend certain laws for the purposes of his work. She offered him the role of a guide and bodyguard for the trip. Victor agreed, but with one exception; he had to bring a kid he met in Cartagena, Columbia.

        [Name] wasn't aware of this, and when Victor arrived at the airport, she was more than shocked to see a boy with him. During the dreaded thirteen-hour flight, the two spent most of the time talking to one another.

        She learned that his name was Nathan Drake, he was two years older than her, had an older brother, loved researching ancient civilizations and lost artifacts just like her, hated clowns, and was a descendant of the famous English explorer Sir Francis Drake.

        Upon hearing the last statement, [Name] was skeptical. She'd done a fair amount of research on the English explorer and was ninety-nine percent sure that he never had children.

        She told Nathan this in a very matter-of-fact tone, to which he responded by saying, "Well, history can be wrong, you know," with a smirk plastered on his face.

        Over the course of the trip, they became close, eventually striking up a friendship. Things got a little bit hairy along the way; the helicopter got shot down, she and he were separated from Victor and her mother, being chased by thugs armed with guns, and it seemed like the expedition was bound to be a disaster.

        In the years that followed, she followed in her mother's footsteps and set out to make a name for herself in the world of archeology. Attending college and getting a Bachelor's Degree, she was more than ready to venture out into the world to explore, driven by curiosity.

        She lived as a traveling nomad & ex-pat—visiting over 50 countries while "vagabonding" around the world from place to place. She wanted to take risks, meet interesting people, challenge herself, see amazing things, explore the world, and learn as much as she could.

        However, when Nathan would ask her to join him on one of his expeditions, she'd instantly caved into the idea. Normally she preferred her nose buried in a book about folklore or historical expeditions; she loved the endless knowledge that came with these seemingly forgotten adventures in history.