Geoff Hunter
Published: 2007
Total Pages: 394
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Juel is a beautiful young woman but had a cruel and abusive childhood, spending many years in a psychiatric hospital where she suffered further deprivations. She is now an amoral killer, seeking to satisfy her own insatiable desires of greed and pleasure. During a casual robbery she and two brothers kill an antiques dealer while stealing a set of priceless medieval jewels. Kay sees them escape and Juel attempts to silence her. She fails but later persuades the brothers to kidnap Kay so she can force her husband, Jake, to carry out a number of acts of revenge on her behalf, while she establishes her own alibi. Jake reluctantly agrees to these demands, believing that provided he does not inform the police and carries out what he thinks will be relatively minor offences, his wife Kay will come to no harm. He is sure that along the way he will be able to make his escape and rescue Kay. Jake has vowed he will do anything to free Kay but is soon faced with the true nature of Juel's lust for revenge - then it is too late to turn back. In following her instructions he participates in the bloody reprisals that follow but in a desperate shoot-out he saves her life and begins to understand the torment of her childhood. He finds himself drawn to protect her and finds her beauty hard to resist. Kay is locked underground but in her attempts to escape witnesses the true horror of the younger brother's warped imagination. Here he has created his own fantasy world of weapons and artefacts and uses an old dungeon to torture young women he has abducted. In doing so he re-lives the trauma and guilt he suffered the day his mother was killed in a horrific car accident, for which he was responsible. Finally Jake and Kay are reunited but in his heart Jake knows their love will never be the same again. Perhaps one day his memories of Juel will fade away.
