Book excerpt: Buck Sellers couldn't remember when he had not been a part of the fishing industry on Florida's southwest coast. He knew these waters like the back of his hand. When offered the chance to make some extra money by simply steering a shrimp boat for an inexperienced captain through the Placida Channel at night, he agreed. This proved to be a decision that would destroy his family and ruin his life. Hiding on a shell mound island outside Boca Grande, Buck began plotting his revenge. As he dug one evening during a rainstorm to even out the sand under his makeshift tent, his fingers felt a strange object--a gold cross with seven green emeralds in it. Buck had never been a religious man, but he took this as a sign from God. He tied the cross on a fishing line and hung it around his neck. For the first time in his life, Buck prayed and asked for God's help. As he sought justice for his family from the waters of south Florida to the night clubs in Miami, north to the mountains of Georgia, and back to the farmlands of Homestead, Florida, the story of the cross Buck found on that shell mound and how it protected him from all who would do him harm spread, creating The Legend of the Emerald Cross.