Santiago is an ambitious merchant who, rather than inheriting a family business, worked his way up starting as an apprentice to Reynaldo Montoya, a prominent Spanish merchant. When Reynaldo began getting into the slave trade, Santiago struck out on his own, a decision that angered his former mentor as he took with him many valuable contacts he had made under Diego that the senior merchant considered his own. Shortly afterwards, Santiago was arrested in Nassau on accusation of being a Spanish spy. Unbeknownst to him, the real spy was Diego de la Garza.

Santiago managed to get a letter off to Montoya, who, in exchange for promises of a handsome reward, orchestrated a jail break. However, this set off a tense rivalry between the Netherlands and Spain, both of whom now want to apprehend the young merchant. The Netherlands wants him back just as a matter of pride at this point, while Spain hopes to avert a war by apprehending and returning him to the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, because Santiago is am unable to ply his trade in the open, he has not been able to pay the promised debt to Montoya, so now he has bounty hunters looking for the young merchant as well.