Can two broken men build one life? Ten years. That’s what Makai lost for a crime he didn’t commit. He’s been exonerated, but the abuse he suffered in prison isn’t so easy to leave behind. He heads to the one place he remembers being happy: Acker, Wisconsin, where he spent summers with his grandpa. Unfortunately, not everyone wants Makai there. Ten days. That’s how long Emil, now twenty-one, was held prisoner as a teenager. The mental and physical injuries he suffered at the hands of a drug trafficking ring still haunt him. Nightmares, anxiety, and PTSD challenge the connection forming between Makai and Emil, though together, they might find a way to move beyond their pain and into a future -- and a relationship -- that both had thought impossible. Now they just have to convince Emil’s father, the town sheriff. It won’t be easy with danger closer than they know ...

Sure, there’d been the odd outsider who had seen that a spot was open and they’d come in and tried to campaign, and then soon they’d run off with their tails between their legs. Yeah, Emil was proud of his dad being the guy he was, even if sometimes it affected their personal relationship.


“Hey, Emil,” the only female deputy, Erin Peters, said brightly from her desk.


“Hey, E. How’s it going?” Emil couldn’t help but to smile at her. She was the sister of his shrink, Evy, and the women couldn’t be more different if they’d tried. Emil liked them both, though.


“It’s okay. Been a good week so far,” she said and seemingly without realizing, reached a hand to rap her knuckles on the wooden desk.


“Dad in?” Emil asked, even though he could see him inside his office through the slits of the blinds.


Chapter 8