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 ...

“Go make sure they find us, okay?” Makai told him from somewhere in the rubble.


Emil nodded, then realized he couldn’t make another sound even if he tried and just turned around and ran back through the patch of woods and up the hill.


It was his dad’s cruiser that rolled to a stop by Makai’s truck, and Emil let out a sob of pure relief.


“Emil!” Dad and Jason got out of the cruiser at the same time, looking equally worried.


“Here, down where the boat shed is. It started to go down when Joey went in. Then Makai went to protect him, I guess, and it collapsed on them.”


“Jason, you stay here, make sure they know where to come,” Dad told his deputy, and Jason nodded solemnly. “Show me, son.”


Emil started to jog back with his dad on his heels. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault. We told him not to go into buildings, but he’s a little kid and—”


Chapter 31