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 ...

Half an hour later, they parked at the cottage. Alice got out of her car and looked around curiously.


“Let me show you the lake,” Emil told her and left Makai to go let the kittens into the pen while he and Alice walked to the edge of the yard.


Makai could hear them talking and felt pretty good about her being there. Well, at least better than he’d thought he’d feel. They’d agreed that if she didn’t seem like the person she’d been in her nice emails and then on the phone, they wouldn’t have asked her to come to the cottage at all. Emil had said that he didn’t want any negative energy at their home, and Makai had very much agreed.


“Oh, this pen is pretty awesome,” Alice said when she and Emil got closer.


The kittens noticed someone new was there and made inquisitive sounds at the source of her voice.


Chapter 85