Ashton wishes he wasn't related to the sheriff. He's told Nicole enough about what's going on behind the scenes - and she's witnessed enough of it herself - to know that he means every word of it. It's no secret that she's the one holding him together at the seams. Nicole. The one person that seems to be keeping him going. She knows that's how Ashton sees her. It's no secret that they're in love with each other. However, there are a lot of secrets in the small town of Harvey. One by one, the secrets surrounding the police department begin to unravel and no one is more shocked at what they find than Ashton himself. Affairs, blackmail, and payoffs are just under the surface. As they dig deeper, however, they find more secrets - darker ones. With a change in sheriff, Ashton finds himself joining the police force in hopes of finding more of these secrets. When he does, can even Nicole help him to keep it together as everything around them falls apart?

Nicole and her family love to vacation in Harvey, a small beachside town. However, it's a town of secrets, and Nicole is invested. She loves a good mystery and can't help herself from getting wrapped up in the town's biggest one: Ashton. As the son of the town's sheriff, Ashton is expected to follow in his father's footsteps. But what do you do when you don't agree with how things are run? For him, the answer is to live in the woods and take all his secrets with him. Naturally, this sparks rumors and means he's the main suspect when a little girl is found dead on the shore. The police want nothing more than to see him be charged for murder. Nicole doesn't believe it for a moment, though. She's fallen hard for the mysterious nature of the gentle creature in the woods, and nothing can convince her that he's to blame for anything going on in the town. However, nothing is ever as simple as it seems... Word Count: 51,025