Understory — Lisa J. Lickel

When nobody loves you, you have nothing to lose.
Lily Masters is not getting involved with any fake job scheme covering a sex trafficking operation supposedly cooked up by her stepbrother, prison guard Art Townsend. Hoping to get help at a friend's place deep in the woods of northern Wisconsin, Lily loses her way in a blizzard. At first, she doesn't realize how fortunate she is to be found by Cam Taylor, a poetry-spouting former lit professor.

Cam has his own reasons to hide. While writing a biography of his Civil Rights activist grandparents, he accidentally stirs up a cold case murder involving a potential Supreme Court judge. When trouble follows, either of them is the likely target.

Beneath every story is layer upon layer of trust and lies. Who can they believe when things go from surreal to devastating?