Casey Williams had an infectious grin and a gentle heart. His brothers often felt they needed to step it up a little bit if they were going to keep up with him in the ‘what it takes to be a good man’ department. As a Deputy for Elko County, Nevada, he liked his life and enjoyed his big, if somewhat unorthodox, family.

But Casey also had a sad side. He knew what it was like to lose someone you love. Already at his young age, he had lost his parents, his brother, and almost lost his only sister… twice. But he had never experienced the loss of his heart. That was before he looked up in a hospital room and found Dakota Mitchell. He had never had his heart handed back to him in pieces, either. That was before he met Dakota, too.

It hadn’t started out that way. Dakota was a bright and sunny young lady when they first met. She was a little naïve and her ex-cop sister sometimes embarrassed her with the way she talked. Then she followed her own dream into Forensic Science, landing a job with the Las Vegas Police Department. Maybe that’s when she changed. Nobody really understood. Neither did Dakota.

As Casey headed down to Las Vegas to pick Dakota up for the weekend, none of them had any idea of the dangerous and trying times that were headed right for him,. Dakota was just one of them.