After School Read online

deciding not to let him.”

  “Why would you lie for me? You can get in trouble if somebody found out.”

  She shrugged. “You made a choice in that moment to save yourself. You decided to be strong and do what you had to do to survive.” She took a deep breath, thinking of what she was getting herself into and running the potential consequences in her mind one last time. She nodded to herself. “Well, now I’m making a choice too. I’m doing what I have to do.”

  She helped him to his feet. The moment he was off the bench, his boxers snapped off and landed at his feet.

  Dayana could see the mortification in Caleb’s eyes, but she was amazed that he didn’t even try to cover himself.

  She took off her coat and wrapped it around his waist. “I’m not going to let you be humiliated again, Caleb.”

  “You don’t have to do this for me.” He stared at the ground, ashamed of himself.

  She turned his head up and looked him in the eyes. “Yes, I do.” A tear escaped her eye. “Every day you said ‘Hi’ to me with a smile and I just ignored you every time.”

  “It’s okay. Everyone did.”

  She shook her head. “No, it’s not okay to treat people like that. And I’m sorry, Caleb. Maybe if somebody had stepped up sooner, you’d never have been alone. Garret could’ve never done this to you, and you’d never have been forced to fight back.” She saw the paramedics approaching them. “Well, now I’m part of this too.”

  Caleb closed his eyes. “Do you really think I was strong?”

  She nodded. “I do. It took strength to stand up for yourself like you did today. And after finally taking just a few minutes to see you as a person, I see that you were always strong, even if I couldn’t see it.”

  Caleb hugged her as tightly as his weak arms would allow him too. He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t have to. He pulled back and wiped his tears away.

  Dayana noticed the faintest look of relief in his eyes. It was only a glimmer, but it was something. It gave her hope that she was doing the right thing.

  Sneak Peak at the debut novel from J.J. Francesco, Blood Chain

  They Say Life Imitates Art, But Sometimes Death Imitates It Better

  When 9-year-old Eric Holden discovers a murdered boy at a New Jersey beach, Detective Julie Martel is as moved to bring him motherly comfort as she is driven to find the culprit. Having survived their family being torn in half by death, Julie and her son Patrick know full well how grief can tear a heart apart. More than anything, Julie wants to bring healing to Eric and promises to bring this killer down.

  Then Eric and his family are discovered murdered the very next day. Reeling from failing Eric, Julie uncovers the killer’s depraved pattern: whoever finds his murders will be his next victims, along with their entire family. His victims’ dead bodies are the sculptures in his brutal artistic fantasies, amplifying his torture.

  A crusade for justice morphs into a struggle to keep her loved ones alive, as each kill cuts closer to her own shattered family, testing her faith with the most heartless of evils. When the endgame sets in, both Julie and Patrick’s lives are in his clutches and the only way out may be through the embrace of death.