by Sara Hantz
Spalding holds open the door, and I walk through, not letting the sound of it closing and locking behind me make any sort of visible impact. Not looking at Dad, rather focusing on a spot on the wall above him, I stride over and pull out a chair and sit down, keeping my hands in my lap and not on the table in case he tries to touch me. Then, and only then, do I allow my eyes to focus on him. As a detached observer, I notice something arrogant about him. The look on his face. The way in which he’s sitting straight and leaning back slightly. It’s like he thinks he’s got something on me because I came back. But he’s wrong.
“Dad,” I say, this time initiating the conversation.
“Jed. Good to see you.” He smiles.
My expression remains neutral. And, all the time, my eyes stay fixed on him. You’d think he’d show some sort of remorse in his face. Something. But no. It’s like this is just a casual visit.
I have all the questions the police want answered swirling around my head. I don’t really know where to start. If I ask outright how many more children and where they are, he might dig his heels in. Maybe I should lead into those.
“Are you going to change your plea now that I’m here?”
I lean forward slightly, still keeping my hands away from the table and still trying not to show any emotion on my face.
“What makes you think that?” Dad asks a few seconds later after breaking eye contact and looking around the room.
Surely, he can’t have forgotten his agreement with the police. Dad never forgets anything. He’s trying to play with me. But I won’t let him.
“We know you did it. Your souvenirs are proof enough of that.” I roll my eyes toward the ceiling before I’m able to check myself. But so what? If that’s the only emotion I show, then I’m okay with it.
“Inadmissible evidence,” he says, his lips turning up in a slight smile.
Something the police did in the search, I should think. How do these lawyers sleep at night, trying to get someone like him off?
“I’ll testify. I’ll tell the court that you told me you were driven to it. Just like your father did to you. Why do you have to put these families through any more than they’ve been through? Admit you’ve done it. And tell the police where all the other bodies are.”
It’s like, suddenly, I’ve cracked through his façade, and he no longer looks in control. He lowers his head.
“Just one more,” he says softly, raising his eyes to look at me. “My first.” He looks wistful, almost. It’s just fucking sick. Screwed up and sick. “Henry Lu.”
My breath catches in my throat, and I stare at him. Yeah, so he’s my biological father. But that’s where the similarity ends. I don’t care what he’s done. What my grandfather did. Deep in my heart, I know that I’m not going to turn out like that.
“Souvenir?” I ask, it suddenly entering my head that there wasn’t one for this boy in the box the police found.
“What?” Dad says, frowning.
“You kept hair from the other boys. What do you have of Henry’s?”
I’m not sure I really want to know the answer to this, but if it helps the boy’s family, or helps the police investigation, then it’s worth knowing.
“Nothing. I don’t need one. He was the first, and it’s all in here.” He points to his head.
My stomach churns, and I try not to think of all the things he did to the kid.
“Where is he?” I ask in a monotone voice.
“Buried deep. Not like the others. In Drayton Park Lake, near Tucson.”
I stand, turn, and head for the door, knocking on it hard. “I’m done.”
Chapter Forty-five
Jared Nathanial Franklin
Age seventeen.
Mother Claire, sister Amy.
Tousled dark brown hair brushing his collar.
Maniac runner.
Freckles on nose.
Intense brown eyes.
Six feet one inch tall.
Neat freak.
Favorite rock band: U2.
Hates Hawaiian pizza.
Friends: Troy and Dawson.
Girlfriend: Summer.
Benjamin Franklin’s son; no longer a victim.
Alive
Acknowledgments
This book would not exist without the help of my fabulous critique partners, Amanda Ashby and Christina Phillips, who helped me take the idea in my head and turn it into a reality. Also, Vanessa Barneveld and Wendy Toliver, thanks for your valuable input.
Thank you agent Amy Tipton for your unwavering belief in my book and working so hard on getting it out there.
To everyone at Entangled Publishing, I’m so grateful to you for taking a chance on my book. I particularly want to thank Shannon Godwin, Liz Pelletier, and Stacy Abrams for your incredibly insightful edits. I’d also like to mention the publicity department, Heather Riccio and Jamie Arnold, for your hard work in promoting my book. And thank you, also, Kelley York for designing such a phenomenal cover, which is better than anything I could have ever imagined.
A special mention to Louise Hadland, my oldest friend, for never changing no matter how much time lapses between seeing each other.
Finally, to my husband Garry and children Alicia and Marcus, thanks for all your support and understanding.
OUT OF PLAY
by Nyrae Dawn and Jolene Perry
She’s all that’s keeping him from falling over the edge…
Rock star drummer Bishop Riley doesn’t have a drug problem. Celebrities—especially ones suffering from anxiety—just need a little help taking the edge off sometimes. After downing a few too many pills, Bishop wakes up in the hospital facing an intervention. If he wants to stay in the band, he’ll have to detox while under house arrest in Seldon, Alaska.
Hockey player Penny Jones can’t imagine a life outside of Seldon. Though she has tons of scholarship offers to all the best schools, the last thing she wants is to leave. Who’ll take care of her absentminded gramps? Not her mother, who can’t even be bothered to come home from work, let alone deal with their new tenants next door.
Penny’s not interested in dealing with Bishop’s crappy attitude, and Bishop’s too busy sneaking pills to care. Until he starts hanging out with Gramps and begins to see what he’s been missing. If Bishop wants a chance with the fiery girl next door, he’ll have to admit he has a problem and kick it. Too bad addiction is hard to kick… and Bishop’s about to run out of time.
“Romantic, sexy, funny, and tragic. OUT OF PLAY is a must read…and a must reread.”
- Cassie Mae, author of FRIDAY NIGHT ALIBI
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DEAR CASSIE
by Lisa Burstein
What if the last place you should fall in love is the first place that you do?
You’d think getting sent to Turning Pines Wilderness Camp for a month-long rehabilitation “retreat” and being forced to re-live it in this journal would be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.
You’d be wrong.
There’s the reason I was sent to Turning Pines in the first place: I got arrested. On prom night. With my two best friends, who I haven’t talked to since and probably never will again. And then there’s the real reason I was sent here. The thing I can’t talk about with the guy I can’t even think about.
What if the moment you’ve closed yourself off is the moment you start to break open?
But there’s this guy here. Ben. And the more I swear he won’t—he can’t—the deeper under my skin he’s getting. After the thing that happened, I promised I’d never fall for another boy’s lies.
And yet I can’t help but wonder…what if?
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ALL THE BROKEN PIECES
by Cindi Madsen
What if your life wasn’t your own?
Liv comes out of a coma with no memory of her past and two distinct, warring voices inside her head. Nothing, not even her reflection, seems familiar. As she stumbles th
rough her junior year, the voices get louder, insisting she please the popular group while simultaneously despising them. But when Liv starts hanging around with Spencer, whose own mysterious past also has him on the fringe, life feels complete for the first time in, well, as long as she can remember.
Liv knows the details of the car accident that put her in the coma, but as the voices invade her dreams, and her dreams start feeling like memories, she and Spencer seek out answers. Yet the deeper they dig, the less things make sense. Can Liv rebuild the pieces of her broken past, when it means questioning not just who she is, but what she is?
“Kept me guessing and frantically flipping the pages. A unique story I couldn’t help but fall in love with.”
- Nyrae Dawn, author of CHARADE
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THE REECE MALCOLM LIST
by Amy Spalding
Things I know about Reece Malcolm:
1. She graduated from New York University.
2. She lives in or near Los Angeles.
3. Since her first novel was released, she’s been on the New York Times bestseller list every week.
4. She likes strong coffee and bourbon.
5. She’s my mother.
Devan knows very little about Reece Malcolm, until the day her father dies and she’s shipped off to live with the mother she’s never met. All she has is a list of notebook entries that doesn’t add up to much.
L.A. offers a whole new world to Devan—a performing arts school allows her to pursue her passion for show choir and musicals, a new circle of friends helps to draw her out of her shell, and an intriguing boy opens up possibilities for her first love.
But then the Reece Malcolm list gets a surprising new entry. Now that Devan is so close to having it all, can she handle the possibility of losing everything?
“Charming, heart-warming, and thoughtful… THE REECE MALCOLM LIST sings!”
- Courtney Summers, author of CRACKED UP TO BE
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FLAWED
by Kate Avelynn
He’ll never let her forget her half of the pact…
Sarah O’Brien is only alive because of the pact she and her brother made twelve years ago—James will protect her from their violent father if she promises never to leave him. For years, she’s watched James destroy his life to save hers. If all he asks for in return is her affection, she’ll give it freely.
Until, with a tiny kiss and a broken mind, he asks for more than she can give.
Sam Donavon has been James’s best friend—and the boy Sarah’s had a crush on—for as long as she can remember. As their forbidden relationship deepens, Sarah knows she’s in trouble. Quiet, serious Sam has decided he’s going to save her. Neither of them realizes James is far more unstable than her father ever was, or that he’s not about to let Sarah forget her half of the pact…
“Intense, dark, painful, wrenching, and stunning, FLAWED is a fabulous debut that dances in the gray areas in the most perfect of ways.”
- A Good Addiction
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