Lie to Me Read Online Free PDF

though. It’s because it’s too hard to bring those memories up. They’re too big. They’ll swallow me whole.
    I cannot deal with Marcus on an emotional level.
    But on a physical level?
    I’ve never felt like this before. Ever.
    I feel like I’m burning up, grateful for the rain, something, anything to cool me off as I force one foot in front of the other. My core is liquid heat, my body aware of every sensation, every touch of cold water, every brush of harsh fabric, all of it charged with the knowledge that Marcus Roma is nearby.
    It is beyond inappropriate. I’m relieved, in a sick, sad way, to know I can feel these things again, but really? Now?
    I mean, honestly. I’m trudging back through the rain, past the new condo developments with their glass walls and trust fund hipsters, past the developments still in construction, past the few old houses left between them like lonely baby teeth just waiting to be replaced, and I’m doing all this on my way to what is likely to be a very important meeting with Alex Wolfe.
    I cannot be turned on right now. Never mind the fact that it’s kind of twisted, considering. I have to handle this.
    Alex Wolfe gave me Dill. Whatever else he did, he gave me Dill. I have to treat this with the respect it deserves.
    At least, that’s what I think happened. I was probably more surprised than anybody when Judge McPherson awarded me full custody. I’d expected to have to keep petitioning the court, building my credibility over time or something, but nope. First time. Custody of my little brother. The one thing I wanted more than anything in the world, and I was still technically a teenager. And there was Mr. Wolfe, whom I’d spoken to what—once, twice? When he’d come by to see Marcus, before Marcus left me to go work for him. Alex Wolfe, the guy I associated with Marcus leaving me, sitting right there in the front row of Dill’s custody hearing, smiling.
    Smiling.
    And then, when it was over, and I couldn’t believe what had just happened, Alex Wolfe looked right at me and winked. I went up to him, dumbfounded. All he said was, “Do a good job.”
    I knew it was him. Knew he’d somehow fixed it so that I got Dill. I didn’t ask any questions, didn’t want to know how he’d done it, didn’t want to jinx it—but I never knew why he helped me, either. I still don’t. I only know that it’s because of him that I have what’s left of my family back.
    Kind of a big debt, right?
    I never saw Mr. Wolfe around much after that. Rumor is he has real estate and construction concerns nationwide now, working as a consultant on other things, a finger in many pies. Except that now he’s back, convincing his old neighborhood to sell out to a developer. Maria already told me—Mr. Wolfe had gotten three families to sign on the dotted line in only a few weeks.
    And now I’m going to have to tell him no. The man who gave me my brother back finally wants something from me, and I’m going to have to say no.
    I’m thinking about this as I finally approach the small two-story house my parents left me when they died. When the developers started coming around, trying to buy up property, I’d put a great big “NOT FOR SALE, SUCKERS” sign in the front yard. Now I’m thinking that that was the first thing Mr. Wolfe saw.
    Well, at least I won’t have to break the news to him myself.
    I take a deep breath, try to shake off as much of the rain as possible, and open the front door.
    Maria comes rushing forward to meet me in the hall, her whole body moving in seemingly different directions under a dress layered with her favorite apron. I can hear voices coming from the living room, one of them Dill’s, the other deeper—bigger, somehow. Mr. Wolfe. And the sounds of Dill’s latest video game, sounds that I made for him. I write the music for his games.
    It’s a silly thing to be thinking about, but it bothers me, that Dill’s playing that game—our game, sort of, though really it’s