Tell No Lies Read Online Free PDF Page A

himself, finding a point of leverage and leaning hard, locking out a joint, letting him ride his own momentum down.
    And sometimes you go for the full-frontal out-and-out attack.
    Which of course was higher risk.
    And higher reward.
    Daniel could feel his heartbeat in the side of his neck, tapping in the fragile artery, a reminder of the stakes should this go awry. Just once can’t you take the easy way?
    He cleared his throat. Leaned forward, elbows on knees, angling his shoulders, a knifepoint posture. His voice low, aggressive. “You pathetic idiot.”
    A-Dre stiffened on his chair. Whatever he was expecting, it was not this.
    “Letting the world grind you down, huh?” Daniel said. “Nothing your fault. You got your tough-guy marks. Your cheap-ass tattoos.”
    The others drew slowly upright on their chairs. They’d never seen Daniel take this tack, but they’d seen plenty of times where it led in other situations.
    A-Dre wet his lips. “The fuck you say to me, you white-ass piece of shit?”
    The sudden electricity amped up Daniel’s senses, his skin tightening. One of Fang’s shiny sneakers squeaked faintly against the tile. The stale air tasted of rusting pipes, cigarette smoke, the sweet rot of the disintegrating subfloor.
    Daniel said, “That spiderweb on your elbow, supposed to show that you got caught in the system, right? You’re too dumb to know it used to be a white-supremacy tat.”
    A-Dre jerked to his feet as if pulled by a hook, the chair knocked over by the backs of his legs, rattling the tiles. His shoulders bulged, arms tensed, veins rising. His neck, a wall of cords.
    Daniel implored him silently, Don’t charge me. Have just enough control to let me get to the other side.
    He forced a laugh. “A black man wearing an Aryan Brotherhood tattoo. That’s rich.”
    A-Dre lunged forward, and for an instant Daniel was sure he’d gambled wrong, that he’d misgauged the man and the session was going to end with blood spatter on the floor. But A-Dre stopped over him, arm jacked to the side, forefinger and thumb hammering the air above Daniel’s head, punctuating each word. He was screaming, lost in rage.
    “Motherfucker, you say one more thing! You say one more thing!”
    Daniel kept his seat, fighting every instinct in his body that was telling him to rise, to protect himself. He kept the pitch of his voice the same, not escalating but not backing down, maintaining direct, hostile eye contact. “You just broke three rules,” he said, “in ten seconds. Look at you. Your heart’s racing. Clenched fists, raised voice. Your jaw’s tight. You like feeling this way?”
    “Course I don’t fucking like it. You’re making me—”
    Daniel pounced. “That’s right. I’m making you. I did this to you. All this. You know why? Because I’m smarter than you. Better than you. You’re a puppet. I’m controlling your voice, your heartbeat, your muscles—”
    “No one controls me!” A-Dre yelled. “It’s my body. I act how I want to act.”
    “No,” Daniel said. “I made you pop up off your chair and stomp over here, swearing and yelling. Admit it. I did this to you, didn’t I? Didn’t I! ”
    A-Dre drew back a fist. It loomed there, behind his ear, quivering. Lil gave a little cry. Daniel looked up at the cocked fist, the bulging arm, the whole room hanging by a thread.
    “Bullshit!” A-Dre screamed. “ I did. I did it myself. ”
    The words rang off the hard walls. A-Dre’s face shifted as the words bounced back off the echo. Registering them for the first time.
    No sound in the room. A frozen tableau—six bodies on chairs and one figure standing. A-Dre’s chest heaved and fell, heaved and fell.
    “You’re right,” Daniel said. “Which means you can change it.”
    All the air seemed to go out of A-Dre, the puffed-up chest deflating, the straining muscles suddenly lax and shuddering as if of their own volition. He lowered his arm, shuffled two steps back, and sat.
    “Welcome to