Read Down to the Liar for Free Online Page B

and the proper way to treat a lady. There might be some thumbscrews involved. I like to be thorough.
    After I’ve laid it out, Tog shrugs. “Doable. How much?”
    “Three grand.”
    He purses his lips, pretending to mull it over. “I don’t do white-hat. Could sully my rep.”
    “You’ll bounce back.”
    This is why I hate bringing in contractors. Attitude, fair-weather loyalty. They’re even worse for reliability than people who owe me favors. Plus, I have to pay them, which goes against every grifter grain in my body. But this is the only play we’ve got.
    “You’re lucky I have a weakness for spitfires with great legs. Otherwise, your mouth might try my patience. And I don’t put up with
gabachos
who try my patience.”
    I sense more than see his bouncers shifting position. The air in the room chills, though the keyboard clicks and mumbled conversations haven’t lessened. Dani’s hand circles my upper arm, but I shake her off. I’m not leaving without a deal.
    I rest my hands on either arm of his overstuffed chair and lean in, stopping an inch from his nose.
    “What a coincidence. Because I have exactly zero tolerance for posers like you. But it so happens my far superior hacker is on walkabout right now, so I’m in need of a temp. You don’t want the job, fine. I’ll dig up your nearest competitor and give him the money and the bragging rights instead. And then I’ll find your mom”—I stroke his neck suggestively and wind one of the gold chains around my finger—“and tell her exactly what happened to all her costume jewelry.”
    Then I push against his chest to lever myself to standing. Murphy gapes at me. Dani’s as stoic as always, but I can tell she’s angry. Strangely, I’m not anymore. It’s the grifter’s high that comes from reading a mark and knowing
exactly
how to get him to do your bidding. Tog is a masochist in sadist’s clothing. Deep down he wants someone to push him around.
Give the mark what he wants….
    “Six grand,” he says, his voice husky.
    I flash a version of his smirk back at him, hand perched on my hip bone in my best impression of a bikini model. Then I turn and walk away.
    “I’ll be in touch,” I call over my shoulder. Dani and Murphy follow me out.
    Dani stews in silence the whole drive back to Bryn’s house, which is where we picked up Murphy for our cracker-fishing expedition. I know she’s mad, and I know why she’s mad. But she’s just going to have to get over it.
    When I get out to let Murphy out of the Chevelle’s backseat, he glances between Dani and me. “Want me to drive you?” he asks.
    It’s a gentlemanly offer, but I’m even less scared of Dani than I am of Tog, though not for the same reasons. Tog is all posturing and no teeth. Dani is the reverse. Her teeth are razor sharp, and she’d never give an enemy advance warning. But I’m pretty sure she won’t bite me, no matter how much I might deserve it.
    “Nah. Thanks, though. I’ll text you if I make it to the office.”
    He nods. “All right. Just try not to piss her off any more tonight.”
    “Come on, Murph. This is me we’re talking about.”
    “Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of.”
    I push the passenger seat back into position and slide into it, shutting the door with the soft slam unique to muscle cars. Dani pulls away from the curb. She waits two whole minutes before laying into me.
    “It makes me crazy when you do that,” she says as she shifts gears.
    “It makes
me
crazy when you act all overprotective. I was playing him, and it went perfectly.”
    “What if it had not gone as you planned? I counted three guards at least. Not to mention his thirty acolytes. It was an unnecessary risk. You always gamble as if your life is worthless.”
    “Look, I didn’t pick a job baking cupcakes. What I do is lousy with risk.”
    “You think I cannot tell when you are working and when you are being recklessly self-destructive?”
    Okay, I might have gone a tiny bit off the