Pale Carnations -ch. 4 Update 4- -mutt Jeff- ... -

“Mutt,” I said, sliding the door shut. The latch clicked with a finality that made his shoulders twitch.

“She’s asking about the fourth round,” I said. “The private exhibition. The one not on the club’s books.”

I didn’t take the bait. I pulled the folded photograph from my inside pocket and laid it face-up on the table between us. A girl. Pale hair, dark roots showing. A gaze that wasn’t pleading, but calculating. She’d been a runner, once. Before Jeff got his hooks in. Pale Carnations -Ch. 4 Update 4- -Mutt Jeff- ...

“Club wants a lot of things.” Jeff stood, slow, his joints popping like distant gunfire. He loomed, not tall, but wide—a bulldog in a stained vest. “But you tell them this: Mutt Jeff delivers what he’s paid for. And what he ain’t paid for stays in the back room. Under the floorboards.”

He flipped the top card from the deck. The Ace of Spades. “Mutt,” I said, sliding the door shut

“The kind that gets a venue shut down,” I replied.

I picked up the photograph and slid it back into my pocket. “The club wants her ready for the main event. No more ‘private exhibitions.’” “The private exhibition

Jeff nodded, satisfied. “There it is. She’ll break again. They always do. The only question is whether she breaks for the crowd… or against it.”