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

I reached out, slow, and drew from the middle. The Queen of Hearts. Her painted smile was the same as the girl’s in the photograph. The same hollow fold.

“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.”

He turned his back to me then, a clear dismissal, and began shuffling once more.

“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.”