Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales - By Jocelynn Drake Page 0,40

thought roughly aside, I focused on the garden before us. This might not be a dangerous task, but I still didn’t want to get caught for sneaking in to steal a flower. “Careful and quiet. With the weather remaining relatively warm at night, the six pots should be in the center of the garden next to a fountain. He’s been turning off the fountain at night so we won’t have the sound to muffle our movement. We take one flower. No more. You have your bone knife?”

“Got it.”

Asian Moon Lilies were extremely temperamental. They were notoriously hard to grow and the flowers could be cut using only a knife blade made from bone. Anything else would instantly destroy the magical properties of the bloom. From there, the flower had to be stored in a brown paper bag in a dark space.

Glancing up at the house one last time to make sure there was no movement that I could see, I jumped down from the tree and headed across the yard to the garden gate. I peered through the iron bars at the garden in the full moonlight. All was quiet, with no sign of a dog or thug. In the center of the garden in a circle around a silent fountain were six terra-cotta pots holding large bushy plants with showy white blooms. Only two of the six plants were blooming tonight. The others would bloom within the next few days.

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a lock pick that I had used for nearly three years on the gate—one of the few things the garden owner had never bothered to change. With a soft click, it swung open without a sound. I hesitated. Nothing moved in the garden. There was no breeze to stir the leaves, no nocturnal animals flitting about. It looked empty and safe, but my stomach churned as adrenaline pumped through my veins. I was missing something. There had to be more. Unfortunately, the only way for me to see anything was to step farther into the garden.

With my left hand, I waved once behind me, motioning for Trixie to approach while I stepped into the garden. I moved toward the house, peering into the darkened windows through slits in curtains and in between slats in blinds. My eyesight was no better than any other human’s in darkness, but I saw nothing within the house. Turning back toward the garden, I watched as Trixie soundlessly moved between the plants along the little stone path to the center. The moonlight glided over her, caressing her curves. The small bone knife in her hand seemed to glow as she raised it to one of the flowers.

As she came away with a bloom cradled in her hand, I approached the center of the garden. Trixie tucked the blade away in her pocket and looked at me with a mocking expression. “You made this sound difficult.”

I shrugged. “Some months are. He may not have had time to play tonight.” Lifting one hand to cup her cheek, I leaned in to kiss her, but my body froze less than an inch from hers when I heard an out-of-place click. Trixie stiffened under my fingers as she heard it as well.

Fuck. We had company.

The click that came from one of the garden doors to the house was followed by a much louder chunk from a shotgun as a round was chambered. Lifting my hand from Trixie’s face, I held both hands open and out to my sides as I turned around.

A little old man with a bald head and a wrinkled face like a bulldog frowned at me as he held a shotgun pointed at me and Trixie. His skin was a nice chocolate brown, while his dark eyes were lost in the night. “Brought some help this time, didn’t ya?”

“A shotgun, George?” I said with a sigh. “Do we really need a shotgun over a flower?”

The old man glared at me through thick glasses balanced on his round nose. The end of the gun trembled slightly as if he was already getting tired of pointing it at us. “This shit is getting old. Sneaking into my garden, stealing my flowers. I thought a gun would show you that I mean business this time.”

“Fine. Then let my associate leave unharmed and we’ll discuss it.” Trixie bumped my back with either her hand or elbow, I couldn’t quite tell. She wasn’t exactly pleased with my suggestion. Didn’t matter. Bringing Trixie along for