Its The Weekend and Hot Autumn Nights

Going Christmas shopping? Have fun and find lots of sales. But regardless, enjoy the weekend.
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Don't forget the Hot Autumn Nights Blog Hop: Post Below.
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Excerpt from The Crystal:

Leaky pulled a small tool from his back pocket and picked the lock. He slipped through the gate and closed it behind him then crept toward the back of the house.
Christopher flexed his fingers. He really was going to enjoy this. Stepping out of the shadows, he purred, “Are you lost, Leaky? You seem a bit far from home.”
The small man gave a violent start. Even in the darkness, Christopher could see him blanch. But then he had the eyes of a cat.

Leaky tried to bolt, but Christopher was too quick. With a panther-like lunge, he reached out and wrapped his arm around Leaky’s neck. “We have to talk,” he purred in the smaller man’s ear and drew him into the shadows.

Sliding both hands up, Christopher squeezed the jugular. “Now tell me, my little rodent, why you had the audacity to steal from me?”

Leaky gasped for air. “I didn’t know it was yours, Saint, honest.”
Christopher’s fingers tightened.

Leaky pried at them to no avail. “A customer offered me a fortune for it, but I wouldn’t have touched it if I’d known it was yours. You got to believe me.”

Christopher shook him.

Leaky’s head snapped back so sharply, that for a brief moment, Christopher thought he’d broken the man’s neck. “Who?”

“Don’t know,” Leaky gasped out. “You know how the business works. Never any names. Just telephone calls and manila envelopes exchanged.”

Christopher pressed him up against the house and smiled a wolfish smile. “Too bad for you, you didn’t bother with a little more information.”

His ring glittered like arching green fireworks in the dark, as the back of Christopher’s hand made contact with Leaky’s face. The slap echoed through the night.
Leaky tasted blood in his mouth then felt it trickle down his chin.

Even though a chill March wind blew, beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. The rest of his body was cold and clammy, frozen with fear. In the circle Leaky moved in, Saint was called The Tiger, though never to his face. It was said he once ripped out a man’s heart while it was still beating.

Leaky liked to think the story exaggerated, but regardless of whether it was true or fictionalized, The Tiger was not a man to cross.