charm. “Everything looked so good, I couldn’t choose just one thing. I had to sample it all.”
“Oh, you.” A bright flush lit up her cheeks. “Watch yourself around this one.”
With his simple coffee, Asa watched our byplay as if it were a better meal than what sat on the table.
“Well, I’ll let you get back to your visiting.” She pinched my cheek. “Holler if you need anything.”
Once she was out of sight, I rubbed the tender skin, which was sore from an excess of pinches.
That was the problem with eternal youth. I could pass for midtwenties, though I was probably her age. I had kept the round cheeks of my childhood, and their always flushed appearance made them irresistible to grandmotherly types. Pair that with wide blue eyes and wheat-colored waves that hit me mid-spine, and I could pass for a kid fresh out of high school.
The camouflage had served me well, and make no mistake, it was camouflage. Nothing about me had been left to nature or to chance. I was the culmination of generations of selective breeding that resulted in power, beauty, and intelligence wrapped up in one girl-next-door package.
I was brittle black and charred inside, with a charcoal briquet for a heart. How no one saw it shocked me until working for the Black Hats taught me that most people only saw what you showed them.
Out of safe topics of conversation, I veered toward the dicey. “How is everyone else?”
“The same.” Clay dug into his bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. “Immortals don’t change much.”
“True.” I picked at my pancakes with my fork. “Days, weeks, months, years blur in the office.”
Black Hat didn’t hire its agents. It blackmailed, kidnapped, bought, stole, traded, or threatened them.
“Ace is the only newbie,” he continued. “He’s been with us…eight years?”
“Seven.” Asa sipped his coffee. “How long until I’m no longer the newbie?”
“Until we get another newbie.” Clay bit down with gusto. “Probably another decade or three.”
Asa studied me over the rim of his mug. “How long were you the newbie?”
“Five years.” I set down my fork. “One of our agents went rogue, and Clay and I hunted him down.”
We killed him when he resisted arrest using deadly force. I picked his heart out of my teeth for days.
“She was promoted on a technicality.” Clay sucked on his teeth. “Some newbs have all the luck.” His eyes laughed at me. “Makes me sick.”
It made me sick too, the reminder of that first kill on the job.
“Are you going to eat that?”
Jerked from my grim thoughts, I found Asa staring at me. “You want my pancakes?”
“They look good.” He turned the mug in his hand. “You’re not eating them.”
“I seem to have lost my appetite.” I pushed the plate over to him. “Please, help yourself.”
A piece of egg fell out of Clay’s open mouth as he watched Asa settle in with my food.
Eyebrows on the rise, I invited him to inform me what the big deal was, but he got back to chewing.
“There you are,” a warbly voice called across the restaurant. “Hey, darlin’.”
An elderly man with dark skin shining with sweat toddled over with a twinkle in his eyes.
“Oh no.” I covered my face with my hands and pretended to hide. “Not this guy.”
“Hey, now. Hey. We’re friends, right?” He cackled with delight. “How you been?”
Lowering my hands before the agents got the wrong idea, I smiled up at Old Man Jenkins. “Good. You?”
“Not dead yet.” He reached in a pocket and pulled out a glass bottle. “You cured me.”
The tincture blended elderberry, horehound, ginger root, cinnamon stick, and star anise.
A tasty cure for the common cold. No magic required.
“Let me know if you need more.” I curled his hand over the bottle. “I keep plenty on hand.”
“You’re too good to me.” He staggered back, noticing the agents. “Hey, now. Hey. Who are you?”
“They’re friends.” I indicated the mountain of food. “They’re just passing through.”
“Hmph.” He narrowed his rheumy eyes at Asa and then Clay. “You best treat her right.”
Unable to help myself, I leaned closer. “Mrs. Gleason shot Clay here in the butt.”
“Ha.” He slapped his thigh. “God love that woman. God love you too, Miss Hollis.”
Laughing under his breath, he shuffle-stepped off to his usual table with a wide grin.
Crunching through a piece of bacon, Clay chewed thoughtfully. “Your friend didn’t ask about my health.”
“You’re here, sitting and eating. As far as he’s concerned, that means you’re fine.”
“You haven’t accepted payment for any of the teas or tinctures you’ve given to