"Hmph. " Sophia grunted again.
But the corners of the Goth dwarf 's lips turned up into a tiny smile.
The two girls hugged a minute longer before Eva pulled a cell phone out of her jeans.
"You call the cops," Eva told her friend. "I need to let Owen know I'm okay. You know how he is. He'll freak when he finds out about this. "
Cassidy nodded her head in sympathetic agreement and pulled her own phone out of her jeans. The two women started dialing numbers, instead of asking me, the restaurant owner, to do it for them. Not surprising. If you wanted the cops, you called them yourself. You certainly didn't depend on the kindness of strangers to do it. Not in Ashland.
I frowned. Cops. Just what I needed. Some of Ashland's finest getting an eyeful of me, the former assassin, a Goth dwarf who liked to dispose of dead bodies in her spare time, and the two guys we'd so easily dispatched.
Not the kind of attention I wanted to draw to myself, even if I was retired. Nothing I could do about it now, though.
Sophia went back to the stove to check on her baked beans. Eva spoke in a low voice to someone on her phone.
Cassidy finished her 911 call and sank into the nearest chair.
The girl stared at Jake on the floor; then her brown eyes flicked to the bloody knife. Her lower lip quivered, her eyes grew glossy, and her hands trembled. Trying to hold back the tears. Something else I'd had to do, once.
I walked over to the counter and picked up a glass cake plate filled with the black forest cookies I'd baked this morning.
"Here. " I took the top off and held the plate out to her. "Have a cookie. They've got plenty of sugar and butter and chocolate in
them. They'll help with the shakes. "
Cassidy gave me a wan smile, took one of the chocolate treats, and bit into the concoction. The bittersweet chocolate melted in her mouth, and her eyes brightened with pleasure instead of worry.
Eva finished her call and sat down next to her friend.
Her hands didn't tremble as she snapped her phone shut, and she looked at Jake with a thoughtful expression. The only sign anything had happened to Eva was a red welt on her cheek, where her face had smacked into the floor.
The girl had a level head on her shoulders and a firm grip on her emotions. But that didn't mean she wouldn't crash later.
I held the plate out to her. "You too. "
Eva took a cookie, broke it in two, and stuffed half of it into her mouth. Not shy, either.
I also plucked one of the chocolate treats off the stack.
Not because I had shaky nerves, but because they were damn good cookies. I'd made them myself, and I was just as good a cook as I had been an assassin.
I looked at the two unconscious men on the floor.
Lance lay spread-eagled next to one of the booths where Sophia had dropped him. Blood continued to drip from the cuts on Jake's throat and temple, staining the floor a rusty brown.
I grabbed another cookie off the plate and watched him bleed.
Chapter Two
A couple of uniformed patrol officers showed up twenty minutes later. Late, as usual. If we'd really needed them, our bodies would have been getting cold and sticky on the floor. The cops barreled through the front door and stopped, surprised by the calm scene.
Eva and Cassidy sat in their original booth. Cassidy munched on her fourth cookie and took a swig of the milk I'd given her. Eva leaned one elbow on the tabletop, holding her head up with her hand. With her free hand, she methodically broke apart a cookie and slowly ate it, piece by piece. Looked like the shock had finally caught up with her.
At the stove, Sophia ladled baked beans into glass Mason jars to take home to her older sister, Jo-Jo. I perched on my usual stool behind the cash register, eating my third cookie and reading about Odysseus blinding a cyclops.
The first cop was about my height, five seven or so, a wiry Hispanic guy with nut-brown skin and a mop of matching curls that escaped the toboggan he'd stuffed them under. Dark freckles dotted his cheeks like walnuts.
He had his gun out and held down against his leg.