Cinnamon Kiss

C i n n a m o n K i s s

A L S O

B Y

W A LT E R

M O S L E Y

E A S Y R A W L I N S N O V E L S

Devil in a Blue Dress

A Red Death

White Butterfly

Black Betty

A Little Yellow Dog

Gone Fishin’

Bad Boy Brawly Brown

Six Easy Pieces

Little Scarlet

O T H E R F I C T I O N

R. L.’s Dream

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned Blue Light

Walkin’ the Dog

Fearless Jones

Futureland

Fear Itself

The Man in My Basement

47

N O N F I C T I O N

Workin’ on the Chain Gang

What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace Wa lt e r

M o s l e y

C i n n a m o n K i s s

L i t t l e , B r o w n a n d C o m p a n y N e w Y o r k

B o s t o n

Copyright © 2005 by Walter Mosley

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Little, Brown and Company

Time Warner Book Group

1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

Visit our Web site at www.twbookmark.com First eBook Edition: September 2005

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

ISBN: 0-7595-1434-8

For Ossie Davis,

our shining king

C i n n a m o n K i s s

1

So it’s real simple,” Mouse was saying. When he grinned the diamond set in his front tooth sparkled in the gloom.

Cox Bar was always dark, even on a sunny April afternoon.

The dim light and empty chairs made it a perfect place for our kind of business.

“. . . We just be there at about four-thirty in the mornin’ an’

wait,” Mouse continued. “When the mothahfuckahs show up you put a pistol to the back of the neck of the one come in last.

He the one wit’ the shotgun. Tell ’im to drop it —”

“What if he gets brave?” I asked.

“He won’t.”