Bastet shrugged, and shook her head, her mass of glossy curls emphasising her bemusement with a slight shimmy. ‘I told her that you wanted her to come to your booth, and she said “I’m happy where I am, thank you”， and stayed put. She’s very beautiful, by the way.’
I was sat in my booth in my corner of the bar, all plush velvet and mahogany. It was divided from the main room by wine-hued Chantilly-lace curtains, intricately decorated enough for me to be private when I wanted to be but thin enough for me to see everything on the other side.
I raised my brow. ‘I know she’s beautiful, Baz.’ I paused. ‘Do you think it’s because she wants you? Because you can say so, you know—’
Bastet was my closest friend, right hand and majordomo of House of Aten. She was also feline-fierce and fine, with sharp hazel eyes, a permanently sly smile and an edge that provided just the right balance of sex and danger, encapsulated with the ouroboros tattoo that climbed up her right arm. She targeted and pounced. She purred and made her women purr, and then she slinked away.
Bastet rolled her eyes and laughed. ‘Neffi,’ she was the only person who could call me that and not fear death, ‘I know what I got and who I am, but I think we both know that there has never been a time where I have called a woman over for you and she hasn’t come.’ She shot me a smirk with a wink and picked up my glass and took a sip of my drink.
I took my drink back from her. ‘No drinking on the job. Was she with someone?’
Bastet grinned. ‘Look at you. You’re just not used to this, are you? No, she wasn’t with anyone else. Not that I know of. She wasn’t really talking to anyone either. Just . . . observing. Taking in the atmosphere. It’s a good night tonight. I mean, it’s a good night every night, but tonight? Whew. You killed it.’
I shook my head, preoccupied. ‘Something feels strange.’
Bastet raised her brow. ‘Why, because she doesn’t want you? Neffi, come on . . .’
‘Can you ask the bargirls if they’ve seen her around here before?’
Bastet’s sharp brows knitted in confusion, before she froze. Her eyes flashed. ‘You don’t think—’
I took another sip of my drink. ‘I don’t know.’
With her teasing sister mode deactivated and the ferocious guardian in her engaged, Bastet nodded and slipped out of the booth. ‘Five minutes.’
Bastet returned in three. The look on her face was equal parts grim and livid, hackles up. I could see the hunter in her come alive. Bastet was from the streets, and though I was reared by them, she was nursed by them. It was why I needed her by my side.
‘The girls say they’ve never seen her before. She’s asking them questions.’
I downed my drink. ‘All right.’
Bastet checked that the curtain was drawn in tight, then she sat down close next to me and lowered her voice. ‘What do you want me to do? I can deal with this.’
‘Baz, please calm down.’
Bastet hissed. ‘Neffi, there is a pig in our home and you want me to calm down?! Remember what The Duat have taken from us. From you . . .’
The Duat were the guardians of Isfet, and they were the ones who enforced their evil. Of course, they didn’t see it in precisely that way – they called themselves ‘the policing force of Thebes, restoring order and maintaining peace’。 I placed a hand on Bastet’s to steady her, but also to steady myself.
‘I remember. Of course, I do. I live with it every day. Without him.’
Bastet put her hand over mine, her breathing slowing. ‘Sorry, Neffi. I just—’
‘I know. But we don’t know if she’s one of The Duat yet. We have to be smart. I’ll deal with it. Don’t worry. Just . . . cast an eye out. Watch. Make sure she’s alone. I’ll handle this.’
Bastet nodded. ‘If you need me to rally the troops, just give me the signal.’
‘Always.’
‘I’m not used to working this hard for what I want.’
I smiled in a way I knew disoriented. The lady blinked several times before she smiled back – fully, no coyness, no demureness. It brought her cheeks higher, lifted her face in a way that made her more stunning. My heart rate lifted with it, bizarrely, even with the knowledge that she might be an enemy. She gestured to the empty chair at her table. I sat and put my drink down.
‘I trusted you would come over.’
She was confident. Despite myself, I liked it.
‘So you’re saying I’m predictable.’