Re: (Before Ninja: The Cat)
Cat watched that slip of bra-strap, re-positioning and oh, so deliberate, and she chuckled. She almost told the woman she didn't need to go shopping in her bar, but she held the words. She wasn't sure why she held them, but she did, and Cat liked listening to her gut. This wasn't the type of place people came for action, and Cat? Cat wasn't one to allow business in her bar. She glanced from the man and back to Svetlana, an indication that she'd noticed, and all Cat did was shake her head a tiny, almost imperceptible amount. A wordless no, and then it was left behind.
Well, dying? It was more than a metaphor for the woman in plaid. She'd gotten shot off a roof at 16, and it was still anyone's guess how she'd survived. Nine lives? Perhaps, because she'd built herself back up around the idea. The Egorovs had believed her dead - why wouldn't they? They'd done the job themselves. And yet here she was, and that was only the first time. But, admittedly, it was metaphorical too. She wasn't that scared girl anymore, and she didn't want this walk down memory lane any more than she'd wanted Jack's Russian tea in his rooms at the B&B. No, Cat lived now. It was her motto, and the arrival of this woman? Wasn't going to change that.
"There's a bakery on 2nd. It's popular. You'll need to steal her clients." Cat didn't know the baker, but business was business. Had she been in Svetlana's place, with a tiny tea shop in this town? The bakery would be the first thing she tried to take business from. The Russian, that earned her a chuckle, but Cat's response was entirely in English. "No, Svetlana, you want a place they can come and be cool. There aren't many indie or hipster places in town, and being the only one? Would be a boon. Drugs? Sex? They buy that cheap on the wrong side of the tracks." Literally. And as for those lawmen? They were all paid off by the brothel and strip-club dealers. That was just the reality of Repose.
"Of course we're upstanding citizens. We own businesses. We're having a polite conversation in a law-abiding bar." Cat's expression said she didn't believe the woman with the whiskey was an upstanding citizen. And Cat? The only reason she possessed that title was because of a military contract.