Kaz

The last of Ketterdam's summer finches sang and the autumn air was bitter as Kaz thought about what an uncharacteristically sunny morning it was. He allowed the intense rays of light that streamed through the Slat's dingy windows to burn his eyelids red. He would have never slept in this late on a normal day. It was nearly nine bells and the Barrel began business far before the sun came up. But Kaz couldn't find it within himself to move. He lay flat on his back, feeling as if he'd been hit by a freighter.

The events of the day before played through his mind. Kaz squeezed the bridge of his nose with his fingers, chasing away the massive headache that built up behind his eyes.

Who would have known that such an extraordinary circumstance would be what brought his crew back together? Kaz certainly couldn't have and he was in the business of knowing everything. After they had scattered far away from Ketterdam, Kaz had kept tabs on each member of the infamous Ice Court Crew, as the collective was known throughout the Barrel. Kaz knew that Jesper had taken up with an entertainment troupe in the East and that Wylan had dealings other than the ones that made him one of the richest men on this side of the True Sea. He knew that Inej was doing just what she said she would do when she left Ketterdam: hunting slavers and saving would be slaves from the fate that was her own. He knew that her first mate was an orphaned skiv named Luca Pavlov and that she had brought him with her into the city, though Kaz hadn't seen him anywhere. He knew that Inej was as feared on water as she was in the city back when they were young vagabonds, struggling day by day to find meaning in their suffering.

He knew all of this... but Kaz couldn't have predicted what seeing Inej again would do to him.

A sharp pain shot up his leg and Kaz groaned. His shattered knee had been getting worse with age. He had sustained the injury when he was a kid, and kids had resilience. When he was seventeen he could grit his teeth, trudge onward, and barely feel it the next day... But that was ten years ago. He was damn near thirty now and gritting his teeth just made the pain worse. He wondered how much longer his leg would last before he truly was a cripple.

Kaz found that the prospect of not being able to walk didn't scare him as much as he thought it would. If he couldn't walk, there would be no more running from all of the things he'd run from his entire life. And maybe he was tired of running. Most people were tired of running after a few miles, but Kaz had been running for thirteen years. He would never spend his days in his office like Per Haskell, building model ships and rotting within the walls of the Slat while his goons did his dirty work, but everything Kaz had become accustomed to would no longer be a possibility. There would be no next puzzle and no next mission. There would be no more end game. It would simply just end.

"Kazzy?"

Kaz slung the pistol from under his pillow and pointed it in the direction of the voice. It sounded like the reverb of a wind chime during a summer day and it came from behind the closed over bathroom door. Steam curled underneath it and a satin shift hung on the doorknob, fluttering from an unseen breeze. All of Kaz's muscles tensed... Until he remembered that he'd called on Rosette Windsor early that morning to keep him company.

The petite heiress stepped out of the restroom and steam billowed from behind her like clouds. In the sunlight she truly looked like an angel, some kind of unearthly nymph that had been dropped in the middle of his musty room. Her white skin was tight and supple from her shower, misted and flushed in all the right places. Her damp, golden curls hugged her head and shone in the morning light like corn silk.

Rosette eyed him, her perfectly plucked eyebrow piquing up towards the sky. She looked from the pillow to his face, surely suspecting the firearm that lay beneath his head, before shrugging on her slip and laying down on the empty side of the mattress. She smelled sweet, like roses on a rainy day. Kaz tried not to wince when she knocked against his knee.

Kaz had marked Miss Windsor two years earlier for a job involving her father, Harvey Windsor of Windsor Current, a Ravkan company specializing in electronics and modern technology. The company was his brainchild, the culmination of seven years at Ketterdam University and his dream to build a better and brighter world for his only daughter, Rosette.

That spring, Windsor Current was planning on rolling out its new incandescent street lamps to the whole of Ketterdam, including the Barrel. The state of the art lamp would supply photo activated lighting to the dark alleys and side streets of the city, giving the the gangs and criminals nowhere to hide. Kaz had ears on the pitch meeting and was amused at the idea. If you were a good Barrel rat you didn't need the shadows.

So instead of fighting it, Kaz bought twenty percent of Windsor Current's stock, which cost a sizable stack and more than a few protests from the Dregs. It turned out to be one of the smartest investments he'd ever made because, afterwards, they became the richest gang in Ketterdam when the company was contracted to work on Le Plaisir. Kaz's hold on the city was as good as gold. And after some choice words with Windsor Current's top chiefs and executives, nothing could touch him.

Nothing, save for the unyielding infatuation of Rosette Windsor.

Kaz trailed his naked hand up the curve of her waist and grinned to himself when she shivered in delight. He could predict what every touch would do to her. And he knew when he reached further down, Rosette would give herself to him completely.

She grabbed his arm, Kaz stiffened. "Are you alright?" she asked in a husky voice.

Kaz stared at her, not quite sure what to say. The depth of her affection made him uncomfortable, a feeling that Kaz wasn't unfamiliar with. When he was with Inej, he never felt uncomfortable. She didn't talk nearly as much as Rosette did, and Inej's interests were in places other than the latest fashion trends and Ravkan gossip. But it was enough for him because Inej understood him like no one else did. They had a shared past, a shared trauma, a shared destiny. A destiny marred with shadows that they would never escape.

But with Rosette he knew the outcome of all the equations. And for now that was enough.

So why screw up a good thing?

Kaz seized back his arm and pushed into her, grinning again when a blush spread down her neck.

Rosette moaned and threw her leg over his hips, sitting astride him with a cocky expression on her face as if she'd bested him. It took everything Kaz had not to roll his eyes.

"As much as I'd love to roll around with you all day," Rosette said, bending over and trailing wet kiss down Kaz's bare chest. "I have a prior engagement that will steal me away for a while."

Kaz clenched his jaw at the slick sensation of Rosette's tongue sliding down his body. She was referring to Windsor Current's contracted work on Le Plaisir. Rosette and her father, being a large benefactor and engineer on the liner, were set to join the rest of the world's aristocrats on its maiden voyage. Had things not turned out the way they did, he would have not seen Rosette again until the following spring.

Now though, with newly acquired information about the Crown Suits and their dealings, Kaz silently adjusted his plans while Rosette continued down his torso. He was positive that keeping her around instead of disposing of her was the best choice. Her connections would be more crucial now than ever before.

"Another arranged suitor?" Kaz kept his voice aloof.

Rosette looked up from her perch below him. She bit her lip and her blue eyes widened in glee.

"Why, Kazzy, you never ask about where I'm going," she purred, her tinkling chuckle absorbed by the mountains of dusty books and paper surrounding them. "Could it be you're actually jealous?"

Kaz almost laughed. Jealousy? Jealousy was something he hadn't felt in a long time. A child's emotion. And Kaz hadn't been a child since Jordie's death.

He gripped Rosette's slim hip, flipping her over so that he was in dominant position. Kaz pushed upward and let the sounds of her ecstasy fill him. He had woken up in a grog but now his mind was wide awake, zinging with countless ideas and possibilities. If it was because of Rosette, he couldn't say. He only knew that when she fell apart underneath him, her cries muffled when she sank her teeth into his shoulder, that his plan was going to be bulletproof. And in his world, in his business, that was an advantage.