Flirting

Kaz pulled his gloves off one finger at a time and scrubbed his hands. He knew of the rumours of his hands being stained with blood. It was laughable really. Nobody knew the truth and he would be keeping it that way. It was taken for granted that he just wasn't a huggy person. Since he had lost his family there wasn't anyone he really wanted to hug anyway. Well maybe one.

The air seemed to still in the room. He smiled to himself. "Hello Inej. What information do you have for me tonight?" He knew she had been feeding the crows outside his window to cover her sneaking in his room. But that was the first thing that alerted him to her presence. The birds went quiet.

"A lead on a job. A big one. Enough money to change lives." She would work out one day how Kaz Brekker always knew when she was near. The first time she had approached him was the only time she had manage to take him by surprise. Although it was almost worth it to see his smile in the mirror when he caught her out. Kaz Brekker rarely smiled.

"It doesn't take much to change someone's life in the Barrel." He knew that better than most and so did she. They had different childhoods and traumas but in a way it was why they understood each other.

"A million kruge?" She could see she had his attention. Although to be fair, Kaz always knew everything that was going on around him. He paid attention to the little details.

"What's the name?" That was enough money to pay off Inej's indenture or at least make a dent in it. That was if Heleen didn't up the price in spite.

"Dreesen. A wealthy merchant." Someone who could definitely afford to pay out a million kruge. She didn't know him personally so it was unlikely that he had been in the Menagerie.

"Dreesen. I've heard of him. He could afford it. The question is what's worth a million kruge to him?" And what they needed to do to earn it.

"He's looking for a crew willing to cross the fold into East Ravka and bring back something." She could already see Kaz working a plan through in his head.

"The Fold. Well, of course certain death pays a million. He didn't say what he wants nicked?" He knew the answer already. Inej would have already told him if she knew. She was efficient when gave her report.

"No. But he's taking meetings tonight, starting at midnight." She knew how she was spending the evening. It certainly beat her other options not that she would be given a choice.

"Tell me you followed him." Her secretive smile made his heart skip a beat. He had no idea what to do about it so he focused on the job at hand.

"He brought someone in from a ship. Took a way back to his house in the Garden District to avoid attention. I would have followed him inside, but Dreesen's hired some private security I would have had to use my knives to get closer." She would not kill. She was grateful that Kaz had given her a way to protect herself. In fact he had given her the first knife she had learned to use.

She had heard that most men gifted women flowers or jewellery, not that she had experience this. The clients of the Menagerie weren't big on giving, just taking. Not Kaz Brekker. He gave you something useful. Although she wasn't certain that Kaz was interested in her in any other way but work related. But there were moments when she felt caught in his stare, but unlike with the clients at the Menagerie she didn't feel afraid.

"Private security. Anyone we know?" Kaz had people everywhere, and those he didn't have working for him, he had leverage on.

"A Zemeni man. I think his name is Tendo. You know him?" Silly question. Kaz made it his business to know everyone.

"Yeah. He gambles at one of Pekka's clubs. So I won't have leverage on him. But Pekka will." Pekka Rollins, the constant thorn in his side.

"Kaz, I got this lead from one of the girls at the Menagerie. They tell me things in case you'd buy them out, like you did with me." He had given her hope to get out of the nightmare she had been stuck in since she was fourteen.

"I didn't buy you. I'm paying off your indenture." She wasn't his property. He didn't want her to believe he owned her.

"You know what I mean. This one girl, Kesh, she has skills. She's like me." If there was a chance that she could help someone else, she was going to take it.

"I only invest in the one of a kind. She isn't like you. No one is." There had never been anyone like her. She made his breath catch every time he looked at her.

Inej was stunned. This was the closest Kaz had ever come to paying her a complement. Hell, for him this was almost flirting, not that she had very much experience of it herself, either. "So? What's our move now?"

"You're the one of us who believes in a higher power. If we're going to survive a round trip through the Fold, we'll need a miracle of two." Although if he believed in angels, he had one standing in front of him. No one as pure as Inej should have ever been subjected to the Menagerie. Travelling through the fold with her by his side was the closest he was going to get to finding faith.

She would have told him that she would pray for him but she felt her heart flutter when he looked so intensely. It made her feel wanted but not controlled. And she knew better than to try and share her source of comfort with him.

He would never know that his avoidance of touching her had surprised her at first. Now it was just something else he did to make her feel safe. There was no time to think on it any further as there was a job to secure.