The crow and the beast - Kaz brekker

chapter 52 - the return of the bastard

"yes i am serious, i want to buy 14 of your horses and at least 3 big carts and 2 small ones plus equipment." The merchant looked at her like she was crazy. "but mrs that is my whole inventory right now! If I let you buy this right now I will be out of business." Cara seemed to think for a moment.


"so how is it to be a merchant here in ketterdam?" the merchant lifted his eyebrows and looked at her with a tilted head, not understanding why she was changing the subject all of a sudden. "uum, it's okay I suppose. Kerch is known to be good for merchant but it stays a dangerous job, especially if you deal in the same trade as me. its easy to get your wares stolen here." Cara smiled at the man, the merchant was young around 30 years of age she estimated. He had no family and had taken over the business after his father passed a few years ago. She had done her research.

"how about we make a deal? I will buy your whole inventory from you and since you cannot be a merchant without any wares I will offer you a place among the dregs as a caretaker of equipment, your job would be to repair and maintain the quality of the carts and equipment. With the money you will get from me buying your inventory you can do whatever you want, maybe even get a permanent place so you don't have to sleep in your rented stable just outside of ketterdam anymore." That last sentence seemed to shock the merchant, nobody was supposed to know that, if word of that got out his horses would surely be stolen, it was true he did not have a lot of money right now as business had not been going well for him.

"I agree to that deal." He held out his hand and Cara shook it. They arranged for the horses and the carts to be delivered to the clearing and one of the dregs lieutenants that had come with her would take care of the initiation process with the man. Satisfied with herself Cara returned home.

she found ben had already prepared the other stables and was already riding in the outdoor arena. She greeted him as she got home explaining to him that the rest of the horses would be arriving soon and that he should be ready for intake. They had agreed to lock the horses in the outdoor pen and examine them one by one for any injuries that might need attention before bringing them to the stables.

Cara had just prepared everything she thought she would need if a horse needed medical attention when she heard a lot of horses approach, she could hear them from miles away with their neighing. Some of the dregs helped to guide them to the outdoor arena. When all the horses were settled she and ben took the horses one by one and examined them. the process was hard with only 2 of them but both she and ben were stubborn.

after a few hours they had examined all of them, a few has some scratches that Cara had treated but nothing major, all of them seemed to be In good health, most of the horses were over 10 years old, some were a little younger and there were 2 younglings of below 5 years old that hadn't started under the saddle yet but Cara liked that challenge.

over the next few days she and ben would make reports of all the horses, seeing how far they were with their training, what they could and couldn't do. If they were okay with riding in front of a cart or not. They would write it all down on a piece of paper and attach that to their stalls so they could look back into it. They decided that there were a few horses ready for work immediately and also a few that needed just a little bit of work to get there. They would focus on those first so that when kaz returned everything would be in order and he could start his trading business with the horses that they had made ready.

2 weeks passed like this, Cara and ben would train the horses all day together and when the sun set a dreg would come by to bring the paperwork that cara would work on and finish, she would go to bed the next day they would do it all again. it was mentally draining but she knew it was for a good cause.

twice per week she would go visit nina and they would talk about their experiences, it was nice to at least have 1 friend left in ketterdam that she could go talk to that wasn't a big dreg. There were a few situations at the crow club but nothing major and it seemed that the other gangs did not dare to make a move on the dregs right now.

When Cara would walk the streets she would still get a few stares of people but she did not mind, over time she actually had grown happy that her secret was out. A few times she would see a man misbehaving himself around a woman and she would only need to look at him to make him back off. She loved the feeling it would give her, she now understood why kaz liked to uphold his reputation as the feared dirtyhands.

25 days had passed since kaz had left. Cara was standing outside watching ben do some exercises with one of the horses, she liked just watching sometimes to see how the horse moved. It was easier to spot any lameness that way. She looked around, the farm was running quite well. The initial gang of horses was outside grazing, elvis took good care of them keeping an especially close eye on belle.

the other horses were currently inside as Cara did not trust to let them outside just yet, the outdoor pasture should be finished in a few days now. Her field of medical herbs was grown now and she could harvest some of the leaves of the plants, for most things you would only need the leaves so she did not need to grow new plants anytime soon. For the pants that did need the whole plant she had started a routine with growing some and harvesting some cycling through that.

the financial status of the dregs was doing pretty well she would say. The crow club and the slat had enough nonperishable supplies to last them another year at least. The money flowed in the crow club and the dregs were doing their jobs quite well, taking out the bad lieutenant had actually proven to be a good improvement as this person together with their followers were not bringing in any money. Now that his followers answered to another lieutenant that problem was solved very quickly.

She smiled to herself, she couldn't wait for kaz to get home.

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Cara sat at kaz's desk in the library, running a hand through her hair while reading the reports of the day. 2 people were thrown out of the club for cheating with cards. However even with their cheating the card tables had managed to bring in a profit anyway. The other tables had managed to bring in a small profit as well. The alcohol consumption was normal and the bar had of course brought in a huge profit since they were able to buy import the supplies for the bar cheap by buying them in bulk making even more profit.

at the slat one of the teams had failed their mission to get intel on a trade between 2 merchants and gotten hurt in the process, one of them has a bullet wound and the others had mostly cuts and bruises. Cara made a note to bring more medical supplies to the slat next time she would go to ketterdam. That had mostly concluded the reports and she decided to go to bed early, she was exhausted.

she put out the fire in the fireplace and checked one more time if the door was locked before she made her way upstairs, she didn't feel unsafe but she liked to check anyway. Once she entered the bedroom she made herself ready for bed and got in, pulling the covers over her head as the bedroom was colder than she would want.

she soon fell into a deep sleep. Her dreams brought her to a dark hallway, it seemed to stretch on for miles, impossibly long. However she could clearly see the outline of a person with his familiar cane and hat at the end of the hallway. once she would recognize the person she could hear him call out for her. she ran towards him but never seemed to be able to reach him, whenever she would think she got closer the hallway seemed to stretch until she was back where she started.

the figure would fall to his knees and scream out for her getting more desperate with each scream, she tried as hard as she could, ran as fast as her legs would carry her but she simply couldn't reach him. a loud bang was heard and the person at the end of the hallway fell dead on the floor.

she opened her eyes and gasped for air. It was just a dream. One she would have occasionally these days. it would change now and then, the hallway would become fields or streets and instead of a gunshot she would sometimes see kaz get hit on the head or even get ripped apart by a shadow of a shifter.

She threw the cover from her body and got up to wash her face in the bathroom to get the bad dream out of her head. She knew it was just a dream but the emotions running through her body couldn't be stopped by rational thinking right now. She opened the closet door to kaz's closet and picked out a shirt. It wasn't something she was particularly proud of but his shirt smelled like him and it brought her comfort. Somehow it also kept the bad dreams away.

She walked back to the bed with the shirt in her hand and got in, pulling the cover up again. having a nightmare seemed to have exhausted her even more than before so when she shut her eyes once more she fell asleep within minutes again.

sadly this time the shirt did not keep the dreams away, she was in a big field this time however this time she did not see kaz anywhere. She looked around and ran different directors only to end back up where she was in the middle of the field. Then she heard him calling her again, but this time it was quite not desperate. She looked and looked but couldn't see him. then suddenly she felt as if she was falling and she opened her eyes while gasping for air the second time tonight.

however when her eyes adjusted to the darkness she saw a figure sitting on the bed next to her. she immediately went into defense mode and threw the thing she was holding towards the figure. The shirt hitting him straight in the face but not doing a lot of damage of course . . .since it was a shirt. "what the . . . is this my shirt?" she recognized that voice! She wasn't being attacked kaz had come home!

without thinking she threw herself at the man making him drop the cane to the ground to catch her in his arms as his back hit the bed. she hugged him tightly scared that he would disappear if she let go. No words were spoken while they hugged each other but after a few moments she could hear kaz grunt slightly and she immediately let him go thinking she had gone to far and his trauma was playing up. however he immediately grabbed her hand in his gloved one. "it's alright love, I hurt my shoulder while on the job but nothing to bad."

Cara was not convinced as she got out of bed standing in front oh him and helping him up. he had not bothered taking off his coat before he had come upstairs, she was his first priority. Slowly she undid the buttons of his coat and helped him shrug it off, placing it on a nearby dresser. Next up she undid his shirt. She admired his bare chest for just a second before noticing his shoulder was not even bandaged.

kaz seemed to notice what she was thinking and whispered quietly. "I can't stand other people touching me other than you and I couldn't see the bruise myself let alone reach it so ..." she shook her head slightly before motioning for him to turn around. He did as she commanded and she saw a pretty big bruise on his shoulder, as if somebody had hit him. the bruise looked a few days old already however so she decided it could wait another night "I will take care of that tomorrow." She said as she touched his skin lightly with her fingertips tracing the bruise. She felt his skin form goosebumps under her touch.

then he turned around quickly and was quick to undo his gloves and throw to saints knows where before wrapping his arms around her waist and bringing her close to him. he bent down and kissed her deeply. Cara felt butterflies in her stomach as if this was their first kiss again. he tasted of the alcohol he always carried with him in a flask. She brought her hands up to his face and moved one hand to his hair tugging at it earning a growl from him.

he broke the kiss and placed a kiss to her forehead. "am I allowed to join you in bed?" Cara nodded as she smiled at him. Cara got underneath the covers again and moved over so kaz could join her, he quickly removed his trousers and joined her underneath the covers taking her body into his arms pressing her against him and even intertwining their legs.

"I have missed you" he whispered into her hair. Cara lifted her head and pressed a kiss to his lips. "I have missed you to, I love you babe." She immediately felt his body heat up and she quickly buried her head into his chest again. she felt his chest vibrate as he spoke again. "goodnight my love"

"Goodnight kaz"

AN: I can already say that there is most likely no chapter update tomorrow due to me being away for the day. I have noticed that the reading count for this book is going down chapter by chapter so I will make an end to the story of Kaz and Cara soon so expect some time skips in the next few chapters. I have however not lost my love for kaz brekker and I am toying around with the idea of a new book. I am open to ideas for a new book if any of you have any! I am also open to doing a book of one shots.