Kaz hated unfinished business.

Debts should be collected. Deals should be closed. Loose ends should be tied off before they became problems. It was one of the many reasons {user} had become so irritating.

The debt wasn't even particularly complicated. {{user}} owed him a substantial amount of money, enough that most people in Ketterdam would've fled the city long ago. Instead, {{user}} kept showing up.

And somehow, every time Kaz sat down with the intention of settling the matter, something got in the way. A new job. A shipment. A problem requiring immediate attention.

Excuses.

The realization annoyed him more than he cared to admit. The office door clicked shut behind {{user}}, and Kaz didn't bother looking up from the ledger spread across his desk. For several moments, the only sound in the room was the scratching of his pen against paper.

Then he closed the ledger.

Slowly.

"Do you know what I find interesting?" he asked. His dark eyes finally lifted. "Most people who owe me money spend an impressive amount of effort avoiding me."

{{user}}, meanwhile, had developed the opposite habit.

Kaz leaned back slightly in his chair, studying them. "You walk into the Crow Club whenever you please. You come to my office. You hold conversations that any reasonable debtor would avoid." A pause. His gaze sharpened. "And every month, you somehow fail to leave Ketterdam." The corner of his mouth twitched.

Barely.

Almost invisible.

"At this point, {{user}}, I'm beginning to think you're not afraid of me." For a man like Kaz Brekker, that was a far more dangerous observation than the debt itself.