Book 3 Chapter 17: You Don't Need to Flex
Dantes spent the next two weeks consolidating his power while working with Jacopo to determine the problem with the rats he'd encountered. He took personal visits to his gardens to tend them. He went to each of the shopkeepers that paid up to him and paid them personal visits with no expectation of payments. He personally intervened in a number of jobs his men were undertaking, began to work on his pigeon dust delivery plan with a few of his smarter dealers, and closely monitored his steady acquisition of the Gatemen’s territory. While he did all of this, he maintained his regular contacts with the Fingers, monitored Godfrey’s every move as well as any changes at the Academy, and the slow, but frighteningly steady spread of whatever corruption was starting to touch the edges of his domain.
Jacopo found no more rats outside of their control, nor did he find any reason why they’d been able to resist them in the first place. With nothing else to do, he began to train with Vampa and Zak in a fighting pit, honing his fighting skills in human form.
While Dantes filled his days and most of his evenings with work, he made time to spend with Sevryn, even going so far as to have dinner with her nearly every night between her sets on stage.
Sevryn deftly speared a piece of shrimp off of Dantes’s plate and quickly ate it while he was distracted watching a small scuffle by one of the card tables in the corner.
“You know, I own this whole place. If you want more shrimp I could get you a table full.”
She smiled, her eyes and jewelry twinkling in the lantern light. “You own this whole place, you can request more shrimp for your own plate if you feel I’ve taken too much.”
Dantes took a sip of his wine to hide his own smile. “You still haven’t worn the dress I bought you.”
“I needed to take it to the tailor, the measurements were just a little off.”
“I have a tailor that I call in here once a week. I could’ve had him make the adjustments.”