Don't Touch

-46-

"So, what are you going to do about that hostage who was so important?" Adriana Jimenez asked as she looked over Dmitry's dead body.

"Doesn't matter," Simone shrugged. "Dmitry's been a nuisance for too long and Santiago is next. We got something for his ass."

"What do you need from us on that?" questioned Daniel Zhang.

"Yeah, you know whatever it is, we got you," Dwayne Smith added.

Simone looked around at the heads of the 12 families that she called over after killing Dmitry. There was understandably a lot of tension when they left the meeting earlier that day, but when they entered the warehouse and saw what Simone had done, all of their unease seemed to be resolved.

"Just have your people ready for whenever I make the call," she replied before making her way toward the door, Emiliano and Luca following behind her.

"And this piece of shit?" one of them called out.

Simone waved her good hand dismissively without turning around. "Do whatever you want with it."

When she and the Rossi brothers got outside, they both eyed her with concern as she leaned against Luca's car.

"Are you sure you're okay, tesoro?" Luca asked, his brows tensed and hands in his pockets.

"Yes," she said calmly. "I mean, I thought I'd feel worse after killing someone for the first time, but I don't. Dmitry made multiple attempts to abduct me and do who-knows-what, consistently disrespected all of the families, fucked with business, and as far as I'm concerned, he just as much to blame for Santi's attack last weekend - even if we did have him in custody."

After she shot Dmitry, Simone felt more relief than guilt. He was greedy for power and made clear he'd do anything to get more of it. She knew people like that - those without morals who pursued power for the sake of it with no desire to do anything positive once they had it. And Simone understood that the only thing that could stop those types of people was death.

Emiliano and Luca were cautious in the sense of pride they both felt when they saw Simone shoot Dmitry. They always knew she had it in her - having seen her in action so many times as Simone Davidson - but there were times in the past when she seemed to battle with the Syd Johnson identity she had developed and maintained for over 10 years. While there was a lot of overlap between her personalities as Syd and Simone, it seemed that Syd was more of an attempt to cage Simone, rather than embrace her true identity.

Simone took a deep breath and looked between the two men. "And as for Lali... I'll do what I can, but taking that deal from Santi would've been a mistake and I have no regrets about killing Dmitry. Sean is going to be pissed, but we'll have to find a way to work through it."

"You guys will be fine, sweetheart," Emiliano assured. "He's still your broth-"

"Hey Rossis!" one of the family heads called over to them from the entrance to the warehouse. "What are we going to do with this body?"

Emiliano rolled his eyes. "Like they don't know how to get rid of a fucking body... As great as it is to be second in command, this shit is a lot of hand-holding and doing other people's jobs for them," he grumbled, wrapping his arms around Simone. "Let me handle this shit and I'll meet you later," he said before planting a deep kiss on her lips.

***

Simone sat in the passenger seat of Luca's car as he drove them to her apartment. He hadn't said another word to her since asking if she was okay for the fifth time outside the warehouse. There was a indecipherable tensions in the car that she didn't understand.