Don't Touch

-59-

Simone sat in the waiting room of their private wing of the hospital as Jared stood across from her with a stack of documents in his hands.

"Ms. Davidson," he said as he handed her the file. "Here's the full report on what we found regarding the incident at Mr. Jeff Davidson's funeral 10 days ago. I've already gone over it with Mr. Sean Davidson."

Simone took the file and flipped through it briefly before she looked up at Jared with an intense glare. "Jared," she sighed as she tucked the documents into her purse. "How about you go ahead and explain to me what the fuck happened? Even if Santiago survived the gunshot wound, how did he manage to get up here and make it close enough to my father's funeral to shoot at us?"

"Yes, Ms. Davidson," he replied as he sat down across from her. "Our research found that he received help from the loyalists that were left at his home after you all escaped. While we did anticipate the possibility that he could've survived and put controls in place to intercept him should he try to come here, Santiago still had a few underground routes of which he was the only aware. And those routes allowed him to move under the radar..."

"To escape from his region," Jared continued. "It seems he used his Indian contacts' connections with their government to harbor him at their embassy in Bogotá before they flew him to their consulate here in New York. From what we found, it looks like they disguised him as one of their officials to get him through security protocols - not even the U.S. government detected him entering the country... And your father's ceremony wasn't exactly private information since he was so important in the community. Also, given the outdoor venue and the fact that the risk level here is relatively low, we didn't put down as wide of a security parameter, which is why Santiago's drive-by was able to happen."

"I can't believe they pulled some undercover movie spy shit on us... Fucking ridiculous... For fucking Santi of all people!" Simone groaned. "Jared, isn't this where your CIA background should've especially come in handy? This was a complete failure in security."

"You're absolutely right, Ms. Davidson, and I do apologize. While we accounted for several different scenarios, Santiago receiving that much help from a foreign government was not one we anticipated. As I said, the U.S. government didn't even detect his entry into the country."

"Well, at least there were no casualties and Luca made good and damn well sure Santiago was dead this time."

"Yeah," Jared gulped. "He actually went to drop off a package at the consulate this morning... I imagine it'll be making headlines pretty soon since he decided to leave it unwrapped."

Simone shook her head with a smirk as she scrolled through her phone. "It already did. You know Twitter is fast..." She showed Jared her screen.

"Unidentified severed head found in front of Indian consulate in New York..." he read.

"The 'unidentified' part is my favorite. We'll make sure that Santiago doesn't even leave a legacy behind. It'll be like he never existed." Simone put her phone back in her pocket before standing up from her seat. "Welp," she said as she stretched out her arms. "The doctor should be done with his check up, so I'm going back into the room... And Jared," she cut her eyes and gave him a sharp look. "Don't mess up again, eh?"

"Y-yes, ma'am," he nodded. "Again, I do apologize. I know it was probably one of the worst days-"

"You're dismissed, Jared," she interrupted as she waved him off and walked away. "I'll read over this report when I have time and get back to you with further questions."

Simone walked into Emiliano's room and as soon as she crossed the door, he looked over to her with a big smile on his face while the doctor examined his stitches. She felt a warmness in her chest at the sight of him appearing so healthy. When Emiliano saved her and that bullet from Santiago grazed his neck, there was so much blood coming from him that Simone thought she'd lost him.