His Demise

Chapter 6 - Another One Bites The Dust

Despite Han-Seok telling me, that he got Peterson under control, that was not the case.

I was having lunch with one of our clients and his mother to talk about his upcoming trial. Some rich spoilt brat who didn't want to go to jail and mommy doing everything she could to prevent this from happening. I wanted to v*mit. Not only because of that, but believe me when I say, that you don't want to know how that little *sshole looked at me. Gross. Like he was undressing me with his eyes. I had half a mind telling Han-Seok about that.
"Mrs. Park, you think this will work?", the mother asked.
"Don't be concerned. This strategy is the best for this case. It has proven effective in many trials like this before. So, don't worry. I'm gonna keep your son out of jail. Trust me." I threw her a soothing smile, which she returned with a grateful one. We were interrupted by my phone ringing. "If you'll excuse me for a minute, I have to take this. It's my partner."
"Of course, dear."
"Hello?"
"Su-Mi? I need you." It was Han-Seok. Fear and panic immediately hit me like a brick wall. Was he okay? With everything going on, my thoughts went crazy.
"Text me the address, I'm leaving now." I hung up and turned back to my clients.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Hutchinson, but there is an emergency. I'll have to leave right away."
"Of course. Go."
"We went through everything already. But if there are more questions, please contact my assistant and we can schedule for another meeting before the trial."
"That won't be necessary, but thank you, dear. Now go. Don't let us keep you." I gave her a thankful smile and hurried out of the restaurant to meet Han-Seok at the location he sent me.

As I arrived, I got hit by Deja Vu. It looked exactly like that spot in Korea, where Han-Seok k*lled that one prosecuter.
"There you are." Han-Seok walked towards me and greeted me with a chaste kiss on the cheek.
"What's going on? Are you ok?", I asked and checked for injuries, at which he just laughed.
"Relax. I'm fine."
"You sounded so serious on the phone. I was worried."
"I just knew you were in a meeting and I wanted to get you here as soon as possible."
"For what?"
"To have some fun, of course", he said with a mischievous smile. Then he threw an arm around my shoulders and guided me to a container. In there, I saw our partner Peterson tied to a chair.
"What did he tell you?", I asked Han-Seok.
"Nothing yet. That's why you're here."
"Are you sure he's spying on us?"
"Positive."
"Tools?" Han-Seok pointed behind him, where I found a little table with all kinds of stuff: knives, pliers, hammers, screw drivers etc. I decided to not go that hard on him. Yet. Instead I grabbed another chair and sat across from Peterson.
"Hi, Phillip."
"Hi", he sarcastically replied.
"You want to tell me something?"
"No. I don't know what you want from me. Just let me go."
"See, we can't do that. First you gotta tell us everything we wanna know."
"I don't know anything, Ahri! I swear!"
"On your dead mother's grave?"
"Yes. I swear on my dead mother's grave."
"How rude of me. I'm totally forgetting my manners here. How is he?"
"Who? I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Vincenzo." The room fell completely silent. From the corner of my eye I could see Han-Seok, who till then was lazily watching the interaction, while casually leaning against the wall, stiffen, being on high alert. So he didn't know that Vincenzo sent him. Peterson's face fell as well.
"Got you."
"Am I interrupting?"
Han-Seok and I whipped our heads toward the door, where Yeo-Sang appeared through.
"What is he doing here?!", Han-Seok asked incredulously.
"I called him."
"What? Why?"
"A former spy of Vincenzo's, who decided to join the winning team."
"And why the h*ll didn't you tell me?"
"Oh, you mean like you told me about Phillip?"
"But I told you. Didn't I?"
"And I just told you about Yeo-Sang. Didn't I?"
"Whatever", he mumbled. "Just get in that corner, stay quiet and consider yourself lucky to be able to see her work", he told Yeo-Sang. Aww. I threw Han-Seok a sweet smile and then focused on Peterson.
"Now where were we? Oh, right. Got you. You wanna know how I knew Vincenzo sent you? Easy thing actually. First of all: The greeting. When you are an innocent victim, there is no time for sarcasm. You just simply try to bargain for your life. You offer things, you are pleading, begging, maybe even get angry and start insulting. But sarcasm? Please, Phillip. Second: You never asked why you are here. Wouldn't a vicitim know why it's been captured and about to be tortured?" Phillips eyes went wide. "Why this is all happening? Not you. You just said that you didn't know anything. Even though we didn't ask you anything yet. But we are goingt to. In a minute. Before, I have something else to ask you." I was hit by defening silence from Peterson.
"Na-Ri and Han-Seo. How are they?"
"Why do you care?", Han-Seok chimed in.
"Well, believe it or not, but they were my friends. In my eyes, they still are. It has been k*lling me not to talk to Na-Ri for years. I'm still figuring out a way to contact her without Vincenzo finding out."
"The h*ll you will!"
"Baby. Don't tell me what to do", I retorted through gritted teeth, then took a deep breath and forced a smile. "You can wait outside if you have a problem with that question."
"Forgive me, that I am a little jealous about you asking for my brother's well-being. Who's also the guy you took a bullet and almost di*d for!"
"Sorry that I'm interrupting you love birds, but could we continue? Please?" Yet again we both looked at Yeo-Sang.
"Didn't I tell you to be quiet in your little corner over there?", Han-Seok said, stalking towards Yeo-Sang.
"Ya! Stop it!" Han-Seok stopped dead in his tracks. How dared I to talk to him like that. But because it was me, he would let it slide. And so it was. One more angry look in Yeo-Sang's direction and then he went back to leaning against the wall.
"Great. Now. You didn't answer my question yet, Phil. How are they?"
"How the f*ck should I know? I have no clue who these people are!"
"Alright, Phil. I admire your fighting spirit, so I'm gonna offer you a little deal."
"What are you doing?", Yeo-Sang asked panicked and stepped forward.
"Just wait. Let her do her thing", Han-Seok told him. So he stepped back, but watched with unease.
"You can leave without a scratch and without telling us anything. The only thing you have to do is ..." Dramatic pause. "Fight me."
I noticed Yeo-Sang shifting again, but Han-Seok threw him a warning look.
"What?", Peterson asked baffled, while chuckling in disbelief.
"You heard me. You want to get out of here? Fight me."
"I'm not gonna fight you", he said.
"Why not?"
"You're a woman."
"Oh. Wrong argument, Peterson", Han-Seok commented.
"I didn't say 'hit me', I said 'fight me'. That's something different. A fair fight." I looked at him and saw the real reason why he didn't want to fight me. He was scared. "Just one more thing that gave you away, Phil. You don't wanna fight me, because you know what I'm capable off."
"Please", Peterson scoffed. "I just don't want to hurt you. Because if I do, your crazy husband will k*ll me."
"Oh, trust me. He won't do anything."
"Can you guarantee it?"
"I promise. On my dead mother's grave", Han-Seok said mockingly. "At least mine really is dead."
"What?", Peterson asked with wide eyes.
"So? What do you say, Phil? Fight me to get out of here?" I recaptured his attention. He looked at me, thinking long and hard.
"Fine", he eventually agreed.
"Are you crazy?!", Yeo-Sang stepped in again.
"Ya! She knows what she's doing. Trust me." Han-Seok looked at me with a little grin.
I stepped behind Peterson and cut him loose, while Han-Seok moved to stand in front of the door, to make sure he won't take that as a chance to run.
Then we just stood across from each other, staring one another down. I made the first move by hitting him with a spinning heel kick. He went down on one knee. As I was stepping behind him to put him into a sleeper hold he ellbowed me in the stomach and followed up with a hit to the face, that sent me to the floor.
"Not cool! Stay off my face!", I yelled as I felt blood flowing out of my nose. But I had no time to think about it, as I saw Peterson come at me and grabbed me by the throat. I had enough room to put both my feet on his hips and flip him over my head. I held on, so I landed on top off him. I took this opportunity to deliver a couple punches to the face.
"Your turn, *sshole!"
As I was about to punch him again, he caught my arm and rolled us over, holding me down by my throat once more. We landed right next to the little table with the tools on it. I could just watch as he grabbed a knife.
"We have to help her!", I heard Yeo-Sang.
"She got this. Just watch", Han-Seok calmly replied.
"Don't you dare intervene", I brough out, before Peterson stabbed me in my shoulder.
"Mother f*cker! That hurts!" I hit him with a headbutt, but that wasn't enough to take him out. So I had to deliver a second and a third before I was able to push him off me. I pinned his hand, that held the knife, to the floor, grabbed a hammer and let it crash down. What followed was a cracking sound and the screams of Peterson.
"Ready to talk?"
"F*ck you!" I hit him with the hammer again.
"What about now?
"Go to h*ll, you crazy b*tch!"
I stood up and stomped on his knee to make sure he wouldn't try anything. Then I dragged him to the chair. "Sit your *ss down." He did what I told him, while cradling his mangeled hand close to his body.
"Ready to talk?", I asked again. Silence. I punched him in the face. "Ready to talk?" Silence. I went over to where he dropped the knife to pick it up and walked back to stand in front of him. "Ready to talk?" Silence. I stabbed him in the thigh. When he was done screaming I tried one more time. "Ready to talk?"
"You can hurt me all you want, I won't tell you god d*mned thing."
"If I learned one thing from Vincenzo, than that there's something greater than pain." Peterson looked at me, waiting. "Fear. Baby, give me your gun", I said and held my hand out toward Han-Seok, who placed a gun in my hand without question.