Rushed(105)

"Well, these girls—were they pretty?" Luisa asked.

"None of them held a candle to you, if that's what you're asking," Jake replied, his voice dropping. "Although they certainly had some Far East secret techniques that they taught me. I could maybe show you, if you're interested."

"Hmm, maybe later," Luisa said, putting her fork down and reaching underneath the table. I knew what she was doing—getting her pistol ready—even though I couldn't see anything from the angle I was sitting at. "First, though, one more question. Did you ever know a Princess named Sul Ham Kook?"

Jake had been distracted for nearly ten minutes, and the sudden frankness of her question threw him off, just as we'd intended. He stammered, then set his fork down. "Who?"

"Sul Ham Kook," Luisa repeated, keeping her hand steady under the table. I could now see her tiny little pistol from my vantage point, and I slipped my hand inside my jacket, ready to help if needed. “Come on, you know her."

Jake sat back, trying to play it cool. "Luisa, I have no idea who you're talking about. How about we call Tomasso, or maybe my dad, and we can straighten this all out . . .”

“Don’t reach for the jacket," Luisa warned, cocking her head. "You don't want to know what's in my hand and pointed at your balls under the table. Now, Sul Ham Kook. How'd you two meet?"

Jake sighed and set his hands on the table. "At a bar. A Princess bar, at least that's what the guys in my platoon called it. I met her soon after coming to Korea and needed my pipes flushed. She and I hit it off pretty well, and we got a pretty regular thing going. Then her village was wiped out, and she started talking to me more about her life and family. We got to be friends, nothing more."

"And that's how you got introduced to Leonard Frakes?" Luisa continued. "What, a mutual admiration society?"

Jake laughed and shook his head. "Mutual? Please, that f*cking nut job thought she actually loved him. Stupid f*cking airman is what he was, but man, was he committed to their cause."

"So it wasn't love. It wasn't money . . . why'd you sell me out then?" Luisa asked. "You don't sound like someone who commits to an eco-terrorist cause."

Jake shook his head. "Nope. Actually, good old-fashioned blackmail. I got bored in Korea, to put it bluntly. I mean, my dad's the top Bertoli lieutenant, and here I was on year two of manning a f*cking outpost along the DMZ. I went months without a decent Italian meal, and for what? I knew how to stand guard. Whoop-de-f*cking-do. So, when I heard a few rumors about some of the guys getting some action going, I got involved. Wasn't much, just smuggling some automatic weapons out of Korea for the Yakuzas in Japan, but it broke up the monotony."

"They got caught," Luisa said. Jake nodded.

"They did. Some f*cking Air National Guard Captain flying the C-17 with our shit on it landed at Yokosuka Air Base and promptly got snitched on by someone or the other. I covered my tracks pretty well, except that I'd told Sul Ham. She came to me just before I left service, told me that Frakes was going to be going back to the States soon too, and that he'd look me up. I thought she was full of it until he actually did, about three days before the shit at the center went down. Then afterward, he recognized Tomasso and called me."

"So you sold me out. Why not just get rid of him?"

"Because something could’ve gone wrong,” Jake replied. "Besides, you aren't a Bertoli, and if I had, who knew if Sul Ham was going to sell me out? I was covering my ass, plain and simple. Just like I will now."

Jake's foot shot out, without a lot of power, but enough that he kicked Luisa pretty good underneath the table. He rolled out of his seat, reaching beneath his jacket, and I had my pistol out in a flash. "Jake Marconi!"

He froze in mid-draw, his eyes going to me. The door of the diner dinged again, and Pietro walked in, his own gun drawn. "What the f*ck?"

"Dad, I . . .” Jake said, his eyes going from me to his father, then freezing, his mouth yawning open as he didn't know what else to say.

"Pietro, say hello to the man who sold Luisa out to Leonard Frakes," I said, my pistol still leveled on Jake. "We've got it all on a recording."

I didn’t want to get Pietro involved, but with Dad out of town, I needed someone whose word and authority were great enough for the accusation I was throwing around. I watched as Pietro's face opened in shock, and he looked from me to Luisa to his son, who was still on his knees on the ground. His pistol faltered, and his hand fell to his side, the pistol still in his grasp. "Jake . . . is this true? Did you betray your oath to the Godfather?"

"Dad . . .” Jake said, his voice trembling before he found his nerve. "Yes. I told Frakes when Mendosa left the house alone. I didn’t know Tomasso would come storming out after her.”

I noticed that all of the diner staff had vanished. They knew enough to not get involved when the word Godfather was uttered and guns came into view. Pietro looked at me, his throat working to find the words. "Why didn't you tell me or your father?"

"I had to make sure who it was, and to make sure it stopped at him," I said simply, my eyes still on Jake. Luisa got out of her seat, leveling her pistol at Jake, and I glanced at Pietro. "I couldn't be sure who had betrayed me, or why."