Chapter Twenty-Eight

“I think your time is finally up, Tasha. I have your cyborg friend, and I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to get you back.” Nick had shown up as soon as John left for the evening. He didn’t give Natasha a chance to speak before he wormed his way through the door and started pacing around the living room.

“Where was this attitude when we were still married?” Natasha asked. “I’m sure it would have made a difference, you know.”

“If you want to talk about attitude, you can take a look in the mirror,” Nick retorted. “I’m giving you one hell of an opportunity here, and I can already see you’re wasting it. You haven’t packed a thing, have you?” He gestured wildly around the room.

“Of course I haven’t packed. And I don’t plan on doing so. I’m not moving back in with you. Wait a second. What did you say?” It was hard for Natasha to stand her ground, and she hadn’t been listening to the nonsense coming out of Nick’s mouth. “What do you mean you have him?”

“I know plenty of people around this town, and they like me. They don’t like cyborgs. They want to do things for me. I tried to tell you.” Nick looked down his nose at Natasha with a familiar look of condescension on his face. She had seen his aura of superiority numerous times before, despite the fact that she had become a registered nurse, and he was a college dropout.

“Are you telling me you bribed a customer of yours to kidnap a cyborg? What kind of idiot would take on that kind of job?” She was irritated and couldn’t imagine a drunken barfly trying to take down a soldier like Fury.

“He wasn’t just any customer. His name is Colin White, the scientist who made your boyfriend in the first place. This was before your dad got hold of him.” A look of horror passed over Natasha’s face. “I know everything now. Do you? Take a look.”

Nick casually pulled a phone out of his pocket and started playing a pre-loaded news clip. An anchorwoman’s voice narrated various pieces of shaky cell phone footage: “People around town are claiming a vigilante is patrolling the streets at night. Police have found would-be burglars and rapists bound and gagged at the scenes of their crimes. Here’s what one store owner has to say.”

The image changed to show a woman standing in a jewelry store. She was dressed nicely and touched her hair nervously in front of the camera. “When I came to work this morning, I couldn’t get into the building because there was a dumpster pushed against the back door with the keys on top of it. This isn’t how I left things when I closed last night, so I came around to the front of the building. I saw a man through the window. He had a sack full of jewelry, and he was putting everything back in front of the door! Our security camera footage showed he had stopped a burglar and locked him in the store.”

The picture cut to a set of black-and-white footage from the jewelry store’s security camera. The person on the video was clearly Fury.

Natasha’s hand flew to her mouth as her stomach dropped into her feet. Even if Nick didn’t follow through on his threat to expose the cyborg, someone would figure it out soon enough. Now she knew what the cyborg had been doing every night, but he hadn’t been careful enough to conceal his identity.

“I’m the only one who has connected the dots.” Nick put the phone away. “I haven’t said anything to anyone yet, but don’t you think it’s time you and I picked up where we left off?” He shoved Natasha against the wall and ground his hips against her, pinning her hands down at her sides. “I’ve been without you far too long. It’s time you give me what I need.” Nick kissed her and tried to force his tongue into her mouth.

Natasha turned her head to the side. She struggled but didn’t have the strength to fight off a crazy man. Natasha didn’t even get the chance to tell him to stop. She couldn’t speak because Nick covered her mouth. The nurse wildly brought up a knee, hoping to make contact with his crotch.

Nick winced in pain, then slammed his forehead into the nurse, making the back of her head smash into the drywall. “Stop that shit, Natasha. You’re my wife, and we’re going to be together again. You’re the one making everything so fucking difficult.”

Stars danced in front of Natasha’s eyes, making it impossible to tell which way was up. There was nothing she could do.

Without warning, the front door crashed open and slammed into the wall next to her, its hinges snapping in the process. Natasha crumpled to the floor as Fury barreled into the room, shoving Nick away from Natasha and onto the floor. Fury pulled back his fists and pummeled the man underneath him, quickly turning Nick’s face into a bloody mush. Nick put up resistance at first but soon yielded to the burly cyborg.

As Fury was about to deliver the final blow, he paused and held his punch in midair.

“He isn’t worth it,” Natasha blurted out.

Fury shoved himself off the skinny man on the floor and went to Natasha’s side, picking her up from the ground and holding her to his chest. “Are you all right?”

Natasha trembled against the cyborg, feeling his warmth and reassuring herself that he was real. “I am now.”