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CW: Thigh riding, dirty talk, discussions of murder, discussions of scars and missing limbs/PTSD.
JAMES
He doesn't really know how to absorb the news as his family sits at his bedside. Zemo was just some fucking mobster, trained by a Russian spy. It's almost funny. Almost. He wished he could have been there to see his fucking head explode.
Thor is pacing back and forth, shaking his head while Peter stands near the doorway, his gun in his hand. They can never be too careful.
"That motherfucker— I knew something was wrong. I could feel it. Every time he called or came around, he didn't feel like a cop, you know? I should have listened to my instincts and shot him in your office, Buck."
"And then where would we be?" James asks. "We're not any closer to figuring out who's puppeteering all of this."
"But it sure as shit's not Ultron," Wanda murmurs.
She looks different now, like something's missing in her eyes. James knows that look, because he looked the same when he saw himself in the mirror after his first kill. She's never going to be the same, but there's a new air about her, a kind of confidence that she didn't have before. Zemo threatened her children. No mother would let that slide.
"Pete, what else did you find on that livestream?"
"Scott's still looking at the IP addresses, but they were bouncing around. Someone didn't want to be found," Peter whispers.
"I even called Yelena, but... James, I need something from you." Dahlia leans forward and pushes his hair out of his face. There's worry etched into her features and he frowns.
"Anything."
"Zemo said he's working for someone bigger than Ultron. I need to know who you've pissed off who could do something like this."
James exhales, his cheeks puffing out. That's a big ask.
"The list is virtually endless, but someone who wouldn't have already shown me their hand? I don't know... the kind of men I deal with only hide in the shadows for so long before they show up to boast and shove it in your face."
"Think," Dahlia whispers. "Is there anyone—"
"Dahlia, the thing about this life is that you only have alliances for so long until you have to stab someone in the back."
"Or the front," Thor whispers.
James sighs.
"I killed a lot of people to get where I am, and I have a lot of skeletons, but none of them have the money or the power to do anything like this and operate in the shadows. If Ultron is working for someone, I don't know about them."
