Battle Scars

Chapter 17

Tony clenched his teeth as pain flared through his cheek. He instinctively reached up to lay his hand against it, though he knew it was your injury, not his. "Son of a bitch, that hurt."

All eyes turned to him.

"Someone hit her," he bit out.

"Are you sure that's what happened?" Bucky asked. "Maybe she fell or something."

Tony didn't want to think about you being smacked around either but that was definitely what happened. He shrugged one shoulder. "Trust me, I've been smacked in the face enough to know what it feels like."

"Yeah, I'll buy that," Bruce said after a pause.

Nat placed a hand onto Tony's shoulder. "We'll get her back, Tony. She'll be okay."

He shook his head as a humorless laugh escaped him. "I know she will, Nat."

"You are being surprisingly calm about all of this," Steve said.

Tony ran a trembling hand down his face. "I'm not calm. Far from it in fact. Knowing what she's feeling helps." His glanced around the room at his friends and teammates. "She's not scared. Not worried. That helps, too."

Steve frowned. "If she's not scared, what is she?"

Tony grinned then, unable to help himself. "She is unbelievably pissed."

***

You kept your head down for a long moment, trying to rein in your emotions. You had a lie to sell and it wasn't going to work if your rage was written plainly on your face for all to see. With a whimper and a sniff, you shook your shoulders slightly to make it appear as if you were crying. "Please don't hit me again. I'll tell you what you want to know."

"I thought you might." Hammer's smug little voice only served to make you angrier. The bastard didn't even have the balls to hit you himself. "Start talking."

Keeping your head bent forward, you darted your gaze to up to look at his thug. "Could he...Can he wait outside? He scares me."

"Wait outside, Kevin," Hammer instructed, his smug grin firmly in place.

"Boss—"

"I said, wait outside."

When the man still hesitated, Hammer sighed and opened the door. "We'll be fine. She's not an Avenger, she just dates one. Plus, she's tied to a chair. What do you think she's going to do?"

After one more look at you, the thug finally followed orders and moved into the hall. Hammer shut the door behind him and turned back to you. "All right, tell me everything."

***

"Sir, Director Fury is on the line for you."

Tony pulled his gaze away from the screen where he was watching the video of you being shoved into the car for the tenth time and glanced at the screen showing Fury sitting on hold. He had been chewing on the end of his thumb and pulled it from his mouth. "Tell him I'm busy. I'll have to call him back."

"He says it is of the utmost importance."

Tony's head jerked up and he stopped the playback on the video. "Put him through."

"Stark," Fury said with a nod as his face appeared on the main screen. His eye took in the room beyond the man he was talking to and his usual bitch face shifted to downright pissed off. "I called to warn you about some chatter we picked up about that assistant of yours but from the looks of all of you it appears I may be too late."

When Tony didn't respond, Steve stepped forward to stand beside him. "She's missing, sir. Footage from security cameras in the area shows her being put into a gray sedan. Jarvis is having trouble tracking it. We didn't get a shot of the plates."

"Why weren't we notified as once?"

"Well, sir—" Steve started but Tony spoke over the top of him.

"Because I'm more concerned with finding my soulmate than making sure you're caught up on all the tower gossip. We don't know who has her. When we do, we'll go after her. If we need your help, we'll let you know. Now, what was it you had to tell us?"

Tony could almost see Fury biting back the words he wanted to say. Instead, he gave a slight nod of his head. "One of our intelligence groups has been surveilling a group of former mafia operatives. They work for hire now. There was a conversation between two of them that took place in the early hours this morning. One of them mentioned being 'hired to steal the Iron Man's girl'. Naturally, this made its way up the chain to me and I called you. Now you know as much as I do."

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Tony demanded.

"Didn't know until about three minutes before I called you, Stark."

"Who's the operative?" Natasha asked, stepping forward.

Fury shook his head. "Don't know his real name. He goes by Igor."

Natasha spat out a stream of words in Russian. "Where is he?"

"We can't get a lock on him. No one's seen him since late this morning."

Tony grew more irritated with every word that came out of Fury's mouth. "Thanks for nothing, Fury. Call us when you know something useful, huh?" He disconnected the call and turned to lean on the edge of the desk. He pinched the bridge of his nose. Thankfully, everyone else gave him the moment of quiet he so desperately needed. He licked his lips and his eyes found Natasha's. "This Igor...what do you know?"

***

You started off telling Hammer about the radio Tony fixed for you last week. Of course, you didn't mention it was a radio. Instead, you described the parts you'd seen on the inside and made up a bunch of shit Tony was adding to it. To his credit, Hammer did ask you if you were remembering correctly as what you were saying didn't make any sense. You didn't care. You were simply buying time while you finished loosening the rope that bound your wrists.

More than one of the many training sessions you'd had with Clint and Natasha had been centered around escaping restraints. You had kind of hoped you'd never have to use it, but at least you'd paid attention. The ropes finally slackened enough to free you, though you stayed in position, not wanting to give anything away too soon. You needed an advantage. Hammer wasn't an issue but his Thug was probably still in the hallway.

Time to switch tactics. You widened your eyes and looked up at Hammer. "Oh, I almost forgot. He's working on this microexplosive. It's completely undetectable to any sort of scan. X-rays, metal detectors, it won't show for any of them."

That got your captor's attention, just as you knew it would. He took a step closer. "But Stark shut down the weapons division."

You shrugged and braced yourself as Hammer took another step in your direction. "That's what he told everyone but he works on stuff all the time. It's all contract based now."

He smacked his fist into the opposite palm. "I knew it. What else has been working on besides the explosive?"

Another step toward you brought him into range and you swung your leg up and around in a sweeping kick to the side of Hammer's head. You were up in a flash, executing two more maneuvers the assassins had shown you in quick succession. A punch to the throat to keep him from calling for help and another kick to take his legs out from underneath him.

Hammer moaned as he rocked on the floor. You used one foot to turn him flat on his back before you grabbed your chair and sat it over the top of him. The crossbar sat right above his throat and kept him from getting up once you sat back in the seat. You straddled the chair while he pushed ineffectively against the legs. Leaning over, you ran your hands along his clothes until you found his phone in his jacket pocket.

Sitting up, you smiled down at the man. "I'm just going to make a call. You don't mind, do you?"

He tried to say something and you drove your heel into his ribs.

"What was that?"

His only response was to moan and shake his head.

"That's what I thought you said."