by Lisa Lace
“I told you to leave her alone,” Fury threatened. His gun was powered up, but maybe a quick death was too good for this piece of shit. The plasma would burst through him and kill him instantly at this range. He deserved to suffer.
The man pulled his hand away from the girl, and she slumped to the ground. One of her shoes was missing, and she had ruined her hair and makeup. She was a pitiful creature.
“Go home,” Fury ordered. “You don’t want to see this.”
The girl wanted to leave but didn’t want to approach either her assailant or rescuer. She had no choice if she wanted to exit the alley. She squirmed past both of them, hands brushing the brick wall of the apartment building for support as she limped by the men. She vanished once she reached the street.
Fury turned back toward the man with the knife. The weapon was out of his sleeve again and pointed at the cyborg. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, man? That girl owed me. It was time for me to get what was mine.” He took a few steps forward, thinking he could intimidate the man who had stopped him.
“I know what you deserve,” Fury said. “It isn’t anything she could give you.” His fists moved swiftly. The man’s face bounced off of Fury’s knuckles, head flying back and body flailing to catch up with it. His skull clipped the dumpster on the way down, but he scrambled quickly back to his feet.
“You think you’re a vigilante or something? There’s no room in this town for that sort of shit. A man has to be able to hold his own with all these fucking cyborgs wandering around. The last thing I need is some strange dude cockblocking me.” He launched himself at Fury, but his body was no match for the cyborg’s bulky body. He bounced right off and hit the ground again.
Fury flipped the thin body over with his foot. Bracing it in the middle of the man’s back, he yanked the man’s sleeves down over his hands and tied them in a solid knot.
“Hey! Let me go!” the man protested, but Fury wasn’t going to obey his command. He was no longer in a dark alleyway a few blocks from Natasha’s house. He was on the side of a road under the midday sun, arresting a young man found during a routine traffic stop with a trunk full of drugs. He was at a state fair on a Saturday evening, slapping handcuffs on a vagrant who kept breaking into booths and stealing cash. He was in the antiseptic whiteness of an interrogation room, serving as a witness while a detective interrogated a woman accused of beating up her husband.
With a rush of adrenaline that went straight to his head, Fury came back to the present. The memories had taken years to make but appeared in his head instantly. He had been a police officer before. He had spent long hours in a squad car on patrol, saved lives, and made a difference.
The cyborg landed a swift kick in the man’s ribs, making him curl into a ball in the dirty gravel. Perhaps he should have called the authorities, but he had no phone. If he showed up at someone’s house to report the incident they might turn him in as a fugitive cyborg, if they bothered answering the door at all.
Now that he had found himself, Fury had his own mission. He didn’t need a commander. The cyborg set off down the street in search of more criminals, intending to bring justice.
CHAPTER 24
Natasha opened her eyes and instantly knew that something was wrong. There wasn’t any visible evidence around her — no sounds or smells of fire. All she had to go on was a feeling in the pit of her stomach, where everything seemed to be drawing in against itself, pinching her gut tighter and tighter. The sensation was enough to make her want to throw up.
It was the feeling of being alone in the house.
Tossing on a robe and heading downstairs, Natasha began doing a room-by-room inspection. Since the amazing experience she’d had with Fury a few nights ago, he had made leaving the house at night a regular habit. Natasha couldn’t deny him his freedom any longer. She had kept him in the house like a caged animal.
At least he was leaving when most people were still in bed. He could use the darkness of the night to hide him, and for now, that had to be enough protection. The cyborg didn’t tell her what happened during his nocturnal excursions. Natasha was determined to let him have a little privacy.
Fury wasn’t in the guest bedroom. Even though she thought it was impossible for the cyborg to be in the basement, she checked down there as well. He had come downstairs and fallen asleep on the couch once before, but the cushions weren’t supporting his sleeping body today. Fury wasn’t in the kitchen making breakfast or watching television. He simply wasn’t in the house.
Natasha stood in the middle of the kitchen and slowly spun in a circle, imagining every nook and cranny of the house where the soldier might be. Had she heard the door shut when Fury returned last night? Had he even come home? The hour of his return always varied, but somehow when she awoke in the middle of the night, she could always sense his presence.
With nerves making her anxious, Natasha decided to brew a pot of coffee. It was still early. With luck, Fury was on his way home. He didn’t keep a routine, preferring to leave and return at seemingly random hours. She suspected Fury was exploring the city, and that wasn’t something that could be done in thirty minutes each night.
When the sun had risen completely, and Natasha had showered and dressed, she decided to expand the search to outside the house. She got in her car and began cruising up and down the streets. The search pattern started in circles going out from her house. Natasha checked side streets she hadn’t been on since childhood and drove slowly past the park. She turned each corner with hope rising in her chest that she would see him if she could only be in the right place at the right time.
As she headed back home to see if Fury had returned while she was gone, Natasha spotted a large man on the corner. He wore jogging clothes and was waiting for the early morning traffic to slow enough for him to cross. The man’s enormous physique made him stand out among the crowd of people in business casual clothing who were heading to work.
Stomping on the brakes and lowering her passenger side window, Natasha leaned over and shouted out of her car. “Fury!” Traffic was beginning to back up behind her, but she didn’t care. “Fury!”
Finally, the man turned around. The body might have fit the cyborg’s description, but the face was completely different. She hadn’t found him after all.
“I’m sorry,” she called as the stranger looked at her in confusion. “I thought you were someone else.” Natasha pressed on the gas pedal and roared off down the road. She grabbed the phone and called the only person she thought might be able to help her.
“Hello?” John answered sleepily.
“It’s Natasha. I’m sorry to wake you; I know it’s your day off. This is a little embarrassing, but I seem to have lost Fury.” Her heart began pounding in her chest a second time as she had to tell the story to someone else.
“This doesn’t sound good.” John seemed much more alert. She could hear shuffling noises in the background as he put on his clothes. “When did he leave your house?”
“I don’t know. Fury’s not under constant surveillance. It was sometime after I went to bed, but he never says where he’s going or how long he’ll be gone. For all I know, he isn’t even missing. But he’s never been out past sunrise before.” Natasha pulled into a parking lot so she could talk on the phone more easily. “I’ve driven around looking for him, and I don’t know what else to do.”
“We’ll find him,” John assured her. “He can’t have gone too far.” The chime of a seatbelt reminder sounded over the phone. “I’m getting in my car right now. We’ll have better luck if two people are looking for him.”
Natasha nodded, even though John couldn’t see the motion over the phone. “What am I going to do if I don’t find him?” She was losing control and starting to cry.
“I think the better question is what you’re going to do with him once you find him. Natasha, there’s a reason we created Cyborg Sector and the rehabilitation center. He can’t keep staying with you covertly like this.” John’s voi
ce sounded grave but broken up by the clicking of his turn signal.
“There isn’t another option.” Natasha pulled back onto the street, ready to start looking again. “I can’t lock him out of the house. Without any of the proper paperwork, he’ll never be able to get a home or a job.” Natasha was understandably reluctant to reveal the rest of the truth. She wanted Fury to stay with her. They had not spoken about their relationship. Fury said he would do what was best, and she believed him.
“I did say that,” John agreed, breaking into her thoughts. “I’ve been doing some research. I should be able to get some documentation for him. It won’t be official, but there will be a matching file in the national cyborg database.”
“Really?” Natasha squealed. “You can do that?”
“Yes. Well, a friend of a friend can do it. It will be expensive, but from his description, it shouldn’t be too difficult. The cyborg database isn’t the kind of system that gets hacked very often. You’re either a cyborg or you aren’t, and I don’t think anybody tries to pretend they are. The security is weak for a government program.” John always sounded confident when he talked about anything related to technology.
“That sounds perfect. Now we just have to find Fury so we can share the good news.”
CHAPTER 25
After they had driven around separately for hours, John and Natasha decided to call off the search. If Fury was anywhere in town, he was either hiding or something had happened to him. It was nearly noon, and they hadn’t made any progress.
“Give me a call if you find out anything,” John said over the phone. “I’ll keep my eyes peeled too, and I’ll talk to the person who’s doing Fury’s paperwork. He used to work for Cyborg Sector, so he might be able to help us.”
“Okay.” Natasha pulled into her driveway and turned off the ignition. “Thanks for your help.”
“It’s not a problem.” A heavy pause followed. “Look, do you think there’s any chance he left on purpose? I hate to bring it up, but it seems strange for him to disappear like this.”
The nurse gulped. John was verbalizing the worries she had been trying to shove aside the entire day. Fury had said she belonged to him, but what did that mean? Could he come and go as he pleased, disappearing for a day or more at a time when he’d had enough of her? Maybe other women belonged to him as well. Perhaps she had pushed him too hard to become human again or fought too much to keep him at home. Maybe he’d started out on his walk, and halfway through suddenly decided that he didn’t want to turn around and come back. Had she driven him away?
“I don’t know. I hope not.”
“It might be a good thing if he did, in a way,” John argued. “It would mean that he’s safe, and he hasn’t been arrested or injured.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” But it wasn’t enough to convince her to stop worrying. Whether Fury left of his own volition or not, she needed to know the truth.
“Well, make sure you tell me what you find out.” John ended the conversation, leaving Natasha alone in the horrible silence of the house.
The quiet didn’t last for long. When there was a knock at the door, Natasha’s heart leaped into her throat and spilled a copper taste over her tongue. Was it Fury? Had he forgotten his key?
It was Nick again. He had recovered from his drunken binge and stood straight and confident in front of the door. He looked relaxed, hooking his thumbs into the tops of his pants pockets. Nick always looked like he was wearing the same clothes: a tight, black band t-shirt with ripped jeans. Natasha couldn’t believe she had ever married him.
“Did you need another copy of the divorce papers?” she asked innocently, noticing they weren’t in his hand and wondering if the attorney had received them yet.
“No, I still have my first set. But I came here for the complete opposite reason.” He walked into the house without being invited and looked around, scrutinizing the room and imagining how much money he could get for the contents at auction. “I can’t sign those papers. As I’ve said before, I want you back with me.”
Natasha didn’t close the door, hoping Nick would realize he wasn’t welcome. “And as I’ve said before, I’m not interested. I’m not dumb enough to go back to someone who cheated on me. Since you think I’m a filthy whore, maybe you shouldn’t want to get back together with me either.”
Nick folded his skinny frame down onto the couch. He leaned against the back cushion and spread his arms out wide, looking every bit the king of the castle. “I thought that for a minute, myself. But then I found out what happened in this house. I know your secret, and you’re going to move back in with me unless you want everyone else to know about it.”
“Did you find out about me? It’s true, I never make spaghetti sauce from scratch, and I drink decaf.” Natasha was nervous, and Nick was making her grasp at straws. She didn’t want to give anything away. Nick could be referring to anything.
Her husband threw his head back and laughed. “It’s nothing that simple, and you know it. Shut the damn door so we can talk.”
The nurse looked down at the doorknob in her hand. Closing the door would mean sealing herself in with someone repulsive. She wasn’t sure she could sit on the middle cushion of the couch after Nick had touched it with his ass. But if he was talking about Fury, she didn’t want to risk a neighbor walking by and overhearing the conversation. She decided to close it slowly but stayed nearby in case she needed to bolt out of the door.
“Don’t look like you’re afraid of me,” Nick reprimanded. “I’m your husband, after all. And you’re coming back.”
“You keep saying that. Why don’t you get to the point?”
Nick leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as a grin spread across his face. “I know about your buddy. I know he isn’t a legal cyborg - and that he hasn’t been fixing anything.”
A chill spread over Natasha’s skin as she stared at the unwanted guest in her living room. Her vision dimmed around the edges. She felt like sitting down, but that would mean letting go of the doorknob and getting closer to Nick. It would also mean admitting he was right.
“Quit making things up. Your lies aren’t going to get me back.” As soon as she spoke, Natasha could hear the hoarseness in her voice. Nick had her trapped.
“There were an awful lot of people who lost their jobs at Cyborg Sector when it shut down. Your father wasn’t the only one affected. Those people have had to go out into the world and find other jobs. Believe it or not, some of them come in and drink at my bar. Do you know what happens when a man gets drunk?”
“Of course I do. He sleeps with his employees.” Natasha wondered if Nick would reveal his cards before she showed any of hers.
“He starts talking.” Nick answered the question himself. “The more beers you set in front of him, the more he says. Make a few of them beers free, and you can find out anything you desire. You see, you think I’m in the alcohol business, but I’m really in the information business. I’ve learned enough to bring down several large companies this afternoon if I wanted to.” He sat back again, looking confident.
In the logical part of her brain, Natasha thought he was exaggerating. He might know a few things, but he was the kind of man who always felt he needed to have the upper hand in every interaction. Still, she listened carefully.
“Colin White comes into my bar all the time, and he helped me put the pieces together. Your friend is an illegal cyborg, isn’t he? You’ve broken a lot of laws and violated ethical codes that Cyborg Sector won’t be happy about. You might spend time in jail, and they’re going to kill your pet, of course. I don’t think you want any of that to happen, do you?” He cocked a blonde eyebrow at Natasha.
Nick looked disgustingly happy. He had her over a barrel, and there was no point in denying it. Natasha wished she could knock the smug look right off of his ugly face. How had she ever let herself care for someone who was so cruel inside? He knew that Fury’s life was at stake, but he wasn’t the least bit concerned
.
“I think there’s even more to this story, too, but I’m still researching it. I do know that there are reports that have come in about something roaming the neighborhood at night. Tell me, my gorgeous wife, do you have any idea what it has been doing out there unsupervised?”
Reports? Had someone seen Fury? Natasha had been content to fall into a pattern of existing side by side with the cyborg. Why hadn’t she asked him about his nightly trips? At the very least, he hadn’t been careful enough.
“What do you want?” Natasha leaned heavily on the doorknob.
“I think you know. I’ve told you time and again, but you don’t listen to me.” He stood up from the couch and crossed the room to her. Nick only stood a half a head taller than Natasha, but he could be intimidating when he wanted to be. His eyes danced with a cold light. “You’re coming back to me. Get your stuff back into my house.”
Before she could react or back away, Nick smacked a wet kiss onto her lips. He put a hand on the doorknob, covering hers as he turned his hand roughly and pulled the door open. “Two days, my love.”
Natasha slammed the door and locked it, then ran to the kitchen to wash out her mouth.
CHAPTER 26
John showed up at Natasha’s house that evening with Chinese takeout and a bulky shoulder bag. He looked as disheveled as she felt, with wrinkled clothes and bags under his eyes. The tech studied her face for only a moment before coming in and setting his things down. He knew from the look on her face there had been no word of Fury.
Natasha had spent the afternoon berating herself. She should have given Fury a phone or made him take hers. She could have put up more resistance about him leaving the house. Maybe she should have moved to a remote location in Canada, where people were more sympathetic to the cyborg cause. However she looked at it, there was something she could have done differently.
But there was also the fact that the cyborg only did what he wanted to do. He probably wouldn’t have taken a phone even if Natasha had insisted, and they’d already fought enough about him going outside. And Canada? Fury didn’t think he had anything to hide.