Lost + Found [Bucky Barnes] ✓

Chapter 29

Bucky hesitates for a moment, watching the woman carefully, before his tense muscles relax an inch, and he stands upright. Lifting his hands in surrender to mirror my own, he pivots slightly so he can face both me and the woman approaching me.

"Bucky, don't," I warn him.

He shakes his head, "I promised, Chloe. I promised it would be okay."

"They don't want me," I blurt out, flinching as the woman takes another step forward to press the barrel of the gun against my forehead. The cold metal sends shivers down my spine, and I fight the onslaught of tears gathering in the corners of my eyes. I'm terrified - absolutely terrified - and, even though I don't want to die, I definitely don't want these people to take Bucky. I can't let that happen.

Bucky grimaces, the muscles in his jaw tightening as he watches the fear shift into terror on my face, "Put the gun down. Let her go."

"You're hardly in a bargaining position, Mr. Barnes," the woman says in heavily-accented English.

I start to shake my head, momentarily forgetting the gun pushed against it, before whispering, "Please, James. Please don't do this."

"I'll go with you," Bucky bargains, ignoring my pleading. "Let her go, and I'll go willingly."

The woman smirks, and laughter hits my eardrums as the man from earlier approaches. He's clapping slowly, still pristine in his suit even though chaos has erupted around us, and he smiles broadly at me. His dark brown eyes glitter, and - for a moment - I feel that this man is far more dangerous than the gun pointing my way. I can't let him take Bucky.

"Very well done, Chloe," Magnus says, tucking his hands back into his pockets. "You too, Barnes. An impressive show. I wasn't certain you'd regain so much...humanity, given your history, but you've certainly proven me wrong. The greatest weapon in Hydra history, bargaining over the life of an insignificant girl. How utterly humiliating."

Magnus nods at the woman, who lowers her gun instantly. She lifts her finger to her ear, no doubt using a hidden earpiece to call for backup, and I glance at Bucky. His blue eyes are cold, emotion drained from them aside from a very clear warning. Don't do anything stupid. I can practically hear him hissing the words at me, but I ignore it.

Now is definitely the time for stupid.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a squad of men storming through Monastiraki Square. They're heavily armed, dressed in black, as they thunder through the chaos toward us. Steve and T'Challa must be out there, somewhere, otherwise there's no way they would let this happen. They should be able to hear Bucky - to hear everything - but they haven't done anything.

Why haven't they done anything?

Acting purely on impulse, I barrel forward toward the woman with the gun. My charge catches her off-guard, and she lifts her gun to fire just before my body connects with her. A shot rings out, pain rippling through me, but my momentum continues to carry me forward as I knock her to the ground. One hand pushes her wrist away as she fires another shot into the air, while my other collides with the bare skin of her neck.

Bucky reacts immediately, delivering a powerful roundhouse kick to Magnus before rushing to my side. I can tell he wants to engage with the man who is now pushing himself slowly to his feet, regaining his composure, but Bucky's icy blue gaze is fixed firmly on me as he pulls me away from the now-motionless woman and wraps an arm securely around my waist.

"Come on, Chloe," he urges. "We gotta go."

Nodding, I let him pull me away from the squad of fresh fighters moving into the area as we push into the Athens Flea Market. Vendors and pedestrians are everywhere, many still trying to escape the area while a few - driven by curiosity - are trying to get a better look of the infamous man with the metal arm. Bucky shoves one man to the side, squeezing me past a stall selling brightly colored sandals, and we weave our way through the crowd while Magnus and his men are thundering behind us.

Bucky guides me to the left, turning down a small alley at the first possible opportunity, and he spots a man parking his scooter alongside a graffiti-covered wall. Snatching the keys from the man, he hoists the scooter around so it faces the opposite direction and plants me on it. The tiny bike groans under his weight while the man he took it from screams a slew of Greek at us, and we zip down the alley toward an opening in the buildings.

Leaning to the right, we speed up around the corner and fly down a street lined with cafes on one side and fenced-in ruins on the other. A perfect mesh of old and new, it flies by in a blur as I focus on keeping a tight grip around Bucky's waist.

Bullets buzz past us, screams erupting in the previously peaceful street, and Bucky swerves to the right down an alley to avoid them. Another group of Magnus' men is charging up the next street, so he carefully navigates left then right again before turning onto Ερμού heading away from the Square. Sirens wail as he navigates through the streets of Athens, careful to avoid a straight path, and soon we're lost in the ancient city. 

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

New chapter, new chapter! Sorry for the delay. 

You've probably heard, but Conlan proposed on Monday night so I was (naturally) ever-so-slightly too distracted to write!

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