The White Queen (S.Rogers)

Chapter 70

"Everything fit fine, Brooklyn." He told her, still frowning at the clothes. "Who were you talking to?"

"Papa?" She asked, stepping forward, reaching out for the clothes. "We can go get some new boots, nearby, I think. Then a new coat."

"Who was on the phone, Brooklyn?" He looked at her intense. "Who was that?"

"Fucking Idiot Asshole, Papa." She told him, attempting to take the clothes from him. He held them away from her. "Papa, don't play games."

"Where did you meet him?" He took a slow step away from her. She frowned. He looked a bit wild about the eyes.

Dammit.

"At the club, Papa." She took a deep breath. "He came in, one night. We... I thought we had hit it off, after that. I did try to not allow him near... but there was something... And like I said, I thought I could make him mine."

"Why did he sound like Steve Rogers, Brooklyn?" That wild look wasn't going away. Shit, this could go very bad, very quickly, if she wasn't careful. The threat that she had warned Wilson about, about how Papa might just take a whole lot offense to Rogers fucking his daughter floated up to the forefront of her mind. Papa had also made it very clear to her, this morning, that he wasn't comfortable with the idea of Rogers and her playing games in the bedroom. "Have you been conspiring with him, this whole time? Are you turning your back on me? Gonna hand me over?"

"Papa." She took a deep breath. "I would never betray you. Not like that."
"Was that Steve? My Steve?" He looked like he was going to lose his temper in a moment.

Brooklyn gave him a slow blink. Then she lied. "Papa, I can honestly say that the man on the phone, that I was just talking to, was not your Steve Rogers."

He just stared at her, as if he could see through her. Which he probably could. God knew, they had been together for years. He probably knew her better than she knew herself. After all, he had apparently known she had been triggering the Soldier, and had been handling him, when she had been trying to hide that from him for decades.

"C'mon, Papa, are you telling me you think that Steve Rogers, Captain America, the beacon of all that is moral and good, is gonna hang around in a Mafia owned strip club? Really?" She shook her head, stepping forward to take the clothes from him. He resisted for a moment, before allowing her to grab the clothes. "Your Steve, the good man, is gonna hit on a stripper? Really?"

"You are his type." He insisted. "Brunette, sassy, strong. You'd turn his head, in a heartbeat."

"Before or after I tried to put a knife in his throat?" She tossed her head. "I mean, really, Papa. Captain America? Do you really think I'd be able to put away all of what I had been taught, that easily? And take up with the enemy? The man who... the man who took away my empire?"

"You don't need an empire." He shook his head, looking around the shopping area. "We should move on. We've been standing here long enough. People are gonna notice."

"Who's fault is that?" She snapped, turning and leading him away from the dressing rooms. "Asking me if I was gonna turn you over to Steve Rogers. Honestly, Papa. It's like you don't even know me."

"Sometimes I wonder." He responded, following her, as she turned towards the area the signs indicated was the shoe department. "I know i taught you to hide who you were from people. I wonder how well I did it. If you are able to hide yourself from me."

"Look who's complaining about people hiding." She shot over her shoulder. "You are the grand champion of that, right now."

"I've explained- Look, Baby Girl, I know I'm hurting you with what I need to do but-"
She cut him off. "But you think it's okay to accuse me of conspiring with Rogers, to what... turn you in, so who ever can do whatever they wanted to you?" She stopped turning to face him, shifting the clothes in her arms so she could poke him in the chest. "It hurt me, every time they hurt you. Every time they did what they did to you. I hated hearing you scream. I despised having to clean you up, afterwards. Every time. And you think that I would be okay leaving you open to something like that, again? Even when I-" She stopped taking a deep breath. "Even when I did what I did, I did it so we could survive. That's what I told myself. That's what I held on to. I will never just blindly hand you over to someone I thought would use you against yourself, ever again. I will lie, cheat, steal, kill, blow up governments, if it meant that you never had to go through that again. That is my promise to you. They will have to go through me, to get to you, every time."