Winter is for Lovers (Bucky Barnes X OC) [Book 1]

23. You're Breaking My Heart

"Are you sure she is ready for this?" I heard Doctor Zola ask nervously.

"They're going to take the bait, Doctor Zola," The Red Skull said to him before he turned his head in my direction. "And she will be ready for them when the time comes."

"But... I'm on the train, too!" Zola whined.

Schmidt's guards hauled me onto the iron train before I could hear the rest of their conversation and thrown into a cargo hold.

The Red Skull came in after a few more minutes, the good Doctor Zola right on his heels as I was chained to a pipe.

"What is your mission?" The Red Skull asked me.

I lifted my head slowly to face him, resting it against the cool metal of the train. My silence was treated with a crisp slap to my face, making me laugh.

I was a glutton for pain at this point, knowing that it meant I was still alive and still fighting...

I had to keep fighting...

"Your mission, fraulein," Red Skull asked again.

The tone of his words triggered my brain, and I became laser-focused on my objective:

"Kill Captain America," I said with no ounce of emotion or expression in my tone. "Bring glory to HYDRA."

"No survivors," The Red Skull instructed.

"No survivors," I repeated.

He brought a gloved hand to my face, caressing my cheek and I flinched out of his grasp, making him smile and bare his teeth as he gripped my face.

"Hail HYDRA," he said to me, looking me in the eye.

"Hail HYDRA," I replied.

He stomped away without another word or second glance, leaving me to rot in the cargo hold. Four guards marched in, posted at every corner of the car, most likely all brought in if I tried to escape.

That was smart.

The guards never left my train car, and soon enough, we started moving, speeding through the Alps to HYDRA's next location. I could overhear the guards speaking quietly in German to themselves. They sounded nervous, and I could only make out a few words here and there.

Captain America and his friends were coming for Doctor Zola, and they had no idea I was on the train too.

I was bored, chained to the wall and banging my head against the wall. One of the guards told me to knock it off, but it only made me bang louder against the steel of the car we were in. Before too long, I called over one of the guards, smiling sweetly at him and batting my eyelashes, trying to be less threatening as I attempted to get him to uncuff me.

I was greeted with a sound fist hitting me in the gut, and I coughed wildly as I lost the control to breathe.

I lost control, thrashing around until the other guards joined in, beating me to a pulp until they eventually got bored.

Or they heard something go bump in the next car over, and they fled...

"Stay alive," I coughed out, struggling not to choke out the words.

Everything hurt, and I looked down to see myself bruised and bloody from the thorough beating I had received.

We were higher up in the mountains, and I peeked out the window, watching the sky zoom by. The train had to be going over 100 miles an hour, and the vibrations of the train on the tracks were almost enough to lull me to sleep.