find me

48. aftermath

24th October 

"I have no way to contact him." Steve murmured in the dark. He had actually realised he didn't need to shout to be heard. The room must have been miked, wired so that anyone on the outside could listen in. 

"Don't worry about that anymore." Rumlow's voice growled from the other side of the wall. "I need a different kind of information from you." 

Steve frowned in the dark. 

"What kind of information?" His voice heedful. 

"I need something private, about Barnes, something that wouldn't be in the files." Rumlow replied immediately. 

Steve's eyes narrowed in confusion and then widened slightly in apprehension, his shoulders tensing. That must have meant they knew where he was. Which meant the only reason why they were still detaining Steve was because he was now bait, of course. His jaw locked. 

"I'm not gonna play your game. I'll die before I help you get your hands on Buck."

Rumlow snickered. That wasn't surprising to him. 

"What if I told you it's the only way you keep him alive?" His voice was vicious as it travelled through the wall.

"I'd say bullshit." Steve spat the words. 

Rumlow's laugh boomed in the corridor, bouncing between hard stone making it louder. Then he sighed loudly, before lowering his voice. 

"Tell me why he's doing this. Why protect the girl?" Rumlow enquired, regardless of the laughter, there was no humour in his tone.

Steve couldn't be sure of it, but that question implied they had no idea where Natalie had stayed when she was in New York, and who she worked for; it also implied they didn't know who Bucky and Natalie were and meant to each other. If that was the case, he sure as hell was going to keep it that way.

"What girl?"

Rumlow brushed his beard in frustration. "The fucking girl your boy decided to kidnap instead of following orders and bringing her in." Of course Steve didn't need to know that wasn't exactly what SHIELD had ordered Bucky to do. 

Steve's eyes jumped left and right as he tried to navigate this new reality in which he had no idea who Natalie was.

"You're gonna have to clue me in, Rumlow 'cause I have no idea what you're talking about." He made his voice as clueless and confused as possible, going as far as furrowing his brows, even though no one could actually see him. 

"Don't play fucking dumb." Rumlow snarled in anger, he was getting more and more fed up with this wasteful conversation.

Steve held a breath before spitting out the lie. "I don't know her."

"Don't lie to me Rogers." He barked from the corridor.

Steve almost wanted to laugh at the gush of anger displayed by his somewhat colleague. "Or what? You're gonna kill me? We both know you can't do that."

Rumlow sneered, a sickening light shining in his eyes. "Kill you? No, no, what fun would that be?" Steve could hear the wicked grin in his words.