His Soulmate | Bucky Barnes ✔

Chapter Thirty Four

~Bucky's POV~

JARVIS' voice rang across the room a few minutes later, repeating apologies over and over as Tony ordered him to recover the footage of the various security cameras set up around the tower. HYDRA had left with Amelie, and there was no trace of where they'd gone.

The door swung open at long last, and Steve jogged out, only to fall over the body of a man with a knife sticking out of his chest. Ignoring the pain that I slowly felt begin to shoot through my leg, and the pounding at the side of my head, I sprinted up the stairs, my shouts and feet hitting the stairs the only thing I could hear. I needed Amelie with me and as much as I tried to convince myself there was a possibility she was still here I knew it couldn't be true. I felt it in my heart - like someone has grabbed it and squeezed it to dust. She wasn't here anymore. She'd gone. They had taken her.

I ran out onto the landing stage, but there was no evidence of anyone having been there. Slamming the door shut behind me, I continued running up the stairs, avoiding the lift in the off-chance it stopped again. I was also hoping for the possibility of finding any HYDRA soldiers that could have been left behind so we could torture the information out of them.

I fell out of the door onto the roof, but it was empty. The sun setting lit up the sky, a painting of oranges, pinks, purples and blues. A tear rolled down my cheek, and that's when I broke. I fell to my knees, the only word I could repeat was Amelie, as if her name was my lifeline. She had saved me, and I had to find the strength to save her.

I felt numb, but I knew I had to go back to the others and plan a rescue mission right away whilst it was still fresh. If we left it till morning HYDRA will have fully covered their tracks, but if we started right now then there was hope we could find a clue to their whereabouts.

I stumbled down the stairs, and walked over the pool of blood by the doorway to push my body into the living rooms. Peter was stood in the space where the living area met the kitchen, and he turned to face me as I entered. His face was wet with tears, his blotchy cheeks and wobbling bottom lip telling me he'd been told what had happened. His hair was pulled at angles, and for a moment we stood in silence.

But then he ran at me, and I was fully expecting him to hit and punch me for not saving Amelie, for abandoning her to be at the clutches of HYDRA. I deserved the attack, so stood still, waiting.

I wasn't expecting him to jump up and wrap his arms around my shoulders, his face buried into his bent elbow as he sobbed into my top. It took me a few seconds to register he'd come to me for comfort, and it was only then that I wrapped my arms around him too.

"I'm sorry," I choked out, my voice muffled by his mess of curls that was shoved into my face.

He shook his head. "It's not your fault Bucky." My heart cracked, my resolve crumbling, and I buried my head in his shoulder, trying to convey my true apologies to the boy who'd not only lost his parents, aunt and uncle, but now his only cousin too.

But she wasn't dead. Yet.

I pulled away from him, planting my hands on his shoulders. We breathed deeply, trying to stop or tears, and I stared at his eyes, finding traces of Amelie's features on his face. "We will find her."

He nodded, and squeezed my hand that rested on his shoulder. "You need to clean that wound. Amelie needs you to."

That kicked me into motion, and I walked to Bruce who had spread out a medical kit across the table. "What happened? We were in the lift, I'd barely been gone for five minutes?"

Everyone exchanged worried glances before Bruce gestured to me. "I need to sort her injuries out." I nodded weakly, I knew about the hit on my head, which was the source of my pounding headache and the stain of blood across my left cheek, and the cut on my leg but I needed to inspect the rest of my body after seeing Amelie being beaten. I pulled my top up gently, then yanked it over my head. There were huge bruises forming all over my stomach, trailing up my chest.