Betrayal - A Bucky Barnes Fanfic

Chapter 24

And then the first fist landed on Jason's face. There was nothing left of his slimy grin now. "James!" cried Ava, startled. What the hell is he doing here? Is he stalking me? Ava's mind was racing.

James had Jason pinned to the floor and was straddling him. He kept punching his face. Ava was frozen in place, she couldn't move and instead watched in despair as James took out all his anger on Jason. If he doesn't stop, he'll kill him, she thought, terrified, but her body was too overwhelmed to intervene.

Then it all happened very quickly and two well-built guys yanked James up by his arms.

"Give it a rest, Bucky, he's not worth it," the blond guy said to James. James was still visibly upset and shook the two men off.

„If you dare to touch her again, I'll finish this," James said through clenched teeth to Jason who was still on the ground. Slowly Jason straightened up and one of the men held out his hand to help him up. Jason ignored the hand, held his badly bleeding nose and hurried into the bathroom without another word.

"James." Ava couldn't bring herself to say any more. She was completely confused and a million questions were running through her head.

"Come on," James said firmly, his face contorted with anger, and held his hand out to her. It was smeared with blood. When Ava just stared at him in horror, he grabbed her by the arm and she had no choice but to follow him through the onlooking crowd.

"I need to tell Peter and my colleagues where I am," Ava managed to get out and stopped abruptly. James rolled his eyes. "I'll wait outside," he said tensely.

Ava hurried to their little booth and April's laughter turned into a startled expression when she saw Ava.

"Ava, are you okay?" she asked worriedly, "What was going on just now?"

"Yes, everything is okay, I have to go, I'm sorry. But enjoy the rest of the evening." She didn't wait for any more questions or for them to say goodbye, instead she hurried outside. She desperately needed to talk to James and she was still completely rattled.

"James, let me look at your hand." Ava forgot all her questions the moment she saw James with his injured hand.

"It's okay, I'm fine. You'd better tell me how you are. That dirty bastard ... I should have finished him off." His voice still sounded angry, but he seemed to have calmed down at least a little.

„I'm okay and I could have handled him on my own. Now show me your hand already," Ava said in frustration and James silently held his hand out to her. His knuckles were cracked and bleeding.

"Let me walk you home and take care of your wounds," Ava said in a stern tone. She didn't want the wounds to get infected and she felt responsible for his tantrum, even if it wasn't her fault.

"No, you can't. You can't come into my flat," James sighed.

"Why not?" blurted Ava. She could hear the frustration in his voice and it was probably the worst possible situation to be arguing with him about his secrets right now.

"Because you can't, Ava."

"What are you doing here anyway? Are you stalking me?" Slowly, Ava was getting angry. Why was he bothering to bash someone because of her, only to go back to being Mister Secretive?

"As tonight showed, you need someone to look out for you. You're lucky I was there."

"Wow, don't be so modest Mister I'll-Save-The-World. I don't need your help and I don't need to be saved. I've taken self-defense classes and I can defend myself quite well," Ava returned defiantly.