Rewritten 2018

Make You Feel My Love ~Book II~

Disclaimer: I do not own The Winter Soldier movie! All rights go to Marvel. All I own is my own characters and their stories.

~Chapter 7~
Can't Hold Me Back

With worry latched onto her heart, she paced back and forth in the lounge of the hotel room. She was sure that if someone saw her from the other skyscrapers surrounding the hotel, she would look like some kind of bored zoo-animal pacing back and forth in her cage. In fact, Maria couldn't help but feel a little like that as well; trapped, caged...

Clint and Charles were at the masquerade and soon they'd plant the device that would allow Martin to see the entire schematics of the building from his place in Washington. With those schematics in front of him he would be able to lead the second team into the building to arrest Artur and save Clint and Charles. She felt useless and wanted to be there as well.

With a sigh, she sat down on the couch, running a hand through her hair. With all the things that had been going on lately, Maria couldn't stop the memories from coming back to her. The memories of when she first met Artur and the memories of all the things she had done. It was all rushing back to her and the angst she felt because of the bad choices she had made in her life caused her hands to start shaking.

"Where are we going?" asked Maria, her arm linked with the strange man she had met only yesterday when she was roaming the streets of Hell's Kitchen, trying to find a job somewhere so that she could pay the rent of her grandmother's apartment. "The queue is there."

He had decided to take her to a fancy restaurant that Maria knew was so expensive that she wouldn't even be able to pay for one drink. Though he had insisted on taking her there and pay for her. Once they had gotten there, he seemed to miss the fact that there was a long queue in front of the building with people waiting to get in. Artur did not reply to her questions though and simply led her past the queue and to the back of the building.

Artur tapped his knuckle three times against the metal door around the back, still ignoring her questions of what they were doing there and instead holding a tighter grip on her arm. When the door opened, one of the kitchen staff showed his face. The moment his eyes landed on Artur, they widened and a smile appeared on his lips. Maria immediately saw how fake and panicked the smile was, though she kept her mouth shut about it.

"Kuznetsov, please, come in," said the man, opening the door for them.

With confident steps, Artur walked through the busy kitchen, Maria looking around at the massive kitchen with wide and amazed eyes. She was confused as to why they were entering this way, though the tight grip that Artur had on her arm made her feel confident enough to go with him without protesting. Her eyes took in the fancy food they were preparing and realized that she hadn't tasted nor even knew the name of half of the food she saw there.

Once they exited the kitchen, a man in a suit walked up to them and showed them both to a table that was placed in the back of the restaurant, close to the large aquarium filled with lobsters and tiny fishes with amazing blue and yellow colors.

With the grace and confidence of a gentleman, Artur pulled out her chair for her before sitting down himself. As she took in the decorations and the fancily dressed people around her, she couldn't help but think that they themselves were underdressed for this restaurant, not to mention the fact that she did not feel like she belonged in there at all. The both of them were wearing dark clothes; jeans, a t-shirt and a leather jacket which neither had taken off when sitting themselves down.

The waiter poured them both a glass of red wine, Artur first having tasted it before approving of it. It was then that Maria turned to her date with wide eyes.

"I don't belong here," said Maria, earning a look from Artur.

"Neither do I," he simply responded.

He sat there with a nonchalant stance, watching her every move and expression with interested eyes.

"We're not dressed properly," she tried again.

"Who cares?" he asked simply, smirking at her dumbfounded look.

"Will they not throw us out?" she asked quietly, leaning forwards.

"Why? I paid them a couple of dollars," said Artur.

"'A couple' was enough?"

"Plus, they know me."

Maria simply stared at the man before her. Who had she chosen to go on a date with? And why? After all, he seemed to be far too old for her, though at the same time he seemed to not be a creep. Creeps weren't gentlemen, right?

"What do you do for a living?" asked Maria, trying to mirror his way of sitting nonchalantly like he owned the place.

"It's complicated, my dear," he said, his Russian accent making his last words sound rather hot, causing her to feel a little flustered.

"I can handle complicated things," said Maria, Artur still watching her intently.

"You can?" he simply asked.

"Stop doing that."

"Do what?"

"That. You just answer me with repeated questions… I'm sixteen. You're forty. People have already stared at us because of that. So, if you don't tell me something about yourself, I'll scream," said Maria with a huff.

"Alright," he said, leaning forwards in his chair with amusement playing in his eyes. "I am the owner of a very fortunate company that has taken over the entire black market here in Hell's Kitchen. I plan on expanding this year, actually."

Maria felt scared as he said 'black market' realizing what he was and why he could walk in like he owned the place. In fact, she felt more scared of the fact that people like that could still exist in the modern world than the fact that he was sitting opposite of her. After all, he had asked her out for a reason. If he wanted her dead, he could have simply killed her on the street. Why go through all of this effort if he only wanted her dead?

"You understand what I am saying, don't you?" he asked, leaning back in his chair again, cocking his head to the side. "Does that scare you?"

"Yes," she simply said with a monotone voice.

"Yet you are still here," he said, gesturing to her chair.

"If I run. You might kill me," she said.

"Clever girl," he said with a smirk before shaking his head. "But I do not want you dead."

Maria raised an eyebrow.

"Why ask you out in that case?" he asked. "You are far too beautiful to kill, my dear. And far too courageous to let slip through my hands. I could use someone like you by my side. But… you'll have to prove yourself to me first…"

With her daggers strapped to her leg, a glittery mask placed over her eyes and a long red dress on that revealed her back, she walked towards the door of the hotel room. Placing her hand on the doorknob, she sighed, preparing herself for the looks and the scolding she was going to get from the rest of the team; especially Steve.

"Maria, don't."

Determination took over her heart and, ignoring Martin's words, she opened the door and walked outside.

Getting inside had been easy. After all, her fake name was on the list thanks to both Martin and their invitation. Finding the others was something that would prove a little harder.

The party was held inside of a large building, the interior white and marble clad. At the far end of the room, a large bar existed where most people were spending their night while to the left, a large stage existed where there currently was an orchestra playing music. In the middle of the room, the dance floor existed, and a lot of people were dancing there. Maria couldn't help but feel a little scared about the fact that she was once again in a room filled with what she supposed were all criminals. It was unnerving especially since she knew that most of these people probably would recognize her had it not been for the mask. She herself couldn't see any faces either which she was happy about since she did not want to recognize anyone that she had either tried to kill or worked with.

Her eyes inspected the guards that were placed on the catwalk high up in the air near the ceiling. She saw them walking around there, wearing dark clothes and masks. They were most certainly Artur's men and from the looks of it, he still had guards placed everywhere to keep a close look on the guests. Once, Maria had been up there as well, guarding parties that Artur hosted. Though that was in the beginning of her career with Artur. In the end, she had been by his side to charm people with fake smiles, dance with them or allow them to pay for her drinks. The amount of deals she had managed to see through thanks to dazzling smiles and inappropriate looks still bewildered her. After all, her beauty wasn't something she would normally see in the mirror. In fact, she doubted she actually looked much different from the rest of the women. No, in the mirror, she only saw the faults and the mistakes she had made throughout her life.

Noticing that one of the guards up there was staring down at her, or at least somewhere close to her, she looked away from the ceiling and made her way towards the toilets. Outside, a couple of men were standing in silence, looking as bored as they could possibly get. Most likely, they were waiting for their dates who had gone to make sure that their makeup still looked intact since neither of them seemed to talk to each other nor did they stand close to the men's toilet. She brushed past them ignoring the looks the men gave her, and entered the women's bathroom.

Indeed, women had piled up in there. Almost none of them were actually inside the stalls where the toilets were but instead they stood by the mirrors, borrowing each other's makeup and fussing with their hair. Maria simply walked past them and entered the last stall, locking the door behind her. With a sigh, she sat down on the toilet and pressed a finger to her earpiece.

"Martin?" she said quietly.

"You should not be there. Go back. Now."

"No," she said. "I'm here now so, where are the others? Have they found the entrance yet?"

With a sigh, Martin replied: "No. They're standing by the bar trying to figure out how to enter."

"Okay, thanks."

"I'm telling them that you're here."

"Fine," she said quietly before standing up again, flushing the toilet to make it seem like she had actually used it.

Before walking outside of the stall, she double-checked that her daggers were still there. Almost all women had left by now and only three women still stood before the mirrors. They all stared at her through the mirrors. Not in a kind way, but in a way that told Maria that she had interrupted something that they were talking about and that they wanted her to leave.

Ignoring their looks, Maria walked up to the sink that was placed next to the three women and started to wash her hands. She noticed the masks they had been wearing lying on the sink next to hers and she quickly, before they noticed it, looked up at their faces, feeling relieved that she didn't recognize either of them from her previous life. Drying her hands quickly, she exited the bathroom and noticed three men still standing there, hands in their pockets and hopeful eyes looking at the door. When they saw her exit, they looked away with a roll of their eyes.

Pushing through the dancing crowd, she managed to make her way to the bar, searching with her eyes for the two men that she worked with. They weren't hard to miss, seeing as they were the only ones not walking around mingling with everyone or faking kindness towards potential crime-partners. When she saw them, she smiled slightly before walking over to them. Charles was the first one to notice her and he didn't look all that amused or happy about the fact that she was there. Clint turned around to look at her, though he didn't show the same emotions as Charles. Although they were there, they seemed to be slightly less than Charles' – or maybe Clint had not expected her to stay put.

"What are you doing here?" Charles hissed the moment she arrived close to them.

"I'm helping," she said simply.

"No. You're jeopardizing this entire mission," he hissed back.

Maria took a step away from him, surprised at his tone and his words. In fact, now that she was there with them, she was able to get them inside more easily since she knew more of Artur's security techniques than the two of them.

"Miller," warned Clint. "Maria can help. Besides, she's here now. Can't send her back."

Maria stared at Charles as he looked away from the two of them, still not looking all too pleased with any of this.

"I suppose you've seen the guards up there," said Maria, silently gesturing towards the ceiling without looking up.

Both Clint and Charles nodded their head.

"Well, we're gonna use them," said Maria. "Those men up there are going to be our way of getting caught. They'll see us enter and we'll have at least two minutes to get as far down as possible."

"Down?" asked Miller.

"Artur doesn't approve of being high above ground. He feels safer being underground. He used to build extra tunnels down in the sewers that connected his buildings with his base. Meaning there will be stairs behind…" Maria looked around at the walls, seeing a guard positioned by a door not too far away from them; "that door."

Barton and Miller looked at the door and the guard, nodding their heads.

"We figured that's the door as well," said Clint, quietly, a couple of people walking past them. "We'll need a distraction to get past the guard though."

Maria's eyes landed on the people that had walked past them and an idea popped up in her mind as she saw that it was the three women from the bathroom along with their dates. Again, the men looked bored and she figured that it was the three women who were the ones that had been invited to the masquerade.

"I have an idea," said Maria, linking her arm with Clint's, going back into character again. "Follow my lead."

She walked with Clint and Charles a little closer to the guard, grabbing a glass of champagne from one of the butlers' trails as she did this. Quickly and without flinching, she drank the champagne whole before quickly throwing it at the feet of the three women who immediately jumped and screamed. Of course, it looked as though one of them had dropped the glass and so, no one really paid a lot of attention to it. Though the guard, who had jumped at the sound of the glass shattering, rolled his eyes and walked over to the three women. Most likely to tell them to calm down and help them to get someone to clean it up. Though Maria didn't care of where he was going since this was their chance of getting inside.

Quickly, without any of the guests noticing, the three of them slipped through the door. The guards up above, however, immediately called their boss when they saw the three agents enter the door, two of them starting the descent down the ladder to pursue the three agents.