Payback's a Bitch

Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with the Iron Man movie franchise and I am definitely not making any money from this.

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is so short but the next one will be longer…and will have sex!

lll

Vanko arrogantly strode to Hammer's chair and sat down, testing the flexibility of the executive's chair by leaning it all the way back and lacing his fingers behind his head. Vanko plunked his filthy bare feet on Hammer's desk and smirked when he saw its owner's grimace. "All I need is cigar and brandy and I look like decadent Western businessman."

"Get out of my chair!" Hammer said, his rage and humiliation tightening his throat until his demand sounded more like a squeak than an actual objection.

"Pochemoo?" Vanko said, "You can't sit."

Hammer swallowed his gall with an audible gulp at the truth in the Russian's words. He wouldn't be able to sit properly for a week.

"What are you waiting for, durak? Where is my drink and cigar? Don't give me the swill you give everyone else, I want the best."

Hammer went to the other side of the room where the bar was located and opened the cabinet. He moaned quietly at the thought of giving his best bottle of brandy on the commie bastard who now commandeered his office…Only 738 bottles were ever created and he was wasn't even going to taste it. Goddamn it!

In spite of himself, Vanko was impressed. The cigars were Cuban but he wouldn't smoke them now. The brandy, however, was too exquisite not to sample. Remy Martin Louis XIII, Rare Cask and unless Vanko was mistaken, the cost of the bottle was in the mid-twenty thousand dollar range—probably more than what the little weasel in the room with him paid the majority of his employees.

Brandy such as this was made to be slowly sipped and savoured, but Vanko could not resist the urge to make Hammer squirm. He opened the bottle and raised it to his lips, drinking deeply. When he had had enough, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and sat up again.

With all the ease and confidence of a capable and experienced hacker, Vanko logged into the personal computer of Hammer Industries' CEO. A thought flitted through his mind of asking Hammer to show him the location of the information about Kate's daughter but dismissed the idea just as quickly. He would find it and besides, snooping through Hammer's hard drive would be fun and might even be useful. He was done for the day in the lab and he was in no hurry to return to the cage that was now home.

Vanko raised an incredulous eyebrow at the amount of porn and online dating sites this capitalist pig had frequented on a daily basis and wondered how Hammer ever got anything done. "Rich hotties like me dot com?" Vanko sneered as he read the site's tagline: "Wealthy People Need Love Too."

Hammer shuffled his feet and looked uncomfortable. "There are a lot of gold diggers out there and a man like me with a lot to lose has to be careful."

"I know," Vanko murmured and took a different meaning to the words than Hammer himself intended. He did have a lot to lose; there were more than a few files in this computer that would make interesting reading to either the CIA or Homeland Security. However, since it was the CIA's nosing around in his business that lead to his incarceration in the first place, Vanko felt no desire to pass the info he found on to them. Let them do their own damn dirty work. Still, making a copy of the sensitive information that he was coming across now would be good insurance and more importantly, it would mean protection for Kate. What would ensure her protection would be the video of Justin Hammer bent over a workbench, his ass bared for all to see being spanked in his own lab. With the dubbing of one or two carefully chosen audio files, Vanko could create a video of Hammer asking for it. He could not stop himself from cackling at the thought.

"Give me flash drive," he growled. When Hammer said nothing, Vanko turned his attention from the keyboard and began opening drawers at random in the walnut-inlay desk, throwing their contents on the floor. As he expected, the man who looked like he measured the part in his hair with calipers would not allow messiness.

Without a word, Hammer went to the drawer where his last 32-gigabyte USB was. There was no way he could physically stop Vanko from stealing information; he was no match for the hulking brute. Even though it was a late hour, here were some members of staff still in the building. Hammer did consider calling for help, but knew that if he did, there might be some awkward questions about why a supposedly dead man was sitting in his chair. For the first time in his life, Justin Hammer experienced true helplessness.

"Now you know what it's like for Kate," Vanko said, correctly guessing what his companion was feeling.

"Go to hell," Hammer snarled, throwing the USB at his antagonist.

"As you say in this country, I've already been there," Vanko responded lightly as he inserted the device.

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It wasn't long before Vanko located the information that had brought him to this office—the file on Patricia Anne Crawford. Being the animal lover that she was, Kate would be thrilled to find that a veterinarian and her husband had adopted her daughter. Reading further, Vanko discovered that they specialized in treating abandoned and abused circus and rodeo horses. After the traumatized animals recovered and were rehabilitated to trust humans again, they were sent to equine therapy centres all over North America for the treatment of children with special needs. Vanko did not read any more; this was for someone else's eyes and heart only. He smiled to himself as he pictured Kate finally finding out that her daughter was thriving. And if the photos were any indication, there was a definite promise of beauty in the girl's future.

"Just like her mother," Vanko murmured with satisfaction. His work now complete, Vanko was about to log off when an icon on Hammer's desktop caught his eye. Clicking on it, the Russian ex-convict was stunned to see that it was a CCTV feed of his living quarters, the camera focused directly over his bed. It wasn't until he heard the contented squawking of his bird emanating from the computer speakers that he discovered that there was an audio feed as well.

Vanko felt his pulse pound in his temples as he realized the implications. It hadn't been enough that the little man held his leash…this dupa put cameras in my room so he could see and hear everything that went on between Kate and me. Vanko was certain that the time that they had made love was in a separate file-probably to be enjoyed by Hammer and whomever else he wanted to show it to. Kate's actions recorded for the sole purpose of amusing and arousing the men who watched.

It wasn't for himself that he was angry. Fifteen years of hard time had stripped any modesty from him; communal showers and overcrowded cells meant that the most private of a man's actions were on display for everyone to see, hear, and smell. Privacy even to go for a piss or a shit was non-existent. He was used to being watched. But Kate…? No, a woman as gentle and loving as she did not deserve to have her privacy violated—her most intimate services recorded and broadcast to the titillation of male employees of Hammer Industries.

Every fibre of his being ached to put his hands around the former defense contractor's scrawny neck but he resisted the urge. Harming Hammer would only exacerbate his problems. Worse, Kate's safety and well-being would be in jeopardy. No, Vanko thought, there was a far better way to punish Hammer and it would be something he wouldn't soon forget. As the West would say, "Payback's a bitch" and Justin Hammer was going to pay big time.

Accessing the directory he was looking for was child's play; however, Hammer would not find the end result amusing in the slightest. Kate and every other every person that Hammer had ever screwed over deserved justice. But because of the physical and emotional scars she possessed because of harsh handling by Hammer's hired help, the petite brunette earned this reward more than anyone did. Vanko turned to see the reaction of the scrawny CEO standing like a sentinel over his shoulder, his mouth agape like a child expressing silent surprise.

"No!"

"Da," Vanko snarled. "You put cameras in lab—I understand this; is very expensive equipment. But that did not give you the right to watch where I rest."

"Why the hell did you just transfer all that money to her?"

"I only give her some of the money you were going to pay me." Vanko's eyes glittered dangerously as he saw the guilty look on Hammer's face and comprehended the implications. He understood everything now. Hammer was going to kill him when his work was complete; probably using the two jokers who were his muscle for hire. The same two who had violated Kate over the misplacement of a comma in a contract bid. Vanko unclenched his hands and continued with his task but he made a vow that he would seek retribution on her behalf, but the time for that was not now.

His fingers flew over the keyboard as he typed a short email and added her daughter's file as an attachment. Realizing that she might delete the email since it came from the personal computer of her employer, Vanko added a subject line that would prove he was the sender, not Justin Hammer. He hit the send key and the file was on its way.

If it were possible, he would have gladly given the next few years of his life just to see the expression on Kate's face when she finally possessed the information for which she sold herself to Hammer and his cronies to use and abuse. That part of her life was over forever.

Vanko scratched his face and felt the coarse ten-day old stubble rough against his fingers. He hadn't bathed since the last time he had seen Kate. Being as filthy as he now was did not bother him in the least; in fact, it had kept Hammer's laboratory lackeys from getting too close to him. The same could be said for their employer—except for the time he was hovering over Vanko's shoulder at Kate Brady's newly acquired six-figure bank balance-Justin Hammer kept his distance. However, Vanko realized that his present unwashed state would have to be remedied; he allowed himself to hope that Kate might want to visit him this evening. Realistically, however, her dropping by was a slim chance at best because from what he had read in the medical report, she was still recovering. If not tonight then another time, Vanko thought. He could afford to wait…he wasn't going anywhere for a while.