Week 368 – Tony knew he had to play his role even though it killed him to see Natasha lose all hope and his betrayal of her trust.

Emptiness.

That’s all he saw when he looked into Natasha’s eyes.

As badly as he longed to drag her into his arms, hold her, soothe her, promise her nobody would ever hurt her again, he couldn’t do that. Not yet anyway. Tony knew he had to play his role even though it killed him to see Natasha lose all hope and his betrayal of her trust.

A team was only a mile away, waiting for him to give the signal that they could swoop on the place, finally take Brandon into custody. First he had to get Natasha out of the line of fire. He might have been dreaming about taking down Brandon for months now, but here, in the moment, he found all he cared about was Natasha.

Unable to fight the urge to curl his fingers into fists, it didn’t go unnoticed by Brandon. “Eager to get that lead in your hands, huh?” he asked with a chuckle.

Moving to Natasha’s cage, when he unlocked it, he took a step back and looked down at his little sister with contempt. “Come,” he ordered, like Natasha really was nothing but a pet.

With defeat emanating off her she crawled out of the cage and knelt before him.

“Present,” Brandon ordered.

Without argument she turned, lowering her head so her forehead rested on the ground, between her forearms, with her backside up in the air.

“Stay,” Brandon told her. And she waited where she was while her brother crossed the room and retrieved a lead which he snapped onto the collar she was wearing.

When the handle of the lead was held out to him, Tony reached for it with shaky hands. Brandon smirked like it was adrenalin and excitement, but it wasn’t.

It was fury.

Burning, red hot, rage.

If it was the last thing he ever did Tony would make sure Brandon never spent another day as a free man.