The door was pushed open.
A mix of salty pier air and a faint scent of gunpowder instantly filled the dilapidated room.
Lynt clutched his lower abdomen, sucking in a sharp breath.
Damn it.
Black Widow, that woman, her moves are truly ruthless.
But… he grinned, feeling the burning pain in his muscles and the lingering excitement in his veins.
It was so damn stimulating.
With a haggard look, as if he'd run eight hundred meters and was about to collapse, he slapped a paper bag onto the table.
"Damn, this godforsaken place is so noisy it's giving me a headache; I can't sleep at all."
He grabbed a cold slice of pizza, took a big bite, his acting flawless.
But the moment he stepped in, the air in the entire room changed.
It was like suddenly falling into an ice cave in the scorching heat of summer.
All the background noise—the shouts from next door, the curses from downstairs—vanished in an instant.
Dead silence.
In the darkness, a pair of golden beast eyes silently opened.
No warning, no premonition.
A blue shadow, so fast it tore through the air!
Fuck!
Lynt's pupils dilated, and only that one word flashed through his mind.
The next second, the world spun!
He was slammed to the ground by a brute force, the back of his head hitting the carpet with a dull thud.
Raven was straddling him.
Her legs, like two giant steel pythons, locked tightly around his waist.
She propped herself up on either side of his face, her wild, powerful blue body towering over him like a mountain.
Then, she picked up something and held it before his eyes.
A strand of hair.
In the dim light, that dazzling fiery red looked like blood.
"She."
"Who is she?"
Raven's voice was flat, like ice rubbing together.
Lynt's heart skipped a beat, but he forced a smile that looked worse than a cry.
"Who? How would I know… This dilapidated place is full of all sorts of people; it must have rubbed off on me…"
"Don't pretend."
Raven's fingers gripped his chin, applying slight pressure.
Creak.
His bones groaned.
"I've seen this color before."
"That bitch from S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Black Widow."
Lynt's heart sank; was this woman's nose like a dog's?
She could smell that out?
He suddenly laughed, a particularly obnoxious laugh.
"Why are you so nervous?"
"Afraid I'll get a new power bank? One… even more exciting than you?"
"You're asking to die!"
Crack!
The grip on his chin tightened abruptly, and Lynt felt his bones were about to shatter.
"No."
He endured the intense pain, squeezing out each word, one by one, through gritted teeth.
"I'm trying to find a way to live!"
He stared intently into those beastly eyes, the curve of his mouth growing crazier.
"Look at yourself, Raven, in this ghastly state!"
"Are you mad that I saw another woman? Bullshit!"
"You're scared!"
"Scared?"
For the first time, an emotion other than mockery appeared in Raven's golden pupils.
"Yes! Exactly, scared!"
Lynt's voice wasn't loud, but it was like daggers stabbing at her heart.
"You're afraid that I, your power bank, will be unplugged!"
"You're afraid that the sweetness you just tasted will disappear!"
"You're afraid of going back to being that pathetic worm, wagging your tail behind Charles and Erik, despised by everyone!"
"Shut up!"
Raven shrieked, raising her hand, her five fingers tightening, ready to slam down on Lynt's head!
But her hand stopped in mid-air.
Suspended, trembling slightly.
Lynt laughed even more wildly, his eyes filled with an all-knowing pity.
"You see, you don't dare."
"Kill me, and your pathetic bit of strength will vanish overnight."
"You are not my master, Raven."
"You're just the first lucky one to get my VIP experience card."
"You're so agitated, so out of control…"
He leaned in closer, whispering in a devilish voice.
"It's simply because you've realized… you can't live without me anymore."
"You… you dog… you dare…"
Raven gritted her teeth, each word sounding as if it was ground out from her throat.
She realized that her strength, which could tear steel, was useless at this moment.
She could kill him.
But one sentence from him could kill her heart.
"Why wouldn't I dare?"
Lynt's voice was as light as a feather, yet as heavy as Mount Tai.
"I'll say it again, we're partners."
"If you dare to lay a hand on me again…"
He paused, savoring the expression of humiliation, anger, and helplessness on Raven's face, a thrill running through his scalp.
"…I'll package up the secret to making you stronger and sell it to the White Queen, to Jean Grey, to that S.H.I.E.L.D. bitch you mentioned."
"Believe me, they'll pay a good price."
The hand suspended in mid-air finally lowered.
The physical suppression was still there, but her aura had completely collapsed.
Raven stared intently at the man beneath her.
For the first time, she felt that within this frail body, there lurked a monster more terrifying than her, than Magneto, than anyone she had ever seen.
Finally, she slowly lowered her head.
Her hot breath fanned Lynt's ear.
"It seems you have a lot of energy."
Her voice was hoarse, suppressed, with a desperate cruelty.
Her hips began to move rhythmically, the fabric separating them.
"Then let's… train."
At the same time.
Above New York, inside the Quinjet.
"Impossible."
Hawkeye Clint Barton stared at the data on the holographic screen, his brows furrowed into a knot.
"That probability is even lower than me missing a shot on a mission. Natasha, this might be a coincidence."
His judgment was professional and calm.
"Would a coincidence help you calculate the bullet's trajectory?"
Natasha's voice was colder than the air outside the cabin.
She pointed at the frozen image on the screen.
"Look at his face; the second before impact, there's fear, but no hesitation in his eyes."
"This isn't the reaction of someone scared stiff; this is someone following orders."
Lynt's profile popped up on the screen, a playboy who smiled like an idiot at parties.
"His background is as clean as a blank slate, a typical rich second-generation."
Clint shook his head.
"Doesn't make sense. Is the information fake?"
"Or…"
Natasha turned off the screen, leaned back in her seat, and closed her eyes.
Inside the cabin, only the hum of the engine remained.
But her mind was filled with the words Lynt had whispered in her ear.
"He said… he could unlock the collar around my neck."
Clint suddenly turned his head, his usually composed face changing color for the first time.
"He knows about the Red Room?"
"He knows a lot more than we thought."
Natasha opened her eyes.
In those beautiful green eyes, a light flickered that Clint had never seen before.
Mixed with extreme danger and… irrepressible curiosity.
"This Lynt…"
"I want to meet him again personally."