He had it coming. Ziva told her self. How dare he try to stop me! She hustled her way into the NCIS garage in a huff. She found Gibbs and Rebekah waiting for her next to Rebekah's car, a grey 1990 Peugot 504. Ziva knew better than to ask how she'd managed to get it NCIS.
"Busy Officer David?" Gibbs asked. He looked like he was struggling with some sort of foreign emotion. Acceptance? Denial?
"Elevator problems." She said breezily.
Rebekah lounged against her car. She smiled at Ziva and made a kissing face.
Ziva heard running behind her. Apparently Tony had taken the stairs. Damn! She heard him pound the pavement and come to a stop beside her, barely touching her arm. She didn't dare look at him. Anger surged from him like electricity from a high-tension wire and she didn't want to get zapped.
"Did you change your pants DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked suspiciously.
"Coffee spill boss."
Gibbs gave a small shake to his head and opened his mouth to speak.
"Don't start." Ziva fired off.
Gibbs went wide-eyed and left his comment unsaid. "DiNozzo you're with Senesh. Ziva you're with me."
"Sounds good." Rebekah reached into her bra and pulled out her car key. "You drive stick?" She asked Gibbs, tossing him the key.
Ziva snatched it out of the air as it sailed past. She clutched the key and held it white knuckled in her fist. Her voice serious she said. "Tony's going as my back up Gibbs." She felt all eyes on her. She didn't care. The car ride with Tony would be hell but there was no one she'd rather have as a partner. Not even Gibbs or Rebekah. Ziva wrenched the car door open and got in the driver's seat. "Tony!" she called.
Gibbs grabbed Tony's collar before he could follow her. "DiNozzo. If you can't let her do her job you need to quit or break up." He released him and gave him a slap on the head.
"Glad we had this talk boss." Tony said.
"This wasn't the talk. That happens later."
XXXXX
Twenty minutes into their drive Ziva could no longer take the feeling of Tony's eyes burning into her skull. She swung into the break down lane and mashed on the brakes. Forty feet of burned rubber later the car came to a screeching halt between the guardrail and a cement truck.
"Problem?" Tony asked.
She jerked the emergency brake up. "You're driving." Go ahead and drive this hunk of junk. At least you'll have to face forward.
Ziva lifted her body up. She put her shoulders on the back of her seat and straightened. She slid side ways over the gear shift and hovered over Tony for a moment as if about to sit down. Then she flipped over to face him. Hands placed above his shoulders on the seat, she leaned suggestively over him.
"You're lucky I'm a nice guy or I'd Gibbs slap you into next week right now. It wouldn't be on the head either." Tony said.
"Maybe some other time." She paused, "What are you waiting for? Slide out from under me."
"Just enjoying the view." He reached up to stroke her between her legs.
Ziva slapped his errant hand. "In a car by the side of the highway? You've got to be kidding me!"
"I've done it before."
"Me too. That doesn't mean I liked it."
I'll remember that. Reluctantly Tony slid into driver's seat.
"Careful" Ziva said. "Rebekah rides the clutch and the synchro is going on first gear. Oh, and the power steering is shot." That ought to keep you busy.
Tony pushed the gas pedal to the floor and urged the car up to break neck speed in the emergency lane before squeaking into traffic. Ziva was right about the car. He smelled the raw stink of burning clutch as he ground it into the floor.
"That stunt you pulled back there by the elevator, you've done that before." Tony couched the question as a statement.
"I'm a black widow Tony. Be grateful all I was after was a button."
Tony gagged on the image. He had never been bothered by Ziva's past sex life. Now he hoped he'd be able to make love to her with out thinking he was enjoying some nameless man's last sight.
"Why'd you do it to me?" he asked.
Ziva looked at her lap. "I can be difficult sometimes."
Tony laughed sarcastically. "Right, and sometimes I like sex."
Ziva snorted back a laugh. Then she got quiet. She looked at him, his profile illuminated by the headlights of passing cars. She noted the grim set to his mouth and the tight lines around his eyes. She rested her hand on his leg. "I feel scared too. But I'm not going to let it stop me. I need to finish this."
XXXXX
At quarter to midnight Tony and Ziva pulled in the parking lot out side The Infinity Night Club. It was a combination of Antebellum grace and new millennium hi tech. Blocks of light and fast paced music spilled from the ivy covered brick façade. Tony studied the lot. Rebekah and Gibbs were nowhere to be seen.
"I know about this place." He said. "It used to be an old Bordello."
"A what?"
"Whore house."
"How very James Bond. You must be excited."
They sat in silence as they watched the comings and goings, acclimating to their surroundings. The lot was full of people in varying states of undress. A line guarded by a bouncer built like a fridge snaked into the building. The man appeared to be checking off names at the door.
"It's not the place I'm excited about." Tony gave Ziva the once over-again. "So here's the problem. You're on the guest list and I'm not."
"I think I can manage a distraction." Ziva said.
"Sweet Cheeks. You are the distraction." Tony grinned. He got serious. "We have fifteen minutes."
"Good for you. You can tell time."
"It's not too late to back out." He said.
"We've talked about this and the answer is no."
Ziva had her hand on the door handle. Tony reached out and wrapped an arm around her waist. He pulled her into his lap and kissed her soft, sweet and slow. "I L-" He stopped short. He couldn't get it out. I sounded too much like a good bye.
"I know. Me too." She said. Now was not the time. She was focused on the mission ahead. Ziva turned to leave. Midway she changed her mind. She turned back to him. Grabbing a fistful of his shirt she kissed him passionately. "Just in case." She said. Then she switched her comm. on and placed it in her ear.
Ziva got out of the car with out a backwards look. She moved through the parking lot alert, sensing tingling. The energy adrenaline brings flowed through her. She was on the hunt. Pay attention or get dead Ziva. You want time to make up later? Focus!
Ziva sauntered to the front of the line and cut in front of a skinny platinum blonde dressed in a purple body suit. She said to the bouncer. "Rebekah Senesh. Ian Miller is expecting me."
The man made a show of checking the list on his clipboard but his eyes never left Ziva.
Ziva laughed flirtatiously and looked over his shoulder. She saw Tony, a wrath in the background. She reached out a finger to touch the guard's chest. "Oh my." She murmured. "Got a girl friend?"
"I get off work at three."
"I'll remember that." Ziva smiled. She watched Tony move into the building and disappear from sight. She gave the guard a little wink and walked on.
Ziva entered the club, the lights and music an assault to her senses. "I'm in." She said to the team.
"You see him Ziva?" She heard Tony's voice in her ear.
Her eyes swept over the floor, taking in the strobes, couples making love clothed on the dance floor, people at the bar. The steady Thump Thump Thump of the music beat in time to her heart.
She spied a black haired man feeling up a woman at the bar. "I see him." Miller had his hand up his date's skirt and looked to be three sheets to the wind. This won't take long. You know the type. A little innuendo and he'll give you what you want. Just pretend your hitting on Tony. She thought of their last interlude and felt the familiar 'c'mon baby' smile creep over her face.
Ziva swayed up to Miller. Tony watched her move, momentarily forgetting how mad he was with her. He watched the stares and the head turns. Part of him wanted to shout out. Look all you want but she goes home to me.
Ziva tapped Miller on the back. He turned around to face her, the sheer fabric all that separated his eyes from her breasts. "Beat it." He said to his companion. He didn't move his eyes from Ziva.
His date started to complain. Ziva clamped a hand on the woman's shoulder and squeezed. "Move it honey."
The woman mumbled a curse and left. Ziva plunked herself down into her seat.
"Rebekah Senesh I presume. Get you a drink?" Miller looked her over from head to toe.
"Vodka on the rocks." She hated the stuff but it was Rebekah's favorite.
Miller grinned. "I'm surprised to see you. You've never shown your face in public." He accepted the glass from the bar tender and slid it towards her.
"The price you'll be paying is well worth it."
"You have proof of the kill?" He asked, ogling.
Ziva slid him a manila envelope filled with Tony's pictures and a small Tupperware container with a finger.
"I took the finger first." She smiled.
Miller laughed. He swallowed the rest of his drink and motioned for a refill. "I've heard you're a black widow."
"Perhaps. What else have you heard?" Ziva rested her chin on her hand, showing him the inside of her forearm, an open invitation.
"That you're a bit of a sexpot."
"Only if the right man comes along. I'm more discriminating these days." She knew Tony could hear her. It was a veiled attempt at an apology. Or was it a reassurance? "So are you going to take me to see your boss?" She feigned a sip of her drink.
"That's not allowed. She wants to remain anonymous."
So it's a she is it? That narrows down the list.
"I need to see your boss." She said.
"I don't know about that." Miller stared at her, memorizing her breasts.
Ziva reached out to run her finger up his jawline. He waffled. She leaned in and kissed him, sucking his bottom lip. "Take me to see her and I'll take you anywhere you want to go."
His eyes widened. "Follow me." Miller got up and left his unfinished drink on the bar. Ziva followed him. Miller wrapped his arm around her waist, his fingers pressed between the leather of her pants and her warm flesh. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! When this is over I'm going to shower with Borax and boiling water.
Tony, ensconced in the crowd watched her walk past before following. He felt sorry for the man for a second. Miller had no idea the trouble he was holding. Tony snaked through the crowd weaving around couples, and several amorous women. He saw Ziva and Miller disappear through a door to the side of the bar. He hurried to follow them.
Ziva followed Miller through the door, down a long hall and up several flights of carpeted red steps. On the top floor they went left down a semi-lit hall. Miller threw open a heavy oak door. "Here we are."
They stepped into an empty room carpeted in red. The walls were floor to ceiling mirrors. A blazing crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. "We wait here. She'll be out." He went to kiss her again and Ziva pulled back. "Business first."
The hair on the back of her neck prickled. She had the uncanny feeling of being watched. Ziva felt her heart begin to skip. Tony was right. Something bad is about to happen.
Miller suddenly slapped his hand to his ear. Did he have a comm. link she missed? Had she been thinking of Tony and missed something vital?
Miller spun towards her, gun in hand. "You're not Rebekah Senesh, Miss David."
Ziva zeroed in on the gun. She swung a crescent kick at it, leg coming up in front of her body and arcing down. She knocked it to the floor with a soft thump. She grabbed Miller's left arm with hers and pulled him towards her. She rammed the heel of her right palm up under his nose. She felt a satisfying crunch as the bone shattered and blood spurted. Miller keeled over and hit the floor. The lights in the room went out.
Stunned by the sudden darkness Ziva let her guard down. Sharp barbs pierced her bare back. She convulsed and hit the floor as electricity coursed through her body. Run Tony. She thought before she blacked out.
Meanwhile Tony crept up the stairs as fast as he dared. He guessed the club was still a Bordello giving the squeaking going on behind several of the doors. Why does everybody have to be having sex tonight but me? He pushed the idea to the background and tried not to think of Ziva as anything other than his work partner.
Stealthily Tony crept along the hall his sidearm drawn. He wasn't taking any chances. He heard a shot ring out and he raced to the room where Ziva had disappeared. Through the open door he saw Miller slumped against the wall, brain matter decorating the mirrored wall. No Ziva. Then he felt it. Sharp piercing shocks in his back sent shards of pain through him. Ziva, he thought and blacked out.
XXXXX
Okay. Next chapter you'll find out who did it. Promise. I love reviews. They sure are motivational. Hint Hint. Cheers, jeanne