I apologize for how short this update is. Personal life has intervened. Hopefully, will have another update soon.
Chapter 5
The first thing Jenny knew when she woke was the incredible pain, almost like she'd been in a very bad car wreck. The second was, of course, the cold. She thought, at first, the heater had broken and she shivered at the thought, reaching beside her to grab more covers, only hitting something hard, unmovable, instead. She opened her eyes and began to scream for, instead of her bed, she was in some sort of small coffin-like box.
Suddenly it all started to come back to her. Her fight with Gibbs over Christmas, going to the mall with Shelby for Christmas shopping, the only time she'd had to go all year. Questions immediately surfaced in her mind. Where was she? Where was Shelby and was she hurt? Had Gibbs started looking for her yet? She moved her arm up to check her watch, the little illuminated dial being the only light she had. Yes, surely Gibbs was almost there. Why had she been taken in the first place? Last time, the answer had been obvious, but last time, she wasn't in a coffin, she was with her kidnapper. She could talk to him, try to convince him to give himself up, but, in the end, the only thing that had worked was Gibbs' sniper skills. He wasn't here to protect her this time, wasn't here to save her.
Isn't that what you wanted? A small voice inside of her asked. You wanted to be on your own, wanted to prove yourself…well, here you are.
The other half of her, the half that was director, said, Yes, here you are. Director of NCIS. Do you think Gibbs would have allowed that of his wife? Do you think you'd even still be together? How many wives has he had, last count? Four?
She tried to silence the voices, the inward battle that had been building for more than a year, had been building, in fact, since the very day she'd left. She moved her hand up to her neck, finding that her necklace had been ripped off, explaining the pain from her neck at least.
Okay, Jen. Get it together. She closed her eyes, trying to relax her muscles, go to a happy place, but no matter which one she tried, she still knew she was in a coffin, running out of air, and she still knew that, if Gibbs didn't come, she was going to die.
Nathan Short lay back on the bed in the hotel room he'd rented, watching on his laptop through the camera he'd installed as she realized where she was, that she was going to run out of air, that she was going to die. That in itself was an aphrodisiac; he got off on watching 'wonder women' become weak and helpless damsels in distress. How many had he brought to the breaking point and brought back to life? He moaned to himself, smiling. He'd picked the best of both worlds. Not only could he get off on the power he had over Jennifer Shepherd, now director of NCIS, always an uptight bitch, but Gibbs would never find her in time and, when she died, he would always have the painful knowledge that if he'd been a little faster, a little better, that he could have saved her. It was the ultimate revenge and the ultimate power trip rolled into one.
He let his mind go back to the last one, an French model, a real high-maintenance ball-breaker. He'd known she was trouble from the moment they met and she'd proved him right. He had a system and the bitch had broken it by going and dying on him. Then of course, the then power couple of NCIS, supposedly his friends, had found out his game and turned him in. He'd spent eight years in jail and he'd known the model hadn't been worth it, that the next time, the next girl, she'd be worth it. He looked back at the computer screen, wondering if there was a way to hack into NCIS and share his moment of triumph with Gibbs, have him actually watch his girlfriend's last moments. This time, it was definitely worth it.