I slowly gained consciousness, and I had a pounding headache. What did I do last night to get such a bad headache? Edward... Where is he? He's supposed to be here by now. Where is he, and why doesn't this feel like my own bed.
"I see you're awake," a male voice I didn't recognize.
I opened my eyes and saw that I was in a completely dark room. I slowly turned my head and noticed no windows in sight, so there was no way of knowing where I was. My eyes, slowly adjusting to the low lighting, saw the figure of a man. He stepped closer to me and flipped on a light switch. Trying to cover my eyes from the now blinding light, I noticed that I couldn't move my left arm to the restraints on my wrist. I looked to my left and saw my hand handcuffed to the bed's railing. The bed was similar to those you would find at an outdoor summer camp. Finally, looking back at the guy, I noticed that Ari guy was hovering over me, smiling wickedly.
"Do you remember me, young Isabella?" Ari asked mockingly.
"What do you want with me?" I scream at him.
"Now that you're awake, I think I'll tell you," he said with a chuckle. "You're the daughter of Special Agent Gibbs. Although must I say, hiding with that cop for protection and changing your last name was pretty clever, but of course, it was not clever enough. I still found you. Anyway, I plan on making Gibbs suffer. Harming the ones he loves has given me the utmost pleasure. Of course, what could bring him more pain than capturing his own daughter?"
"I am not his daughter," I tried to plead with him, talk some reason with him. "That cop you're talking about really is my dad."
"You can't fool me, little girl. I wasn't done. Where was I?" Ari pretending to be thinking for a couple moments. "Oh, yes. Capturing you was only phase one of my plans. I don't plan on killing you, at least not yet. You see, with you here, Special Agent Gibbs will do anything to get you back, so you will be bait for me to lure him here. When he comes, rushing with all the panic he will be consumed with, I will shoot him from where I will be waiting for him to try and save you, but it won't be enough. Not even close."
He ended his speech with cackling, probably thinking about how foolproof his plan. He must not know my uncle as well as he believes if he thinks a plan like that would possibly work. He has the smarts of his own gut, Abby and Ducky. There would also be the cockiness of Tony. There would make sure that Ari wouldn't and couldn't go through with his plan, and I decided to tell him just that.
"You know that you plan with never work, right?" That stopped his laughing right in its tracks.
"What did you say?" Ari asked, suddenly angry.
"You heard me. I said, 'you know that your plan will never work, right?'" I said with more confidence. Maybe it was from all my time looking danger right in the eye and surviving from the past that gave me the courage I needed to badmouth Ari.
I found that courage disappearing within me as he pulled his hand back. Expecting him to pull out his gun again, I moved I had out of the way of his hand—the wrong move. I heard the smack of his hand before I felt the sting of him slapping me across the face. From how long the sting lasted, I could tell that there was going to be a bruise in the morning that would stay a while.
"That should teach you to keep your mouth closed!" Ari yelled at me before he turned out of the room.
When he left, I heard a door slam that I didn't know was there before. Before long, I curled up into a ball, as tight as the handcuff around my wrist would let me. Trying to fall asleep, so I would get away from this nightmare I was living in. I would bet Edward was on his way for me. He was probably already almost here, and since he's bulletproof, there was no way Ari could hurt him. But there was always that possibility that he wouldn't be able to find me or that he wasn't even looking for me. He was too perfect for me. With that thought, I cried myself to sleep.