The more reviews he the sooner the update.
You guys are awesome :)
Enjoy!
Gabriella tugged at her short cocktail dress when she stepped out of her car. Looping her pouch strap around her wrist, she gave the keys to a bouncer along with a hundred dollar bill then flashed her badge with a knowing look. He swallowed harshly and nodded with a weak smile before getting in her car.
Flashing her badge to another bouncer and also giving him a hundred he opened the door for her and she walked through it looking around the lively club. People were jumping about and dancing, some were even drunk off their asses, others were in corners or against the wall trying to get each other to their place.
She walked to the bar and ordered herself a margarita on the rocks, no salt, and waited patiently. She checked her phone then turned it off and shoved it deep in her wrislet. The bartender put the drink down in front of her and she took a sip before she noticed the man she'd been looking for across from her. He was staring her down suspiciously.
Gabriella picked up her drink and kept her eyes on him as she walked to where he was sitting. He watched her take a seat next to him and she smiled seductively.
"Gabriella." she announced in his ear. She placed a soft hand on his arm, a way of telling him not to go.
"I know."
"What's your name?"
"You already know that." Troy chuckled breathily in her ear.
"Really? How do you know my name?" she asked innocently.
"We've met before." Troy offered. "Before I slammed you into the wall behind the Chase Bank, Sharpay introduced me to you a few years ago."
"Really?" Gabriella cocked an eyebrow. "I'm sure I would have remembered you." she said suggestively.
Troy shook his head then leaned into her ear. "Why have you been following me?"
"I haven't. And I still didn't get your name?" she evaded.
"It's Troy." he shook his head with a chuckle.
"Sexy name for a sexy man." she smiled and leaned forward. "Let's go somewhere so we can talk. You know why I'm here... Troy."
"Why are you here?"
"To have fun." she said and stood up. Feeling compelled, Troy stood also. He followed her up the stairs and down the long hallway to the dimly but colorfully lighted VIP section. She reached back and grabbed his arm and walked behind a curtain after showing the bouncer a card.
She fell on the cushions and pulled Troy down with her. He rolled over and sat next to her.
"Are you going to ask me why Sharpay did it?" he asked earnestly.
"We'll talk later. Right now, I think we should hang out." she giggled. She thought she was doing a pretty good job at keeping him interested; he was sitting there with her after all. Alone.
"Look Gabriella I know what you're doing. I'm not interested." Troy said with an amused shake of his head.
She put a hand on his chest, "Oh, but you are Troy, you are here, alone, with me." She loosened the tie that was already falling off his neck, she pulled it off and leaned forward to place a kiss on his chin.
"I can't be friends with you?" She put his tie around her own neck and batted her eyelashes innocently.
"No, you can't." he said incredulously, "Sharpay would have a fit and you don't want to be my friend."
"Look, Troy." She said her eyes narrowing as she climbed on top of his lap. He stared up at her and his hands dejectedly fell to her thighs, as if he put up a fight with them.
"I'm being nice, baby, we'll answer all the questions later, but right now it's not my working hours. Forgive me, if you don't know how to be social but I'm trying to enjoy myself."
Troy nodded absent mindedly and rubbed her thighs, she pulled out a pen from her wristlet and smiled, "My number, call me."
She hurried out of the little section and left Troy aching for her to be above him again. Gabriella giggled at her work, she knew she riled him up. Her plan had succeeded. She felt like Marilyn Monroe, once she realized that she had the sex appeal, she abused it. And it felt damn good.
She headed to the bouncer she'd left her car with, who handed her the keys to her car and she took one last look at Club H before getting in and driving off.
"Now I wait."
"Ah, Chad, great to see you are still alive." Gabriella giggled. She sat at the table and put her recorder and tape in front of her.
"How was your day Gabriella?"
"Great." she grinned, "And yours?"
"Good, until I found out you're fucking with my man. Don't mess with him alright?" Chad turned serious.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Gabriella sighed and placed the tape in the compartment.
"He had your number and I asked him how he got it, he said he came across it, that you're an old friend. He's a horrible liar." Chad shook his head disappointedly. "The only time Troy lies is when he knows he's doing something stupid. When did you meet him?" It was more of a demand then a question an it irritated Gabriella to no end.
"Step out my business." Gabriella said annoyed at how he began to reprimand her.
"You need to step off of Troy. He's not good all right? He's messed up and going through a lot so he's really vulnerable." Chad pleaded.
Gabriella pressed play on the tape recorder. "You know what to do."
"My name is Chad Danforth and I am not being forced to do this by Miss Montez. I am 26 years old." he began.
"Tell me more about Sharpay, what's going on with her lately?" Gabriella inquired.
"You still care I see?" Chad smiled, "She's been primping, trying to get ready and make an impression on you. She got your message she's just waiting for what she likes to call your "anniversary", the day you met, to come here."
Gabriella nodded, "That's very nice Chad, but that's not what I asked for, I'm talking about her everyday life."
"She's been diagnosed with that good stuff you know, personality disorders, she's bipolar, alcoholism, and some other crazy shit. Her whole dresser is full of medication rather than make up." Chad shook his head. "She doesn't have a routine or anything and she does have OCD, always making lists and making sure it's all done her way. I believe she should be locked up in one of those loony bins, a wacky house. I think I told you that before."
"Surprising." Gabriella said dryly and then straightened, "What about her relationship with Zane?"
"She was close with the kid, but not as close she'd make everyone think. She was different when boyfriends and lovers would come around. She'd pick on him and shit but when it was just them she used to be nice and read to him and play with him for a while before Troy would kick her out for the way she would act when Michael came around." Chad watched Gabriella's eyes light up like a bulb went on in her head.
"Is this what Michael looked like?" Gabriella pulled a picture from her pocket and put one of her fingers on it. Chad nodded, "Yeah, it does, a lot actually." he affirmed.
"Tell me about Michael, Chad." she shook her head and folded the paper.
"He was rough around the edges, used to beat the crap out of Sharpay. She used to go running to Troy, who would defend her of course, and everything would be normal for a while before he'd hit her again and the cycle would continue. Michael was horrible, he hated kids and happiness and shit like that, always mad. He hated the way Zane could put a smile on her face when he'd do something cute. The kid was irresistible. A little Troy in the making."
"Ah, now we are getting somewhere Chad." Gabriella leaned forward checking the tape as she spoke. "That day at the kindergarden, the day Zane died, the teacher described this picture to investigators." Gabriella pulled the paper out again, the cold eyes staring up from the white page at them. "You are telling me this is Michael?"
"'Fraid so." Chad said reluctantly. "Oh my God." his face paling.
"And they said a brunette with a black eye, about 5'2 with this description." she took out another paper and realization darkened his eyes as he studied the page in front of him.
"That's Shar." he said unmistakably.
"Huh, really?" she said soflty. "Do you know why Sharpay would do this, do you think she would be that daring?"
"She killed Michael." he looked up defiantly, "But she wouldn't kill Zane."
"If she killed once before she wouldn't do it again?" she pushed.
"Not Zane..." Chad said, seeming to only be trying to convince himself rather than the private investigator in front of him.
"Why not? You told me yourself that Sharpay does not like rejection, she doesn't take no for an answer. Is it possible that she believed Michael loved her and that he persuaded her cynical and unwell mind-as you also told me she was on meds- to get rid of Zane because he made her happy? It is isn't it?"
A moment of silence passed, making grief inevitable at the thought of a young boy staring his killer in the face and knowing that someone who was supposed to love him was now taking his short life away. Did his four year old head even get a chance to wrap it's mind around the fact or even grasp it?
"When Michael's body was found they discovered him the same way, strangled and put in the bathtub eyes open, face up. Do you see the irony that I'm seeing here?" she continued.
Chad nodded as he bent his body over the table and began to sob asking why. A question that had been weighing heavily on her mind lately. Why was Sharpay doing all of this?
"Next, tell me, Chad... Tell me about Aubrey..." Gabriella had decided to continue the interview as Chad finally sat up a wiped at his eyes. "Actually you know what, I don't want to go on today, Miss Montez." Chad cleared his throat and gathered his things. She reached forward and pressed the stop button delicately with a manicured finger.
"Understandable, we covered a lot of ground today Chad, see you next Friday." she stood also and found herself hugging Chad who warmly returned it, "It's okay." she offered, unsure of why she was comforting him.
Chad shook his head, "No, it'll never be now."
Troy had never felt like hitting a woman before, he actually frowned upon domestic violence. But there were moments that he believed the woman would test the man, get him so riled up that he wasn't able to find the energy for words but to act on what he was feeling. Petty shit. He believed he would never be that man until the woman he once loved stood before him. The one he hadn't seen in two years, not since Zane's funeral.
At least the 2 minutes that she was there high off her ass and climbing into her son's coffin.
But he wasn't going to hit her, only cowards hit women, afraid of saying what was on their mind to the women so they'd hit them; a punishment in their eyes for making them feel that way. The urge was strong to bury Ashleigh in a hole alive and then pour gallons of water on the grave while she suffocated to death. But he wouldn't do it.
The cops were already after his ass for killing 3 men that he'd barely even known. An ex-girlfriend dead and missing was pushing it.
"Hello, Troy."
He pointedly ignored her but she kept following him. "It isn't working out with Jonathan, if you haven't heard."
Troy adjusted his lab coat, "Who let you in the factory?"
"Well, I let myself in through the back actually." she replied sheepishly. "Wow, Troy look at you the big chemist, making millions a year. You are more handsome than I've ever seen you before." she smiled, trying to start conversation. "One minute we're college students high to our asses in debt the next you are in the newspapers, leading the search for cancer and child endangerment. You are the famous bachelor I see accomplishing goals in the med section, mixing chemicals and finding new elements." she tisked, "And I'm deeper in debt..."
"Get out, Ashleigh." he said roughly.
"But wait!" she said holding onto his forearm then quickly dropped it because of the look she got from him. "I have a proposition..." she said rising her perfectly plucked eyebrows in a suggestive manner.
Rachelle :)
