Not even going to comment on how long it took me to update this…about four months? SORRY SORRY SORRY. Okay I'll just get to it because I'm sure after waiting this long you just want to know what happens next so without further adieu…

Chapter 11

From Bad to Worse

She couldn't feel herself breathing as the whole world, the whole universe, stopped. The room was quiet; the only sound was the gurgling of blood.

"Damien, take care of it." She willed her eyes to open as she heard Petrolli speak.

The second her brown orbs revealed themselves she let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding. She kept her eyes on Troy right across from her, sitting in his chair with a blank look on his face. Troy was safe. He wasn't shot.

So who was?

Gabriella's hand shot up to her cheek, feeling the liquid substance on her face. She brought her hand back down to examine it. Blood. The whole room started to spin as her body finally let her look around and take in her surroundings. Damien was dragging away Marco's body, motionless and lifeless. She'd never seen a dead body before, let alone witnessed a murder. She couldn't feel her limbs, she couldn't will her lungs to work. Oh God, this wasn't happening. She couldn't be here. She couldn't have a dead man's splattered blood on her face. She had to get out of there.

Gabriella tried to keep her balance as she shoved her chair back, tripping in the process. She was going to throw up. She staggered towards the front door, but an arm looped around her waist before she could pull it open and run into the fresh air.

"Shh Gabi, I'm here. I've got you." A voice whispered in her ear. Troy cradled her to his chest, putting one arm under her knees to lift her up before turning towards the stairs.

"Take her to her room. Lock the door." Petrolli's voice sounded from the dining room, she could vaguely see the outline of his back facing her from behind Troy's shoulder. He hadn't moved an inch; he was still sitting at the table eating his dinner as if nothing had happened. As if he hadn't just taken a man's life.

Troy briskly carried her up the stairs, pushing her bedroom door open and setting her on the end of the bed. He knelt down on the floor in front of her and cupped her face in his hands, wiping away the silent tears and the remnants of blood that stained her cheeks a rosier shade then they usually were. She was in a trance, unable to come back to the real world as the realization of what just happened failed to sink in.

"Gabi, say something, anything, you're scaring me." Troy pleaded. When she didn't respond, he urgently went into her bathroom to retrieve a wet towel. He returned to find her with the same dull expression on her face. He gently wiped the blood off of her face, dropping his hand when she finally made eye contact with him.

"Troy," she murmured. Before she could say more, she erupted into sobs, placing her face in her hands as her body violently shook. She felt utterly guilty, Marco had died because of her.

"Shh Gabi it's going to be alright. You're going to be alright." Troy held her tightly as she wept into his shoulder, keeping his ears peeled for the sound of any approaching footsteps.

"It's my fault...All my fault." She said in between sobs, clutching Troy's shoulder and staining his shirt with her tears.

"Shh no it's not. You did nothing wrong. It's not your fault, Gabi, I promise."

"Just remember to stay rational after seeing this and let us handle it, don't go doing anything stupid." Chad held his finger over the play button, waiting for a queue from Liam to start the video they'd just received.

"Just play it." Liam kept his eyes glued to the screen, silently praying that what he was about to see wouldn't be what he feared.

"Li-Liam, it's me Gabriella, I'm safe. For now. I've been kidnapped and taken to a place where I won't be found. The men who have taken me, they've agreed to release me on one condition. You must…" Gabriella's eyes widened in the video, her head turned towards something to her right, but whatever she was looking at must have shut her up because she quickly looked back into the camera and continued. "You must wire seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars into an account. The account information will be enclosed with this video." Liam frowned, over half a million dollars? Jesus.

"If you do not succeed, I will…" Gabriella gasped, tears welling in her eyes.

"I will be ki-killed. You have two weeks to save my life." The screen went black. Liam stared at it as Gabriella's fear stained face remained ingrained in his mind. He wished the video was longer, he hadn't expected it to seem so…quick?

Liam was speechless, thoughts and questions were running around frantically in his head. How the hell was he supposed to get over half a million dollars in two weeks, that would put a major dent in his profits. He had pride, he wouldn't just hand over his life's work to a greedy criminal…But Gabriella's life was at stake. He didn't have a choice. Did he?

It was ruined. The beautiful golden yellow fabric was no longer immaculate as the spray of red dots on the right side of the dress provided a stark contrast. The innocent dress was now tainted, along with the woman who wore it last. Upon witnessing the death of a man, something in her snapped. She lost her fight the second the bullet pierced Marco's chest. She was going to die. And if she didn't die, she'd surely never be the same again.

Gabriella sighed as she laid the dress in the corner of her closet, hiding it away in order to avoid reliving the horrifying experience. She grabbed the blanket off her bed and sat down in the chair on the balcony, pulling the blanket tighter around her as someone walked into her room quietly.

"Here, eat this it'll make you feel better." Troy's soft voice said as he held out a plate with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on it. PB&J had always made her feel better in the past. She glanced at it before shaking her head; she would throw it up anyways.

"Gabriella, you look pale. Please eat something." Troy said sternly.

"How could you just sit there and let him die?" She finally spoke, tilting her head up to look him in the eye.

Troy looked away ashamed, setting the plate on the floor beside her before leaning against the door frame. "What did you expect me to do Gabriella?"

"I expected you to do something. If you're the good guy, then why didn't you do something?" She said more forcefully this time.

"Gabriella, If I reacted strongly he would have questioned my loyalty. He would have shot me too." Troy said calmly, looking down at his hands.

"You're a coward." She spat at him suddenly, causing his head to snap up and his cerulean eyes to turn a shade darker.

"Listen to me Gabriella, if Petrolli finds out who I really am then not only am I dead, but you will be too. He'll discover the connection and kill us both. If he kills me, you'd be alone to fend for yourself and that is not a risk I am willing to take. If you weren't in the equation I wouldn't hesitate for a second to take him out, regardless of what would happen to me. I stopped caring about whether I lived or died the second I stepped out of our apartment. I'm the only one here who cares if you're breathing, so yes I'm going to fucking keep quiet and play along if it means you're safe. Understand?" He was fuming. His fists were clenched to his sides and his jaw was tightened as he looked down at Gabriella who stared up at him with wide eyes.

She finally teared her eyes away from him, looking down at her hands and slumping in her chair. "I'm sorry. I keep forgetting you're in as much of a hole as I am." She sighed in resignation.

Troy was quiet for the following few minutes, regaining his calm composure and silently contemplating a way to word the thoughts that were running around his head the second Gabriella had reappeared in his life.

"Are you happy?" He spoke quietly, waiting for her to look at him.

She didn't move, not wanting to risk him seeing the stupefied look on her face. Her long dark hair covered her expression as she attempted to reply.

"I am," She finally said, still not looking up. Troy looked down at his feet as his heart and his head battled for domination. On one hand, he was glad that she was happy; it's what he always wanted. But on the other hand, he felt completely broken. She was happy with a man that was not him. "But no matter what I do and no matter how good Liam is to me, I always end up feeling like there's something missing." She said it so quietly, as if she was realizing it for the first time.

"What do you think is missing?" Troy replied just as quietly, shifting so his arm was leaning on the door frame now instead of his back.

Gabriella finally looked up at him, her eyes revealing so much more than she intended. "I don't know, Troy."

Before another word could be said, there were footsteps heard outside her bedroom door. Troy and Gabriella exchanged a panicked look as a key was inserted into the doorknob. Troy jumped into action, swinging himself over the balcony and taking hold of the closest tree branch he could manage. As the person opened the door, Troy lowered himself down the tree and hid himself in the shadows it provided.

"Why wasn't the door locked?" Damien walked towards Gabriella skeptically, who had picked up her book from under the chair and opened it to a random page, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible.

"I don't know? The other guy must have forgotten to lock it. What do you want?" She couldn't help the shiver that ran down her spine as she felt Damien's eyes on her.

"I just wanted to tell you something."

"And what's tha-

Before she could turn her head, Damien's hands were around her throat as he pulled her out of the chair and roughly shoved her against the banister.

"Marco was my friend. He was like a brother to me. He's dead because of you!" She squirmed against him, trying desperately to break loose from his grip. She wanted to scream, but simply breathing while his hands were tightening around her neck was a struggle.

"Now, if you pull another stunt like that or screw me over with the boss then I won't have any problem killing you." His accent and the lack of air coming into her lungs made it hard for her to understand him but she nodded her head anyways, causing him to loosen his grip.

"If you…if you hurt me…Petrolli will kill you too." She said between breaths, shoving him away from her.

"Oh no, it will be easy. All I have to tell him is you ran into the woods again and when your body isn't found it won't be much of a surprise, those woods can chew a little girl like you up and spit 'em out easily." He threatened.

"I'm not afraid of you." She looked him directly in the eye.

"Damien, what are you doing in here?" Troy barged into the room, his hair tousled and his eyes darting back and forth between the two people on the balcony.

Gabriella had never been so relieved. How did he get down the tree and back up to the room so fast? She mused. Oh well, it didn't matter as long as he was here now.

"I was just making sure she hadn't tried to escape again, sorry." And with that, Damien walked towards the exit, shooting one final warning glance to Gabriella before shutting the door behind him.

"Are you alright? I got here as fast as possible." Troy stepped towards a steady Gabriella.

"I'm fine." She replied, walking into the bedroom and sitting down on the end of the bed. She was both reassured and curious about the fact that Damien seemed to be afraid of Troy. "Can I ask you a question?"

Troy nodded, quickly taking a look outside the door to make sure no one was listening before closing it and sitting down on the bed beside Gabriella.

"If you work for the FBI, why can't you just tell them where we are? Then they can bring the swap team or whatever and get us out of here. They can finally arrest Petrolli and Liam won't have to pay a penny for my release."

"First of all, it's the swat team, not the swap team. Second, Petrolli is a pretty notorious criminal Gabriella. He picked this location for a reason. The one communication device I smuggled in here with me doesn't work. Somehow, Petrolli's found a way to block all signals from this house." He explained to her, running his hands through his already messy hair.

"But since you've been undercover for a while, and you knew Petrolli kidnapped me, the FBI must know Petrolli has me right?" She whispered instinctively.

"Yes, the FBI knows. But the police don't, so neither does your fiancé. It would compromise the mission. You see, when an agent goes undercover, only a very limited amount of people know about it. I couldn't even tell Chad."

"Wait, Chad knows about you?!" She sprang up, eyes emblazoned.

Troy winced at his slip up, "Well…he's kinda in the FBI too."

"WHAT?" Gabriella was unbelievably livid as she paced the room. How could they both lie to her for so long?

"Gabi, you have to understand…" He stood up as well, following Gabriella's frantic form with his remorse filled eyes.

"I do, Troy, I really do. Two people I thought I could without a doubt trust were lying to me. Don't worry Troy, I get it." She tried to understand, she really did, but the double betrayal stung, and she couldn't ignore the fact that they lied to her face for so long. It felt as if her whole life upon meeting Troy had been a façade.

"It's not like that Gabi, it was for your own protection. Knowing would only put you in danger and place a burden on your shoulders." He tried to reason.

"Please leave, Troy. I don't want to talk about this anymore. I understand, I really do. It just hurts is all." She sat back down on the bed, pulling her knees to her chest.

"I'm sorry." He whispered before placing a kiss on the top of her head and quietly exiting the room.

Gabriella had so many thoughts swirling around in her head. How could they lie to her so easily? Did they not think she could handle the truth? Why did she get butterflies in her stomach when Troy kissed her head just now? Why wasn't she more afraid of not being found? Damn Troy for coming back into her life so unexpectedly and making her doubt everything she knew. She was going to marry Liam and live happily ever after.

If only her prince charming could be the man she wanted him to be.

Out of everything that was consuming her thoughts, one thing was for sure; she'd either leave this mess with a broken body, or a broken heart.

Alright guys, that's all I've got right now. It's my senior year of high school and I'm super busy but next chapter will have some juicier stuff in it I promise. Thank you to the people who have stuck with this and not given up on me, I'll try not to let you down. Review!