Chapter Six: Deception

At the sight of her boyfriend standing before her, Gabriella felt a sense of relief wash over her. She began to struggle. Finally he had come to rescue her, she was saved. She knew he would come no matter how long it took and she was going to be free again.

"TROY!", she tried to call out to him, but his name was muffled behind the gag in her mouth.

The sense of relief she had felt when she had seen him started to wash away. She gazed up at her boyfriend who she loved dearly, who she had been so glad to see, but saw no reflection of her own emotions in his face. He hadn't moved since he laid eyes on her. He was stoic, glaring down at her with cold eyes. She almost winced at the hatred in his glare. She looked up at him, eyes wide, pleading for him to help her, but he did nothing.

"Glad to see your boyfriend, Ms Montez?", Banes started to walk over from the other side of the room to join Troy, followed by Turner. She glared at him. What had he done to Troy? What had he done that was making her boyfriend act like this?

"Gabriella", Troy spoke her name again in the same cold voice. She looked up at him with pleading eyes. He continued, "It's been a while". Why was he speaking like this? Why wasn't he doing anything to help her?

Without warning, he bent down towards her, pulled the material out of her mouth and missed her passionately on the mouth. It wasn't his normal kiss. It felt aggressive and dominant and she didn't like it, she struggled away from him and turned her head to the side. Troy stood up and looked at her again.

"I missed that", Troy said, "One of the only things I did miss"

"What?", Gabriella didn't understand what Troy had just said to her.

He smirked.

"What are you talking about?", she yelled at him.

"I'm talking about the fact that I'm in on this", he replied coolly.

"What?"

"Well, you don't expect me to get nothing out of it, do you?"

"What are you on? I don't understand, Troy! Help me, please"

Troy mimicked her screams and laughed humourlessly at her, "Help you? You want me to help you? Why would I do that, sweetheart? Why would I help you when you're being here is going to make me so incredibly rich?"

"What? Troy, you aren't making any sense!"

"God, your dim!", Troy threw his hands up in the air in exasperation before bending down to her eyelevel and continuing, "You want me to make it simple for you, babe? Well here it is. I've been in on your kidnapping from the beginning, I made it happen. That's right, me and these guys, we've been plotting ever since we got together. You're daddy is a very rich man, Gabriella. I overheard someone talking about you at that lodge we met in at New Years Eve – the beautiful daughter of one of the richest business men in the state. Well, I just couldn't resist. I told these guys and we came up with a little plot – I get close to you, get together with you and gain your trust and eventually, we were gonna take you for ransom. Then I would talk to your family, convince them to give as much money as they could spare to give you back and us guys get rich. After all, why should anyone suspect me? I'm the darling boyfriend, the one you love and all I want is to have you back, right? Wrong. You are here now because of me, your darling boyfriend who you love so much"

"You wouldn't do that", she said shakily.

"No?", Troy cocked his head to the side.

"You wouldn't, I know you Troy, this isn't you"

"Then tell me. The day you were taken – when you pointed out the van outside the window in the kitchen, why didn't I do anything about it? When my phone rang, why didn't I answer it properly, why did I lie to you about some made up trip my friend was going on about? When these guys beat me up, how come I'm fine now? How do I know where these guys live? If this isn't the real me, then why am I here right now?"

Gabriella was speechless. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. There was no way around what Troy was saying. There were so many things she wanted to say but she couldn't figure out how to make her mouth work. She was confused. It couldn't be real.

"Why?", she whispered eventually.

"Why not?", Troy replied smiling at her malevolently.

"I thought we were in love", she looked at him, wide eyed, praying he would stop.

"Love? Sweetheart, all you're worth to me is sex and money"

She felt as if she had been slapped hard across the face. All this time she'd spent with him, all this time she'd been loving him and this was how it was ending?

"YOU BASTARD!", she screamed at him.

"Shhhhh", Troy reached over and took the material hanging around her neck and pushed it back into her mouth to gag her again. He shushed her again as she stared at him and struggled at his touch, wishing that everything would just go away and be how it used to be.

He stood up and began walking over to the ladder before climbing up into the house above. Turner and Banes stood still for a moment, as if even they were shocked by what had just happened but eventually turned and followed him, leaving Gabriella on her own in the darkness.