The Cost of Freedom Is High

Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me

I woke up and the very first thing I heard was a door slam.

Shit.

"Bella!" I screamed, jumping out of my bed and running down the hall to get her.

"What, I was just using the bathroom?" She said.

I walked over to her and gripped her as tight as possible.

"I'm sorry, I just heard a door close and I couldn't help but think the worst." I told her.

"It's fine, but I'm safe now so we don't have to worry about that." She replied with a smile on her face.

My insides churned, she had no idea that her happiness would be crushed. The light inside of her right now was shining bright and I couldn't stand it. For now though while I still had her and the opportunity to be happy I was going to give it to him.

"So what do you want to do?" I wondered.

With that she took off, opened the door and ran out into the lawn.

"I want to be outside and not report my every movement to someone." She laughed.

"You don't get outside?" I asked.

"Hell no, I can barely look out a window without being yelled at. They just want me to stay inside and be theirs." She replied.

"Let's stay out here all day then." I suggested.

Bella went to the very middle of my lawn and laid down, staring straight up into the sky.

"That would be awesome." She whispered.

"Just wait out here and I'll grab some things." I instructed her.

I made my way back into my house, grabbed some tools and food, a large blanket and finally made my way back outside.

"Holy shit, we're having a picnic!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'm glad to know you're so excited." I chuckled.

With Bella's help we laid down the blanket, and put everything on it, lastly the two of us laid down with our feet close to eachother.

"Did you cook this or is it store bought?" She wondered.

"I'd say a good 50/50."I admitted.

"Ahh." She replied.

"Why, do they cook everything homemade?" I asked.

"Yep, besides from making my life a total living hell, they don't have much else to do, at least when they're off of tour." She explained.

"Does it taste good though?" I wondered, half jokingly.

"I hate myself for admitting this, but yeah, it's pretty fucking good." She chuckled.

We ate with a bit of small talk, and once we were done the two of us just stared up at the sky and watched the clouds roll by.

My mind kept running in circles though, as she lay there peacefully all I could think about was how I had to fuck her over again. This was beyond unfair.

I would give anything to go back and change how things ended up being.

Now I had the pay the indirect price.

Hours after we ate, we finally packed everything up and went back inside.

"Was it good?" I wondered.

"It was delicious thank you." She happily replied.

"No problem, maybe if I was a band member it would have been perfect." I joked.

She glared back at me.

"That's not funny." She stated.

"Sorry." I apologized.

"I just want to move on with my life you know? Get past everything I've gone through." She explained.

Fuck, I couldn't do this.

"I'll be back, I have to use the bathroom." I stated, brushing past her and making my way all the way down the hall and in the bathroom.

I slammed the door shut, and made sure that I was far enough in the room so that she couldn't hear me.

Pulling out my phone I automatically dialed up the mansion's main phone number.

"Taylor?" Chris answered.

"Hey, I need to explain a few things to you." I stated.

"You've got three minutes, make it good." Chris barked back at me.

"Bella arrived here last night in Michael's car and I had no idea that she was showing up. I realize that I need to get her back to you, but right now to be honest she doesn't believe that she's going to go back. While she did think that at first, she was horrified that she was going to get punished majorly when she got back. Basically I've got a proposal for you. I'll give her up right now if you promise not to hurt her or punish her when she gets back, or I hop in a cab with her and go cross country." I blurted out.

All I heard was a chuckled on his side of the phone.

"You've gotten ballsy." Chris stated.

"No, I've finally got protective over my friend." I explained.

"Fine I'll promise you that, just make sure she's not aware of what's happening." Chris told me.

"Will do." I replied, and shut the phone off.

Shit, I could not believe I actually just did that, but I knew that Chance wanted her safe, and so if that meant trusting him and sending her back until he got her out, I guess I trusted him.

I exited the bathroom, and saw that Bella was not where she had last been.

"Bells?" I called out.

I wandered down the hall and attempted to open up the guest bedroom, it was locked.

Oh no, she'd locked herself in.

"Bella, open up." I exclaimed, knocking on the door.

"No, you sold me out you asshole!" She screamed, with the start of a hoarse voice.

Great, she'd been crying.

"It's going to be okay, I promise you." I told her.

She refused to talk anymore, or unlock the door so I texted Chris wondering what he wanted me to do.

He told me that Michael, Danny, Austin, Rian, and Mike Fuentes were coming over, and to just let her be.

I didn't have much of a choice, did I?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mike Fuentes' POV -

4 Hours Later ~

We pulled the white van into Taylor's driveway and could hear nothing, it was chillingly quiet.

"Do you want me to come in?" Michael asked.

"I don't think so, we don't need to set her off even more. How about you take your car and start heading back." I suggested.

"Sounds good, I'll see you later back at the house." Michael said.

Once he got his car and pulled out we met Taylor at the door that led from his garage into his house.

"She's still locked inside of the room, and won't come out." Taylor stated.

"Don't worry, she'll come out." Rian replied.

"I'll go start the car so we're ready to go right away, and I think it would be smart to have someone on the outside in case she somehow manages to get out." Danny said.

"I'll go outside." Austin offered.

"Okay, and Taylor just go and stay out of our way." I instructed.

"Whatever, but just remember that we made a deal." Taylor growled.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"Last room on the left, don't be afraid to knock it down." Taylor said, and walked outside in the backyard.

"Let's do this." Rian whispered.

Rian and I walked up to the door, and gently knocked on the door.

"Bella sweetie, come on out." I stated sweetly.

"No!" She screamed, and chucked something heavy at the door.

"You're not in trouble Bella, we just want to take you home. That's all, we promise." Rian said.

"Burn in hell!" She screeched.

"Okay, we're kicking down this fucking door." I told Rian.

With a swift kick and my heel hitting the perfect spot in the door, it slammed open and we found Bella looking terrified yet pissed crouched down in the corner.

"Come on princess." Rian whispered, slowly walking towards her with his hands extended.

"No." She cried out, but before she had a chance, Rian picked her up and flung her over his shoulder.

"Got it?" I asked, seeing that he was having a bit of trouble.

"Just get out there and open up the doors." Rian told me.

I did just that and gathered Austin up on my way to the car as well.

"Go ahead and scoot in, and I'll stand behind so that she can't get out either way." Austin said.

"Sounds good." I replied, getting into the farthest seat in the row behind the driver's seat with Danny in it.

"They're coming." Danny announced.

Sure enough, Rian was struggling with Bella over his back, but he was keeping a tight grip on her despite all of her fighting back.

"Please, stop, please!" She shrieked.

"Shhh, it's okay." I hushed her.

It wasn't working though, she was terrified beyond any consolation.

"For fucks sake." Rian grumbled, trying to slip Bella into the back seat.

I reached over, grabbed her feet, and pulled her into the car so she was finally close enough to me that I could grab her around the waist and pull her close to me.

Once that happened Austin got into the passenger's seat, and Rian got into his seat, next to me.

Right as he went to close the door, Bella leaped off of my lap, but Rian managed to hold her back long enough so that he could shut and lock the door.

"Just go." Rian exclaimed to Danny.

He helped me bring Bella back to where she was seated on my lap. She was in full hysterics though, screaming, tears running down her face, her arms and legs were thrashing and she just kept screaming for Chance to come and help her.

We all knew that wasn't going to happen.

"Shh, baby, relax, everything's fine." I whispered, gently stroking the side of her face.

"No, no, no, no, no." She whimpered, each word getting more hoarse and choppy.

Eventually the banging on the windows and the screaming stopped, but the crying and sobbing were just beginning.

I contorted her body so that I was almost cradling her, as her head rested against my shoulder.

Everyone else in the van was silent, except for her sobbing, and my attempt hush her asleep, or just to make her calm down.

After about an hour of her grief-stricken emotions and tears had passed, she ended up passing out right on my shoulder.

"She's out." I whispered to everyone else.

"That's great, thanks for doing that." Danny thanked me.

"Go ahead and lay her down right here." Rian instructed, patting the space in between the both of us.

I did just that, and took a look at her still somber, and now red and puffy face.

When we got back we needed to come up with a game plan and fast. DJ and Michael told us what Bella did after she last saw Taylor at their house.

We would do anything in our will to make that never happen again.

She was far too beautiful for such a tragic end.