Dedicated to:Jjawesome437
Thanks for the amazing votes and heart-warming comments!
"I'm a soldier, wounded
So I must give up the fight
There's nothing more for me, lead me away
Or leave me lying here."
~ Sound the bugle; Bryan Adams.
**The following section is in Third Person POV**
Breanna had seen Carlton get in a car with Phil and drive away into the dark of the night. And she knew that it only meant trouble. She was still recovering from how Carlton had shrugged her off a few hours ago. He always did that. He always shrugged her off as if he didn't trust her.
As if she was using him or something.
But when she saw him drive away sneakily, all her doubts were cleared and she couldn't help but follow them.
Therefore, here she was, cradling Phil's head in her arms, crying her heart out. Blood drenched his clothes, spreading from his chest. The bullet had pierced right through his heart, taking his life immediately.
"I'm sorry," she told her dead friend, closing his eyes as she remembered how supportive he'd always been to her.
Phil didn't have a family, only a sick mother who couldn't even remember that she had a son. They were his family. She had always given him adequate respect even though he was a bodyguard, and so had Carlton.
She placed his head very gently onto the tarmac road and dialed Caden's guard to tend to Phil's body. Even though she hated leaving Phil there like that, she had a more important task of following Augustus.
Hurrying back into her SUV, she wiped her tears and reassured herself. She gripped the steering wheel between her fingers, shaking her headache away, and zoomed down the path.
She would find out where they were taking him, so she could later come back with a plan.
She was too late to save Phil, but she might still be able to save Carlton.
*****
Ace Bennet fell into Damien Price's arms, that night.
Damien couldn't believe his eyes as Ace stumbled through the door, his bloodied clothes stuck to his body. He was relieved, yet agitated at the same time. Why would Augustus let Ace go?
"First aid!" He commanded his guards as he helped the distraught Ace onto a couch.
"Ace?" Damien caressed his cheeks with perturb, rubbing off the blood stains; but somewhere in the back of his mind he was so joyous to see him alive and breathing, back in his arms again.
Damien believed it was his fault that Ace was kidnapped in the first place.
"It's Carlton," Ace winced in pain, and soon after that, tears formed in his eyes. Ace didn't need to explain furthur for Damien to figure out what was going on, since he was the one who gave Carlton the piece of paper. But he didn't know what was written on it, he was too weak to read it at that time.
He hadn't imagined in the wildest of his dreams that Carlton would just walk out and give himself away, just to save Ace. Carlton had never done anything like that in his life.
If something happened to him, it would again be Damien's fault and he wondered...had he become the reason why everything was a trainwreck?
*****
Caden Hargrave was relaxing in his NY penthouse. All the fuss had gotten to his head and he needed a moment to release it.
Putting his hand in the pocket of his trackpants, he took a sip of whiskey as he stared away at the moonlight lighting up the skyscrapers, stretching to the heavens. He was ready to get some sleep.
"I can't believe they would do this to me."
Caden turned back to find that Alexandra Bancroft had finally stepped out of the shower. She sat on the bed, hugging her legs to her chest. Her nightgown slipped from her bare shoulders, but what attracted his attention was her remorseful whines.
"My own father and brother-" she sniffed "-sorry, adopted brother. How could they do this to me?"
Caden raised her spirits, for the hundredth time. "Men with success and their old school mindsets don't want a woman to inherit such a fortune."
"You're telling me that my dad hates women so much that he adopted a boy so he can inherit everything to him? And now he wants to kill me?"
"I told you, it's not your fault..."
Alexandra covered her face with her palms. "I don't know what I can do to pay you and Carlton back. Especially Carlton. I was a bitch to him."
"You also seduced him to make me jealous," Caden pointed, drinking whiskey.
"Stop reminding me!"
"But I've done bad things too so I guess we're even?"
She sighed nervously, softly smiling at him. "Thank you, Caden."
Before Caden could remind her how beautiful she looked when she smiled, the ring of his phone interrupted him. It was his guard. "S-Sir? Sorry to interrupt but we just found Ace Bennet..."
He instantly pressed his phone harder to his ears. "And?!"
"He claims that your brother surrendered to the Bancrofts."
His ears numbed, his vision dizzying. He didn't realise how tightly he clutched the glass of whiskey, that it eventually shattered in his hand.
"Caden!" Alexandra shrieked.
"Sir? Are you there? Also Breanna just returned. She claims that she followed them and knows where they took him. Also Sir...Philip is dead."
Caden didn't flinch even slightly, as he gaped at the glass shards sticking out of his skin, blood dripping out from the point where the shards dug into his flesh.
"Oh my God!" Alexandra raced to him, snatching his phone away and examining his hand. "What have you done?" She calmly sat him down on the side of his bed.
Caden wouldn't blink. He just gaped at his hand with devastation.
Why did this happen? When Carlton left the house a few hours ago, this is what he had in mind? To surrender himself freely to the enemy?
The Carlton he knew would never throw himself into a sweltering fire pit just to save someone else's life.
Now what was he going to do?
Alexandra didn't waste a second as she wrapped a cloth around her index and thumb and used them to pull out the pieces of glass one by one.
Caden's injuries were fairly minor, but she was still outraged that he would react so out of the state of his mind. "Carlton did it again, didn't he?" she asked, wrapping a cloth around his shredded palm.
Caden gulped.
"I know how you feel." Alexandra's voice was soft like silk, pulling him out of the sea that he was slowly drowning in. "You don't have enough reinforcements to save him. Augustus has many allies. While, all your allies have backed away from helping you, in fear of the Bancrofts. Even the police aren't on your side. What will you do?"
"I...don't know." Caden squeezed his eyes shut to ease his burning heart.
"Yes you do."
Caden shifted to look at Alexandra in her seductive eyes.
She placed her hand under his chin, lifting his head up to brighten his mood. "You need someone's support. Someone who has the police's favour. Who even the Bancrofts' allies want to stay away from."
His mind rattled with uncertainty as he understood who Alexandra was talking about.
"You know what to do." She smiled sincerely, running her fingers through his locks. "It's your turn to decide what's more important — your reputation or your brother."
*****
Carlton's POV
I witnessed them haul unconscious an injured Ace into the alleyway next to Damien's hotel, but I had lost all the wit to argue otherwise. The ride to wherever they were taking me, was a blur, mostly because of the tears constantly falling.
Finally, I failed in life. I failed my family.
Everything I had dreamed of, had burned down to ashes, falling at my feet. I lived a life of unwise recklessness and negligency. I had achieved nothing I could boast about, unlike my family.
Who am I kidding? I never even had something I could call a family.
To give my life for the peace of other's was the least I could do.
I was thrown to a rock-hard ground like garbage. Soon after that, a kick swung into my stomach, making me gag on my own blood. It tensed my reflexes and opened my eyes.
I was lying on a rough ground in a spacious, dark and empty room, with a few broken chairs and tables. A single, white light hung from the ceiling; the ceiling too was chipping off, as if no one had tended to it in years.
With some struggle, I lifted my head up to find Augustus standing at my feet, with a bunch of men surrounding him.
He scowled at me, but with elation in his pitiless eyes. "Look at you, defeated in every way. I love that."
All of a sudden, a flashback of Phil's half-open eyes spread in my head like a disease. I gnashed my teeth together and launched myself at him with the little energy left in me.
"Damn you to hell!" I screamed at him so intensely that my throat began to hurt. My hand reached for his face, aiming to gauge his eyes out but he didn't move or flinch.
I couldn't reach him.
I was halted when my hand was a few inches from his face.
Several men yanked and held me back. I groaned and swung at him again but this time I was even further away. He was so close. I could...choke him and rip his heart out and watch as life faded from his eyes. But I couldn't.
The smile on his face grew wider.
I was pulled behind till my back hit a pole in the center of the room. The men held my arms up and before I could react, they had ropes that zig-zagged, tying my arms up on the pole.
I was growling like an animal, vengeance running cold in my blood.
They even tied my waist to the pole, making me completely immobile. "I'll kill you." I tasted every word as I said it.
He scoffed, calmly removing his blazer and handing it to a man. He stared at me from head to toe, bloodlust fuming in his glare. "Let's reserve that for our fight later."
When I saw him wearing brass knuckles on his hands, my eyes widened the size of saucers.
What was he going to do to me?
I tried to fight back, due to an inconceivable fear of my fate. "You broke the-"
I was cut off as someone behind me tied a cloth through my mouth, between my teeth. So everything I said sounded like muffled gibberish.
Groaning loudly, I bit on the white cloth because the man was tying it too tight.
"Gently now." Augustus' voice resonated across the room. "We wouldn't want our subject to be hurt."
When they had successfully tied my hands up, my waist stiff, and mouth shut, the men moved away to make way for him. My heart began to race, cold sweat beading my forehead.
Augustus had walked up really close now. Close enough to grab. But I couldn't. His eyes mocked me. "You have a big heart, kid. It's a shame that you have to go through this."
Without warning, he slammed a punch into my stomach with brass knuckles on. My body heaved forward as I strained against the ropes. I tasted blood in my mouth, but I refused to scream and give him the satisfaction.
He looked wild and thrilled from torturing me like this. "You thought you could gather all that evidence on me? That I was scamming my allies? Did you really fucking think that all my monetary transactions are recorded?"
He didn't give me time to process it and punched my stomach again. This time, I swear my blood must have coloured the white cloth between my teeth, into a deep scarlet-red.
I squeezed my eyes in pain as Augustus grabbed my hair from the back, bunching it ruthlessly in his fingers. "My allies are never dissatisfied with me! The problem with you is that you think you're so smart."
He bashed my head back into the pole, pressing it back with his hand, while he fisted his other hand. "When really, you can never be like your brother." He punched my face so hard that the metallic brass knuckles rattled my teeth and my vision went black for a few seconds.
But I didn't scream because that's what he wanted, and it drove him visibly crazy that he wasn't getting to hear it.
My face was turned away from him as I took deep, raspy breaths. My sweaty hair fell over my eyes, and I was moaning just slightly under my breath. He hated that. Clasping my face under my chin, he roughly made me look at him. "Do you know why you're going through this, Carlton?"
In a horrid turn of events, he fisted his hand and gently placed it on my shoulder where I had acquired the gunshot wound, which was still throbbing fresh. Tears began to form in my eyes as I realised what he was about to do.
Please...don't do this.
A wide smirk was plastered on his face, eyes darkening with vivacity, making my whole body shiver with terror. I bit on the cloth, readying myself.
It started slowly as he pressed slightly on my wound with the brass knuckles. Pain began shooting up my neck in spasms, cramping and stiffening it.
I shook my head vigorously, trying to shake off the stinging ache. But it only made it worse.
When he finally pressed down hard and squeezed his knuckles on the spot, it shattered my ardour, surpassing my limits. And I cried out in pain.
I cried so loud, tears flooded down my face. I couldn't even recognise my own voice. Resting my head on the pole behind me I stared away at the light hanging on the ceiling.
God, please just kill me. Put me out of this misery.
He pressed down again, laughing out loud over my desperate cries of pain. My knees were weak, my arms trembling but I was tied so I couldn't even budge.
Someone. Please help me.
"Don't get me wrong...I'm not doing this to make you too weak for the fight or anything," he chuckled, "I would never do that to the one who signs a contract with me."
He pressed the wound again; blood dripped in chunks at my feet. My whole body was jerking and writhing now.
"You're suffering because of the all mistakes your friends made!" He backed away and punched my face.
"You're suffering because Raymond had the audacity to come at me!" He punched me again.
"You're suffering because Caden caused me a million dollar loss last year!" And again.
"You're suffering because of all things your Hargrave ancestors ever did to the Bancrofts!" And again.
He grabbed the hair on the top of my head, twisting it. I couldn't open my eyes completely to view him, but I could tell he was getting agitated. "Do you hear me?! You're suffering because of their wrong doings! Must be a pain to carry such a burden, huh?"
He punched me hard once again. There was a loud ringing sound resonating in my whole head, making it hard for me to maintain my conciousness. I was breathing hard, my chest heaving, coughing and gasping.
"And most importantly," he closed in, half-whispering, "You're suffering because you are the only man who won Breanna's heart and kept it."
Even though every part of my screamed for me to give up, I still looked up right into his eyes with shock.
"She didn't tell you, did she? Well I made a move on her, but she rejected me." Then a smirk spread on his lips as he lifted his chin up with pride. "Even when I had her tied to my bed and she was screaming for me to stop, but I didn't. I just wanted her to know how much I loved her, you know? Is that so wrong?"
As if someone had stabbed me through my heart, I became weaker. My head was suddenly feeling so, so heavy.
I chewed on the cloth, unafraid of breaking my bones as I thrusted against the ropes with rage. I screamed at him, with so much hate. It seeped through my body, scorching and burning, begging my conscience to kill him right there and then.
"Oh you're mad? You're mad that I laid my hands on her and that I killed your closest friend? Don't you wish you could do something about it?"
I strained against my binds even though I knew it wouldn't help. Every vein in my body had tensed, I could feel the hatred rushing through them, numbing me for a while.
I'm going to fucking kill him.
Augustus shrugged taking a metal rod from a man. "Sadly, we're just getting started."
***********