Carlton ✔

45| The Welcomed Burden

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?

*****