Trying not to breathe, he set his phone to start recording just in case.
As he strained to listen, he heard two men and… Allie? What was she doing here?
69
Allie
"Where is it?" Bryce yelled to Stacy.
Allie's old roommate whimpered and ran to one of the drawers in the master bedroom and started pawing through it.
"I'm finding it." She sniffed, pulling at her torn clothing.
"You'd better give us the evidence. And you," he said, shoving Allie so that she fell to the floor. "You're going to pay."
Her heartbeat echoing in her head, Allie tried to stay calm. She did not want to become hysterical, but things were looking worse and worse.
She felt the panic rising in her chest as Stacy handed Bryce the papers. He backhanded Stacy and she huddled on the ground next to Allie, and they watched as Bryce flipped through them.
Then Bryce pulled out a knife. "You see this?" He waved it in front of Allie's head. "This is how you die. I’m going to fuck you, and then I'm going to gut you."
His brother took a fistful of her hair and pulled her head back. Bryce kicked her in the stomach then undid his pants as Trent dragged her to the bed. Her stomach hurt so much, Allie couldn't even gasp out a protest.
"You know what we're capable of," Bryce told her. "You know we killed that worker for messing in our business."
I need a miracle,Allie thought, but she knew there was none forthcoming. There was no one. She was on her own, as always.
As she watched Bryce advance on her, someone charged at him, knocking him back through the open doors that led to the balcony.
"Carter?" Allie managed to croak. Carter had Bryce in a headlock then stabbed him with a large knife.
Trent let go of Allie and pulled out his gun to help his brother. He tried to grab Carter to pull him away from Bryce so he could shoot him.
It was two against one, and Allie didn't think Carter was going to win. She forcefully pulled her hands back against her, the strength of the motion splitting the duct tape. Then she ran to Trent and grabbed the gun. His attention diverted from Carter, Trent wrestled her for the weapon. She felt her wrist bruise where he tried to break it, but Allie didn't release her hold on the gun. The gun fired into one of the French doors, shattering it, and the force of the motion released Allie's hold on the gun enough that Trent could control it.
Smiling, Trent took aim and fired at Carter. The bullet grazed his head.
"No!" Allie screamed as she saw the blood running down Carter's face.
Trent fired at him again, and Allie heard Carter grunt as he was shot in the back. He didn't seem concerned and lunged at Trent, who pulled the trigger again, but the gun jammed. Allie's ears were ringing as she tried to wrestle the gun from Trent, but he hit her in the side of the head with it instead. Then he threw the gun down, and he and Bryce jumped on Carter, kicking and beating him.
"Don't hurt him!" Stacy shrieked, running out onto the balcony. "That's my baby's father!"
"No, he isn’t!" Bryce yelled, standing up as Stacy ran at him, her nails out. "I am so tired of hearing you go on about Carter Holbrook. You want him so much? You can join him in death." Then Bryce wrapped his arms around Stacy's waist and threw her over the balcony.
Allie sobbed as she heard Stacy scream on the way down.
Trent laughed and started hauling Carter back to the balcony. "Perfect. We're going to have a nice murder-suicide done by Carter against the mother of his child. You need to call Vance and tell him to have the reporters over here to cover it," he said.
He struggled with Carter as he tried to pull him over the edge, and Bryce turned to help his brother.
"Don't!" Allie pleaded as she tried to fight off Bryce.
As the four of them struggled, Margot ran over and bit Bryce hard enough that he lost concentration, and Allie managed to flip him over the edge from the momentum of the struggle. He hung onto the railing.
"You don't have to do this!" Carter said as Trent let go of him to try to pull his brother back up. "Let us pull you up."
He strained to rescue Bryce, but Bryce latched onto Carter's arm and tried to pull Carter over after him. Instead of trying to save his brother, Trent struggled to push Carter over the railing.
