Another's Demise

A tale of two trusts

Cameron

Her face was ghostly as she stared at the figure of my father, his cane replaced, and a gun directed at hers.

"Cameron," a breathless gasp as her eyes darted between us.

There was a cruel twist of Vincent Torres' mouth, "You think your father, is any threat to me Grayson."

"No, I may not be a threat to you, but I am entirely a threat to her," his cane trained on Alara, and I swallowed the inherent fear that latched onto me. We had spoken, I knew what he would do, but the dread in her eyes sliced through me. I kept my expression cool.

"What the fuck Cameron?" Mel was in front of Alara in mere moments, "Neither one of you men are getting my friend, so back off."

"I wonder," Vincent was cool, and calm, "How fragile you must have been once, all that fear, where did you put it Melanie Strata, when all those men-"

Leo threw the first punch, it landed squarely on Vincent's jaw, his face turned to the side but that was the extent of the damage. There was a blaze in his eyes, as he cocked his gun and trained it between the Mafia leader's eyes, "Say another word, I fucking dare you-"

"You children, so quick to anger, so volatile, a single sentence can have you lose all objectivity, this is our future?" His gaze locked with my fathers.

"If you think that you will ever be a threat to my daughter, you underestimate how far I am willing to go to protect her. I will kill anyone who tries to harm her, I will uphold her as the heiress she is, you are nothing to me Carlisle Grayson, your pathetic Gang of Vipers has nothing on the forces and legions I have, so think very carefully," he took a step forward, until the barrel of Leo's gun was pressed firmly against his skin, "About what you allow your subordinates to do."

"He doesn't answer to him," I snarled lowly," I am the leader of the Vipers, I command one of the deadliest forces in my region, I would kill anyone who intends to harm my wife and I do not give a damn about inciting an international gang war if it means protecting her."

"You have failed at that quite aptly have you not?" Vincent's eyes flickered to my father, whose face has paled, he wasn't looking at the Mafia leader, he was looking to the empty space where Alara had once been.

He was an even bigger fool than I had thought, thinking I would ever allow him near my darling again.

"Where is she?" Carlisle roared, and Vincent's eyes were torn from Leo and the imminent threat of the gun. He brutishly knocked past Leo, who had a grin spread across his face, "Imbeciles right?" he laughed.

As Torres searched for his daughter, there was no visible door to them, but Mel knew this safe house like the back of her hand. The thing about the people closest to you were that they understood the seemingly dire decisions you made; it had taken one simple curl of my fingers for Mel to realise why I had brought my father out of his cell.

Their pride, and greed would be their downfall and it had.

"I still have her brother," he seethed, "And he's a dead man if my daughter isn't returned to me."

He stalked forward, eyes scanning over my careless features. "And you," he seethed, "You cannot survive without her, I will stalk your every move, you will never be able to see her again if she is not brought to my door within the next hour."

"I have already lived a year without her," I kept my face unphased, "I can live a lifetime more if it protects her."

There was begrudging respect in my father's eyes, "You didn't truly believe me did you," I asked him, watching the flicker of admiration die out in his eyes.

"I did, son. I thought for a moment I could give you everything you have ever wanted. She would have lived if you hadn't been so careless."

My throat tightened, "Empty threats don't work on me anymore father,"

"I poisoned it," he hissed," flicking his cane, until the sharp pointed edge gleamed, there was a smattering of blood on its side, Alara's blood.

Leo went pale, "You bastard-" there was a tinge of yellow on the blade that should not have been there. I felt the breath leave my body, as I lurched forward, smashing him against the wall, "You need her alive."

"Alive, yes, Conscious. No."

He was mid laugh when the bullet sung through the air.

Piercing through his head.

Blood spurted outwards, a thick spray that loosened my grip has he fell to the floor.

"Fuck," Leo cursed, reaching over to me but I was already moving, no time to process the death of my father.

"You fucking idiot," I raged, staring at the smoking gun in Torres' hand.

"We don't know what poison it was-"

He cleaned off the small spray of blood that had pooled at the corner of his lips from where Leo had struck him.

Vincent pulled the cane from the warm dead hands of my father, tossing it upwards and catching it between practiced hands he held the sharpened tip to the light, the murky gloss of dried blood and poison glimmering beneath the glow of the light.

"It's still on the blade, I'll have it tested-"

"She was hurt hours ago, do we even have time to check?" his face was gaunt for a moment.

"And you just killed the only man who knew."

"His soldiers?"

"Dead-" Leo snapped, "They're all dead. And you might have just killed Alara."

"Where is she?" He seethed, "I have the best doctors in the world, we can treat her even if we don't know what it is."

Fury coated every bone, "Move," I snarled.

"You bring her to me, I will fix this, I will cure her. I have all the money in Italy, and I will kill every damn doctor that can't cure her."

"Move," I gritted, as he blocked my way to the door. I needed to get a message to Mel.

"Take me to her, if you ever loved her,"

"Ever loved her, you killed the only person who knew what poison she took."

"No," Leo whispered, "He's not the only one who knows.

"Laurier." I hissed.