Burnt Lies

A Deal With The Devil

Alara

Once Cameron had exited the room, his father stepped away from me, his face becoming stern and a look of almost disappointment painting a portrait on his features. 

"Well aren't you just a smart girl," his tone was dipped in poison, "You've got it all figured out,"

"How did you know I knew?" I pressed stepping back away from this devious man who quite frankly sent chills down my spine. 

"The way you stormed in here, with that fiery spirit of yours ready to tear my family apart." he accused me with a steely gaze. 

"You seem to be doing that just fine yourself," I snapped, only coming to regret the words spilling from my mouth when I saw the gleam of malice in those green eyes, almost an exact replica of Cameron's. 

"Is that so, Alara?" I didn't like the way he paused on my name drawing out the syllables and giving a sense of power to himself when he uttered it. 

I pressed my lips together biting back another snide remark and deciding it would be a better course of action to get straight to the point, "You were the one who attacked the Wolfsbane's ball."

He didn't deny the accusation, he merely gave me a once over, a small smirk tugging at his lips, pulling his stubble upwards in an unnerving grin, "I always knew you were clever."

"But why? I don't understand why you would do that. You killed so many people and for what?"

"You are part of the gang life you know this world is all violence and you are surprised at that?" he stooped closer, gazing deeply into my eyes trying to catch me out, detect a weakness but I would be damned if I showed him any. 

"You wanted me," I breathed out, my voice a crack of a whisper, yet it wasn't fragile there was power in that knowledge. 

"Ah, your deductive skills do rather fascinate me, you will be more of an asset than I expected."

"You have yet to explain why," I pressed further steeling my gaze against his hard stare. 

He edged closer to me dangerously close so I could see each wrinkle on his somehow partially aged face, "But I already have you. Why on earth would I force my son to marry a Mortello whose gang is crumbling as we speak, that has no real value to me. The only thing that is of value to me is you," he reached over to touch my face with a calloused hand but I shrank back away from his touch. 

"Don't touch me." I snarled, crossing my arms over my chest to feel slightly more protected. 

He merely let out a humourless laugh. 

"So much defiance, in so little of a thing," I cringed at the use of things it made me feel less of a person and more of an object to this despicable man. 

"You are the key to the Blood Diamond," I seriously felt like shooting the next person who said those two words. 

"Imagine all the power I have, having the key to the most wanted jewel between all the gangs. The map right in my hands and when you have wed Cameron truly belonging to me."

"I belong to no one," I hissed my voice harsh and acrid, dripping with contempt. 

"That's where you are entirely wrong, I assume Damon has not shown you the contract that he signed," my throat began to close up. My heart hammering against my chest and had my hands not been curled around my chest they would have shook. 

"What the hell are you talking about," I bit out no longer caring about any remnants of respect. 

He stalked over to his desks and from one of the cedarwood draws pulled out a legal document. He gave it to me and I snatched the paper from his hands with more aggression than necessary. 

My eyes flitted over the words watching them morph into one another as my stomach dropped.

The alliance of Cameron Raymond Grayson and Alara Genevieve Mortello through marriage will legally bind the Grayson household with any and all assets associated with the sole daughter of the Mortello household. This includes but is not limited to any and all information and wealth that is in conjunction with any and all mentioning's of  one 'Blood Diamond' and as the new daughter-in-law of the Grayson household Alara Genevieve Mortello will be obliged to listen and obey any and all members of the Grayson estate. 

"This is bullshit." Anger flared in my body as I read each word, he wanted me to obey him he wanted to steal the fortune that my Grandfather had hidden within me. He wanted every single thing that I had and he wanted to take it for his own. 

"No it is legally binding," he responded ignoring my outburst and playing the ever collected ruthless business mogul. 

"Not if me and Cameron don't marry," my voice was small losing its confidence as I spoke the words I didn't want to say. 

He quirked a brow at me, "And you would break his heart in doing so. Could you live with yourself knowing that he will never love another like he does you?"

I felt a painful tug at my heart, nausea rising alongside bile up my throat, "You don't know that?"

"No? Have you not seen the way he looks at you, have you not seen the anger that he exudes when anyone hurts you. Do you not see the flare of desire in his eyes, his want to touch you, to posses you, to belong to you in truth as any man would only give up everything for one person. And for him that person is you. Would you risk destroying his belief in love forever, for what? A diamond you have no interest in?"

The speech instilled a burning hatred in me because he was right, I could not do that to Cameron. I had to admit to myself that everything his father had observed was true. And he was right, I did not care for the diamond at all. 

"I'll make a deal with you," the words fell from my mouth before I could stop them, and once they had been spoken into existence there was no turning back, no retracting what had already been said. 

"A deal you say," he seemed intrigued, leaning back against his desk, the picture of control, a man who knew the power he had. 

"You want the diamond, or more so you want the power that comes with the knowledge of where the diamond is. It would help you control the gangs make them do your bidding. That is what you truly want. You do not need me to obey, you don't need me to submit to you, you have no use for me other than the information that is imprinted on my arm. So here is my proposition, retract the clause that states I have to obey anyone of the Grayson household and keep everything regarding the diamond. Allow me to marry Cameron out of my own free will without these underhanded loopholes of oppression. And I will give you everything you want regarding the Diamond. You are right I have no interest in it. You can use it for your control and all you need to do is give me the freedom to love Cameron as I do with no one else pulling the strings."

"What a mighty speech you have given there, but there is one thing I would add in return for the removal of the obedience clause," he pressed his fingers togethers, almost steepling them in a way any villain would. 

"You are never to mention my involvement on that attack of the Wolfsbane to Cameron. You are never to reveal my intentions regarding the Diamond, I will make appointments to analyse the map on your arm and you will give me the information you need, all in exchange for the freedom you so desire, do we have a deal,"

My mind rushed back to how Echo was looking into the footage how he was alerting the correct people. But Cameron's father had only said I was not to tell Cameron, he said nothing of others relaying the message. But part of me still wanted to pause Echo's divulgence of the information until I had truly worked out what I needed to do. 

I was about to make a deal with the devil himself. 

"We have a deal, but one thing on my side, Cameron can never know. He can never know the real reason why you wanted him to marry me. Do not break your sons allusion of love, let him feel that he has chosen this even if he hasn't because above all your son deserved the choice in who he loved and if that choice is me so be it out of his own free will no other obligation."

"Spoken like a true lover, but I will allow this amendment, don't ever say I don't have a heart Alara," If there was one thing I was sure of it was that he definitely didn't have a heart. 

"So the deal is set." 

The deal with the devil had been made.