Never Judge

Everyone stared at Al as he glared at Seth.

"Your father told me to do it." Seth told the younger man knowing that he was already placing the blame on the Mafia Don.

"Did he tell you why?" Al asked as he crossed his arms on his chest as he no longer pretended to be a nobody. "Dad and I agreed, this was not supposed to happen. Are you outing the others as well?"

"No, just you." Seth said as he shook his head.

"Al, it might be for the best, if everyone knew who you are then we wouldn't take crazy stupid risks." Herndrick said as he tried his best to explain to Al why his identity had to be revealed to the team.

"So this is the little spoiled brat that will be leading us some day." Sora said in a mocking tone, her voice carrying over everyone else.

The other members of the team turned pale as they gave her a warning look.

To their surprise, Al laughed and shook his head.

"It's good to see that I won't be treated like a fragile vase by everyone." He commented as he gave Sora a smile.

Sor glared at him, not happy with his reaction.

"Would you rather I act like most spoiled nth generation heirs and demand that you be punished for insulting me?" Al laughed as he observed Sora.

He also kept an eye at the other members of the team.

Sora didn't say a word. She simply watched him as he watched her.

"Let me tell you a secret." Al said as he gave his Uncle Seth a knowing smile. "There is a reason why the Lawerence and Reyes families have stayed on top all these years. Why generation after generation we have grown in power and wealth."

Sora flinched as she saw the grin on Al's face. It was not what she had expected.

"Don't scare her, Al, you actually want her on our side." Hendrick warned the younger man. To which Al simply smiled and nodded.

"We don't inherit our places as you initially thought." Al said as he maintained eye contact with Sora. Something about the woman infuriated him, it was probably the fact that she assumed he was an entitled 2nd generation heir.

"We earn it!" Al said, putting a little bit too much emphasis on his words. "My father earned his place, so did my uncle Cedric. We are never handed things, we fight from the moment we are born."

Everyone thought that Sora would stop and concede, but she did the exact opposite, challenging Al still.

"You are here because daddy told you to be here." She hissed as she stood up and took a few steps towards Al.

She wasn't tall, roughly 165 cm in height compared to Al's 178 cm height, so she was forced to look up at him.

"Don't think that you are on the same level as all of us." She challenged him.

Al laughed at her words.

"You can't be further from the truth, my dad does not want me to be here, at least not yet." Al pointed out as he took a step closer to her. "I am here because I did earn my place, you can ask Uncle Seth, he won't lie to you."

Sora looked towards Seth's direction and the boss simply nodded, confirming that what Al said was true.

"You can even ask Hendrick, the moment my father learned that I was part of the Dean Family Mafia, Hendrick had every reason to fear for his life." Al pointed at Hendrick, who nodded in response.

"Wait." Lianne asked as she looked at Al in shock. "You've been in the Dean Family Mafia for how long?"

"A year."

It was Hendrick that answered for him.

"The child refused to accept no as an answer. I thought it would be fine since he was only asked to do clerical jobs but when-" Hendrick suddenly stopped mid sentence when he realized he was about to  reveal something that the others shouldn't know.

"When?" Sora asked as she glared at Hendrick, her gaze unrelenting.

"When names for this mission popped up and Al was discovered, his father was furious." Hendrick's quick thinking helped them a lot in that situation. His lie seemed believable as the people around them nodded.

"Calm down, Sora." Seth sighed as he stepped in and intervened. "You actually have to work with Al, and I guarantee he is worth much more than you think. With or without his family name."

Sora looked between Al and Seth.

She simply shrugged and returned to her seat.

Seth let out a breath of relief when Sora backed down. Al could tell that she was an important member of the team, everyone was.

The team was hand picked by his Uncle Seth, only the most loyal and the best were part of it.

"I'll leave you all together to get settled as a group." Seth announced. "Tomorrow we'll be re-introducing you all to one another. We will also be adding Luke Lopez into the mix. His target will be to influence Al since he is the youngest and least known in the group."

Everyone nodded as they processed Seth's instructions.

"Al's job is to find out what our enemies our planning so we can stay one step ahead." Seth added.

"So we need to get him to think Al needs him." Herdrick told the group as he contemplated what route to take.

"A young man, new to a group of extremely loyal men to the mafia. If he thinks Al is isolated and feels like everyone is against him, he should move faster." One of the men whose name Al didn't catch said.

"That's exactly what we want to happen." Seth said with a nod.

Everyone seemed to be on the same page, nodding as Al could see the gears start to turn in their heads.

"I still have work to deal with." Seth said as he turned to leave. "Hendrick, I leave everything to you."

With that the Mafia boss exited the room, leaving Al with everyone staring at him as if he were an artifact at the museum.