Never Judge

"Are you sure it's the same people?" Cedric asked his brother-in-law as he combed his hands through his hair, clearly frustrated with the fact that his leak had caused his sister and nephew to be placed in danger.

Ray nodded as he poured Cedric a glass of whisky and handed it to him.

"Calm your nerves." Ray said as dragged Cedric to sit back down.

"Information about Andres' match today should have been a secret, only a select group were aware of it." Emilio pointed out as he reviewed the file. "Are there any that overlap with those that knew my identity and those that knew Andres' schedule?"

Cedric stood up once more and paced across the room, anxious as he couldn't figure out where the information leak was.

"That's the thing, your identity wasn't as tightly sealed as mine was. There are hundreds of suspects in your case." Cedric explained to his son.

"But less people knew of Andres' location yesterday." Al pointed out as he looked at the list that was attached to the file.

Eric quickly picked up the list of those that knew of Emilio's identity and those that knew of Andres' location.

He quickly scanned them, shaking his head the more he read through the list.

"Ten, there are ten of them." Eric sighed as he picked up a piece of paper and jotted the names down. "There weren't that many people that knew about Andres' competition."

Cedric nodded as he took the piece of paper from Eric.

"Thanks." Cedric told him, making Eric smile up at the older man.

Cedric reviewed the list and nodded as he handed it off to Ray. Most of the men belonged to their shared security team.

Since Ray had married Cedric's sister, Cedric felt a responsibility to keep her and her family safe, so they decided to combine both security teams.

"We still cannot discount the possibility that this could be a group of people. What did you learn from those that were arrested at your home?" Cedric asked Ray.

The other man glanced at his son.

It was to Al that the head of security on the Laurence mansion side had reported to.

"They were employees, mostly hired in the past few months. All were vetted through the proper process,  most of whom had never seen me or Emilio. They were looking for someone they had never seen earlier." Al responded with a shrug as he recalled what he had been told.

The head of security had given him a quick report as he walked from Cara's room to the door.

"I'll go back and interrogate them myself once we are done here." Ray told Cedric as he placed the list back on the table. "I'm sure you want to be involved in this."

Cedric nodded in response.

"I want to help too, dad." Al told Ray, making the man frown.

"You already have so much on your plate, Al." Ray told his son with a sigh. "Work on patching things up with Cara first."

Al nodded and frowned, he was tempted to ask his father how he knew about the issue with Cara, but then he realized how silly the question was.

All the employees were his father's employees, they would have told him if something bad had happened, including the fight between Al and Cara.

"By the way dad, where is Peter Jao?" Al remembered that Cara's father was neither in their home nor at the Reyes Mansion.

He couldn't help but worry that the man had escaped.

"He's at the headquarters, don't worry." Ray informed his son.

Al sighed a breath of relief as he heard that the man's location had been known to his father the entire time.

"Now, let's get you back home. Your uncle Cedric and I will investigate the matter, while you focus on your current tasks and fixing things with Cara." Ray said with a concerned look in his eyes.

Al didn't want to further bother his dad, so he simply nodded and allowed himself and his cousins to be escorted out.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Cedric told Ray as he sent off Ray, Al, and Eric.

The car ride home was a silent and quite tension filled one.

Ray knew that his son wanted to do more, but he already had too much on his plate.

When the group arrived back at home, Ray received a call from his wife.

He gave his son a look telling him to behave before finally disappearing towards his office.

"So, Cara, what did you do to her?" Eric asked his cousin as they sat down in the living room.

Al knew that his father would still want to have a word with them and found it pointless to return to his room only to be summoned again.

"I locked her in her room. I didn't know what to do." Al said with a shrug as he thought of how bad it sounded.

"She's going to be so pissed at you." Eric warned his cousin. "I'm not sure if your friendship will be able to survive what you did."

Al sighed and frowned as he glanced up at the stairwell that led to the guest rooms where Cara and her father were staying.

"I know." Al said, shaking his head."But I placed the family and the underworld first. I made the same decision my father would have."

Eric chuckled and gave his friend a curious look.

"Aren't we too young to think logically?" Eric asked as he looked at a distance, clearly lost in thought.

"You're one to say that." Al teased as he nudged his cousin. "You've been thinking logically since you were young. Speaking of which, how were you able to beat Angelica in the paintball field?"

"I've been playing paintball with my bodyguards since I was a kid." Eric shrugged. "Mom might have banned me from learning how to shoot a gun, but she seemed to be fine with me playing paintball."

Al laughed at his cousin's reasoning.

Truly if  you really wanted something and placed your heart to it, nothing could stop you.