Never Judge

"You didn't go to the office today?" Al asked Emilio as they walked into the Mountain View Mansion.

"I did, but no formal announcement has been made yet, I think dad wants to get to the bottom of who exposed my identity first." Emilio told his cousin as he guided them to Cedric Reyes' office. "They have a very important lead."

Al nodded as their footsteps echoed across the hall.

Hendrick walked behind them with Eric, he couldn't help but keep looking around, amazed by how big the mansion was.

"This is where you grew up?" Hendrick asked Emilio. "To think I was extremely impressed by Al's parents' house, yours is massive."

Emilio simply smiled and nodded.

"Did you accept the job Uncle Ced offered you?" Al asked as they finally arrived by the office door.

​ "Mr. Reyes? Yes, I accepted the job as Emilio's assistant. Why?" Herndrick asked as he gave the young man a confused look.

"Well, since you accepted it, you need to get used to this place. You'll be here quite often. Somedays Uncle Cedric's assistants brief him on matters before work and they head to the office together." Al explained.

"I'll be moving back home." Emilio explained. "It's much more secure, although I have a unit at one of our high end luxury apartments, but the security doesn't cut it."

"We have properties in the more secured part of the community as well, Emilio was supposed to wait before building a house there, but I guess you could start now. Right cousin?" Al asked Emilio.

"I've already spoken with Aunt Veronica." Emilio said with a wink as a bodyguard opened the door to Cedric Reyes' office for them.

"I'm telling you Ray your tactics will not work with this matter!" Cedric Reyes' raised voice greeted them as soon as they had entered.

It was clear that the two men were fighting about how to address the matter at hand.

"You man not just put your children at risk Cedric, but mine as well." Ray calmly argued, he was normally the more level headed of the two. "Al hangs out around Emilio, if people realize that there was a cousin around him, they will look for Al."

"What do you suggest we do Ray?" Cedric asked as he raised an eyebrow at his best friend.

"Good afternoon boys, take a seat, Ced and I were just discussing the leak on your identity." Ray said as he greeted the boys first.

"Sounded more like fighting." Emilio commented as he looked at his dad cautiously.

"You know your dad gets too passionate sometimes." Ray teased as he returned his attention back to the discussion at hand.

Cedric shook his head and sighed as he leaned back on his seat.

"Do we know who leaked Emilio's information?" Al asked as he got the conversation back on topic.

"We have a few suspects." Cedric said as he nodded to his nephew.

Next to him, Hendrick was shocked as the two men regarded Emilio, Al, and Eric as adult enough to be part of the conversation and decision making.

"Your uncle wants us to wait and see if the suspects do anything suspicious." Ray said, rolling his eyes.

"And you want to extract the information from them dad, I'm assuming." Al guessed.

Ray grinned at his son and smiled.

"What if none of them is actually guilty? You'll be torturing my employees for nothing." Cedric was clearly annoyed by Ray's idea, and Al could understand why.

His father's proposal was too extreme.

"Ram already told us that he cannot guarantee that he can suppress the information. He may have an army of trolls and fake accounts to sway public opinion, but he cannot suppress something as big as their identities." Ray told Cedric.

It now made more sense to Al why his father wanted to take such extreme measures.

There was no way of stopping things if news got out.

"It's our fault for making their identities such a big deal." Cedric sighed and shook his head. "There was no clamor like this back in our day."

Ray frowned and stood up and walked to Cedric. He placed a hand on his brother-in-law's shoulder to comfort him.

"It's not your fault, the public is just curious and seeing how exceptional the other kids are, they couldn't help but be curious." Ray did his best to take the guilt from Cedric's shoulders.

"Maybe we can look at the list of suspects, dad," Emilio suggested as he looked at his father. "The person probably never interacted with Al but interacted with me."

"We aren't even sure about that." Cedric said with a sigh. "We're worried that he or she is holding on to the information to use at the right time. Plus you boys are already overworked as it is."

Cedric smirked at them, knowing that both Al and Eric were in the mafia trying to gain information while his own son was learning the ropes at the Reyes Group.

"It's just a list, dad." Emilio groaned.

"Let them take a look. You have a lot of work on your hands too. The boys are old enough now." Ray said as he tried to convince Cedric to give the boys a little bit more work.

"Fine." Cedric said, allowing them to be involved.

"No slacking on your studies or training, Al." Ray reminded his son in a stern tone.

"Yes, dad." Al said excitedly, he was eager to work and learn more. He always wanted to prove himself.

"Emilio, don't expect me to lessen your workload and do not hand it over to Hendrick, he is learning too." Cedric warned his son as well.

"You can all go, the files will be ready after Al's training, before dinner. The driver will take Al and Eric home." Ray said as he dismissed his son and nephew.

"Emilio and Hendrick will have to stay for now, we'll start your work with the Reyes Group." Cedric said as he stopped the two older men from leaving.

"Uncle." Eric said in a quiet voice.

"Yes Eric?" Ray asked as he looked at Eric.

"Can I join Al for his training? I want to learn to fight and with this mission we know that I could use all the possible skills." Eric said as he bravely made the request from his uncle.

Ray and Cedric gave each other a knowing look and frowned.

"As long as you don't tell your mom." Ray said as he allowed his nephew.

"Mom will be too busy with work, don't worry Uncle Ray." Eric said with a grin as the two older men allowed them  to leave.