Never Judge

"Mr. Lim!" Jim Walker greeted as he entered the dining room.

Over the months since Ian had been working with the Rajas and proving his ability, he had come to know the different core leaders. Of course, William Trent was still calling all the shots, but not everything had to go through him.

"Mr. Walker, you arrived much earlier than I expected." Ian said in a distant tone. This was the image he was projecting to them. He was aloof and dangerous, the kind of man you wanted to please.

"Well, as soon as we heard that the Reyes Group was crashing we knew you had a role to play in it." Jim said with a huge grin as he and the others settled down on their usual seats.

Only one person was missing, and that was William Trent.

Ian knew that he would be the last one to arrive that night. He knew that William Trent liked having a grand entrance, this was the only place where people saw his true power.

Over time Ian learned that Willam was the true brains behind the Trent family businesses and that his younger brother was merely the face.

Ian was sure that this didn't sit well with Edward Trent, the man held so much pride in himself that being a mere puppet to his brother was offensive.

He had sent people in his place to speak to Edward Trent, they all said they worked for someone else. They said they came from different groups telling him that they knew the truth.

Eventually Edward Trent showed his true colors.

He was furious at William for taking his power. It seemed that William Trent knew as secret that would hurt Edward's image, and that was what gave William power over the whole Trent family.

"So this is your grand plan?" Bernard Juan asked as he crossed his arms on his chest and watched Ian's every move.

Bernard had not warmed up to Ian. He still eyed him with contempt and distrust and his behavior had often been a cause of delay when it came to some of the Rajas' plans.

"A very crucial part of it." Ian did not want to show Bernard all of his cards at once.

He knew that the man would do anything and everything to sabotage what he was working on. He had learned the hard way when Bernanrd had leaked information to the media, delaying many of their initial plans.

Ian was at first very confused as to why William Trent kept Bernard in the core team, but as time went on and as Ian investigated each member deeply, he discovered a tantalizing truth.

"This is taking too long." Bernard grumbled. "Why don't you just break all their financial flows, that should be easy enough for you."

Ian could sense a little bit of mockery in the man's tone.

William Trent and the other core leaders had sold Ian to their members as a genius and a master puppeteer. They believed that Ian pulled all the strings from behind the scenes, manipulating Cedric and the others as he wished.

"You should just kill their wives." Jasmine said in a cold voice, making Ian glare at her.

"That would do more damage than good, Miss Ortega." William Trent said as he joined them, catching the tail end of their conversation. "Am I right, Ian?"

"Yes, uncle." Ian nodded. "Killing their loved ones will only make things worse. The men will come after us with a different level of dedication. You weren't around when Pricilla Reyes passed."

Ian tried his best to control his facial expression.

Priscilla Reyes had always been kind to him, over time she had become like a second mother. He was closer to her than to Jasmine's mother and he had spent more time around the Ortegas than the Reyeses.

"I heard you had to make a daring escape, Ian." William Trent added as he sat down next to Ian.

The Rajas eventually came to respect Ian, they understood that he was William Trent's right hand man and in the eyes of many, the heir that was being groomed to lead.

"If I stayed, Cedric would have caught me." Ian told William Trent.

"Ah, but the damage you had done is something they can no longer recover from." William Trent slowly clapped his hands as he praised Ian.

"It was easy." Ian said with a shrug. "It just needed time to execute, but with Cedric trusting me completely, well I didn't even need to explain things."

"And what of the king of the underworld, did you find out who that was?" Roland Ortega asked Ian.

Ever since he realized that Ian was favored by William Trent, Roland Ortega had toned down. He was at least civil with Ian and a lot less hostile.

"Unfortunately, I don't think even Cedric knows who it is." Ian calmly explained.

Everyday he faced the Rajas was a risk, it was even more dangerous now since he had to limit his communication with his wife, children, and friends.

He knew he couldn't rush things, that all things needed to happen at the right moment.

"Won't he retaliate by going after your family?" Jasmine asked as an eerie smile crept up her lips, sending goosebumps up Ian's arm.

"You are forgetting something, Miss Ortega." Ian said as he addressed Jasmine formally, emphasizing that she was no one to him.

William raised an eyebrow at Ian as he watched the exchange between the former lovers. He was clearly anticipating what Jasmine and Ian had to say to one another.

"What?" Jasmine asked as she bit her lower lip.

"Nicole is like family to Cedric, my father is like a father to him as well. My family will be fine no matter what the outcome." Ian said with a cold smile, making Jasmine frown and sink in her seat, clearly embarrassed. "And Jasmine, while your family is fully dependent on what the Rajas do next, mine will be just fine."

"I guess you made a mistake of giving up on one of the most eligible bachelors of your generation, Jasmine." Bernard teased as he laughed at Jasmine Ortega.

"It's all in the past." Jasmine said as she flipped her hair at Bernard, pretending that it didn't bother her.

"I'm glad to see you and Ian can work together despite your shared past." William Trent praised. "Now onto business. Do you have something to report to us, Mr. Walker?"

All eyes turned to Jim Walker as he smiled and nodded.

"We've found our second target for the contingency plan." Upon hearing Jim's words Ian began to mentally panic. It seemed that the Rajas had been keeping something from him, and he needed to find out what.