Never Judge

"Are you crazy?!" Ian asked as he grabbed Cedric by the collar.

Cedric simply laughed at him like a mad man, making everyone in the room worry.

"Cedric, they can trace that bullet to you! They will know you killed William Trent and Jim Walker! We went through all that planning so that we could end this as cleanly as possible and you just choose to lose your temper and logic now?!" Ian was furious with Cedric.

He didn't even try to hide how close his relationship was to the CEO.

Seth's men in the room were visibly shocked by the way Ian manhandled one of the most powerful men in the country.

? "They won't be able to trace it back to me." Cedric said in a grim tone as he pushed Ian away, causing Ian to slightly lose his balance.

"Ced!" Camilla panicked as she helped Ian stand straight.

She glared at Cedric as she waited for him to explain himself.

"I've been holding on to that gun for quite a while now." Cedric walked over and looked down at Jim Walker's lifeless body. "It belonged to Lucius Ting. I took it when we captured him." 𝒇𝙧𝚎𝐞𝙬𝒆𝑏𝑛𝑜v𝚎𝒍.c𝑜m

"And you're in gloves." Ian said as he looked at Cedric's hands.

In the commotion leading up to the shooting, Ian felt that something was off, but he couldn't figure it out with everything going on.

"Mr. Reyes, Mr. Lim, Mr. Dean, may I enter?" Kai called out from the otherside of the door. It seemed that their men had already informed her about what had happened.

"Enter." Cedric said, giving her permission.

When Kai entered, she had the biggest smile on her face as she looked down at the man she once called her father.

"You did a clean job of it." Kai praised as she squatted to check her father's body and his placement across William Trent.

From where Jim Walker had died, it was a straight line to William Trent. It looked like Jim Walker had shot William Trent before turning the gun on himself.

"Now all we have to do is make it seem like they were still alive when you left." Kai told Ian as she stood back up.

As if on cue, a knock came from the door facing the function room.

Kai lifted her hand, signaling for them to keep quiet and to move to the far side of the room. She then took out her phone and slightly opened the door.

"What is it?" William Trent's familiar voice came from a recording on Kai's phone.

"Sir, it's time you you and Mr. Walker to address the guests." A woman said, probably one of the hotel staff assigned to the event.

"Yes, yes, we've just seen off some guests. Jim and I just need to discuss something privately. We will be out soon, right Jim?" Cedric was surprised that Kai had been this prepared, then again, Ray did say that she was one of his best spies and assassins.

"Yeah." Jim Walker's voice responded coming from a device one of Kai's companions inside the room was holding.

"Very well sir. I shall inform the guests." The woman said as Kai closed the door and nodded for everyone to make their way out of the hotel.

"We will need to pass the way we came." Camilla told Cedric as she pulled him to a stop.

Cedric nodded, his face still as expressionless since Ian had charged at him.

"You need to pretend that whoever you were looking for isn't here. You cause quite a scene." Camilla said as she tried to hold herself together.

Since they heard news of Eric's death she had been on the verge of breaking down, but such was the life of one of Cedric's aides, she could grieve later.

"I can act appropriately." Cedric responded with a nod as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

To everyone's surprise he began marching through the hallway, clearly frustrated about something.

"Where the fuck is he?!" Cedric shouted. "Don't tell me they already left?"

Cedric suddenly turned to face Camilla who stopped in her tracks looking utterly confused and apologetic.

"Did Seth say he already left?" Cedric asked loud enough for everyone to hear.

Camilla suppressed a smile as she nodded as Cedric.

"Mr. Dean said he had an urgent matter to deal with, he left thirty minutes ago." Camilla explained, offering the perfect alibi for Ian and Seth.

"We should leave too, maybe we can catch him on the way." Cedric told Camilla as he marched out of the hotel towards his car.

When they climbed in, Cedric slammed the door behind him and his expression changed as tears began to fall from his eyes.

"To Saints Hospital, and step on it!" Cedric ordered, scaring even his long-time driver.

"Ced, it's not your fault." Camilla told her friend and her boss as she too began to cry.

"At least we have avenged him now. At least it's over now." Cedric said as he wiped the tears from his eyes and looked out the window.

"Yes, it's over." Camilla said with a nod as she looked down at her phone anxiously.

"Kat still hasn't called back?" Cedric asked, the sadness on his face was now replaced with worry.

"I'll try to give Nicole a call or her bodyguards. Maybe that will put us at ease." Camilla suggested as she searched for Nichole's name and called. 𝐟𝘳𝑒𝗲𝘸e𝒃𝘯𝒐𝐯e𝚕.c𝒐𝒎

She was silent while she waited for Nicole to pick up. It took a while, but Nicole eventually answered the call.

"Camilla!" Nicole said as she was clearly sobbing over the line. "He's gone, my older brother is gone. Eric is gone."

"We heard, I'm sorry Nicole." Camilla didn't know if that was even the right thing to say. "How is Kat?"

"Kat? She ran, I- I- lost her. Even her bodyguards have no idea where she is. Alexi has sent the military to search for her." Nicole said in a panicked tone.

"It's okay, we'll help you with the search." Camilla said as she looked at Cedric. It was clear from her expression that something was wrong. "We'll call you back."

With that Camilla dropped the call, her hands shaking with worry.

"Kat's missing." She broke the news to Cedric, who in turn turned pale with worry.

"Tell Ian, have everyone search for her. Make sure she doesn't head to the hotel." Cedric ordered as Camilla began to dial Ian's number while Cedric called Leon.