Never Judge

Ian paced across the room as he waited for some of his staff to return to him with whatever information they had collected from his guests.

Most of the Raja's core leaders now lived on his private island. He was impressed at the level of trust they had now put on him.

He had lied to them, telling everyone how Cedric had no idea that he had this island.

He understood why they chose to stay in the sanctuary of the private island. When Bernard had first left the island in order to conduct business, he was attacked by members of the underworld.

Since it was Ray's men that were attacking, there was no way of tracing the source. It was too clean and Bernard was lucky that he managed to escape with his life. All his companions were killed in that encounter.

"Mr. Lim." His butler on the island greeted as he gave Ian a deep bow and allowed the servants in.

"Make sure our guests don't wander." Ian instructed, to which the butler simply nodded and left.

When the door was firmly closed, Ian gestured for the staff to sit down. They were, in reality, spies that worked for Cedric, Ian, and Ray.

He needed the best to get the information that the Rajas were hiding from him and he wouldn't leave things to chance.

As soon as Jim mentioned a contingency plan and refused to divulge the details, Ian asked his friends for help. He knew that giving the Rajas too much time and resources was dangerous.

"We didn't get much, Mr. Lim, but we know one thing for sure. They are planning on assassinating someone close to Mr. Reyes." One of the spies reported.

"No name?" Ian asked, hoping that they had found more clues.

"None." The spy said with a frown.

"Any more information?" Ian questioned, he knew that if there was anything crucial the spies would have started with that, but there was no harm in asking and making sure.

"So far they all still trust you and no one has realized that we are spying on them. The only one that is careful are Mr. William and Mr. Jim." A spy added.

Ian was happy to hear that the Rajas still trusted him. He needed them to blindly follow for the next part of their plan to be executed smoothly.

"You may go. Leave any documents you feel I need to look through. You can take the rest of the day off. I need you in the best shape possible for the next part of the plan." Ian said as he dismissed the spies, slightly annoyed that they couldn't find out more.

When he was finally alone Ian went through the documents they had left. They were mostly transcripts of recording as well as observations on the behavior of the different guests.

Ian picked up one file and grinned.

"Well, well, well, Jasmine you are being a naughty girl, does your uncle know about this?" Ian asked out loud as he placed the document on a separate pile. He was sure that he would need that piece of information soon.

When he was finally done reading through all the documents, he placed them aside and walked over to his balcony.

From his room, Ian watched as the waves came crashing into the shores of his private island. He looked towards the direction of the capital, towards his friend and family. He missed them all.

Ian missed being himself, not worrying about enemies living under the same roof as him.

In order to make things more convincing, Ian avoided contacting Nicole and his children as much as possible. He needed his longing to show, he needed them to believe that he had chosen the Rajas over his own family.

After a few minutes with his thoughts, Ian took out his phone from his pocket and dialed Cedric's number.

He returned to his room and made sure that all doors and windows were closed. He couldn't let the Rajas know that he and Cedric were communicating, it would mess up all of their plans.

"How are you holding up?" Cedric asked, clearly concerned about Ian's mental and emotional state.

"I can manage, it won't be long now." Ian told Cedric as he estimated in his head how much longer he needed to wait before their final attack on the Rajas.

"Good, good, what made you call?" Cedric asked. They had made it a deal not to communicate unless the matter was urgent.

"The Rajas are after someone, someone close to you. We can't figure out who, but my best bet would be one of the kids or Adrianna." Ian informed Cedric.

"Adrianna is already complaining about the level of security around her. There is nothing I can do. The kids don't even leave the house anymore." Cedric said with a sigh as he worried about his wife and children.

"I'll try to find out more, I'm sure Adrianna will understand. Your wife is sensible." Ian reminded Cedric. fr𝚎e𝙬𝚎𝚋𝚗૦ν𝚎𝒍.c૦m

"I know. I'll also see what I can do to get more information. I think we should start our counter attack as well. We need to beat them to the punch. I'm not willing to let one of ours suffer or die because we acted too late." Cedric instructed Ian. 𝘧𝓇𝒆𝗲𝓌𝙚𝙗𝓷o𝘷𝒆𝘭.𝐜𝚘𝒎

Ian was silent for a moment as he thought of his next moves.

He calculated it, made sure that acting sooner would not cause too many issues with their plans.

"Is there a problem with moving the schedule up?" Cedric asked Ian as he waited for his friend to respond.

"No, I was just trying to find a problem. It should work smoothly." Ian told Cedric quite confidently.

He couldn't hide the happiness in his voice.

He wanted the plan to work. The sooner the Rajas fell the sooner he could be with his family.

"We'll be ready for you, just give the signal when it's started." Cedric told Ian. "And stay safe, don't take any risks that could cost you your life. You have a family to return to, don't forget that."

"I won't." Ian said as he dropped the call and buzzed for his butler.

"Sir?" The butler asked as Ian gestured for him to close the door.

"The plan has been moved up, prepare everyone. We will be off this island in three days." Ian ordered as he prepared for things to get a lot worse.