Never Judge

"How is this possible?" Cedric asked as he looked at the address on the piece of paper. "I thought you or uncle Jose would have looked into Katerina's neighbors."

"We did, but the property owner wasn't Aiden Ortiz." Alexi said as he looked lost and worried.

"Benedict, the property is in Benedict's name." Katerina said as she joined in the conversation. "He didn't use the Ortiz surname as well. That's why I felt he was familiar."

"You suspected he was familiar and you didn't say a word?" Alexi asked Katerina angrily.

"I told her not to." Eric joined in, defending his girlfriend. "We weren't sure where we had seen him."

"That house barely had any activity. Benedict never spoke to us, and on the odd occasions that we did see him he was always in a rush to leave." Katerina explained to everyone. "So you could just imagine how unsure I was if this man really was my neighbor or not."

"We need to interrogate him again." Alexi insisted. 

"You don't have the time." Katerina told her brother. "Go plan Camilla's rescue. We'll handle it here."

"Are you sure?" Alexi asked his sister.

"Don't tell me you are doubting my abilities Alexi." Katerina told her brother in a threatening tone.

"I do." Alexi said, giving in to his sister. "I'm just worried."

"I'm a big girl, now go. You boys are wasting your time by being here." Katerina said as she sent them out of the door.

"You should have more faith in your sister." Cedric told Alexi as they walked towards one of the planning rooms in the security building.

"I do trust Katerina." Alexi said in a somber tone. "But she is my little sister, I can't help but worry."

"We all know that this isn't her first time working on something like this." Ray said as they entered the room. "She can handle it."

Alexi simply nodded in acknowledgement.

At least half of Cedric's security team was already waiting for them. He had divided the team into two, one to go with him and save Camilla, and another group to protect those that would be remaining at Mountain View.

"Merrick, send men to this location and have them do recon." Cedric said as he handed Merrick the address of Aiden's home. 

"My head of security will get into contact with you. That location is right next to my sister's home, we have several teams stationed in the area." Alexi added.

Cedric nodded in agreement, this was the quickest way to get information, Katerina had her own security detail that remained at home.

Cedric's group did not have to wait long, Katerina's security team at home was able to confirm that there had indeed been movement in the neighboring house earlier that evening.

"There was one more thing sir." Merrick said as he switched on the laptop and projector in the room. "One of the cameras in Miss Katerina Sebastian's home was pointed towards the gates of the neighboring house."

Merrick immediately pressed play and they were greeted by an image of both the gate and driveway of Aiden's safehouse.

A black van soon came up and gates opened, it quickly drove up to the house followed by several others. This had to be Aiden and his team that had kidnaped Camilla.

As soon as the car drove up to the front of the house, it's passengers disembarked.

"That's him." Cedric pointed towards Aiden Ortiz's familiar figure.

They then saw several men bring out a struggling Camilla, her hands were tired and she was clearly blindfolded. 

Aiden suddenly signaled the men to stop as he reached into Camila's pocket and pulled out her phone. He looked at the caller ID and grinned, he took the blindfold from Camilla's eyes and covered her mouth.

He said something, and Camilla simply nodded.

"This is probably when I called Camilla." Cedric said as he observed the time stamp. 

"This is enough." Alexi said as he watched Camilla get carried inside after Aiden dropped the call.

"Can you use this tape to prepare what we need?" Cedric asked Merrick.

"Yes sir, we can." He replied with a nod.

"Good, I want everything ready in thirty minutes. After that we go to take Camilla back." Cedric instructed. 

To which Merrick simply nodded and left, followed by his men.

"Will you call Camilla now to buy us some time?" Alexi asked as he looked at his watch. 

It was now 10 pm and they all had an exhausting day, he wanted to use the time to rest for a bit before they raided Aiden's safe house.

"I'll ask Camilla if we can meet at midnight." Cedric said with a nod. "That should buy us enough time to head on over to Katerina's house. Hopefully we catch them as they are about to leave."

"Hopefully we can time it as they are loading Camilla to the transport vehicle." Ray said as he leaned forward and thought of their plan. 

"Did it seem like he had a lot of men?" Cedric asked Ray and Alexi.

"I'm guessing his funds are dwindling so he cannot afford to hire any more people." Ray said with a nod.

"Good." Cedric grinned as he took out his phone. "I'll give Camilla a call now."

Cedric pressed the call button and placed the phone in speaker mode. It didn't take long for Aiden's men to pick up the call, they had clearly been waiting for him.

"Sir Cedric." Came Camilla's voice. Cedric was quite surprised at how steady her voice sounded, she was currently the hostage of her older brother and she didn't seem afraid.

"Hey Camilla, something came up." Cedric said. "I need to settle this, but my concern with you is urgent so it cannot wait for tomorrow."

"I am at your service, sir." Camilla said.

"Great, I'll swing by your place at midnight, after I pass by my emergency." Cedric told Camilla. 

"Sir, no need to go to my place." Camilla quickly said, clearly this part was Aiden's instructions. 

"Oh, why not?" Cedric asked, he didn't want to seem suspicious. "It's quite late Camilla, and it's not safe for a woman to go out alone at this time."

"I know sir, but I'm with a friend." Camilla said, she was clearly still trying to leave hints that something was wrong.

"Alright, alright, I know, all is well." Cedric replied. "Where do you want to meet then?" He asked.

"I text you an address." Camilla answered.

"Okay. I'll send you a message when we are on our way. See you later." Cedric said in a cheery tone. 

"Yes sir." Camilla answered coldly.

When Cedric heard the call dropped he nodded, it was time to move.