Never Judge

Ray's men brought back a bloody Kenneth Cruz who practically had to be dragged back to his seat.

"Is he ready to speak?" Ray asked his men.

"I will never tell you anything about Aiden Ortiz!" Kenneth said as he spat at Ray.

"I guess he is asking for more." Alexi said with a blood curdling laugh.

Cedric watched as Kenneth's eyes showed his fear at the threat of more torture. His expression soon changed and became stubborn once more. It seemed that the torture was not yet enough to get him to speak.

"What a pity." Ray said, shaking his head. "I was hoping to finish early, Cedric wanted to spend time with his son."

At the mention of a little boy a look of worry passed Kenneth's face before he could hide his emotions once more.

Cedric grinned at what his friends were doing, by mentioning his son Kenneth couldn't help but think of his grandson whom they had left at home with the help.

  "Cedric, I hope you don't mind going home a little late today," Ray said as he pretended to tell Cedric that the torture would take long.

"Bring him to the back again." Alexi ordered Ray's men "Come back when he is ready to talk."

At that the men nodded and dragged Kenneth back to the torture area. As Cedric switched off the speakers that allowed them to hear the conversation in the other room, he heard Kenneth's screams as he was further tortured and broken.

"He isn't as tough as we thought he would be." Alexi said with a laugh as he entered the room. "I honestly expected him to last much longer."

"He isn't young anymore, his body can't take as much." Ray explained.

"On the contrary, I expected his age to be the reason why he would be able to last the torture." Cedric said as he joined in on the conversation. "He's been working in the underworld for decades, I'm sure people have made him go through this multiple times."

"Do you think he could be faking it?" Ray asked Eric who had remained largely unnoticed together with Miguel and Ram.

"It's possible, but he has been showing clear signs of concern." Eric said as he tried to analyze their prisoner. "Did he have any plans of retiring soon?" Eric asked Benedict.

"There was talk about it." Benedict said with a shrug. "My brother was hoping that I could step up from just being the brains to also finding financial resources and connections for us. But that plan never pushed through." 

"Why not?" Cedric asked Benedict.

"Cause I fake died." Benedict said with a laugh. "We were about to do the turnover when I got fed up with my brother and started working on a plan to escape."

"We should start work on Anton." Cedric told his friends. "I think Kenneth will be more likely to give in if he sees that we aren't bluffing."

"I agree." Ray said with a nod. "I'll ask some of my men to dirty him up. How are things going on in terms of taking the kid?"

"Camilla and Katerina are working on it." Cedric explained.

"You sent them without protection?!" Alexi asked angrily, highly defensive of his sister.

"Calm down." Cedric said, rolling his eyes. "Ian is with them. He is waiting for them in the car, the maid would be more likely to believe them if it were a pair of girls rather than two girls and a guy."

"You're dragging a kid into this mess?" Ram asked as he eyed his friends suspiciously.

"You know we would never do that." Alexi said as he glared at his friend. "Have a little faith that we haven't completely lost our humanity yet."

"We just need to make sure that Johnny is safe." Cedric said, explaining the situation. "If Aiden finds out that we have Kenneth, he might use the kid."

"My brother would not even think twice about hurting a child, much less using it." Benedict said with a frown as he admitted how heartless his brother could be.

After thirty long minutes, Ray's men informed him that they had tortured Kenneth to his limit. 

Ray nodded in acknowledgement as he and Alexi prepared to go back into the interrogation room.

Another man soon arrived telling them that Anton had also been prepared, he was bloody and dirty and looked like he had been through hell.

"Knock him out and be ready for me to ask you to bring him in." Ray instructed, to which his man simply nodded and left to execute his orders.

When Kenneth had been brought back to the interrogation room, Cedric could see the difference in his eyes. Gone was the determined man from earlier, instead he looked like he was ready to give up.

"Will you talk now?" Ray asked.

"No." Came Kenneth's reply as he used every ounce of his will power not to give in to the torture. 

Cedric and his friends were right, Kenneth Cruz has lived through so much already and this kind of torture was nothing to him. 

The only difference was that now, he was worried about his son, his grandson, and even that social climbing daughter-in-law of his. 

Kenneth had been hoping that Anton and Lorisa had escaped, he knew that if his enemy had them they would have immediately told him, but the not knowing was eating him up.

He feared that his son and daughter-in-law were being tortured just as harshly as he was. He had brought up his son to be emotionally strong, but he had never had the need to teach his son to survive instances such as these.

"We were hoping you would cooperate, but I guess you need a little motivation." Alexi said with a grin as he watched Kenneth's eyes grow large with fear.

"Bring him in." Ray ordered as the door swung open and two men dragged Anton's unconscious body inside.

"Anton! My son! My son!" Kenneth cried out as Ray's men held him down. 

The old man struggled as Ray's men threw Anton on the ground. 

"No! You killed my son!" Kenneth cried out as he saw that Anton did not move. His emotions now clouded his judgement as he failed to notice a faint breath coming from Anton.

Alexi smiled as he realized that Kenneth thought Anton was dead. They could use this to their advantage.

"Take that filthy body away." Alexi ordered. 

The slightly confused men picked Anton up once more and dragged him out of the room.

"I'll go check on Anton." Miguel, who was watching from the other room, told Cedric as he walked out.

"You killed my son!" Kenneth screamed as Miguel closed the door.

  "Your son won't be the only one you'll be burying if you don't talk." Alexi threatened.

"Don't, please, don't hurt Johnny, he is just a kid, please, don't. He is innocent." Kenneth begged.

"Was Emilio not a kid when your boss tried to kill him?" Ray asked angrily. "Even Jam was innocent to all of these when he was killed because your boss wanted to use him."

"I will talk, please I will talk." Kenneth cried.

Suddenly the door opened and Cedric walked in with Benedict and Ram following him.

"Good, and if we find out that you are lying to us, well, just imagine what we can do." Cedric said with a menacing smile.

Kenneth's expression soon changed when he spotted Benedict standing behind Cedric.

"It was you! You were the traitor!" Kenneth shouted as he tried to attack Benedict.

"No, my brother betrayed me by trying to harm my sister!" Benedict shouted back, stunning Kenneth.