Alessia's eyes widened and she turned her head towards him sharply. "What…?"
"You heard me."
She sucked in a sharp breath. "My client paid over a million seri!"
"But didn't you once tell me something along the lines of changing your mind if you found something better?" Dervan recalled and she nearly gagged. "I can pay you triple the amount just for that information."
Alessia sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes nearly bulging out of her head as she stared at him. To say she was dumbfounded was an understatement.
All they had talked about at the party where they met was about her illegal invitation and the macarons she ate. Had he made her spill those words on purpose?
'He has… had his eyes on me since the party…' She wondered as she bit the inside of her bottom lip.
It didn't even matter if she did an excellent job pretending she was a member of high society. Dervan had known from the very moment he laid eyes on her that she didn't belong there.
Did that mean that him saving her from that assault just minutes ago was a planned move? No… that wasn't possible. He couldn't have predicted that… but just how much did he know?
Her fists clenched tightly. 'What is this… awful feeling?'
She almost scoffed out loud at her stupidity, wondering what in the world the man seated beside her was truly after but her lips curved into a pained smile.
"Unfortunately, it's different this time…" She answered with a slight frown on her face. "I can't tell you. That information is… for my client alone."
She turned her head away from him. He was probably going to take her somewhere some shady people would torture her to make her release information now.
Alessia clasped her hands that had started trembling again together. Honestly, she didn't mind revealing everything she knew but she didn't like pain either…
"I see…" Dervan nodded, his eyes briefly glancing at her hands as his index finger drummed on the steering wheel. "How very interesting…"
Alessia looked at him like he was slowly losing his mind… or his composure? She swallowed. What was so interesting about what she just said?
Dervan's lips twitched slightly at her expression as he turned the steering wheel. It wasn't by mistake that he had approached her on the night of the party. What had drawn him to Alessia that day was her unique scent.
But the moment he laid proper eyes on her, he knew something wasn't right. She smelt of guilt, confidence and fear all at the same time. It was such a random mix of emotions that it nearly made his head hurt.
It made him even more curious and he decided to engage in conversation. That alone was enough to tell him that she was a spy, and though he wasn't sure of her motive, she didn't seem dangerous.
That was why he assumed that she had to be an informant.
The silence that followed in the moving car afterwards was so deafening that it made Alessia want to crawl into a hole and hide.
'Will he at least let me say goodbye to Kiera for the last time?' She thought, picking at her nails as she stared in a daze at the passing street lights. 'I'll probably never see her again once he hands me over to the authorities…'
All of a sudden, the car came to a halt and Alessia looked outside the window to find that they had stopped at a very familiar neighborhood.
It was a place filled with so many rundown, old flat and studio apartments. It was so silent that any unfamiliar visitor would think that it was a completely empty ghost town but those who lived there knew better than anyone why it was so quiet.
Including Alessia.
She seemed a little wary and narrowed her eyes at the windscreen of the car to make sure she wasn't just imagining things. "You're not… taking me to the police?"
Dervan raised a questioning brow at her, he looked genuinely confused. "Why would I do such a thing?"
Alessia's face turned ashen. "Why… why wouldn't you? Don't you think I'm far too suspicious?!"
"Oh, so you know… though I'm not sure why you seem angry at my mercy." Dervan remarked indifferently, making her eyebrow twitch slightly. "I wouldn't take you to prison because it is in my best interest."
Her frown deepened. "What best interest?"
Dervan shrugged, turning his head slightly to face her. "I'm trying to make a deal with you, you see…"
Alessia stiffened and her heart started to race. "Make a deal with… me?" She braced herself. "What kind of deal?"
"You're obviously a high level informant for some kind of organisation…" Dervan continued, glancing at her briefly from the corner of his eye. "I want you to work for me instead."
Alessia pursed her lips, her gaze on the shaking hands rested on her lap. 'Informant…' She thought. 'I wish…'
But she wasn't about to clear his misunderstanding, and taking his offer might as well be impossible. She turned to look at him.
There were a lot of questions in her mind but she decided to ask the one that bugged her the most. "How… do you know that? How did you know that I was a spy?"
"How I knew?" Dervan asked, tilting his head slightly to the side in thought. He shrugged. "I just knew."
Alessia looked like she was about to pounce on him. "That doesn't make any sense!"
Dervan paused, then his lips curled up to form the most wicked smile she had ever seen on his breathtaking face. Alessia held her breath.
"What do you mean by that? I just know a lot of things…" He drawled, tracing the steering wheel with his fingers as he stared straight into her clear blue eyes. "Like how I know that you were part of the group that was sent to kill Evie the other night."