Alessia quickly turned around and when she saw who it was that was holding onto her, she snatched away her hand forcefully and backed away a few steps.
"Ah... hello there, Miss." The man said with a sleazy grin. "You look absolutely gorgeous tonight. Would you care to have a drink with me?"
It was a masked man who looked to be in his mid forties. The way he was dressed would make anyone think he was a gentleman, but the way his eyes scanned Alessia was enough to make anyone shiver in disgust.
Alessia frowned. "Is something–"
She started but Kiera quickly laced her fingers with her own and gave the man a piercing glare. "Can't you see she's with me?"
The man's eyes dropped to where their fingers were intertwined and his smile dropped a little. "Oh, I see… that is a bit of a shame..." He said then smirked at Alessia. "But if you do change your mind, come find me."
"What a gross dude." Kiera spat irritatingly after he left.
Alessia could only press her lips together to suppress her laughter at her friend's harsh words.
Just then, the earpiece in her ear crackled to life and a male voice came sounded.
"If you can hear me, tilt your head to the side a little." Vince said and they all did as he instructed. "Good… our mission and the reason for our attendance of this party… is to gather information."
Alessia looked shocked. 'Just that?'
"The mission is simple. Move around, talk to people and take note of everything that is important." Vince ordered. "We will meet after the party to sort things out."
Kiera and Alessia exchanged looks and it looked like they shared the same thought. Was there more to this "simple" mission that they didn't know about?
"Ahem." Kiera cleared her throat after a while with a lopsided grin. "Hey, it seems pretty good, right? At least we don't have to kill anyone."
Alessia pursed her lips and nodded. "Right..."
She was definitely glad about that fact. Still, she didn't feel good about the mission, not one bit.
'What kind of information are we supposed to collect? He didn't even give us the details…'
"We should go our separate ways now." Walter voiced, obviously anxious to get away from them as fast as possible. "We'll meet back at the meeting point when we're done."
Kiera nodded her head at him as he left and rubbed Alessia's lower back soothingly. "Good luck, Lessie."
Alessia managed a smile. "Yeah, you too." She said, as she watched Kiera walk over to a group of giggling women.
She scanned the party and the bustling people around her, not sure where to start. After a moment, her stomach let out a low growl and she quickly placed a hand on it as if to keep it quiet.
Her lips twitched. 'Well… looks like I know where I'm going first…'
She was clearly hungry after that scary situation earlier, so she decided she might as well go to the snack table.
'What… what are all of these…?' Alessia thought in shock, wide-eyed as she stared at the table in front of her.
Nothing looked edible to her… nothing.
Of course, she had been to quite a number of parties but at least she saw a few dishes she was familiar with, something she could eat without looking out of place…
Well, they weren't rich people parties… if she thought about it, just regular ones. The only people in her team who attended these kinds of parties often were Vince and Coyle.
'Oh… Oh my God…' Alessia thought as she unconsciously covered her mouth. 'I'm doomed… I can't eat any of this… but I'm so hungry…'
Was this what rich people were like?
She started to back away from the table one small step at a time. 'Maybe I'll just drink something instead… Urgh… are those… fish eggs? Caviar right? It looks gross. They eat that? Unbelievable… rich people are weird.'
"Are you allergic?" A hoarse male voice suddenly sounded from right behind her.
Alessia turned her head around sharply in surprise to meet a pair of beautiful emerald green eyes staring down at her. His raven black hair was combed clean and he was ridiculously tall and pale.
"Oh…" Alessia exclaimed in a small voice. He was the man she saw when she was trying to kill Evie Alrosa. What… was his name again? Dervan?
'He looks even better up close…'
Dervan raised a brow at her curiously and Alessia quickly came back to her senses.
"Oh… Hello." She said, tucking a few strands of loose hair behind her ear and thinking for a moment. "...A–allergic to what?"
Dervan gestured with his chin. "To the caviar, I mean."
Alessia followed his gaze briefly before she turned back to face him. "Oh, yes!" She responded instantly, her eyes darted to the side to avoid meeting his gaze. "I'm… quite allergic to everything here you see…"
Dervan's lip twitched slightly and he frowned. "I don't think that's possible."
'He almost laughed just now, didn't he?' Alessia thought suspiciously, a little offended and a little surprised too. His features looked so stiff, like someone who wasn't capable of smiling in years…
Alessia pursed her lips. "Well, I'm telling you, aren't I?"
'In a way I'm speaking the truth.' She said inwardly. 'I literally can't eat anything here… I just might puke.'
Dervan studied her for a bit before he put a hand on his chin thoughtfully. "I see…"
Alessia wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. 'There's no way he believed that…'
"Hmm… you must be a nouveau riche then." He concluded.
'Huh?! What's that?' Alessia couldn't help but ask herself. She felt incredibly stupid and at this rate she was going to be caught.
Her eyes darted around. "Umm…"
Dervan tilted his head slightly to the side. "It means you're new money."
"Oh." Alessia blushed and cleared her throat, a bit embarrassed. "Yes… yes I am." She lied. "It's quite obvious, isn't it?"
Dervan nodded and walked around her to the other side of the long table. "You must not have tasted many of these since you're new to it." He said scanning the snacks on the table before pointing at a plate filled with a desert that looked like coloured sandwich cookies.
"Why don't you try these?" He asked.
Alessia seemed doubtful. "They sure look… okay… but are they any good?"
Dervan shoved his hands into his pockets and tilted his head. "I wouldn't recommend them to you if they weren't."
'Well, rich people have weird tastes!' Alessia yelled inwardly before she hesitantly picked up one of the snacks and took a small bite out of it.
It was crisp and chewy. "It's sweet!" Alessia exclaimed happily, she was so overjoyed that she could cry. "Ah… finally something I can eat! I was so hungry…"
Hah...
Alessia froze. "Did you just... scoff?"
"I didn't." Dervan answered simply with a fist to his mouth. "You must have misheard."
Alessia stared up at him. 'There's no way I misheard. He definitely scoffed... did I do something odd?'
Dervan watched her carefully. "By the way," He started. "Do you know anyone at this party?"
Alessia blinked, unsure of how to answer his question. She frowned. "Well, no. Not really..."
Dervan raised a brow. "A guest of this party who isn't familiar with a single person here? How did you get an invite then?"