章節 24: Felix's POV

Vince's laughter sounded inside the room after Jasmine left.

"I thought you said no one is here," Felix gave a sharp glare at Vince.

"I said I empty this floor, not the whole building. Her office is on another floor. She must have come to pass the weekly report for her department to me," explained Vince.

Felix turned from looking at the closed door to looking at Vince, "tell me what you know about 'her'," he asked in a dark tone.

"I have told you everything that I know," said Vince.

They looked at each other, saying nothing, and let the silence befall inside the room.

Felix gauged Vince's face to see if he was hiding anything, but looking how serious Vince looked after he had shed his smirk, Felix knew Vince wasn't lying.

"Fine," said Felix, and sauntered towards the table to pick up his cap, "I better get out from here, before your employee runs her mouth off," he added.

Vince stood up and scoffed, "You don't have to worry about Jasmine. She minds her own business. Not the gossipy type," said Vince.

"Whatever, I better go," said Felix. He wore his cap back and exited the room without giving Vince a chance to say anything more.

Felix had his face down, but Felix subtly scanned the empty floor to make sure it was really empty. He doesn't want anyone to know he had stepped inside the office building. It would just send the wrong message to the people he wanted to avoid.

When he arrived at the elevator, he saw the same girl who had barged into Vince's office room.

The girl was frozen to her spot, and she had her eyes on her front. She looked scared, like a mouse meeting a lion.

Felix stood beside her in front of the elevator and watched her from the corner of his eyes.

Something pulled him to secretly watch the girl. He wanted to laugh when he saw how rigid the girl had become since he stood next to her.

When Vince came to join them, waiting for the elevator to arrive, he observed how the girl acted towards Vince.

The girl acted normally towards Vince. Or should he say, abnormally, since the normal look that any woman had on their face when they saw Vince was the looks of admiration with sparks in their eyes.

But this girl, she didn't behave coquettish like a seductress or giddy like a fangirl. She kept her distance and acted respectively towards Vince.

Somehow, Felix was intrigued by her.

Inside the elevator, Felix continued to observe her through the reflection on the door.

The girl was lost in her thought, that she didn't even notice that she had arrived on her floor. Vince had to snap her out of her stupor to get her attention.

When she got out and the elevator door was closing, Felix wanted to have another look at the girl, and their eyes met.

Like a moth attracted to flames, Felix couldn't avert his eyes from gazing into those emerald eyes of hers.

"When are you going back to Cratia?" asked Vince when they arrived at the parking lot.

*Ding

Felix pulled out his phone and checked his text message that had just come in.

His forehead furrowed reading the text message. "Tonight," he replied to Vince's query.

Felix couldn't believe his eyes when he received the report of the person who he had to keep his eyes on. "Jasmine Paxton," he released a self-deprecating laugh, "I know it's too good to be true. No one is perfect, I guess," he mumbled to himself.

Felix had to watch Jasmine throughout the flight.

Jasmine showed a look of excitement and anticipation, which was normal for those who were excited to get on the plane. Felix even thought that they got the wrong person, as Jasmine looked normal, and not a nervous rack, like those drug traffickers usually tried to cover on their face.

Don't know what came to him, but Felix was feeling irritated towards Jasmine throughout the search process.

Deep within his heart, he prayed it was a mistake on their part. Maybe their informer had given false information. However, it was really proven that the drug was in Jasmine's bag and he had to arrest her.

Felix's heart felt like being stabbed when he heard Jasmine ask about her boyfriend.

"What is wrong with me?" Felix asked himself after he had put the cuff on Jasmine.

He ignored the prickling feeling in his heart and went about his day as usual. However, Felix kept finding himself taking a closed watch at the news about Jasmine's case.

"I'm on that case, that's why I'm interested," he found himself an excuse on why he was following the case closely.

That was what he kept telling himself until one day Vince came to see him in Cratia.

"What are you doing here?" asked Felix.

"I'm looking for you, of course," replied Vince.

Looking at Vince's serious face, Felix's forehead creased, "what do you want from me?" he asked.

"I need a favour from you. Oh wait, no. I'll exchange something for the favour," Vince said.

Felix's crease deepened, "what's that you need from me? I hardly believe that the mighty Heinrich family can't do anything for you."

"This is personal," replied Vince.

"Spill it," said Felix.

"I want you to help with Jasmine Paxton's case," Vince said.

Felix's eyes shook a little, and he stared at Vince. "Jasmine Paxton?" he asked, even though he heard Vince the first time.

"Yes, Jasmine Paxton. I don't know if you remember, but you met her in Swift Corp when you came to Alscot," said Vince.

Felix hummed in reply.

"She's innocent. Can you help her? She doesn't deserve a death sentence," Vince looked at Felix with hopeful eyes.

Clenching his jaw, "who is she to you?" Felix asked.

"She is my subordinate that I hand picked myself. I know the people that I choose, and she's not someone who was involved in drugs. And why would she? She just got promoted after winning a big project and it's not like her family had financial difficulties. There was no reason for her to be a drug trafficker," Vince gave a long speech to Felix.

Felix scoffed, "Wow, seems like you really know her," he stared at Vince's face and asked, "do you… like her?" he asked sharply.

"What?" No! I don't," replied Vince. He combed his hair with his hand and sighed, "those f*ckers in the company are questioning my judgments since I'm the one who had supported Jasmine from day one. When I say support, I mean work related. I don't have any relationship with her outside of work," Vince said with anger in his voice. He was mad with the things that had spiralled in Swift corp when Jasmine was caught in Cratia and made the headlines.

Hearing Vince's words, somehow, made Felix release a relieved sigh, "you said you exchanged this favour with something, what is it?" asked Felix.

Vince, who was ruffling his own hair, stopped what he was doing and turned to Felix.

He stared at Felix's face for a while till Felix cocked his brow in question, "what?"

"I found out something about 'her'," Vince said meaningfully, "she's in Cratia too and…"