CHAPTER 183: CAR KEY

Genevieve’s office door opened before Abigail or Jamal could say anything, and they both turned to her.

"Oh, I was just coming to your office, Abigail. I’m stepping out for lunch. Abigail, want to come? Pete, you can join us," she offered, looking from Abigail to Pete.

Jamal glanced at Abigail before nodding. "I will. Thanks," he said, giving Genevieve the impression that he agreed because he wanted to spend time in Abigail’s company so that he could get closer to her.

[I will get my handbag.] Abigail signed and stepped into her office to get it.

"There is a nice restaurant some blocks away from here. That’s where I prefer to have my lunch. Their food is nice and the place is private," Genevieve said when Abigail returned and they all stepped out of the office together.

As they got into the elevator, Abigail showed Genevieve the car key, "Dad gave me this," Abigail said, and Jamal turned to look at her acting like he was surprised that she was speaking to Genevieve.

"I told her," Abigail said to Jamal before turning to Genevieve, who was speaking.

"A car? When? Have you seen the car?" Genevieve asked curiously but Abigail shook her head.

"Not yet. I just saw it. I’ve texted him. I’m waiting for a response. He said he is traveling," Abigail said and Genevieve frowned.

"Traveling? He didn’t mention that to me."

"He said it was impromptu," Abigail said, and once the elevator door opened she stopped speaking.

Neither of them spoke as they walked out of the building, but as they got closer to the car, Jamal recalled that his phone had been ringing with a call from a strange number earlier and he had been about to receive the call when Ryan asked him to walk with him earlier.

Just as he took out his phone from his pocket to check if the person had left a message, the phone started vibrating with a call from the same number.

Concerned he looked at Genevieve, "Please, I need to take this call. It seems urgent," he said to Genevieve and Abigail as he stepped aside to receive the call while they got into the car.

"Am I on to Pete?" a deep male voice asked the moment the call connected.

Jamal frowned, wondering who else knew him as Pete, "Yes, you are. Who is this?"

"Why the hell have you not been taking your call? This is Barry. Tom’s hacker friend," he explained, and Jamal relaxed.

"Oh! I’m sorry. I was busy. I’ve heard a lot about you..."

"This isn’t a courtesy call. I’m calling because it is urgent and Tom requested I call you directly for things like this before reporting to him. There is a bug on one of you. I’m not sure if it’s your location or something you’re holding. But I doubt it’s your location since I know you’re on your way out for lunch. I think it might be with Abigail," he said, and Jamal narrowed his eyes.

The bug was in the car key not the car?

"I’ll figure out what it is, but until then I’m calling to ask you to be careful what you say," Barry said, and Jamal smirked as he moved further away from the car.

"I think I know what it is. It’s in the car key. He just bought her a car. Thanks for letting me know," Jamal said, and Barry chuckled.

"A car key? That’s brilliant...."

"Is there a way you can disable it?" Jamal asked hopefully.

"I don’t think that is a good idea. I think it might serve you best to leave it. Nevertheless, I’ll talk to Tom and I’ll do whatever he decides," Barry said before hanging up the call.

Jamal sighed deeply. He needed to warn Abigail about it. He was glad that Barry was so competent and had called before they made any major mistakes.

He had to give it to Ryan. Ryan was smart. Way smarter than they were giving him credit for. Unlike the car, the key would be with Abigail everywhere, even in her bedroom, so there would be no limit to what Ryan could hear her say at any time.

As Jamal got into the car, Genevieve looked at him. "Is everything alright? You said the call was urgent," Genevieve asked with concern.

"I thought it was. Turns out it was my friend calling to find out about my breakup with my girlfriend," Jamal said with a heavy sigh.

"Oh," Genevieve said, while Jamal met Abigail’s questioning gaze in the rearview mirror.

There was no way he could tell Abigail about it in front of Genevieve. Apart from the fact that Genevieve would wonder how he knew and then begin to really question his relationship with Abigail, he just couldn’t say anything not when the bug was right there with them.

He could only hope now that neither Genevieve nor Abigail would say anything incriminating until he was able to let Abigail know.

Genevieve called out the direction to Jamal as he started the car, and then she turned to Abigail.

"Did he tell you where he was going? Or how long he’d be gone?" Genevieve asked Abigail.

"No. He didn’t," Abigail said, and then Genevieve looked at Jamal.

"What about you, Pete? Did he tell you anything?" Genevieve asked, and Jamal winced.

"No, ma’am, he didn’t. I don’t think there’s any reason he’d give such information to me," Jamal said politely, keeping his hands steady on the steering wheel though his mind was anything but calm.

Genevieve nodded slowly and leaned back in her seat. "Right. I suppose he wouldn’t."

Abigail’s phone vibrated in her handbag with a text notification and she took it out and opened it when she saw it was a text from Ryan.

It was the picture of a sleek red car parked in front of the house, and the caption read: [I hope you like it. It’s at home waiting for you.]

Abigail smiled when she saw the car. It looked pretty. She liked it even though she knew there was more to the gift than met the eyes.

"He just responded," Abigail told Genevieve and showed her the picture of the car while watching her reaction.

Genevieve felt a little stab of jealousy that her father had picked such a nice car for Abigail but she quickly shook it off almost as soon as it came. "Wow! He’s definitely spoiling you, isn’t he?" Genevieve said, even though deep down she was wondering if it was bugged. "This is the latest Toyota model. Do you like it?"

Abigail nodded. "I love it. I can’t wait to see it," Abigail said, sounding really excited since it was her first car.

"So... now that you have a car, do you plan to start driving yourself to work? Or will you keep riding with us? Or do you plan to get your own driver?"

"I don’t know yet. I’m pretty sure Dad has a plan. I will ask him," Abigail said, still trying to be cautious with how much she said to Genevieve about their father.

Although Genevieve wanted to ask Abigail to be careful, she didn’t want to say anything in front of Pete because she still wasn’t certain yet how much he could be trusted seeing how much her father seemed to trust him.

"Yeah, I’m sure he has a plan," Genevieve murmured and the car was silent again.

From the rearview mirror, Jamal caught Abigail’s eyes again but she was busy texting Ryan back so she wasn’t looking at him.

After Jamal parked the car in front of the restaurant, he quickly got out as Genevieve and Abigail were getting down, and while Genevieve was busy m adjusting her clothes, Jamal took Abigail’s handbag from her and dumped it back inside the car.

Abigail blinked up at him, confused, and Jamal gave the slightest shake of his head, his eyes urging her to trust him.

Slowly, she nodded. She didn’t ask questions though her thoughts were racing. She shut the door, and all three of them headed inside the restaurant.

As they walked inside, Jamal took his phone and quickly texted Stefan to distract Genevieve for a couple of minutes so he could speak to Abigail privately.

Almost immediately Genevieve’s phone rang, and since she didn’t want to talk to Jamal in front of Abigail she excused herself while Abigail and Jamal sat down.

"Is there a bug in the key?" Abigail asked immediately and Jamal nodded.

"I never would have suspected that he’d do that. I expected the bug to be in the car not the car key," Abigail said with a shake of her head, amazed at how cunning Ryan was.

"We need to be more careful. I think talking to Genevieve was a bad idea," Jamal said and Abigail shook her head.

"I don’t think so. It’s not like she didn’t know I could speak already. She knows and Ryan knows. I did that to win her trust and make her believe I’ve forgiven her, which truly I have. I believe that should encourage her to make better choices. And I don’t think I said anything that should give anything away to Ryan," Abigail said, and Jamal sighed.

It was true that what Abigail did might have encouraged Genevieve to want to reveal the truth.

"We have to be careful all the time not to slip. The hacker guy said he doesn’t think we should disable it," he said, and she nodded.

"I agree. Don’t worry. I will be careful. And I will come up with a way to use it to my advantage," Abigail said just as Genevieve returned to the table.