GUILTY (Gabe's Trials)

Going down with a boom

My phone buzzed inside my bag drawing my attention from my current focal point -a small stain on the window of my car. Fuck! Now I really had to finally risk making eye contact with my bodyguard -the same bodyguard who appearently had a thing for me and who wasn't even trying to hide it anymore. In fact, tension -which kind, I couldn't really tell- was hanging heavy in the air between us already. I didn't even want to imagine what would've happened if I looked her way or worse yet, tried to start a conversation. She wants more than just a friendship from you and you know you can't give her that, so man up and just tell her the truth. You're simply not into women. My conscience snarled, her choice of words making me wince. 'Man up'? What the fuck? That was exactly my problem. I couldn't man up. I was a woman. 

Finally pulling my cell out, I had to bite back the frustrated moan that almost escaped me at the sight of my friend's name.

Lila: Are you still coming today?

I was really starting to get sick of that text. My friend was asking me that on a daily basis already, in spite of the fact that my answer was always the same. Taking a deep, calming breath, I texted her back anyway.

You know I am.

Pushing the send button, I sighed deeply, knowing better than to let Lila and her raging hormones get to me. Unfortunatelly that got Gabe's protege's attention, Ginger giving me a questioning look from the driver's seat and instigating one of the sweetest smiles I could muster given the situation at hand. First she'd been acting completely strange this whole morning and now this? If I didn't know any better, I would've said that she was becoming paranoid, the impossible woman. Or maybe you are. My conscience drawled. Now that she was over Gabriel's departure, she had crawled back to the center of my brain, catching the spotlight and becoming an even bigger bitch than before.

"I need to fuel the car. We'll make a detour." I nodded my head, glancing out the window again. I had no interest in making things more complicated than they already were by talking and saying all the wrong things to her -which I knew I would have. The fact that she refused to look me in the eye and that the little conversation we made was shallow and uninspired was bad enough. I didn't need to make any of us feel more uncomfortable than we already were. 

Pulling into the gas station's parking lot, she opened the door and climbed out of the car without even glancing my way. I watched her going around my Mazda and stopping next to the man waiting by the gas pump and gesturing while talking to him. A phone started vibrating a moment later and a quick glance at the cellphone in my hand convinced me it wasn't mine. Quickly scanning the interior of the car, I found Ginger's phone lighting up an vibrating, waiting onto the driver's seat to be picked up. I don't know what made me do it, but I grabbed the Blackberry, glancing at the screen.

A text immediatelly appeared before my eyes and my mouth dropped open, my breath catching in my throat. The text I'd received from Lila and the text I'd sent her back were both waiting to be read. On Ginger's phone... How the fuck was that even possible? Quickly scrolling through her text list, I found more of mine and Lila's messages, not to mention the calls history, full of the numbers of the people I'd spoken to during the last month or so. There it was; Lila's number and Meredith's; the missed calls from my father and Brandon's phone number. Oh my God! I wasn't being paranoid. I was simply being kept under surveillence. By Ginger.

Turning off the Blackberry, I scanned my surroundings again while placing the phone back onto the driver's seat and trying to take a deep breath. I had to behave normally or Ginger was going to know I'd found out about it and tell Gabriel. Then they were both going to try and find different ways of spying on me -ways I couldn't find out about before it was too late. Things had to stay the way they were. They had to believe they could monitor and control me. And all this time, I had to pretend I knew nothing about it and also keep a closer eye on my bodyguard. God only knew how many other spying devices she'd installed into my house, phone or car. Fucking hell! I had to start keeping my distance from Ginger. Maybe even find another ride to the court house and then back home.