Page 52 of Her Beastly Billionaire Rock Star
“Oh, sure. That’s a fantastic excuse. How quickly did you call Octavia after I told you?”
“But I didn’t. How do I prove a negative?”
Emilia hit a few keys on her laptop, lifted her gaze, and said, “And stop.” She turned the laptop around, and a man and a woman came into view. “This is Mia Wolf and Ryder Whitlock. Two of the best tech people I know.”
Mia waved. “Hi.”
“Hello,” Ryder said.
Charlotte pushed away from Malakai and stood. “Would someone please tell me what’s going on?”
Emilia nodded and motioned to Mia.
“Your phone had a program on it that allowed it to record anytime you spoke around it. Every conversation you’ve had since you arrived at Malakai’s house has been recorded by voice activation. Or so we think. It could have been earlier than that, but those are the only records we’ve found so far.”
Ryder tapped a few keys. “And that’s because the memory is so small. The program’s memory couldn’t be too large or you would have noticed the lag in your phone. We think the memory is being uploaded to a hard drive.”
“How did you even know to look?” Malakai stood with Charlotte.
“Really?” Emilia gave them a smirk. “It’s me.”
“Just tell us, you cocky brat.” Malakai laughed.
“See? Even he thinks that!” Ryder scoffed.
“Shut up,” Emilia said. “You had three people in your home who were sent by her stepsister. Did you think I wouldn’t sweep the house for listening devices?”
Crossing his arms over his chest, Malakai gritted his teeth. “There were listening devices in my home?”
“Yeah, several.”
The color drained from Charlotte’s face. “My sister was listening in on us?”
“Yes, but, specifically, she’s been listening in on you. I’ve been doing this a while, and it was just a hunch. So I called Mia. She tapped into your phone while you were in the hospital and found the program.”
Mia chuckled. “It was so easy. Whoever installed it didn’t even try that hard.”
Slowly, Charlotte sank to the couch. Her phone had been damaged about two years ago after a call with her dad. They’d talked about the business. Octavia had chewed Charlotte out and then replaced the phone with acompanyphone. It was the same time Octavia had told her she’d sold her dad’s car.
“The car.” She sucked in a sharp breath, her mind going back to the night of the auction. “A-bug-in-a-rug cute. The car!”
She bolted from the couch to the garage, slipped into the passenger seat, and opened the glove box. Empty? Where would…she stepped out and went to the gas tank, pulled the cap off, and smiled.
“Charlotte? Are you okay?” Malakai asked.
Lifting her gaze to his, she pulled the SD card off and held it up. “Bug-in-a-rug cute!” She crossed the garage. “I always teased my dad about this car being a-bug-in-a-rug cute because he was this big burly man and it was comical that he loved it so much. No one I know ever used that phrase.”
“Why didn’t you put it together that night?”
“It was a punch in the gut that night to see his car there. I was half listening to the man talking to us. My heart was breaking. But it hit me just now. That man used the phrase I did. No one would have known about that unless my father told him.”
Malakai nodded. “Yeah, I could see that it hit you hard. It’s part of the reason I bought it.”
She lifted on her toes and kissed him. “I’ll never be able to say thank you enough. Never. Let’s see what’s on this.”
They went back to the living room where Emilia was waiting. “Is everything okay?” she asked, looking up from her laptop where she sat.
Charlotte walked to her and held out the SD card. “That might hold some answers.”
