Page 28 of Vamp CEO Bit You Where?

They work the rooms while I stand with her in the kitchen, and I leave my fingers loose, harmless by performance only. Elias lifts two more from the bookshelf and the bathroom mirror. Gid finds nothing in the bedroom, but that doesn't mean there isn't one.

"Sebastian." Elias is at the counter, a pill bottle in his gloved hand. Tylenol. He tips one tablet onto a square of cloth and crushes it. The powder beneath is faintly purple. "These aren't hers. Coating's right. Stamp's wrong." He turns it to the light. "Something to drop her. Blood pressure, motor control. She takes two for a headache, she's unconscious in twenty and can't call out."

Jasmine's face empties of movement. "I took one Tuesday."

"That means Tuesday's bottle was clean. This was swapped after."

"After what?" Her voice holds. "Someone was in my bathroom. Touching the things I put in my mouth."

"Yes," I say. There is no point softening it.

"Come stay with me," I make the request behave. "Tonight. Until I close this."

"And if I wanted to stay here with your people on the door instead?"

"Then I'd try to talk you out of it." A breath. "But I'd allow it."

Her attention drops to the crushed tablet like it has teeth. "Okay." She lifts her own bag before Gid can reach for it. "I'll pack."

At the house the quiet is a lie, and all four of us know it. Jasmine goes upstairs to change. Gid sets two men on the grounds. Elias pulls her building's feeds up and frowns at something he doesn't say aloud.

My phone lights. Millie.

Two of Dain's people near the building in the last hour. Gone now. Watch yourself, Bash.

I'm typing back when Jasmine screams. I'm up the stairs before the sound finishes — too fast. She's against the far wall, pointing.

"Outside," she says. "There was someone outside."

The window is four stories up. The latch is turned halfway. Four smear marks the outside of the pane — fingertips, dragged down. Beyond them, only dark and the long drop.

"He wasn't standing on anything," she says. "He was just there, working the lock. When I screamed, he went up. Not down. Up."

"You're safe. Come, you are safest not leaving my side. Not in this house, not anywhere. I need you where I can reach you."

"Reach me," she repeats.

"At all times."

"Sebastian."

"Jasmine, I need you alive. Your pulse matters more to me than your approval."

Her face changes. Not fear. Worse. Recognition.

Gid appears, silent. Elias behind him, phone already at his ear. Neither of them speaks.

Jasmine lowers her hand from the wall. "Listen to what you just said."

"They put poison in your medicine."

"And someone came to my window. I know. I was here." Her voice fractures once, then steadies.

She glances toward Gid and Elias, then fixes on me. The room tightens.

I turn to Elias. "Camera supplier. Pharmacy access. Rooftop route. Whoever carried her address out of our files."

"Understood," Elias says.