“Go do your thing. I need to speak with Jasmine alone.”
“On it,” he said.
I didn’t speak again until I heard the door closed. “And get away from my fucking door!”
I heard Ranger tick his tongue. “Man. No fun.”
When I heard him moving back down the hallway, I glanced over my shoulder at the mounted screens along the wall and felt something heavy settle in my gut.
“Remember how I told you those weren’t televisions?” I asked carefully.
Jasmine followed my gaze, her brow furrowing as she looked at the dark screens. “Yeah…?”
I exhaled slowly.
“They’re monitoring screens,” I said. “They’re tied to security cameras.”
She went still. Completely still.
“In the building?” she asked.
“No,” I answered, and I didn’t soften it because there wasn’t a soft way to say it. “In your apartment.”
Her hands slipped out of mine like I’d burned her.
“They’re in my what?” she demanded, her voice sharp and thin all at once.
I stood immediately and held my hands out, palms open. “Listen to me. You’re hurt. You need to stay?—”
“Cameras? In my apartment?” she snapped. “What the hell are you talking about? What kind of place is this? Are you out of your damn mind?”
Her breathing started to hitch, and I hated that I’d done that to her. Hated that this was the way she found out.
“I put them in common areas only,” I said quickly. “Entryway. Living room. Kitchen. Hallway. No bedroom. No bathroom. I needed to know if anyone was following you. If anyone was getting inside.”
Her eyes flashed. “You had no right.”
“You’re right,” I said. “But you were already in danger.”
That shut her up for half a second, not because she agreed, but because she didn’t know how to argue around it.
“I was going to tell you,” I continued. “I just needed?—”
“To spy on me first?” she shot back.
I didn’t answer that.
Instead, I turned toward the screens.
“You deserve to see.”
One by one, I powered the monitors on and brought up the feeds. My desktop flickered to life, the cameras connecting automatically.
I braced myself for her to start screaming at me again.
For her to lose it over the invasion.
For her to call me every name in the book.
