Page 28 of Rent Free

She lifted her lip up at me with a silent snarl. “I’m a licensed officer of the law.”

The devilish smirk she wore meant bad things for me.

“Are you now?” I asked, unworried.

I had cameras everywhere. Two in my hotel room. One down the hall on my left, and one down the hall on my right.

I had great angles of everything that happened next.

That was partially why I’d chosen to take them up on the offer for a room. Mostly great protection from, well, her.

“I see that you’re skeptical,” she tugged lightly on the badge that was front and center on her breast, “but it’s all real.”

I contained the laugh.

Barely.

“I’m sure that everything you did while at the academy was on the up and up,” I nodded.

Sage took a step toward me, her anger palpable.

“You…” she began, but I interrupted.

“Why are you here?” I asked my sister.

“I’m here because you can’t seem to catch the fucking hint!” she snarled. “I want you to stay out of my life.”

I frowned. “I haven’t done anything to you.”

She scoffed. “Was it not you I saw with Atlas yesterday at dinner?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “That was me taking care of the children of some of my favorite people.”

“Sure,” she laughed incredulously. “And the goo-goo eyes you were making at him were fake?”

Okay, so I was really bad at hiding my emotions.

Sue me.

“Sure,” I said sweetly.

A beep of my watch had me glancing down at the time.

I had to go if I was going to make it to the bakery in time to get started on prep work for tomorrow.

“I will not tolerate your closeness to Atlas,” she seethed. “He’s mine.”

“He is not.” I barked out an abrupt laugh.

“He is!” she yelled.

I held up my hand. “Okay.”

“He is,” she repeated, this time lower. “And I’ll prove it to you.”

She pulled out her phone, then swear to all that was holy, she cued up some tears and placed the phone to her ear.

“Atlas,” she sniffled. “Please tell me it’s not true.”

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