Page 66 of Rent Free

PEPPER

I was set to arrive at Atlas’s house about two hours after he had.

I’d had to run back to the hotel, do a check on a few things, and then gather up some of my wig stuff.

I had quite a few finished products that I needed to package up, too.

I gathered it all, my label maker, my laptop, and a week’s worth of clothes, and headed back downstairs to my car.

I ran into the night bellhop, and he waved me over.

“Hey, I wanted to talk to you about a few things,” he looked at me warily.

“Give me a sec,” I said as I walked over to one of the luggage carts and set my crap down.

Pulling it over toward Petra—I didn’t leave my laptop anywhere but fully secure after an incident with Sage a few years ago—and went back to him.

“What’s up?” I asked him.

He grabbed my cart and started pulling it toward the side hall where employees had a break room, a couple of bathrooms, and a few storage rooms.

“So you’re not hearing this from me,” he said. “But a woman came in today with long blonde hair and started accusing you of selling drugs out of your room.”

I blinked.

“They’re going to do a random room inspection with a few K-9 dogs tomorrow,” Petra continued.

I sighed, my mind whirling.

I knew damn well who the blonde was.

I also knew, like always, that this was a tried and true tactic that Sage liked to use.

“Was the blonde a police officer?” I asked stiffly.

He looked at me with surprised eyes. “Yes, how did you know?”

“Because that woman is my sister, and she’s had a vendetta against me since she turned twelve.” I explained my situation, not leaving much out.

What was the point?

I wasn’t trying to protect her anymore.

Nor was my mom around to get offended that I went out of my way to let everyone know what kind of asshole my sister was.

“Wow,” he shook his head. “That’s…”

“My sister,” I finished for him. “Did she pay someone for a card to get into my room?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know that. I just overheard it when your sister was discussing it with the day manager. I just got a really bad feeling and felt like you needed to know what was about to happen.”

I scrubbed my hands up and down my face.

This was exactly what I didn’t need right now.

But again, I knew better than most what she was trying to do.

“Okay,” I said. “Can you keep your phone on you? I am going to go move out of my room.”

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