Rent Free (Carter Brothers #5)

Prologue

PEPPER

Age 15

“ Give it back!”

I looked at my little sister, Sage —twelve going on thirty-two—and shook my head. “ No , it’s mine.”

“ It’s yours, but I want to use it, you fat fucking heifer!” Sage screeched.

Sage had started her period four days ago.

Sage , from then on, had made everyone’s life a living hell.

It was like some switch had flipped.

One day she was a nice kid, and the next she was this… monster.

“ I am not giving you my toothbrush,” I said. “ If I give it to you, I won’t have one.”

“ You don’t need one.” She rolled her eyes.

Then , before I could protect myself, she launched herself at me.

Here was the thing about Sage .

She was bigger than me.

By a couple of inches.

I was a late bloomer, according to my mother.

I still looked like I was twelve, not fifteen.

I was told by the doctor that sometimes things happened this way.

And instead of dwelling on the fact that my sister looked more womanly than me at twelve than I did at fifteen, I just rolled with it.

What I didn’t expect was for her to use the height and weight she had on me to her advantage in beating the ever-loving shit out of me.

I curled into a ball, unable to protect myself from her anger.

And only after her shrieks and my cries for help were answered by my father and brothers, did I finally realize that the old sister, the nice sister—the sister I used to have—was officially gone.

I would never forgive her.

Never .

And I had a scar across the bridge of my nose, from eye to eye, where she’d clawed me with her fingernails to remind me.

Age 17

“ What happened?” my mother asked the moment she got to the school.

I was so angry I could cry.

“ Well , do you want to know the truth, or would you like to know the lies Sage is passing around school?” I asked through gritted teeth.

Emmanuele and Gladys Solomon had four children. Two boys and two girls.

The first child my parents had was Tarrant , my brother. Then came me. Followed shortly by Everest , the youngest boy. Finally came Sage , the youngest girl.

There were four years difference between Tarrant and Sage .

All of us went to school at Kilgore High School , in Kilgore , Texas .

Tarrant was a senior, I was a junior, Everest a sophomore, and Sage a freshman.

“ I would like to know your side of the story,” my mother said expertly.

She never outright called my sister a liar.

That would set her off.

But she knew, just as well as I did, that Sage was a fuckin’ nut job.

She always had been and only seemed to have gotten worse since I’d gotten to high school.

I couldn’t wait until I graduated and could get the hell away from her.

“ Well , I got to school this morning and went to soccer class like I always do, but when I went to change, my locker had been ransacked and I had no school clothes to change into,” I said. “ So I had to wear my gym clothes, which I got in trouble for because they were too short. But let’s not talk about the fact that Kilgore Athletic Department is the governing body that gave me those clothes in the first place. I digress, though.” I waved my hand at the school at large. “ So I get called to the principal’s office, and they tell me I need to change. So I break into Sage’s locker and find my clothes from this morning. Change into them. Only , Sage then complains to the school resource officer that I broke into her locker. I’m then questioned by him, and now here we are, talking to each other.”

“ And what is she saying that you did this morning?” my mom asked, pain filling her eyes.

Every day was a new adventure when it came to Sage Solomon .

She was, by far, the nuttiest person I’d ever met.

And that was not said in a good way.

Sage made everyone’s lives a living hell, and not a day went by that we didn’t tread carefully to avoid stepping on her toes.

“ I’ll handle this.” Mom got up and headed into the office.

“ I’m suspended for four days,” I called out after her.

“ Over my dead body,” Mom replied.

Age 19

“ I’m sorry, but what?” I asked, speaking into the cell phone.

“ I need you to come pick me up,” Everest pleaded. “ She fuckin’ called and said that I’d been dealing drugs!”

I pinched the bridge of my nose between two fingers and asked, “ Where are you?”

After getting directions to where he was, I called to my boss and said, “ I’m so sorry to do this, but I have to go. Everest’s in trouble.”

My boss, the sweetest candy maker on the planet, with a smile in her voice said, “ Go , dear. Let me know what Sage did this time.”

The worst thing was, she wasn’t exaggerating.

Every single time something happened and I was called away from work, it was Sage related.

Going so fast over the posted speed limit that she was arrested? Yep , Sage .

Caught stealing candy from the convenience store? Sage .

Out past her curfew, and caught by the chief of police trying to sneak into the school? Sage .

Sadly , it was a never-ending story with Sage that I felt like I could never wake from.

Today was no different.

When I got to the place that Everest said he’d been pulled over, I was angry.

I walked right up to the police officer, a man we knew well because he was a regular at my dad’s diner—or he had been before he’d gotten married years and years ago—and asked, “ What happened?”

“ We had a tip that this driver was seen at a drug deal on Methvin Street ,” Downy said. “ Was given the car’s make and model, and the description of who was driving. I was in the area, so I took the call.”

Lachlan Downy was the assistant chief of police for Kilgore Police Department .

He and his crew were regulars at the diner my father owned, and we knew them fairly well.

Downy knew our family so well, in fact, that he’d arrested my sister four times for theft.

The first couple of times, he’d done my dad a favor and called him to deal with it. The second and third time my father told Downy to arrest Sage and he’d bail her out when he felt like it.

Truthfully , I knew at this point that Sage was never going to be a good person.

And since she wasn’t a good person, she was going to bring everyone down with her.

She was a pathological liar.

She was an attention seeker.

She also went out of her way to make everyone look bad—or at least worse than her.

It worked in the beginning.

Now , my parents were well aware of her tricks.

“ You know that Everest is a straight- A student,” I said. “ He has a steady girlfriend, works at Chick - Fil - A , and is taking eight dual credit college courses. He has no time to do drugs.”

Downy nodded solemnly.

“ I know,” he looked at my brother. “ I confiscated the drugs. They were prescription pain killers. Not enough to do anything more than get a slap on the wrist for, but I’m taking them anyway.

“ Feel free,” I said. “ Can he drive?”

“ He can,” Downy said. “ Where are your parents?”

“ It’s just me this week,” I admitted. “ Mom and Dad went on a long-needed vacation. I’m pulling double duty at the diner and at the candy shop.”

Downy patted my shoulder. “ Try to keep her in line the best you can, Pepper .”

Downy left, and I walked over to my pitiful looking brother.

“ It’s okay,” I said to him. “ He’s going to let you drive home.”

Everest took a deep breath. “ Good .”

“ I’ll deal with her when I get home,” I promised.

Everest looked away. “ I’m thinking about going into the Army .”

I grinned. “ You said you weren’t sure that you wanted to go.”

“ Anything to get me the hell out of here,” he said. “ Anything .”

Sage knew how to ruin people’s lives, that was for sure.

“ I’ll fix it.”

Everest looked at me. “ I don’t think she’s fixable, Pepper .”

Yeah , I wasn’t too sure she was, either.

Age 22

“ I’m sorry, but can you repeat that?”

“ She’s telling everyone that she was raped,” my mom whispered into the phone, her voice shaking from unmitigated rage. “ I swear to God , Pepper . I’m getting a bunch of nasty reviews on the diner’s page because of our ‘lack of concern for our child’s safety.’”

I stared down at my lap, wondering what kind of time I would get if I killed my sister in cold blood. Surely they would give me some leniency after everything she’d put our family through… right?

“ What happened?” I asked.

“ That’s the thing, nothing happened.” She sounded tired, worn out from years of having to deal with a psychopath in her own family. “ I was there. I know exactly what happened. We were out to eat with Pan and Merrily . Sage had come with us when she heard Merrily’s son was in from college visiting. We checked out the new restaurant they just put in downtown. We were there for maybe an hour. We all walked out to our cars, and then Pan and Merrily left. The son drove himself, so he stayed for a bit longer and spoke with us. Your dad and I left, leaving Sage and him talking in the front of the restaurant. But your dad forgot his leftovers, so we turned right around and went to grab them. They were both still talking when I ran inside. When I came back outside, Merrily’s son was gone. But Sage was still in front, playing on Snapchat . I didn’t say anything because your dad really had to use the bathroom. We pulled out right after Merrily’s son and followed him almost all the way to their house before we pulled into our driveway.”

“ Okay ,” I waited, knowing this was about to be the showstopper.

“ I waved at him as he walked inside his house. We were home for maybe ten minutes when I got a call from the cops saying that Sage was at the hospital, crying her eyes out, in the aftermath of a rape,” she continued.

I blinked a couple of times. “ And she blamed it on the son.”

“ She did!” my mom gasped. “ What the absolute fuck?”

“ What happened then?” I asked.

“ I got up there and was listening to the female officer explain what happened, and who did it, and I had to stop her and tell her that wasn’t the case.” She groaned. “ I couldn’t believe I was having to tell this officer that my daughter lied. Jesus Christ , Pepper . What the hell am I supposed to do?”

If I had an answer to that, I would’ve provided a solution a long time ago.