Page 160 of Ice Princess

April flinches. “Is it a coincidence that all this started happeningrightafter you officially started dating Gunner?”

I fold my arms over my chest, on the defensive.

“Tink, what are you saying?” Chance asks worriedly.

“I don’t know.” April throws her hands high. “That maybe Gunner’s been planning this all along? Rebel, you said it was strange when he called you his girlfriend in front of the Lady Luck Society.”

“Gunner has nothing to do with this.”

“Even if he doesn’t mean to, it’s more likely that he’ll side with his family than with us.”

April’s words echo what Stewart Kinsey said today and my hackles rise. “So what? What do you expect him to do? Cut off everyone in his family because his uncle’s a creep?”

April’s mouth falls open and I realize that I’m yelling.

“I trust Gunner,” I say with a little less ‘shrieking banshee’ in my tone.

“So do I,” Chance agrees. “If you knew how invested Gunner has been in this investigation, you wouldn’t even question him.”

I stop in my tracks, my eyes fastened on Chance. “Gunner’s been helping you investigate his uncle?”

“Yeah. I remember him asking them to investigate a connection between Stewart and some guy… what was his name…” Chance scratches the back of his neck. “Clarence Kinsey.”

“Clarence Kinsey?” I gasp.

April winces.

Chance frowns. “I’m guessing you know the guy?”

“Clarence Kinsey is Gunner’s granduncle,” I explain. “He’s the brother of Gunner’s grandfather.”

I don’t remember much of him from my days playing on the Kinsey farm, but I do remember seeing him at the funeral for Gunner’s grandaddy.

Clarence had tapped into town with a walking cane, a large black fedora on his head and a three-piece suit wrapped around his scrawny body. I remember thinking he looked a little too happy when all the other Kinseys were sad.

Clarence Kinsey did not live in Lucky Falls. When I asked about him after the funeral, mom said Clarence’s personality was too big for a town as small as ours.

He’d stayed in Lucky Falls for a few days after the funeral. I have a faint memory of being at the wake and seeing a whole lot of angry stares when he walked in the room. He was like a black cloud that spread gloom over everyone he touched.

Including Gunner.

Come to think of it, Gunner stopped talking to me shortly after his Uncle Clarence rolled into town.

To be fair, I hadn’t noticed the timing. Back then, I assumed Gunner pulled away because he was sad about his grandfather’s passing. To my five-year-old brain, everything would go back to normal eventually.

But of course, it never did.

Gunner avoided me staunchly for years, and I chalked it up to him flipping a switch and turning into the cold, arrogant Kinsey he was always meant to be.

But now, after hearing that he’s investigating StewartandClarence, I can’t help thinking that there’s something more to the story.

“He lives in the city and he’s extra,extrarich. Legend says the Kinseys have held on to power for so long because Clarence Kinsey funds all their businesses, investments, college education, everything.”

“I thought the Kinseys were rich on their own,” Chance says, his nose scrunching. “Don’t they own almost every store on Main Street?”

“I said it was a legend.” April shrugs. “I don’t know when it started, but we’ve all kind of known that Clarence Kinsey was the one who held the purse strings ever since his brother, Clay, died. I think only the Kinseys would know the details though.”

A sense of foreboding falls over me and I quietly ingest Chance’s revelation.

---