Page 166 of Ice Princess

“No, you’re not, Uncle Clancy,” I say calmly.

He seethes.

“Grampa Clay is the reason the Kinseys are respected. The way he treated people, cared for them and served them is why our name is worth its weight in gold. You? You didn’t do anything for us. You’re a liar and a thief.”

I notice a truck winding down the dirt road. It’s Uncle Robert’s vehicle.

“Clay’s bleeding heart would have run this family straight into the ground. Do you think farms like this can exist without money?” Uncle Clancy sneers. “Who do you think pays for all this? Who do you think funds your uncle’s campaigns? Pays for all your mama’s charity work? Donates all those cruisers to the police station? You,boy, with your snobbery and your moral grandstanding have benefited from everything this family has to offer. You and the rest of the Kinseys have wanted fornothingall because I made it so!”

His spittle flies and lands against my face.

I wipe it off with a stiff hand.

“The only thing that gains respect is money. Everything the Kinseys have, everything we stand for, you owe tome. ”

“Then maybe we stand for the wrong things,” I clip, my voice low with unrestrained fury.

His eyes narrow. “Would the rest of them agree with you?” Uncle Clancy points in the direction of the house.

More cars are winding down the road.

More of my family members are gathering to see him.

“Sure, they may have sided with Clay at first. No one welcomed me when I came back for Clay’s funeral, but is it the same now?” He walks around me in a circle, a predator sizing up it’s next target. “It’s been many,manyyears since I became the head of the Kinseys. Do you think any of them want to give up their comfortable lives all because I took a little bit,” he clips his fingers together, “off the top?”

My heart thuds against my chest.

But I push the conversation where it really needs to go. “If this was only about you siphoning the funds, why did you tell me to stay away from Rebel?”

A barely perceptible twitch in his right eye alerts me to his unease.

“My dad wouldn’t have to give up his badge and mom wouldn’t lose her honor just because a crooked family member sold off land that belongs to us.”

He takes a step back.

My nostrils flare.

My heart beats faster and faster.

“This is far more than you laundering money off our land, isn’t it?”

He backpedals and tries to laugh me off, but his bottom lip trembles.

“You stole from someone else.” The words saw at my throat as they escape into the air. “You stole from Rebel’s family.”

CHAPTER

FORTY-NINE

REBEL

Gunner isn’t pickingup and I’m too restless to stay at home, so I go for a drive.

I’m a few meters away from The Pink Garage before I realize I drove to work on autopilot. As the night sprawls before me and stars glisten overhead, I stop the car and stare at the giant, yellow ‘KEEP OUT’ caution tape.

April said the garage is her baby and, honestly, I feel the same. We put our blood, sweat and tears into this place. We took a huge gamble just to bet on ourselves.

It can’t crumble to dust like this.

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