Page 198 of Ice Princess

“Gunner!” Concern carved into her beautiful face, Rebel moves toward me.

I shake my head at her.

She stops abruptly, chewing on her bottom lip.

“You’re right. It is all my fault. Let’s talk about it outside.” I lift both hands in surrender. Right now, all I want is for my uncle to get as far away from Rebel as possible.

Uncle Stewart follows the direction of my gaze to Rebel and his mouth twists into a sneer. “You idiot! We tried so hard to keep you away from this girl, tried to keep you from finding out and you still went ahead anyway. And for what?” He gestures to Rebel. “She’s nothing but a pretty face from the trailer park. Girls like her are dirt cheap; I could buy ‘em for a dollar.”

My nostrils flare and I grab Uncle Stewart by the throat. Trembling with rage, I growl, “Watch. Your. Mouth.”

“Or what? You’ll hit me? You’ll hang me out to dry? Forher.” He shoves me against the frame of the door. His elbow digs into my neck. “We’re the ones who come pick you up in the dead of night when you’ve got a blown wheel and no one else to call. We’re the ones who taught you how to drive and shoot a gun. We’re the ones who share the same blood. You’re turning on your own family. Making enemies of your own people. Some juicy lips and a nice rack will keep you warm at night, but is that anything compared to family?”

My face twists and anger surges through my veins. I ram Uncle Stewart in the jaw. The clash of my knuckles to his jawline hurts the both of us, but Uncle Stewart makes a garbled sound, eyes clouding in surprise, pain and shock. His entire body stumbles to the side as if he’s being dragged by an invisible hand.

While the punch was deserved, it was the wrong move.

An already tense situation escalates fast.

Uncle Stewart lunges to the left. I jump on him, but a damaging blow to the head knocks me to my knee.

Mrs. Hart screams.

Rebel shrieks, “Gunner!”

I lift a hand to my hair, stars dancing around my eyes. And then I look at Uncle Stewart. He’s holding a bat—something Mrs.Hart probably kept close by the door for self-defense—and is gearing up to swing again.

Pushing to my feet, I run deeper into the living room and stand in front of Rebel. “Get behind me!” I roar. “April, get back!”

April drops her phone as she races to join the other ladies. When she stops as if she’ll pick it up, Rebel grabs her arm and yanks her behind me, wrapping an arm around the shorter woman protectively.

“I know why you’re here! I know what you’re trying to do!” Uncle Stewart swings the bat like a drunk. His eyes dart back and forth like a cornered animal.

Desperate men do desperate things. Dad’s warning from earlier rings like a church bell in my head.

“Clarence said he’d pin this on me and you’re falling right into his trap!”

I hold out a hand and take a step forward. “Dad’s heading to pick up Uncle Clarence as we speak. You’rebothgoing to pay for what you did.”

“You think that slimy fox will be so easy to catch? He left town hours ago.”

My eyes widen.Does dad know about this?

“I’ve been framed, Gunner. I swear to you. Clarence is the one behind all of this.” Uncle Stewart swings the bat in a giant arc. “You think I know anything about shell corporations and paper companies? I’m just a mechanic. All I know is cars. He put the money in my account and told me what land to sell. That’s all I did.”

“What about the will?” Rebel snaps. “Didn’t you know about that too?”

I glance over my shoulder and find my girlfriend glaring a hole into Uncle Stewart. My uncle better hope Rebel doesn’t getahold of that bat because I have no idea what damage she’ll inflict on him.

“The will… he-he never told me about that. I have no idea.” My uncle’s eyes dart to the side.

“Yeah, right!”

Mrs. Hart looks very confused. “What will? What are you talking about?”

“Rebel,” I hiss.

But the train is rolling down the hill and there’s no stopping her now that she’s off.

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