Chapter 48
CHAPTER
FORTY-EIGHT
GUNNER
On the way to the orchard, my phone rings again.
REBEL: I texted Max and he said you aren’t at the stadium.
REBEL: You aren’t at your uncle’s hardware store either. Is everything okay?
REBEL: Call me when you get this.
My chest tightens.
I text her back.
ME: I’m okay. I’ll stop by your house when I’m done here.
I hesitate and then send one more text.
ME: There’s something I need to tell you.
I dig my fingers into the phone, take a deep breath and then shut it off.
In this moment, I can’t afford to get distracted.
We keep going until we arrive at the orchard.
The neatly lined trees go on as far as the eye can see. A cool breeze tickles the leaves and draws the eye to the branches heavy with apples. The scent of the coming harvest fills my nose and reminds me of simpler times. Sitting beside dad on the tractor. Climbing rickety ladders to pluck the juiciest apples. Running behind a much smaller Rebel with a basket. Canning apples in jars of syrup and honey with Mrs. Hart.
A long, long time ago, before secrets and threats invaded my life, my world was sweet and ordinary.
I come to an abrupt stop in the middle of the orchard, but Uncle Clancy keeps going. The grass swallows the sound of his cane as he marches closer to me.
“Seems you’re a man now, Gunny. Calling your uncle outside like that.”
“I thought this way would be more comfortable. But we can have this conversation later. In front of everyone. I don’t mind.”
Uncle Clancy tips his head back and laughs. The sound booms around the treetops. Nearby birds take off in flight.
Their black wings flap against the clear blue sky. A bad omen.
“I know you’ve been selling off the family’s land,” I say simply.
Uncle Clancy tilts his head, watching me without a hint of surprise. “I’m in charge of the family portfolio. Nothing wrong with that.”
“The money from the land didn’t go back into the family portfolio, did it?”
His upper lip stiffens.
“It went into Uncle Stewart’s ‘garage’,” I accuse, recalling the numbers I saw in the spreadsheet. “He was acting as a shell company for the funds. But the moment he stopped getting customers and the numbers for his shop dwindled, the harder it was to hide where all that money was coming from. Your cover was about to be blown.”
Uncle Clancy speaks through gritted teeth, his voice low and taut with anger. “Those are big allegations, boy.”
“I’m stating the facts,” I say calmly.
“You should stick to hockey. You’re jumping to conclusions when you don’t even understand?—”
“I have a business degree. I understand plenty.”
“Everything I have ever done, I’ve done for this family. Your dad and your uncles aren’t investors. They’re not businessmen who can see the bigger picture. If they were, they wouldn’t stay in a good-for-nothing town like Lucky Falls. They wouldn’t be satisfied with this drivel, with the crumbs of what being a Kinsey can offer them. And still, I respect their choices. I slave away for them, securing our future and the future of this entire family. I’m the reason the Kinsey name is respected in this town. I’m the one who keeps everything together.”
“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 for nothing all 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 to me . ”
“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, many years 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.”