Chapter 51
CHAPTER
FIFTY-ONE
REBEL
My skin is still buzzing from Gunner’s kiss.
Every inch of me is begging to give him a hug.
But I know he’d push me away again.
I stare at the hand Gunner let go of and then back up to the light blue eyes swimming in agony. Deep shadows play across his inky black hair and sharp jawline. He looks like a dangerous, fairy prince. Or a vampire teetering on the edge of sanity, fangs bared to suck my blood.
Except the big secret on the tip of Gunner’s tongue is the one sucking the life out of him .
“When my grandfather died, he left a will. And you and your mother were in it,” Gunner says bluntly.
“What?” The word escapes on a puff of air. It mingles with the throaty croak of toads and the shrill cry of cicadas.
“My uncle stole the land my grandfather left for you and your mom.”
Gunner’s words are firm, almost harsh, but from the way he’s staring at the ground and the way his hand shakes slightly, I can tell that the coldness wrapped around his words is not because he’s unfeeling.
It’s that he’s feeling too much , and he’s trying his best to repress it the way he always has. To remain in control. To look like nothing bothers him when, in truth, he’s the most sensitive soul I’ve ever met. It’s been that way since we were kids.
I blink slowly. “W-what do you mean?” My brows knit together. “W-what land ? ”
Gunner glances to the side, his face tightening. “I made a call to Victoria and asked for a favor.”
My eyebrows hike at the mention of his ex-girlfriend.
“She still had access to the law firm’s database in Lucky Falls. She sent me these.”
He turns his phone over and swipes through photos.
Something tells me that Victoria isn’t supposed to be sharing sensitive information like this, but I don’t question it too deeply.
“What is all this?” I ask, swiping through images of documents, land titles, and estate listings.
“Evidence. The one I was looking for, except I didn’t know exactly where to look until now.”
I’m looking at a list of the Kinsey assets along with a handwritten will determining how the assets are to be divided.
“If you look at the original will and the one submitted to the public, you’ll see the dates are mismatched,” Gunner points out.
I look carefully. He’s right. The dates don’t match on some of the pages.
“Look again and you’ll see there’s a page missing from the original will.”
I swipe back and forth. The weathered, handwritten will has a section torn from the bottom of the third page. The tampered page is less than a quarter of the document and I could see how an official would be persuaded—financially or otherwise—not to investigate why.
“What about the notary?” I ask, looking up. I don’t know much about wills, but there’s a notary sign on the original paperwork. “Who was the witness?”
“Chuck Princeton.”
My shoulders slump. “Chuck got sick and died a few years after your grandfather did.”
“Given what I know of my uncle’s tactics, I believe Chuck was pressured to take this secret to his grave.”
“But… why would your grandfather leave anything to my mother? She was just his cleaner.”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how are you so sure that missing page named us?”
“Because the person who tore the page confessed it today.” He takes the phone from me and presses a button.
Gunner’s deep, gravelly voice rings out. “You stole from someone else. You stole from Rebel’s family.”
Another voice chuckles cruelly. “So what? There’s no proof. No witnesses. No one knows but you. Do you want to turn our entire family upside down for a truth you’ll never be able to prove?”
I scramble off Gunner’s lap and step away from him.
Poor, poor, mom.
Even a tiny portion of the Kinsey wealth would have been life changing for her. Mom and I could have moved out of the trailer park and had a much better life.
My eyes fill with tears as the unfairness of it all sets in. “Why would Clarence Kinsey do that?” I rage. “Was he so greedy for money that he couldn’t stand to see someone outside of the family benefit even a little?”
Gunner remains quiet.
My eyelashes flutter as I recognize the quiet shame in his face. “What?”
“I’ll be right back.” He moves purposefully down the ladder.
As I wait for him to return, I go through his phone, scouring the pictures he took from Victoria.
Gunner returns to the treehouse a few minutes later, his arms laden with documents and what looks like a map. He spreads everything on the ground in front of me.
“I found the piece of land my grandfather left your family.” He takes a few small stones and uses them as paper weights.
“How?”
“By cross-referencing the land that the will explicitly shares out between Uncle Clancy, my dad, my uncles and all the other relatives.”
I pick up a Lucky Falls Re-Zoning document that has his notes all over it and my heart hurts for him. He put so much effort into unearthing the truth.
“What land was it?” I whisper.
Gunner hesitates before admitting, “The one near Darkwell Ridge.”
Every inch of me stiffens.
Everyone in Lucky Falls knows about that particular Kinsey land. A few weeks after Clay Kinsey passed, there was a thorough survey of all the properties in his portfolio. Surprisingly, oil was found in Darkwell Ridge and the discovery was even mentioned in the national news.
“Your grandfather… left the land at Darkwell Ridge to us?” My heart wallops my ribs and I can hardly believe I’m saying that.
Gunner nods.
“The one with the…” I can’t even finish it.
“The oil,” Gunner does it for me. “Although he didn’t know it at the time, he gave your family the most valuable property in Lucky Falls.”
I rock back as if someone swung a bat at my face. Gunner’s beside me in a flash, putting a steadying hand on my elbow. I barely register his touch because my head is about to explode. My eyes dart from side to side as I try to compute everything that’s happening right now.
I don’t believe it.
I can’t.
My brain is about to melt into a puddle of goo.
This…
This can’t be…
Clay Kinsey didn’t leave my mom land out on the edge of town that nobody would miss. He gave us the land by Darkwell Ridge. The land that allowed the Kinseys to buy all the storefronts on Main Street and establish themselves as the family in Lucky Falls.
“I can’t believe this,” I wheeze.
“Put your head between your legs and breathe,” Gunner commands.
I follow his instructions and keep breathing until my chest doesn’t feel as tight.
At last, I look up at him and croak, “Have you told anyone?”
He shakes his head. “I will. I just haven’t figured out a way yet.”
I stop freaking out long enough to think about this from Gunner’s perspective. Once this matter is taken to the law, the Kinsey businesses and assets will be stripped away. Not only that, but everyone will know that the Kinseys built their entire legacy on theft and fraud.
The Lady Luck Society, as superficial as they are, won’t allow Carol to continue being the chairwoman.
The Sherriff will have to arrest his own uncle, if he manages to keep being the sheriff at all. Lucky Falls folks forgive, but they don’t do the forgetting part that easily.
Everything in Gunner’s world will change. All the people he loves will be affected—and not for the better.
Gunner stares at the floor while I stare at his clenching jaw.
“Hey.”
He tilts his head in my direction.
“I’m sorry.” I lick my lips. “It would be easier if we just ignored this, wouldn’t it? But…” I inhale sharply, “I don’t think I can ignore this, Gunner, even for you.”
“I know.”
“Just because my mom’s a cleaner, just because she’s not a Kinsey, that doesn’t make stealing from her okay.”
He nods, jaw clenching and unclenching.
“What… happens to us now?” I croak.
Gunner jolts like I hit him. “I need to tell my parents?—”
“I meant us, Gunner. What happens to us if we follow this to the end?”
He takes a deep breath again. “I don’t know, princess.”
My stomach tightens with agony and confusion. The thoughts in my head are swirling too fast and I don’t think I can say the right thing in this moment, even if I try my hardest.
“Maybe… we should…”
Gunner winces before I’ve even completed the thought.
His jaw keeps flexing. In and out. In and out.
His Adam’s apple bobs.
“I… don’t think we should be naive just because we want to be together.”
He turns his head slightly away, bracing for my next statement.
“I think we should take a few days apart to think about what this means.” I blink back tears. “For you, for me and… for us.”