Page 80 of Robin and Marian
“What?” Guy’s smirk darkened into an ugly sneer. “I’ve been nice long enough, Robin,” he hissed for his ears alone, “but you keep pushing me and you’ll lose everything—even your pretty little girlfriend!”
Robin didn’t push him; he punched him. Guy’s head snapped back. Somewhere in the crowd Marian screamed. Guy whipped his head up, snarling. Before Robin could get at him again, hands grabbed at him and dragged him back. Some of those “war correspondents” were bodyguards because they knew exactly what they were doing. He got a sucker punch to the chin and a hammer cut to the solar plexus.
He fought them away and came for Guy again, catching him in a chokehold. “What can you do to me that you haven’t already done?” he shouted. “I already did your time!”
“Scarlett hasn’t. I’ve got evidence. You couldn’t acid wash all of it!” The screams in the mob drowned out what Guy was saying, but Robin heard it all. The horror washed over him. “Her husband too!” Guy choked out. Robin’s hold loosened on him, and Guy wriggled away like a worm and shoved him back, hiding behind his two henchmen. “I’ve got Alan tied up in a ball so tight he can’t move.” A trickle of blood stained Guy’s teeth, and it made his smile grotesque as he said, “He even breathes wrong, he’s spending the rest of his days in prison.”
“I know that.”
“You know so much? Where is he right now?” Guy’s breathing grew ragged as he watched his cousin with hatred. “He’s with your old girlfriend. Yeah, yeah, now you get it. He couldn’t see straight when she was all over you. She loves making him jealous!” His eyes glistened as if with some inner joke. “You don’t believe me? Ask him. Ask him what I’ve got on his wife while you’re at it. Ask him!”
Robin stepped back, wanting nothing more than to find Alan and punch him out too. Rage blinded him and he shoved free from Guy’s men and the anxious crowd, not really seeing where he was going as he headed for their campsite. The familiar greeted him there—the plates they’d eaten from, the fire pit, the logs where they’d sat making breakfast. Maybe Guy was lying. He’d like nothing more than to set the friends against each other. That had to be it.
That’s when he saw Jana Prinz leaving Scarlett and Alan’s RV. Her blonde hair was mussed and she was in the middle of reapplying her lipstick. It was deep red and she pressed it against her lips, slowly and deliberately. He drew up short and called out to her. “What are you doing here?”
She’d only lie. Robin cut through the campsite and shoved open the RV door. Alan sat at the table in a white tank top. Robin’s eyes hardened on him and before thinking too hard about what he was doing, he pushed his way inside. The stress of the afternoon all came crashing into him at once in an explosion. “You’re cheating on Scarlett?” His voice strangled in emotion.
“No, man! Lay off! This is none of your business.”
Robin came at him, but he only got in one punch. His friend was ready for him. His palm landed against Robin’s chin and he knocked him away. “What’s your problem?” Alan sounded annoyed. “Scarlett and I have an understanding, all right?”
An understanding? Is that what he called it?Robin felt sick with grief and guilt. For not the first time that day, he wished that he could take back the last four years. Was this why Alan and Scarlett were always fighting? If only he had been there for his sister. “So?” His voice broke. “Those signatures on those documents. That was really you?”
“No!” Alan looked as horrified as Robin felt. “That wasn’t me.”
“ThenwhyJana Prinz? Do you even get how guilty that makes you look? You just don’t think anymore? Is that it? You doing drugs or something? Is that how you got into this?” He felt like he wasn’t making sense, but couldn’t stop, and gave Alan a pleading look. “Jana would think nothing of taking you down. She won’t love you like Scarlett does.”
“This hasnothingto do with that!” Alan cried.
“It has everything!” Robin’s voice cracked on his shout. He stumbled to the door. The room felt unstable, like it was shaking.Hewas shaking. “You can rot in prison. I wash my hands of you.”
He pushed outside and stopped short. As if things couldn’t get worse, Jana was still there, smirking like she’d heard the entire exchange. She dropped her lipstick into her purse. “Is he still alive?” she asked sardonically.
He was in too much shock to feel anger. He tried to put some distance between him and this whole rotten group. Let them take each other out. He made a move to edge past Jana.
“Robin!” Alan called out from his RV door. “This isn’t what you think. I’m only trying to protect Scarlett!”
“How?” He swung around. “By replacing her with Jana?”
“No!”
Robin wasn’t an idiot. “This isn’t about Scarlett. This is about saving your own skin. What did you do, Alan?”
Jana made a moue with her lips. “Boys, please don’t fight.” She laid gentle fingers on Robin’s arm and he shook her away. She tried again. “Robin, you really need to stop making a scene. Listen to Alan—we’re only trying to keep your sister out of trouble.” She let out a laugh as soft as fluttering butterfly wings. “You only need to stop what you’re doing, okay, sweetheart? Just let us finish up here in Nottingham and everything will be fine. I have friends who are very upset with your interference.”
Robin was so angry that he could barely respond. All they needed to do was use his sister against him and he was putty in their hands. Guy had said that he had evidence to take Scarlett down. He tried to find a way out of this. “I’ll just leave,” he said. The town didn’t need him to finish what he’d started. Most of the damage against Guy was already done. “I’ll take Scarlett, Marian and Midge and we’ll go.”
Alan paled at that.
“No,” she said slowly. “I think we can do better. I mean, I think we’re wasting an opportunity here. You could be very helpful to us.” She hooked her arm through Robin’s and sighed into him. “How about you be our guest tonight?” He’d never wanted to strangle someone so much. “We need to talk,” she explained.
Robin would never leave his sister unprotected. And what of Marian? What would she think? “No,” he said. “I’m not leaving Scarlett.”
“She’s fine,” Jana chirped, enjoying her new role as Robin’s jailer. “Anyway,whywould we want anything to happen to her? Then you wouldn’t help us.” Good point. And Robin didn’t trust it. “We’ll leave her here with herlovinghusband.”
Robin couldn’t look at Alan. How long had Guy been manipulating him like this? He had no doubt that Alan was involved in all this shady business. Maybe from the beginning. Now he was their lapdog.
“If you want to talk to me, you’ll do it here,” Robin said.
