Page 98 of Robin and Marian
It was then that his phone buzzed. His hands shook when he pulled it out from his pocket. It was from Alan. The text swam through his blurry vision:“Robin! Scarlett ran into the sawmill after we fought. She must’ve set it on fire. She’s in there. I can’t get to her.”
Therewas his next appointment. His limbs felt weak with exhaustion and revulsion. Was he too late? Had Alan already murdered his dear sister? His hand wouldn’t stop shaking.
Marian’s head moved against him as she tried to stop him from going. “It’s a trap!”
“I know.” Still, he had to try. Maybe it wasn’t too late? Maybe Alan would wait to kill Scarlett until he was sure that Robin was there to take the blame. “Marian?” He took her face in his hands and tried to get her to focus on him. “Text Alan. Tell him that Guy killed me—you’re scared and alone in the woods.”
“Guy threw my phone in the water!”
He rubbed his aching forearm and texted the message himself:“Alan, this is Marian. Robin is dead. Guy killed him. Guy came after me and broke his neck in a ravine. I’m getting the sheriff. I’ll tell him about the fire.”
She nodded, looking grim.
The heirs to Richard’s fortune couldn’t all die on the same night in separate freak accidents without someone getting suspicious. If Alan was as devious as Robin thought, he’d change the game plan… if it was possible. Robin prayed that it was. “Let’s go!” he said.
Marian leaned heavily on his arm, limping beside him. They made a slow procession—too slow. They were getting nowhere this way. He crouched down, his hands going to her leg as he studied the torn flesh at her ankle. Her toe was purpling. He felt sick. “I’msosorry,” he whispered. Then he straightened and forced his voice to be light. “We’re really going to have to pick up the pace. Get on my back!”
“Your back?”
“Yes.” The other option was carrying her through the forest like a sack of potatoes, and after what Guy had done to her, he could never bring himself to do it. He turned his back to her. “It’s okay, Marian, get on.”
There was no other way, and she did so quickly, slipping her smooth arms around his neck while he hefted her up and kept her in place with his good hand.
Robin carried her through the forest like that until they reached the shore and found his Jet Ski bobbing back and forth in the reeds. He positioned her leg gently on the runner, his wrist aching as he settled himself into the seat in front of her and drove them away from that nightmare. She held tightly to him as they rushed over the lake to get to his sister. The shadow of a black cloud spread ominously across the water and stank of burning wood, and just beyond the canopy of trees where John’s sawmill would be, the sky was lit up by a massive blaze. His sister could be in there.
He couldn’t look away. His brother-in-law hadn’t texted fake Marian back, and he wasn’t sure if Alan had bought his story. They’d been bluffing each other all night, and Alan had been at it much longer. It disturbed Robin how well Alan had played his part—from the betrayed friend to the concerned, accommodating man-at-arms, and finally the misjudged lover. All for what? Robin’s thoughts lingered on Guy’s still form lying in the black forest. It hadn’t had to happen. They’d had enough money to share.
They reached the sawmill. The stench from the fire burned his nostrils. So far, no firetrucks. The game had only started. Little John had a dock next to his cabin and they pulled up there.
He turned to Marian. Her leg was gashed up, and he wanted her nowhere near this. “Wait here,” he said. She protested and he caught her in his arms and kissed her, pulling from her lips his strength as the Jet Ski bobbed in the water beneath them; then he ripped himself away, falling over his feet as he dashed up the wooden bridge to Little John’s cabin.
He went around to the front of the sawmill where the largest concentration of smoke billowed over everything. “Please, Scarlett!” He found himself saying it aloud. “Don’t be in there.”
And then he heard her screams from the upper window. The whole thing had a nightmarish quality and left his heart pounding. Lifting his head, he could see the tiny window where he and Marian had looked out to see Main Street. It was where he’d first kissed her after she’d discovered the truth about him, and now his sister would die there?
Not if he could help it.“Scarlett!” he shouted.
“Robin!” she sobbed. “Alan put me in here.”
“I know! I know!”
Aware that this whole thing could be a trap, he ran to the front entrance and found it locked. Of course, it was. He threw himself against it, but Little John had made it too strong. The windows weren’t close to the ground, and he already knew from being inside that the ones on the other side of the mill faced a death-defying drop to the lake.
He rushed to Little John’s place to find a ladder. The dogs barked loudly. They wouldn’t survive if this fire jumped to the lumberyard too. Everything was locked so securely that it was impossible to do much of anything. Rushing to the side of the little log cabin and still feeling too slow, his knees collided into the ladder. Little John had set it across two paint cans. A box of tools came crashing to the sawdust at his feet while he dragged it to the side of the mill with the lowest window.
“Scarlett! Come this way!” His hands landed on the nearest rung and he began climbing just as two arms wrapped around him, tackling him down. Twisting, he saw Alan had finally shown up.
Alan threw his elbow into Robin’s neck and Robin choked, falling back as Alan relentlessly wrestled him back from his sister. Robin’s arm knocked against Alan’s hard jaw as he tried to fight past him. Alan no longer played the concerned friend. His fingers tore into Robin’s hurt arm. The man’s blue eyes had a dead look to them and he wasn’t smiling. “Does this mean that you killed Guy instead?”
Robin didn’t answer that. Alan had used a crazy man to cheat and steal his way to the top. He wouldn’t stop until they were all dead. He knocked Alan in the stomach with his knee, and that loosened his hold on him. Alan meant for it to look like the King clan had all wiped each other out for the crown. What a joke. “You expect anyone to believe I killed my sister?”
“You’ll be surprised what people want to believe!” Alan sneered. That was Alan’s business plan in a sentence. “And here you are with your ankle tracker—the same time that Scarlett died her fiery death.”
“She won’t!” He shoved Alan from him, his palm scraping against the bristle of Alan’s cheek as he got to his feet, kicking him viciously in the head on his way out, stumbling back to the ladder. He didn’t get far. Alan’s hand caught at his leg and tripped him. Robin’s chin scraped against the gravel as he hit it hard, and Alan was on top of him again, pummeling him with his fists. Robin spun around, using his cast to shield himself from the worst of the blows. He knew what Alan was trying to do now—distract him until Scarlett was dead so he could point at Robin and play the victim.
“Robin!”
Marian ran forward, limping as she went. Bless her heart! Robin threw an upper cut into Alan’s ribcage, shouting up at her, “Get Scarlett! Save my sister.” He didn’t have to ask her twice. She ran to the ladder, her hurt foot dragging sideways. All she’d be able to do was lead his sister to the window with her voice.
