Robin and Her Merry Men (8 page)

“Actually, I do. The last publicized listing price at auction was said to be over
seventy-one
and a half million dollars. This will change everything.”

“Yeah, it will.” He huffed a deep breath out of his inflated cheeks, still lost in a state of shock.
“What’s the plan?” As dangerous as it was, she had a point. It was time to take a stand against the man who had destroyed their city without a shred of compassion for those who were caught in the crosshairs. His riches were the fruit of other’s hard labor.

“Tonight, we go
to
observe and take notes. We have a lot of recon to do before his shiny new picture arrives in two months.”

“So that’s it? A few nights of watching before we walk out the front door lugging
a century
and a half old priceless piece of art?”
Disbelief peppered his words.

Robin rolled her eyes over dramatically. “And this is why I work alone. No, Einstein, there is a complex process that involves a more complex system. We watch. We research
:
blue prints, security companies, phone bills
. Y
ou get the picture. Then, we observe his schedul
e. Where he goes, what he eats,
that kind of thing. The one thing besides money all of these rich bastards have in common is routine. Lastly, we plan. And re
-
plan. And plan again. I won’t go in without at least
five
different b
ack
up escape routes.”

“How are you getting the supplies you need without drawing a huge red circle around your name for the cops?”

Robin shook her head. If he wanted to help, fine. Her suppliers and resources were confidential. “That’s on a need to know basis.”

John’s features twisted sarcastically. “And, I don’t need to know. Got it.”

“Glad to see you’re catching up. Can you meet me back here at dusk?”

“Y
e
p. I have a few meetings today, but after that
,
I’m free. It’ll give me time to do a perimeter
check
to make sure there aren’t any more rent
-
a
-
pigs watching
your apartment. Just shoot me a text when you are on your way?” His eyes danced flirtatiously over her, heating her core and sending a chill up the back of he
r
neck.
Damn
,
he was sexy
.

“I…
u
m,
you’re
number. I need your number.”
Way to keep it cool, Robin.

Like the gentleman he was, only the small smile that twerked up the corners of his mouth gave his satisfaction away. He knew he got to her. She knew he got to her. So, now what?

“I took the liberty of adding it last night.” He walked over an
d kissed her, leaving her something to think about the rest of the day. Once h
e had her in a breathless mess
, he backed off. “See you tonight.” John dropped one last peck on her nose and went to the door, flashing her a smile before he closed it behind him.

“Yeah…
see you later,” she whispered as the door clicked shut. She flicked her cell phone on and tapped the contacts icon out of curi
osity. She scrolled past the ‘N
’s’ for
Naylor
,
not finding anything. So, naturally she looked under ‘J’, but came up with nothing again. “Why would he have said he added it…unless he has no intention of seeing me again?” Frustrated, she flipped through the list, bu
r
sting out in laughter when she found it. “Sex God. Seriously?” Before she turned the screen off and went to shower, her phone rang, playing the theme song from the Disney’s
Robin Hood
movie. ‘
Little John and Robin Hood running through the fore
st…”
The more the familiar song played, the harder she laughed. Truth be
told, it was her favorite child
hood movie. The irony of it all was just too much. She answered, still in a fit of giggles. “I see you like my ringtone. Just makin’ sure you found it in your phone.”

“You are corny. Yes, oh mighty Sex God, I found you. Now go away
,
dork.”

John laughed. “See you tonight.”

“Bye.” She clicked the phone off, giggling
on her way to the
shower. Even
though it was a bad idea, she couldn’t help but let a piece of her heart fall. She felt the overwhelming sink of her stomach at
the
revelation but couldn’t change how she felt. John was
different;
after all, he did make plans to meet her tonight. The fact they slept together last night had to count for a few dates, right? Maybe he wouldn’t hightail it away from her like the others had.

When the hot water cascaded down over her, doubt washed away with it. Who knew what the future held. All she could do was embrace the present and enjoy what life passed her. Today was the first of what she hoped was many to come.

Robin grinned as she hopped in her little car, feeling on top of the world.
Her duffle bag of cash rested in the trunk, locked in snug and tight.
Please don’t let me get car jacked or pulled over today
,
Lord
.
I have
to make it just a few more hours
.
She had finished her notes and turned in her article to the editor, getting praise on a job well done. Her editor was a hard as nails bitch who was next to impossible to impress, but today she had done just that. Sunday morning her story would be plastered on the front page and read in houses everywhere. She couldn’t help but ring Mary and share her good news. “Mary
,
guess what?”

“Robin? What has you all bubbly today? This doesn’t have anything to do with a certain sexy eyed man who fucked you silly last night
,
does it?”
s
he teased.

“No. Yes. No
—”

“Well which is it? Did he slip you the sausage or not?”
Mary’s crude sense of humor never ceased to shock her.

“You’
re horrible. Yes, I got dick.
Good dick. Amazing hard, long, massive cock.
Now shut up and let me tell you why I’m freaking out.”

“Damn, no need to get loutish. That’s no way for a lady to talk.”

Robin had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from blowing up. The good mood she had just been in was suddenly replaced with irritation. Mary was…well, Mary. She was a pain in the ass, but hilarious and
no matter what was her bestest friend in the whole world.
“Do I have your attention now that you have totally ruined my good news high?”

“What? I swear you are a drama queen. Yes, please tell me before I die from not knowing.” Her voice faded off thea
trically, taking on a Scarlett O’H
a
ra southern bell drawl. Robin couldn’t help but laugh.

“Okay
,
goober, so I just got out of the editor’s office. Not only is my article on the new ‘go green’ school going to be on the front page, the frigid bitch actually said it was amazing and didn’t point out a single negative thing!” A
high-pitched
squeal came over the phone.

“Wow
,
I’m so proud of you! This is definitely a cause for celebration if there ever was one! I’m coming over with my two favorite men, Mr. Jose and Mr. Daniels! Order pizza. We are gonna get our drunk on!” Before Mary could go on a ramble like she always did, Robin spoke up, shutting her down before she rented the circus
out
come and put on a show.

“I can’t tonight
,
hun.”
Three…two…one…
C
ue twenty questions.
Robin knew there was no getting out of spending the rest of her drive home attempting to answer only to be cut off each time with another question. Hopefully she could talk fast and get it out before she had to cancel her real plans and spend the next few hours locked with her cell attached to her ear.

“Explain. Now.” Mary had dropped into her momma bear voice, giving no room for argument.

Robin let out a deep sigh and started at the beginning, with the cops, John, and his new plan to join the crew of bandits to help steal from the people he saw on a daily basis in his family’s friends list. “So, tonight he wants to meet to
scope
out the grand finale job.” Even
though she wasn’t on the cops suspect list, she still knew to talk in code. Mary knew her enough that she didn’t even ask. She knew right away what Robin meant.

“
The
grand finale?”

“Y
e
p, that’s the one.”

“So, after you are going to be back doing the naughty with Mr. Little John, who isn’t so little, in all aspects of the word?” Mary had bounced back into her excited juicy detail detective voice.

“Is that all you think about? No, a
fter I need to go make a delivery. I probably won’t be home until sometime tomorrow, so don’t worry if you don’t hear from me. My cell d
oesn’t get reception out there.”

“You know I hate you going out there in the middle of nowhere by yourself. Why don’t you let me go with you? Who knows, I might find a woodsman for myself.” Robin bu
r
st out in fake laughter.

“You. A woodsman. Funny.”

“Hey, I happen to think the rough survivor type guys are hot
,
” Mary defended.

“Maybe so, but I just can’t see you roughing it without Starbucks and a mani
-
pedi salon.”

“It could happen
.
T
hey have coffee
,
right? I’d just get a cool retro green mani to match the trees and stuff.
Okay, I gotta run. Call me as soon as you are back in the civilized world.”

“I will. Love you.”

“Love you,” Mary said before Robin clicked off the phone. She decided to make a quick food pit stop before she met up for their night stakeout and pulled into the fast food drive through.
After ordering an obscene amount of chicken nuggets and requesting enough honey to fill a gallon jug, she headed home, inhaling her less than healthy meal.

Once her car was parked
, she
loaded up her purse, food, drink, and briefcase, juggling them to the door. When she went to go inside, the door was cracked open. As much as she knew it wasn’t a good idea to go inside for safety concerns, she quietly opened it just enough to get a look inside. Her place was wrecked. She heard voices coming from the back and ran back to her car, stepping as quietly as she could until she was locked safely in and driving out of the parking lot. Once she was a safe distance away
, she
pulled out her phone and dialed John. “Come on, answer
,
pleaseeee!”

On the eighth ring, he answered, “Robin?”

“John
,
listen
,
have you been to my house?” She tried to keep the panic out of her voice but knew he picked up on it immediately.

“Not yet, what’s going on?”

“I was just there. I go
t to the door and it was open…
I didn’t go in, but the place was trashed. I heard voices coming from the back and
ran as fast as I could
to my car. I’m on my way to safety now.”

“Shit! Okay, I’ll go and call the cops. You stay out of sight until I come get you, got it?”
The alpha
male was back. She adored his softer side, but couldn’t resist the surge of lust that went through her from his tone. Her mind wandered, deliberating how
dominant
he would really go if she pushed back. The idea had her heart doing
flip-flops
in her chest. “Robin!”
h
e cut through her thoughts, pulling her back.

“What…
sorry. I’m, uh, driving.”

“Do not go home until I find out who broke in and why.
Understand?” John sounded like he was scolding her.

“Yes
,
geeze
,
I got it. Be careful.”

“Don’t worry about me. You just get to safety, and take the battery out of your phone. Until we know what the hell is going on and how experienced these people are, it’s better to be safe than sorry. I don’t want them using the GPS to locate you
,
baby. I’ll come get you as soon as it’s clear.”

Did he just call her baby? “Okay. Bye.” She hung up, more concerned and confused by his word choice than why her house and personal items were being invaded. If it
were
the law
,
they would have served a search warrant and had black and whites all over the
premises
. So, who then? All of the rich bitches she had stole
n
from would have wanted the law brought down hard not only for their own personal satisfaction but also for the media attention. It just didn’t add up.

The rest of the drive, Robin pondered. Between who was searching for her, or something they thought she had, and if there was meaning
behind the ‘baby’ comment, she drove down the dirt road to where her woodland friends resided before she realized it. Part way down, the road seemed to just end. “What the
—
” Robin
looked around, wondering if she had made a wrong turn somewhere. “This is the right road…so where is the rest of it?”
Nightfall
was near. She had to find camp or risk sleeping in her
car, which
was the size of a shoe
box
.
Not
a big athletic
shoebox
, but one sandals came in.
Definitely not going to happen. How hard could it be
just
to trek it? With that, she grabbed her hoodie out of the back seat and got out, locking her doors behind her. She did a general observation of her surroundings, and walked north. If she could keep a somewhat straight line, she
should run into camp before sun
set and the nocturnal
predators
of the forest came out to hunt.
Great. So I might have over
shot this
judgment
call by a
itsy bitsy
tiny
bit. What’s the worst out here? Deer? Owls? Bears…mountain lions…
Shit.
Well, whatever is out here is better than what is at home.
With her mind made up, she sped up her pace, determined.

*****

Will was hoisting up the last load of firewood for the night when he noticed the forest had
gone
silent. Normally, birds chirped, squirrels scurried, deer
trampled
. So, why had silence fell over Sherwood?
We have company.
He quietly set his load back in a pile and eased
through the trees silently.
About four hundred yards from his wood stack he heard something. Whoever it was wasn’t trying to go unnoticed, that he was certain. It sounded like a herd of buffalo trampling through the brush, tripping and thudding. The more he listened, the more he was convinced that whoever was headed in his direction wasn’t familiar with the forest, or outdoors for that matter. He immediately went on offense, ready to take the threat head on, by any means necessary. He reached for his buck knife at his side, reassured it hung with the latch open and ready to
use
whenever he called on it.
No one’s going to bring
a
threat up in my neck of the woods. You are about to meet your worst nightmare
,
motherfucker
.
Except the
motherfucker
…was a woman. By the looks of it, a very small,
petite
,
clumsy
…
Robin?
How the hell did she find her way? That girl has no inner compass, and y
et, something has her wande
r
ing
through the woods right before dark. Something
wa
s wrong.
He forgot his death
-
to
-
whomeve
r
-
walked
-
down
-
the
-
shady
-
path ag
enda and
grew apprehensive. He stepped out from the shadows and toward her, realizing that although he was less than twenty feet from her, she still hadn’t spotted him. In
an
attempt not
to
scare the living s
hit out of her, he cleared his
throat and announced himself. “Robin?” The look on her face made his gut twist. She was afraid, and relieved to see him despite his previous asshol
e
behavior. Before he realized what she was doing, she ran up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Will! Thank God! I didn’t know if I’d end up lost out here!”
He hugged her back, realizing she was trembling and
on the
verge of tears.

“Why are you here?” She immediately pulled away, looking like a scorned lover who had walked in on an affair.

“I…
I didn’t know where else to go.” He closed the distance and pulled her against him tight.

“What’s going on
,
Robin?” His voice growled, but not because she had c
o
me
back despite his warnings like
he thought. He was pissed something had her scared and willing to risk becoming dinner for a bear or cougar.

“I got back to my apartment after work and the door was open. The place was a wreck, and I heard voices coming from the back room. So, I ran. I had planned
to come
tonight to deliver what I promised but hadn’t expected to find someone out for me
,
or something they think I have.”

“Shit. Robin, what was the last job?” His eyes were narrowed on her in an intensity she felt shove through her.

“Nothing big… I went in to submit my
front
page
story about the new ‘go green’ school they are building. All of my interviews and information was approved.”

“Not that job. Your
other
job.”

Recognition hit her featu
res and her eyes dropped. “Oh,
the Hope Diamond. They won’t find anything though. I already sold it and have the cash with me to give to you and the others.”

He stood in silence, nodding in thought. “Come on.” He turned and walked off, expecting her to
follow
—
which
she did. As much as his egotistical notion got under her skin, the idea of camping out with the critters and no shelter trumped it. Much to her surprise, he did stop and help her through dense patches or to hoist her over
the occasional fallen tree
. Twenty minutes into their hike, he slowed and fell in place beside her. “Does anyone know it was you who took it?”

She answered witho
ut giving it deliberation. “No,
j
ust Mary.” Then it hit her
.
John. “And John. But I have known him my entire life. He is supposed to help me on the next huge job.”

“Who is he?”

She knew where he was going. There was no way. “Like I said, I grew up with him. He saw me in his
parents’
house when I dropped in for a quick jewelry heist and didn’t turn me in. The Hope Diamond job, again he was waiting for me. Plus, he is the one who gave me the hookup to sell it only hours after I had it in possession. No. There must have been someone else…”

“Robin, unless you are missing something and someone else saw you,
you need to reevaluate your keen opinion of John. If it were cops, they would have slapped a search warrant on the door and had the place crawling with uniforms. You would have been served at work.” He knew it was probably hard for her to swallow but she needed the reality of it all. What she did was dangerous and trusting anyone was a mistake. Next time, she might not be so lucky.

“I know, but it wasn’t him. It couldn’t have been…
”
Doubt began to fog through her brain in a dense blackness.
Will let her toss it around in her mind and come to the con
clusion herself. If he would’
ve been
persistent
, she would have immediately defended this guy. Before they got to camp, her scared expression had darkened, hollowing her eyes and firming her lips into a
hard-set
line of anger. She knew what he did. “It looks like John has some
s
plainin
’
to do.” Despite the fact she spoke in a thick Ricky off
I Love Lucy
accent jokingly, she meant it. The mere idea that he could have slept with her only to betray her for an unknown reason or gain stabbed through her heart with a sharp sword.

Will
didn’t like the idea of this John character being thought of so highly by Robin, but the idea of him betraying her raked on his nerves even more. If he had ratte
d out the one and only person who
had taken a stand to help the greater good,
he’d have hell to pay. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, Robin was one of them. She had been accepted by the group, and given the bounty she carried had prove
n
her worth as good. The more he thought about it, the more pissed off he got.

He stole a glance at her and his heart sank. She looked like a whipped kitten, lost in her thoughts. For a woman who was as tough as nails, the idea of being betrayed had her knocked down. Did they have a history? Who exactly is John to her? His questions mounted,
raising
a streak of jealousy he wasn’t ready to admit. Before curiosity won the battle and he broke down and asked, they arrived at camp.

Franny ran to welcome her, followed by Sara and the others. He stepped back out of the way and observed, noticing straight away that she wasn’t as bubbly as normal. It didn’t seem right. Her spunk wasn’t there. Normally, he took off out of
eyesight
and listened in on
t
he conversation for any threat or information. And, to be honest, he wan
t
ed to get to know her. With their situation, it wasn’t easy for him to trust. Now, watching her, he felt guilty for
being a peeping tom.
Instead of storming off and avoiding her, this time he sat
,
lean
ing
up against a tree
,
and just listened.

It amazed him at how loved she was with his family. All of the children ran around her, excited to share their new findings and projects they had made. She gave each one her
undivided
attention and it was genuine,
not faked or for the sake of others. The longer he observed, the more he grew to actually
,
dare he say
,
like her?

After a
b
i
t of conversation, Robin stood, smiling. Bag in hand, she handed it over to Franny. “This is for you.”

Franny unzipped it, her eyes bulgi
ng out of her head. “Lord
above!
Look! She did it!” She opened it enough the others crowding around could view the mound of cash that was tucked inside.

Ox leaned over Sara’s shoulder to see, letting out a loud
w
hoop. “Robin Hoode, princess of thieves! Pastor Tuck, get out your best homemade wine. Tonight, we celebrate!”

Will couldn’t help but laugh. He hadn’t seen this much excitement in their eyes ever. Robin had followed through with her promise. Now it was time he made a few of his own. Starting now, Robin was one of them. Whoever was after her would have to go through him first. “Hell hath no fury on the Scarlett boys,
”
h
e
said to himself.
Tomorrow he would meet with the others and hatch out a plan, but tonight…tonight he had other things on his mind.