“Rob, help me,” she screamed.
Tim barely had time to half-turn his head before Rob grabbed him by one arm and threw him backwards. Tim struck the kitchen table with the back of his thighs.
The crazed rage on Tim’s face was unlike anything Rob had ever seen. The sight galvanized Rob. At last he had a target for his pent-up fury. He started toward Tim, who pushed off the table and met him halfway. They came together in a frenzy of clutching and swinging, each of them trying to rain as much mayhem as possible on the other. Tim’s open hand clawed its way across Rob’s face. Rob managed to get his elbow up and block the second swipe before countering with a punch of his own. Tim’s head snapped back and Rob felt the satisfaction of solid contact with Tim’s nose.
Seizing the advantage, Rob drove forward and the two of them toppled to the floor. Rob straddled Tim’s chest and started pummeling Tim’s head. Tim did his best to protect himself, but one of his hands was caught beneath Rob’s knee. The lower half of Tim’s face quickly became slick with blood from his lips and nose.
Lesley was suddenly at Rob’s shoulder, trying to pull him away.
“Rob, stop it!”
Rob jerked his shoulder out of her grasp. His need to punish the pitiful looking creature beneath him winked out, though, instantly displaced by a flash of anger toward Lesley. He gave Tim one final disgusted push and struggled to his feet.
He rounded on Lesley.
“What the hell are you doing out here?” he roared at her. “And with him?”
Lesley flinched as if he had taken a swing at her.
“No,” she said. “It’s not—”
“Do you know what I’ve been through trying to find you?” He gestured angrily toward the pull-out couch. “And then I find the two of you like this?”
“It’s not what you think. You don’t understand.”
Tim pushed himself up onto one elbow and wiped blood away from his mouth with one forearm.
“I guess now you know,” he said to Rob.
Rob drew in a quivering breath between clenched teeth and stifled the urge to launch himself at Tim again.
“That’s not true,” Lesley said.
“Dammit, Lesley,” Rob said, “I saw the two you on that couch.”
“You see?” Tim said to Lesley with a smirk on his face. “He saw us.”
“Shut up!” Lesley’s eyes blazed with hatred at Tim. She looked back at Rob.
“Don’t believe a word he says. He’s been lying all along, about everything. Just a few minutes ago he admitted sabotaging the bank accounts, even told me the keyword.”
Rob felt a rush of heat to his face as all the suspicions he had lined up in his mind suddenly fell like dominoes.
Tim managed a surprised look and a tiny smile as he stood up.
“I never said any such thing.”
Rob grabbed a handful of Tim’s bloody T-shirt.
“You lying bastard. How could you set me up like that?”
Tim threw off Rob’s hand with an angry twist of his shoulder. He staggered back a step and flashed a bloody grin.
“You’re going to believe her? Man, she’s just messing with your head. You should hear the stories she told me about you.”
“Rob, I never—”
“I’m not buying your lies anymore,” Rob said to Tim. “I know it was you. The only part I can’t figure out is why.”
“You’re crazy,” Tim said and spat blood on the cabin floor. “She’s been playing you and me for a long time. I can see that now. She’s just like all the rest of them.”
Tim went to walk past Rob, who moved over to block his path.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Rob said.
“What? You want to beat me up some more? I need to get something for my face.”
Tim shouldered his way past Rob and headed for the kitchen where he pulled a dishtowel from one of the drawers. He moved to the sink and started running water over the rag.
Rob turned his attention to Lesley. She had trouble meeting his eyes.
“What you saw in the window,” she said. “It’s not what you think.”
“Yeah right,” Tim said, and then laughed. He pressed the damp towel to his bleeding mouth and wandered into the bedroom.
Rob paid him no attention. He held up his hands, palms facing Lesley.
“What the hell do you want me to say?” he said. “You say he’s lying. He says you’re lying. The whole goddamn world is turned upside down.”
Tears brimmed in Lesley’s eyes. When she spoke her voice quivered with stress.
“I know and I’m so sorry for what you’ve had to go through. I promise everything I said is true. He did tell me the keyword. Oh God can we just get out of here and go call the police? Please?”
Rob wanted to believe her but he was too exhausted to think straight. He just felt heavy all over, like every ounce of energy had been drained from his entire body. He sighed and dejectedly shook his head.
“All right,” he said, “let’s go.”
“I don’t think so,” Tim said as he emerged from the bedroom.
He shoved a shell into the shotgun, snapped the gun shut and leveled it in the direction of Rob and Lesley. His eyes were full of frightened desperation.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
A chill ran down Rob’s spine. He moved over in front of Lesley, blocking her from Tim.
“Hey now,” Rob said. “You don’t need that.”
Tim pointed the shotgun squarely at Rob’s chest. Rob kicked himself mentally for leaving Kirsten’s gun in his car.
“You want to know why I did it?” Tim said.
“Put the gun down.”
“That’s what you said, right? You can’t figure out why anyone would do such a thing to mister big man on campus Donovan.”
“Tim, come on.”
“That’s just like you, you know that? Nobody would do anything bad to Rob. Everybody loves Rob.”
Rob took a step toward Tim.
“Look, this is really—”
Tim snapped the gun up to his shoulder and sighted down the barrel at Rob, who wisely stopped moving.
“You have no idea what it’s like to be the little guy,” Tim said, “the one who gets to stay home when you’re out having fun. Well it’s payback time.”
“How did I ever—”
Tim shouted at him. “She was the only good thing that ever happened to me!”
Tim’s knuckles whitened from gripping the shotgun so tightly. Rob hardly dared to breathe.
“And you took her away,” Tim said. “You could have had any girl you wanted, but you had to steal mine.”
“Tim,” Lesley said.
Rob hadn’t noticed Lesley move to one side. She was no longer behind him. Tim’s gaze shifted to Lesley, then flicked nervously to Rob once again, back and forth like the eyes of a sentry expecting attack from two directions.
“Tim,” Lesley said. “Look at me.”
He did so, but the shotgun still pointed in Rob’s direction.
“Rob didn’t steal me. He couldn’t have, because I was never yours to begin with.”
“You were too.”
“It was never going to work between us,” Lesley said. “That’s why I broke up with you, way back in high school.”
“You’re lying. You’re trying to protect him.”
“Face it, Tim,” she said. “You’re moaning about losing something you never had.”
This time when Tim’s eyes shifted back to Lesley, the barrel of the shotgun followed suit.
“Whoa, now,” Rob said, stepping in front of Lesley once more. “Let’s everybody just calm down.”
He could see a tear running down Tim’s cheek.
“I know you don’t want to shoot us,” Rob said, “so why don’t Lesley and I just leave?”
Tim continued to stare down the barrel at Rob, silent tears still streaming down his face. Rob took Lesley’s hand and took one tentative sideways step in the direction of the door.