The Player's Club: Lincoln

by Cathy Yardley

  Finn came back from the balcony. “I got the type of security system George uses,” he said smugly. “I called the guy who puts in all the family’s stuff, told him I liked George’s. He pointed out it’s the same one I have.”

  Terrence rubbed his hands together. “Now we’re talking.”

  “Of course, he couldn’t get me a copy of his front door key,” Finn said. “Terrence, does your security expertise extend to picking locks?”

  “Only if they’re electronic.”

  “Don’t worry,” Lincoln said. “I’ve got that one.”

  All of them, except Juliana, shifted to stare at him.

  He took a deep breath, then plunged forward. “Legacy of a misspent youth. For a good portion of my teens and twenties I was doing things that weren’t technically legal.” He shrugged. “I’m not proud of what I did, but the people I stole from were plenty rich enough, usually jerks enough to deserve it, and I’m completely reformed now, anyway.”

  They remained silent. Then Finn’s face cracked into a wide smile. Terrence, on the other hand, simply gaped.

  “You guys are so cool.” Terrence spoke reverently.

  “I always suspected,” Scott added, while Amanda just shook her head.

  Juliana, on the other hand, sent him a look of support, and pride. He was opening up. He felt the old fears—screaming at him not to tell anyone—slowly loosening their death grip on him.

  Finn’s phone rang again, and he quickly shushed them. “It’s George,” he said. They all went still as a morgue. “Hey, George, what’s going on?”

  Lincoln felt ire bubble up inside him. From Finn’s nasty expression, George was finally calling with his demands.

  “George, do you really hate us enough to want to blackmail us? No, don’t answer that.” Finn handed the phone away. “Linc, he wants to talk to you.”

  Lincoln took the phone. “What do you want, George?”

  “I want you to know that when you go to jail, I’m the one who put you there.” George’s voice was shaded with contempt, underscored by smug triumph. “I’m taking this little video Juliana made, and I’m going to the police. The chief has been looking for some rich, petty, entitled guys to nail to the wall, and you bunch couldn’t be more perfect if you were ordered out of a damned catalog.”

  “If you were going to give that straight to the police, you’d have done it by now,” Lincoln said in a tired voice. “So what do you really want?”

  There was a pause. Then, bitterly he said, “I want you to spread the word with all those contacts you somehow have. The ones that have booted me out of almost every nightclub and hot spot in San Francisco. I’m tired of being a damned leper because you think you’re so much better than me.”

  “Done.” This could be easier than he thought, Lincoln hoped. Though the acid burning in his chest told him differently. “I suppose you want back in the club, too.”

  “Like hell. You guys are just pussies now,” George said dismissively. “I’m starting my own club.”

  “Good for you. Anything else?”

  “Money,” George spat out. “I think you guys owe me some, for the emotional distress I’ve been through since you shut me out.”

  Lincoln shook his head. When Finn looked at him quizzically, he pantomimed money, rubbing his fingertips together. Finn’s corresponding gesture suggested exactly what he thought of George’s demand, which almost made him laugh.

  “How much?” he said instead, when he could trust himself to keep the mirth out of his voice.

  “Two million ought to do it.”

  No problem—not laughing now. “You’re out of your mind.”

  “Finn’s got it, believe me. Maybe not liquid, but he’s got plenty,” George said. Lincoln sensed that it wasn’t just poor planning on his part—he wanted to hurt them. “And even though I can’t prove it, I know you’re rolling in it, too.”

  “What makes you think we won’t just go to jail?” Lincoln said. “It’s not like we committed murder.”

  “Yeah, but you’ve never liked publicity,” George said craftily. “You think I don’t know why you really put the rule in, about nobody talking about the club? What the hell do you have to hide?”

  Lincoln stiffened. Then, inexplicably, he searched for Juliana. She looked pissed, like an avenging angel. A really sexy avenging angel, admittedly. Once you got past the anger, though…he could sense the love, and the support.

  “That used to be true,” Lincoln said quietly. “Now? I think I’d rather take my chances.”

  George spluttered on the other end of the line. “I’m going to take this to the police! I’m going to take it directly to Chief Freedman, when he gets into the office on Monday! And I’m not going to rest until you and that smarmy cousin of mine know exactly what sort of—”

  “Whatever,” Lincoln said, and hung up on him. “Okay, now we’re really going to need to steal that thing.”

  12

  “ELEVEN O’CLOCK,” Juliana said quietly, sitting in Lincoln’s Maybach as they headed toward George’s house in Pacific Heights. “Go time. Are we ready?”

  “More than,” Terrence said, practically bouncing in the seat next to her. Lincoln was driving; Finn was sitting in the passenger seat.

  Juliana tapped at the microphone on her sweater. “How about you guys? Scott, Amanda?”

  “We’re set up.” Scott’s ghostly voice was in her ear, from the tiny earbud Terrence had provided.

  “You have the coolest toys,” Finn said with approval, turning to fist-bump Terrence. “When all this is over, I had the perfect idea for a player outing. Did you know there isn’t an adventure camp anywhere that lets you be, like, a jewel thief? We could…”

  “We could focus,” Lincoln suggested, cutting across Finn’s enthusiasm. Or trying to, anyway… Finn mouthed “we’ll talk later” to Terrence, then winked at Juliana.

  She was going to miss this. For all the damned parties she’d been to in her life, all her so-called “friends,” she’d never been with people that she could just have fun with. The need to impress had always been foremost. She’d never been dressed in crappy clothes and hung around the house like she had with these guys. In just twelve hours, she felt closer to these few folks than she had with anyone else in her entire life.

  All it took was planning to commit a crime. Who knew?

  Lincoln pulled into the driveway, and Finn gave them the gate code. The iron door swung open at a snail’s pace. “Hope nobody’s watching.”

  From the far end of the street, they could make out Scott and Amanda’s covert surveillance car: a hybrid Lexus. It blended in, fortunately. “Eyes on,” Amanda said, sounding a little breathless and excited. It was sort of a buzz, Juliana had to admit. “And I’ve got the police scanner on again, so we’ll be monitoring.”

  “Next time, I want to be the one doing something exciting,” Scott groused.

  “We’ll see what we can do to make sure you’re not bored.” Amanda’s voice had a hint of promise.

  “Nothing I can hear, please, God,” Lincoln muttered, then Juliana saw him wince when he realized his mike, too, was on. Finn and Juliana laughed. Terrence simply kept bouncing.

  “Okay, let’s do this thing.” Finn looked and sounded like a five-year-old. “My suggestion—pretend that we’re drunk, and that I’m his bad cousin who’s going to use his house to party while he’s out. People probably use his house all the time. Neighbors aren’t going to think anything of people partying. Sedate people, however, are probably going to get a visit from the cops.”

  “No problem.” Juliana knew she could handle this test.

  They piled out of the car. Juliana did her best “oops, I’m tipsy” slight swagger. Lincoln laughed, though it sounded a little forced. It occurred to her that she’d never seen him drunk. Probably never wanted to give up control that way.

  Except when he was with her.

  Stay on point, she chided herself. Of all the times to get sidetracked, this was proba
bly the all-time worst.

  Terrence, unfortunately, got too much into character. He all but shouted with laughter as he stumbled his way to the front door.

  “Rein it in, Barrymore,” Lincoln said, and Terrence promptly dialed back his performance under Lincoln’s sharp glare. Finn kept laughing, though. They crowded to the front door, their backs hiding Lincoln as he knelt and brought out a few tools.

  “I’m out of practice,” Lincoln said, his fingers moving deftly. For a man with such big hands, their movements were slight and graceful, like a magician’s.

  He certainly did have magic hands. And she’d sure miss them.

  Before she could take back the thought, the lock clicked and the door swung open.

  “Holy crap,” Finn said. “How could you not tell me about this?” He was kidding—but not entirely, Juliana noticed. Lincoln sighed.

  “I’ll tell you over a beer—probably a lot of beers—when we get out of this.” The security system started letting-out high pitched beeps. “If we get out of this. Terrence, you’re up.”

  Immediately, Terrence went from hyper terrier to Zen monk. Cool and completely calm, he strode over to the security system panel, dismantling it with ease.

  “We need to get that flash disk,” she said. “Where does he keep his computer?”

  “Office, second floor,” Finn answered. “I’ll show you.”

  “I’ll stay here with Terrence,” Lincoln offered, looking with interest at the open circuitry of the system.

  Juliana smiled—you could take the boy out of crime, but sometimes you couldn’t take the crime out of the boy. For all his ironclad control, there was a mischievous bad boy that someday…

  No. Not someday, she corrected herself. And for a second, she wished that she’d never met him. “Come on. Let’s get this over with,” she told Finn, and rushed with him up the stairs.

  George’s house was tacky, overdone. It was coldly modern, with ostentatious artwork and stark angles, completely uncomfortable furniture. His office had a glass desk that was littered with papers and bills.

  “And I thought I was a pig,” Finn commented with disgust as they sifted through the crap littering the surface. “What does this thing look like?”

  “Like a flash disk. Black, silver…about the size of my thumb,” she said, riffling through bills. Past Due, Payment Immediately, she read, recognizing the tone immediately. Apparently, George was living a bit beyond his trust fund, as well.

  She felt sorry for him, she realized. Then thought: he doesn’t have to live this way. Neither do I.

  “Anything?” Finn asked.

  She stopped, closed her eyes. “He’s going to want to have it easily accessible. Probably be able to look at it. Watch it. So…”

  She searched for the computer console. It sat on the floor, a rat’s nest of wires leading up to his snazzy twenty-inch flat computer screen.

  There, in one of the back USB ports, was a thumb drive.

  “Got one,” she said.

  “Great. Let’s get the hell out of here....”

  “Wait,” she said, frowning. Was that it? She couldn’t tell. It looked like it…but hell, didn’t they all? “I need to check it first.” She hit the power button and booted up the computer.

  “What, now?” Finn glanced at his watch.

  “Not going to do us a lot of good if I grab a blank flash disk,” she retorted.

  “Why don’t we just grab all the flash disks, and make a run for it?” Finn said.

  She smiled as he jittered. “Thought you liked the adventure. Liked the adrenaline rush.”

  He smiled. “Generally speaking, I do,” Finn replied thoughtfully. “And if it were just me, that’d be one thing. But Lincoln would hate getting caught. It would kill him.” He sighed, and suddenly looked more serious than she’d ever seen. “He doesn’t think I notice,” Finn muttered. “But he’s got a lot of secrets, and you know, that’s okay. He’s my best friend. He can keep whatever secrets he wants.”

  “And since you’re his best friend…”

  “I’ll help him keep them,” Finn said loyally. “So let’s just get this done and get the hell out of here.”

  “Let me check this disk,” she said. “And let me make sure he hasn’t done something about backup.”

  “You said it was copy protected,” Lincoln’s voice said sharply over the earpiece. She’d forgotten about the earpiece, the mike. Apparently, so had Finn, who suddenly rubbed his hand over his eyes and smiled sheepishly.

  “It is,” she said. “But nothing’s perfect.”

  “Trust me, George is no hacker,” Lincoln quipped.

  “We have an hour. Let me just check, be sure.”

  “You want to, knock yourself out,” Finn said sharply. “I’m going downstairs.”

  She let him leave, then checked the disk. It was, just as she’d thought, and she quickly slipped it into her pants pocket. Not only was George not a hacker; he didn’t even have a password protect on his computer, or his email. She ought to feel guiltier, violating his privacy this way, as she searched for video files.

  She gasped.

  “What?” Lincoln asked immediately. “Did you find a copy?”

  “No.” She tilted her head, staring at the screen, shuddering. “But I see he’s quite the filmmaker.”

  “What, porn?” Finn asked. “He’s a guy.”

  “Home movies.

  “Ew,” Finn replied. “Don’t tell me.”

  “I don’t think the girls know they’re being filmed,” she said, feeling sick. She clicked the video off, scanning the inventory of files, all neatly listed by name and date.

  There was silence. Then Lincoln’s cold voice. “That bastard.”

  “Guys,” Scott said nervously. “We just got a call from Finn’s friend. George slipped out early, saying something about a phone call…he’s not sure when he left. For all he knows, George is on the way.”

  “Police are on the way,” Amanda quickly interrupted. “Get out. Get out now.”

  LINCOLN FROZE AT AMANDA’S words. As Terrence reassembled the security system, Lincoln barked into his mike, “Finn, Juliana, grab the disk. We’re getting out of here, now.”

  Finn was already on the stairs. “Right behind you.”

  “Did you touch anything?” Lincoln asked automatically.

  “Well, yeah,” Finn said, rolling his eyes. “Which is why I’m wearing the gloves you insisted on, remember?”

  “Sorry. Habit,” Lincoln said, although that particular habit hadn’t really been in use for several years. “Okay. Terrence, we’ll reset the security alarm as soon as Juliana’s down.”

  “Screw the alarm,” he heard Juliana say. “Just get outside. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “You’ll come down now,” Lincoln snapped. “What the hell is taking you so long?”

  “I’m erasing these files.”

  Lincoln swore, then sighed. Finn nodded. “I would, too.”

  Terrence nodded. “That’s not cool.”

  “Fine. We’ll wait in the car,” Lincoln barked in a low voice. “But if you’re not out in three minutes, so help me, Juliana…”

  “Go without me,” she said. “Just move it, will you?”

  “Fine.” Lincoln followed Finn and Terrence as they moved hastily to the car, all pretense at being drunk gone. They got into their respective seats.

  “Police ought to be here in a minute. They’re not going to have their sirens on—rich neighborhood, they don’t want to wake anybody up, and they don’t know you’re on to them.” Amanda’s voice held none of the breathless, thrilled quality that it had when they’d showed up. Now fear leached into her words.

  “You two, drive off now,” Lincoln instructed, starting the car and wishing Juliana would hurry up. “Juliana, you don’t have three minutes.”

  “Get out of the driveway. Don’t let them box you in,” Juliana shot back. “Wait around the corner.”

  “Juliana!”

  “Wa
it around the corner,” she repeated relentlessly. “I’ll get out and meet you, all right?”

  Lincoln swore. “Fine. It’s on your head, then.”

  Furious, he pulled out of the driveway and sped away. As they drove slowly down the street, the police zoomed past them, lights on, sirens off.

  “Juliana, get out now!”

  “Almost done.”

  In the rearview, he could see the police were already at George’s house. The door was unlocked. “It’s too late,” he blurted out, going clammy. “Finn, is there a way she can get out the back?”

  Glancing over, he saw Finn had turned green. “The place is surrounded by a gate…and, um, the fence around the back is electrified.”

  “Damn it!” Lincoln slammed his hand on the steering wheel.

  “They’re going to be inside in a second,” Finn said. “Juliana, they’re…”

  “Don’t worry, guys,” she said, her voice shaking slightly. “I think…I’ve got this.”

  “Wait. What?” Lincoln said.

  “Love you,” she breathed. “And if I don’t see you guys, don’t worry—I won’t say a word about the club, or anything. I won’t betray you.”

  They heard rustling. Then a loud rushing sound made them all yelp. Lincoln pulled over and they all took their earpieces out.

  “What the hell was that?” Finn yelled.

  “Flushed,” Terrence replied. “She flushed the earpiece and microphone down the toilet, I’ll bet.”

  “Damn it!” Lincoln bellowed.

  “What can we do?” Finn said. “She’s doing this to protect us. She’s taking one for the team.”

  “I’ll say.” Terrence looked sad. “What are we going to do?”

  Lincoln stared, stunned. He had absolutely no idea. All he knew was, Juliana was about to be arrested…and he’d let it happen because he was too bloody scared for his own reputation to do otherwise.

  13

  JULIANA IS IN JAIL. He could barely think of anything else. If Lincoln didn’t figure out some solution, she would take the fall for the group she’d inadvertently betrayed. He supposed there was some justice there, but he couldn’t feel it. That was why, less than fifteen hours later, he was returning to the scene of the crime, partner Finn in tow.