The Player's Club: Finn (10 page)

“New pledges are always blindfolded,” he said. “Sort of a ritual to keep our meeting location secret in case a new recruit decides to back out. Speaking of secrecy, how the heck did your crew of spy wannabes find me before?”

She smiled. “Trade secret.”

“You are one dangerous lady,” he whispered into her ear. “Maybe I’ll just have to torture it out of you.” Doing so, he got a whiff of her perfume…subtly sexy, intriguing, mysterious. Much like the lady herself.

“Okay, enough fun,” she said curtly, but he could’ve sworn he felt her shiver. “Are we there yet? Can we get on with this?”

He saw Lincoln glaring at him, motioning to him. “Soon. Could you just, ah, sit here?” He guided her to a folding chair. A number of people were muttering and nudging each other as they nodded to Diana’s rigid figure.

“Another pledge, Finn?” his friend Tucker yelled. “You’ve already got your hands full with that daredevil Ben. What does this one want to do? Fly in space?”

“Maybe invade Canada,” another person joked.

“After this year, I don’t know if there’s anything Finn hasn’t done,” a third Player joined in. Finn took the teasing good-naturedly. Lincoln’s dark expression conveyed the opposite.

“What’s she doing here?”

The truth was Finn’s only option. “I texted…”

“You told me you had another pledge, and that we had to convene an emergency meeting. You neglected to tell me
why.
And I seem to remember we all agreed we weren’t going to run another pledge until this group…” He paused. “Why do I even bother trying to tell you these things? You’ve made me the den mother of this damned Club, and it’s beginning to piss me off.”

“If you don’t like that, then you’ll hate this,” Finn said, took a deep breath, then dived ahead. “She’s my family’s lawyer.”

Lincoln looked completely baffled. “She’s…what?”

“Lawyer,” Finn continued, his palms actually sweating. Even when he’d climbed out on the top of the Transamerica building, his palms hadn’t sweat.

He couldn’t imagine what he’d be feeling if Lincoln ever found out that Diana had researched Lincoln’s financials. It had taken years for Lincoln to even admit to Finn, his best friend, that he’d gotten a fortune from the father who had never claimed him publicly. Lincoln still chose to bury that association. And the money from his father’s Swiss bank account, while not from criminal activity, would still throw Lincoln’s life open to a world of scrutiny—and pain.

Finn was willing to risk a lot to keep his friend’s past protected.

“I’ve, uh, cut a deal.” And was hoping Lincoln would be able to figure out a way out of it, but first things first. “I really need her to have a good experience with all of this. She’s super repressed, wound like a watch. We’re about helping people live life to the fullest, basically, right? Following what they want, facing what they’re afraid of? Like
Dead Poets Society
meets
The Bucket List
?”

“You know I hate that analogy,” Lincoln muttered.

Finn pressed on. “If the Club could help anybody, it would help her. Actually…it sort of
has
to knock her socks off.”

“We’re not the Rotary Club or A.A.,” Lincoln said. “What, exactly, did you deal?”

“If she gives us the thumbs-up, then my folks get off my back.”

Lincoln’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “What if she doesn’t give us the thumbs-up?”

“Well…I, ah, quit the Club.” He swallowed hard.

“Seriously?” Lincoln’s skepticism was clear. “And they’re planning on having you prove that how, exactly?”

Trust Lincoln to get right to the heart of it. “By no longer doing anything they’d consider dangerous.”

Lincoln’s eyebrows jumped up, but otherwise he kept silent, expectant.

“And…I’d fulfill all my duties as a board member, including regular attendance,
and
take a job at my father’s company,” Finn finished.

Lincoln stared at him for a second. Then he glanced over at Diana. “And you’re letting all this ride on
her?
”

“I’m still sitting here, you know,” Diana said from across the room, causing several of the Players to roll their eyes and make dismissive comments.

“You’d better start buying some ties,” Lincoln said, scoffing. “I don’t know how you got suckered into this, but this has to be the stupidest bet you’ve ever made. Take off her blindfold, and let’s get on with this.”

Finn went to Diana and removed her blindfold. She blinked owlishly, then sneered at the assembled Players. “So far, Finn, I’m not impressed.”

“Boooooo!” Tucker said. “Throw her back. She’s not Player material!”

Finn quickly jumped in before that became the rallying cry. “Trust me, she’s going to be giving this her all,” he said, staring at her intently. “Won’t you, Diana?”

Her chin went up. He was learning to love that little expression—which just went to show how truly insane he was. “Sure.”

He nodded, running through the rules as most of the other Players ignored him. Then he got to the questions. “What are you most proud of?”

She frowned. “This is part of the initiation?”

“Yup.”

“All right. I’m proud being lead counsel for Macalister Enterprises.”

She sounded it. Hell, she sounded the same way most marines did talking about being in the corps. Her back was straight as a level.

“Okay. What scares you the most?”

She stiffened. “Nothing.”

Tucker booed again. “Come on,” Finn pressed. “Everybody’s scared of something. What are you afraid of?”

She gritted her teeth visibly. “Gunfire.”

He tilted his head. Something there, he thought, but didn’t press. “Okay. If you had a month left to live, and let’s say nearly unlimited resources…what would you want to do?”

She stared at him blankly. Then she shrugged. “I’d probably write up a standard operating manual.”

“Huh?” He glanced over his shoulder, to find the rest of the Players staring at her.

“A standard operating manual,” she repeated, then huffed. “You know, something that would explain everything I had going on, my routine, et cetera, for my job replacement.”

“You’ve got a month left to live, and you’d write an operating manual?” he repeated, awed.

“Of course. I wouldn’t leave the new lead counsel in the lurch,” she told them, making it sound completely self-evident.
Obviously with one month to live, I’d write something for my successor. Who wouldn’t?

The Players were apparently too stunned to boo. “Good grief. What the hell else would you do?” Finn asked, repulsed. “No. Don’t tell me. You’d draw up a will, make sure that everything was accounted for and make your own funeral arrangements.”

He was screwed. He was
soooo
screwed, and not in a good way.

“Don’t be silly,” she said, surprising him. “I’ve already taken care of all that.”

“You’re, what, thirty, and you’ve made your own funeral arrangements?”

“Thirty-five, and cremation,” she said stiffly. “Why would I want to purchase a plot of land for something I won’t even enjoy using?”

“That’s actually very sensible,” Lincoln said, with obvious amusement.

Finn rubbed his palm over his face, appalled. “So…you’d write a manual. And that’s it.”

“Well, yes.”

Finn looked over at Lincoln, then the rest of the Players. “Um…this is…” He struggled for the right word.

“Unprecedented?” Juliana supplied, tongue-in-cheek.

“At least she didn’t say she’d steal anything,” Lincoln murmured, kissing Juliana’s neck. Then he looked at the rest of the Players. “Anybody else have any questions?”

To Finn’s surprise, Amanda, one of the newest Players, approached Diana. She was a slender, almost elflike woman, with silvery blond hair and a delicate face. She was smiling. “I think I’ve got this one, Finn.”

Diana watched her, almost warily. “There aren’t many women here, are there?”

“We’re changing that,” Amanda said, pulling up a folding chair of her own. “Actually, I’m glad to see you here.” Like the classic good cop, she kept smiling. “So, there’s nothing you wish you’d done, like when you were a kid? Nothing you would regret missing out on, if given the chance? Have you wanted to travel or anything?”

“I’ve traveled a lot for my job.”

“I’ll bet,” Amanda noted shrewdly, “but have you seen anything outside the airport, hotel room, or conference room? Did you ever just…you know, wander around? Do anything for fun?”

Diana squirmed. “I’m not a huge ‘fun’ person.”

“Okay, so travel, then,” Amanda said, with a meaningful look at Finn. Finn shrugged. “Any place in particular?” Amanda pressed.

Diana seemed to stare into space for a second, and Finn wondered if she was falling asleep—she probably hadn’t had much the night before. “You know,” Diana finally mused, as if she’d forgotten everyone else were there and was only talking to Amanda, “I have kind of wanted to hang out in Paris. See the Louvre, have coffee in some café or something. The people there always look so…I don’t know, sophisticated and artsy and mellow, without being annoying about it.”

Amanda burst out laughing. “You’d love Paris. What about when you were a kid? Any place you wanted to see?”

Diana colored, and Finn found himself leaning forward, eager to hear what she was going to say.

“I’ve never been to…” She glanced around defensively. “Um, Disneyland. Not that it’s a big deal, but I imagine that would’ve been fun. As a child. At some point.”

“Great,” Amanda said encouragingly, then looked at Finn. “Anywhere else?”

“Not really.”

“Anything you wanted to do?” Finn tried again. “Hang glide? Parasail? Bungee jump, maybe?”

“God, no,” Diana said. “Heights are
not
my thing. I’m more of a water girl, myself.”

“Water,” Finn repeated. “Huh.”

“This little getting-to-know-you interview has been fun, and all,” Diana said sarcastically. “But are there any other questions, or can we move on to the hazing aspect of this, or whatever you call it? I’ve got to go to the office in the morning, and I’m running on about three hours of sleep.”

Finn looked at Lincoln.

“None of them are Everest,” Lincoln replied. “But she’s got her three.”

“No way,” Finn protested. “No way am I letting ‘write an office manual’ be one of her challenges.”

“Wait,” Diana interrupted. “Three what?”

“She’s the one who said it,” Lincoln countered, smiling wickedly. “Besides, maybe it’ll help her, especially when she’s on that long flight to Paris. And then to Disneyland.”

“Wait! Paris?
Disneyland?
” she hollered, jumping out of her seat. “I can’t just—”

“Fine, fine,” Finn grumbled, then brightened. “But I’m still going to haze her.”

“Um, Finn,” Amanda interrupted. “I don’t think—”

“Remember how Scott felt after he’d skydived?” Finn nodded when Amanda sent a slow, sexy smile over to Scott. “Trust me, I think a quick shot of adrenaline is exactly what the doctor ordered for Ms. Office Manual over here.”

“Skydiving?” Diana repeated, going pale.

“No,” Finn said, winking at her. “Something water. You’ll love it.”

She glared at him, then stomped out of the hangar. The retreating click of her heels sounded like machine gun fire.

“You’re so screwed,” Lincoln said, echoing Finn’s own sentiment. “What really convinced you to make this stupid bet, anyway?”

Finn thought immediately of the envelope—of Diana’s threat to send Lincoln’s financial history to the authorities.