The Player's Club: Lincoln (21 page)

“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!”

“Wait 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.

“He wasn’t answering his phones,” Finn said as Lincoln poured on speed from his Maybach, trying to get to George’s in time. “But from what I gathered, he hasn’t made it to the chief of police’s office yet. He’s supposed to be there this afternoon—my aunt told me that someone broke into his house, and she’d called the chief herself to make sure that he handled it personally.”

Lincoln grimaced. Finn’s aunt and uncle weren’t as rich as his parents, but they were still influential—he imagined any public official would at least take the meeting as a courtesy. Which meant George was moving fast and pulling every string he could. He was pissed at Juliana, pissed at the club, and moving for revenge.

Lincoln didn’t care about the revenge, personally. But he couldn’t stand the idea of Juliana paying for it.

They arrived at the gate and got through easily: he hadn’t changed any codes. “He knows it was us,” Finn muttered as they walked up to the front door.

George greeted them with a smarmy grin. “Well, well. First burglars, now players. Or should I say losers?” His tone was insufferable. “It’s been a hell of a day.”

Lincoln imagined, vividly, putting his hands around George’s scrawny throat and squeezing until his eyes bugged out like a stress doll. Finn must’ve sensed it because he edged past George into his foyer. “You know why we’re here.”

His words reminded Finn why he was there, as well. He clamped his mouth shut, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

George scowled at them. “If you wanted to get into my house so badly, Finn, you should have asked,” he said pointedly, ignoring Lincoln altogether.

“What’s the fun in that?”

George’s laugh grated on Lincoln. “No fun at all. Especially since there was no way I was going to give you guys that flash disk,” he said. “And trust me, you’re not as smart as you think. I bribed the officer that processed her—she has the flash disk still on her.”

Lincoln stiffened, and Finn betrayed a quick look of irritation that George picked up on.

“You didn’t know that, did you? Son of a bitch. You thought you were getting off scot-free. Oh, today just gets better and better!”

“You need to drop the charges against Juliana,” Lincoln stated, every syllable colder than an order.

The light behind George’s eyes went flat. “I don’t ‘need’ to do anything, Lincoln. All I need to do is give the police that drive and let you guys all swing in the wind. You know the chief has been dying to hang something on you guys since the news article came out last year. Too many people think he lets rich people off, that he’s too influenced by them. Making an example out of you assholes ought to ensure he’s elected next year.”

“You were the one who planted the news article, to get Scott kicked out, remember?” Finn shot back. “And the chief of police
does
let rich people influence him. That’s why he’s overseeing
your
petty breaking and entering!”