Page 123 of Wild Card 13

Alois looked at him. Rawlings immediately reconsidered being alive.

Lucy answered smoothly. “Bea is handling Alois.”

Alois nodded once. “Yes.”

That was it. End of discussion.

I stared at Alois. “Must be nice to be that concise.”

“You should try it.”

“I’d hate to deprive the room.”

“We would survive.”

Coach laughed. Lucy looked down at her folder, but not before I caught the smallest pull at the corner of her mouth.

Sarah tapped her pen once. “Back to logistics.”

Lucy clicked to the next slide. The itinerary filled the screen, more detailed this time. Arrival times. Staff positions. Locker room access. Secondary rink entrances. Family hospitality table. Photo release check-in. Player warmup window.

Lucy spoke through it all with terrifying efficiency. But the strain was still there.

Lucy knew her work. She probably knew Charlotte’s work too, had rebuilt the whole damn thing from whatever emails remained and shared-drive scraps while the rest of us were sleeping.

Her pauses were too controlled. Her transitions were too clean. Her eyes kept skimming the page like she was tracking five problems ahead and trying not to show anyone the math.

I knew that look. I had seen it in high school when her mother forgot a parent meeting and Lucy pretended she hadn’t expected her to show anyway. I had seen it the night I let her walk away.

That was the thing about Lucy. When she was hurting, she got sharper. People mistook it for strength. It was strength. It just also cost her something.

“Buzz,” Sarah said.

I straightened. “Yep.”

“You’ll attend the walkthrough at two with Lucy. Secondary rink, family entrance, hospitality room, media boundary points, and the player movement route.”

“Got it.”

“No conflicts?”

“No.”

Coach looked at me again. “You have recovery blocked then.”

“I’ll move it.”

“Don’t move recovery,” Lucy said immediately. Every head turned toward her. She looked annoyed with herself for speaking so fast. Then she recovered. “We can adjust the walkthrough by thirty minutes. Player recovery should not be compromised for event logistics.”

Coach nodded, approving. “Good.”

Sarah made a note. I stared at Lucy because I enjoyed suffering.

She had said it without thinking.

Not because I was me.

Because I was a player.