42. 42 – Chess
42 – Chess
S he hesitates outside the entrance. I brush my hand against her shoulder. “Want me to go in first?”
But Lyss squares her shoulders. “No. I made the decision. I’ll own it.”
She glances back to Buck. The twins. “I can explain.”
“Alyss Lidell,” Buck says quietly. “Part of the Heart gang.”
Lyss pauses. “Yes. How did you know that?”
He stares at her, then. Pales. “I…,”
“Adam,” she says quietly. Wonderingly. “You know what happened to him, don’t you?”
Buck nods. “It wasn’t… it wasn’t the right time. Not there. But we wanted to tell you.”
“You and Hatter.” Her voice tightens. “I knew you knew something.”
“Yeah,” Buck says heavily. But he meets her eyes. “I’ll tell you everything. And then I can leave, if you don’t want me to stay.”
She stares at him. And she looks like a damn queen when her shoulders straighten. “Do you want to leave?”
Slowly, he shakes his head. His voice is a rasp. “That’s the last thing I want.”
Lyss watches him for a moment.
Then she extends her hand. “Then come on in.”
The clubhouse looks the same as it always had. The bar lines the walls, row upon row of top-quality alcohol lining the shelves.
And there, polishing the glasses.
Rab stops.
“Rab.” Alyss shifts on her feet as she stares at the man who raised both of us. Alyss and Adam because their dad was never around, and me when my dad died in a gang fight when I was twelve.
Rab’s eyes sweeps across both of us.
When he ducks out from behind the bar, Lyss flinches.
But he walks right up to her. And his voice is soft.
“Been a while, Queenie. You coming home now?”
And when her face crumbles, he wraps his arms around her and holds on, his eyes closing.
Home.