“You should listen to Everly, Cannonball,” Wolf said. “She’s my best friend in the whole world and she’s never wrong, unless it’s in math class.” Wolf snorted, but Everly kept a straight face.
“What do you gain if I don’t do the stunt?” Cannonball asked.
“Me?” Everly said. “Nothing. I just want to save you so that you can be there for CJ’s important moments.” Everly looked at Ronan. “My Dad and Uncle Jude got hurt a while back when he was trying to catch a very bad man. We almost lost Uncle Jude. I saw what that would have done to Wolfie and Uncle Cope. It was awful.” Everly paused for a moment to wipe her watery eyes. “Your family won’t recover from watching you plunge over the falls.” She hopped off her chair and ran to Tennyson for a hug.
“Is that how you people operate? Using kids to make adults bend to your will?”
Jude stood up, looking as if he was going to let his fists do the talking. Instead, he pulled out his wallet and grabbed something from inside it. “This is my business card. My cell number is on it. Google me, my husband, Fitz, Tennyson, and Ronan. You’ll see the kind of work we’ve done. The people we’ve helped. We promise to do everything in our power to save your life. If you’ll let us.”
Snatching the card out of Jude’s hand, Cannonball stomped away. Jude watched as Roger motioned him forward. He hurried toward the manager.
“Is what the little girl said true?” Roger asked when Jude reached his side. He wrung his hands together. Jude could feel the nervous energy pouring off the man.
“Yes,” Jude agreed. “Unless we do something to change his destiny.” He offered Roger one of his cards. “Call us if we can doanything to help. My family and I are in room 1054. Come see us anytime.”
With a curt nod, Roger hurried after Cannonball.
Jude watched as the two exchanged terse words. He turned away from the angry stunt man and headed back to his family. They’d done all they could to save Cannonball from himself. The rest would be up to him.
God help him.
7
Cope
The ballroom had erupted in conversation after Cannonball walked out. Several psychics Cope had never met before came up to their table and told them they’d seen what he’d seen. He had a feeling most of them were there to meet Everly, and gage her talents for themselves. Not that it mattered much, like the little girl said, she knew what she saw, and what she saw was Cannonball’s death.
No one ate much after Cannonball’s visit. Ronan had to lay down the law over Everly eating something. She’d finally taken a few bites of brownie Jude had gotten for her. Not even Jude finished the rest of it for her.
“Let’s get back to our room and we can talk about what’s next,” Ronan suggested. “We can put the kids in Fitz’s room and let them watch a movie.”
Cope nodded along with Ronan, even though he wasn’t sure what else could be done with Cannonball being adamant that the stunt was going ahead as planned.
Ten minutes later, the kids were settled in withLilo and Stitch, leaving the adults to ponder how to handle Cannonball.
“Anyone want something to drink?” Tennyson asked. Everyone shook their heads no. “Well, in that case, does anyone have an idea how to save Cannonball?”
“Can’t we just call the Mounties?” Fitzgibbon asked. “I though it was illegal to go over the falls on purpose.”
“According to Wikipedia,” Jude began, “going over the falls was outlawed in 1951 after William ‘Red’ Hill, died during his attempt. Cannonball’s been all over the news these last two days and his commercials run all the time. He must have gotten some kind of permit to do this, otherwise, he wouldn’t be so public about his attempt.”
Ronan nodded along. “What if we sabotaged his barrel enough so that an attempt at the falls couldn’t be made?”
“You’d end up in a Canadian prison being fed what passes for bacon up here with fresh maple syrup on your pancakes.” Fitzgibbon snorted. “Seriously though, we’d just end up getting arrest for destruction of property and whatever else they could charge us with. I’m sure Cisco would rip you a new on for that. The people coming to PsychicFest might believe what we’re saying about Cannonball, but there’s no way the police would let us go when we tell them we were just trying to save the stupid man’s life.”
“What about what we did tonight? Did what we said make any difference, Cope?” Jude turned to his husband.
“No, nothing so far as I can see. He’s stubborn, pigheaded, and thinks he’s the smartest man in the room,” Cope said, feeling as depressed as he sounded.
“Well, who does that remind you of?” Ronan asked with a chuckle.
“You!” Jude shot back.
“You too, asshole,” Ronan muttered, turning to Cope. “So, treat this like you’re trying to stop Jude from doing something stupid. How would you handle it?”
Cope shook his head. “I’m not so sure if I should tell you. If I do, then Jude will know my secret.”
“I promise I won’t hold your underhandedness against you.” Jude snickered.
