Cope sighed. He supposed revealing his secret was for a worthy cause, even if it might not work with Jude anymore. “The first thing I’d do is stroke your ego.”
Ronan snorted, but stayed silent. Tennyson, on the other hand, appeared to be taking notes.
“I’d tell you what a brave, strong, big-dicked daredevil you were.” Cope pated on a smarmy smile for Jude’s benefit.
“Big dicked?” Ronan asked.
“Like I said,strokinghis ego.” Cope rolled his eyes. Men could be so dense sometimes. “I’d appeal to his sense of self, telling him that he can’t break any more records if he’s dead and that there were other records to break first.”
“Would that work?” Ten asked, looking up from his writing.
Jude sulked, which was an answer in itself.
“I’d recommend pushing off the Niagara thing until the next summer, when the water levels were lower and whatever else would be more favorable. Then, with a little bit of luck, and a whole lot of distraction, I’d keep Jude’s mind off the falls, untilhe reached a point where he admitted what a stupid idea it was in the first place.” Cope wore a proud look, but knew Jude was going to give him hell for his assessment later.
“And if that doesn’t work with Cannonball?” Ronan asked.
“Then we go for the throat,” Ten said.
“Okay, hold on, no one is going to hurt Cannonball physically. Ten’s not made for prison.” Ronan petted his husband’s shoulder. “He’d be doing everyone’s laundry and giving away his commissary snacks by the end of the first week.”
“I didn’t mean going for Cannonball physically. I’d hit him where it will hurt most.”
“With his wife and son,” Cope added.
“Right.” Ten grinned at his friend. “I would tell Ronan how growing up without him would devastate Everly and Ezra, and how our little boy would probably turn into a Yankees fan. I’d also mention that my second husband was going to be a thoughtful man, the kind who would treat me and our kids like a king. You know, the kind of man who’d take Everly to her first Daddy-Daughter dance and walk her down the aisle.” Ten snickered.
“Over my dead body!” Ronan shouted, making Ten laugh harder. “Oh, that’s your strategy.”
“Yes, Snookums.” Ten patted Ronan’s shoulder in return. “Thinking about what Everly’s life would be like without you would hopefully be the one thing that would make you come to your senses.”
“It would work with me and Lizbet,” Jude said, missing his baby.
“I know. I would also have added in that LizzyB had been abandoned by her biological parents, how Wolf had been orphaned once already and how you were, in essence, doing the same thing to both of our kids.” Cope crossed his arms over his chest, as if to say he’d made his point.
“Ouch!” Jude set a hand over his heart, as if he could soothe the ache wrapped around it. “That would certainly get me to see sense and back down.”
“You’ve got to think that Heidi knows her husband as well as we know ours. Don’t you think she would have already done something like that with Cannonball?” Ronan asked.
“Probably,” Jude agreed. “I know Cope would have pulled out every trick in the book to bend me to his will.”
“It’s not my will, Jude,” Cope sighed, knowing his stubborn husband would never see things from his point of view. “I would only pull out the big guns if I knew you were going to die. Your kids deserve to grow up with you. I deserve to grow old with you. Though god knows why. You’ve been a pain in my ass from day one.” Cope threw his hands in the air, as if he were giving up on Jude.
“Now that’s good,” Ten said. “A very effective way to end an argument and to get Ronan to sit and think about the dumbass thing he’s about to do.” Ten jotted more notes, while Ronan watched on with a surprised look on his face.
“I’m not your marionette, Ten.” Ronan sounded sour.
Ten snorted and got out of his seat. He grabbed Ronan’s arms and lifted them into the air. “Dance, Pinocchio, dance!”
“Hilarious, babe,” Ronan muttered.
“How is any of this helping Cannonball?” Fitzgibbon asked. “We need to come up with a way to talk this man out of the stunt. If appealing to his sense of family won’t work, what will?”
“Appealing to his sense of vanity?” Ten suggested. “Dying in the middle of a stunt is a bad look.”
“True,” Ronan agreed, “but I’m not sure that would be enough to stop me.”
“It all comes back to his father, right?” Cope asked. “If Cannonball’s dad had been a landscaper or an architect, he wouldn’t feel the need to go over the falls at all.”
