17

Cope had noticed the spirit of Carl “Rooster”

Jackson around the time Milt was telling Cannonball that he had no common sense. The elder daredevil had nodded his head to that assessment.

“You’re actually saying Rooster is here in the room with us?”

Cannonball sounded skeptical.

“He is.”

Cope pointed to the exact spot where he saw the elder daredevil. Seconds later Rooster morphed into view.

“Holy shit,”

Cannonball muttered to himself. “Dad is that you?”

“Who the hell else would it be?”

Rooster asked before yelping. “God damn it, woman, stop kicking me!”

Bertha Craig appeared beside Rooster. “Hey, Cannonball. You don’t know me, but I’m a friend of the tiny psycho. I could drown you myself for that shot at my granddaughter, but I digress. I found your father yesterday, but it took me this long to talk him into coming here to see you. Turns out this Father of the Year didn’t even know you were a stuntman following in his shoes.”

“Is that true? You weren’t watching over me as I grew up?”

Cannonball sounded as if he were about to burst into tears.

“Oh, grow up, boy. I had my own afterlife to live. I knew you’d be fine with your mother.”

“You selfish son of a-”

Cannonball stopped what he was about to say before he finished his sentence, as if he’d thought better of it.

“Dumbasses in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, remember?”

Fitzgibbon asked.

“Yeah, I remember.”

Cannonball turned his attention back to his father. “Do you have any tips for tomorrow?”

Rooster laughed. “Don’t expect me to be waiting for you in the white light. I got my own shit to do. OUCH!”

Rooster grabbed the leg Bertha kicked and hopped around on his good one.

“Keep it up and I’ll kick the other one just to watch you suffer. This is your son we’re talking about. You haven’t seen him in twenty years and there’s not a single nice thing you can say to him?”

Bertha lifted her foot off the ground, as if she were getting ready to kick Rooster again.

“That’s the way life goes, woman. You take care of yourself and fuck everyone else. I don’t want to see you again, got it?”

Rooster’s eyes went from Bertha to Cannonball.

“I know you said you were nicknamed Rooster because you were cocky. I think you’re just a giant dick.”

Bertha grinned as Rooster faded out of sight. “Damn, I feel like I need a shower after being that close to him. What a twatwaffle!”

“Bertha!”

Ten gasped. “You can’t say that. Rooster is his father, for better or worse.”

“Not true, Tenny. Cannonball doesn’t need a so-called man like him in his life. Look around you, young man. You’ve only known these people for two days, have been a colossal dick yourself, and they’re still trying to save you. This is what a real family looks like. I sure to hell hope that some of this is penetrating that thick skull of yours.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Cannonball reached for his wife’s hand. “We’ve got a lot of talking to do. Would you keep CJ for a bit so we can have some privacy?”

Jude nodded. “Text me when you want him dropped off and I’ll bring him to you.”

“Thanks, Jude. It was nice to meet you, Bertha. I’m really sorry about what I said to Everly. She’s a special young lady.”

“Damn straight she is. Now go and let your wife help you figure out how not to be a dumbass.”

“I can’t believe that asshole,”

Jude said, when he returned from walking Heidi and Cannonball out of their room.

“Which one, there’s been a ton today, you’ll need to be more specific.”

Ronan laughed at himself.

“Rooster, for a start. His personality sure explains a lot. If he can treat his son like this the night before his possible death, I can’t imagine what he was like to live with.”

“He was a monster to his family,”

Bertha said. “Cannonball’s mom filled me in on a lot of the details. She did what she could to protect her son from his father, but somehow or other, Carl decided to take after his father, rather than his mother.”

“Do you think seeing his father helped change his mind about going through with the stunt?”

Fitzgibbon asked.

Cope shook his head. “If anything, it’s made Cannonball more determined to do go over the falls.”

“I can’t believe it.”

Ronan sighed. “He just found out his wife is pregnant with twins and he’s still going through with it. I will never understand that as long as I live.”

“Oh, no?”

Ten asked, raising a quizzical brow. “I remember a certain cocky detective, who, two weeks before he was supposed to make a donation to inseminate our surrogate, was out running an off the books investigation that got him suspended and then punched by Fitzgibbon.”

Fitz snorted. “Happy days.”

“Yeah, you were that asshole, Ronan,”

Jude said.

“You’ve got no room to talk!”

Ten turned to Jude. “You were right in the thick of things, working by Ronan’s side. Face it, you all understand where Cannonball is coming from.”

Ten’s dark eyes traveled from Ronan, to Jude, to Fitz. “Christ, you’ve taken nine bullets between you. If it were me, one would have been enough! But, no, you all strapped on your Kevlar and went back for more.”

“You’re right, Ten,”

Jude agreed. “Maybe that’s why we’ve been trying so hard to talk Cannonball out of doing this crazy thing. All three of us have done things in the line of duty that were reckless and dangerous. I remember how scared you were when Ronan was working that Salem Witches case. I also remember how scared I was when Fitz got shot in front of me. All I can say about the three of us is that we do what we do to help people. To keep our city safe. Cannonball is only out for himself and his legacy. There’s nothing altruistic about this stunt.”

“What’s he going to do, Ten?”

Fitzgibbon asked.

“I still see him going over the falls.”

“Cope?”

“Me too,”

Cope agreed. He knew Everly had seen Cannonball surviving with the help of the Coast Guard, but that sure as hell wouldn’t be enough for him to try to survive the falls. He’d never been much of an outdoorsy kind of guy, forget being a daredevil. Never in his life had he done something for the adrenaline rush it would give him. The one thing Cope did understand was wanting to stick it to his father. Buford had been crushed, then angry, that his only son didn’t want to follow in his exalted footsteps. Nothing Cope could have done would have made his father proud of him. He and Cannonball had that in common. While Cope had focused his life on building a family, Cannonball concentrated on trying to out do his father. Cope got it, he truly did, but didn’t understand why Cannonball had to go so far as to risk death.

In Cope’s mind, a happy, well-lived life was his way of showing up his father. Buford had never been happy. Not with his money or his mistresses. Cope knew his father would never understand being fulfilled by his husband and kids. More to the point, he didn’t care what Buford thought. The real tragedy here would have been allowing his father to continue to control his life from beyond the grave like Cannonball was doing.

Cope wished he’d thought to say that to the stunt man. He’d said all he could say to convince Cannonball to walk away.

Cope could only hope the daredevil decided to live for his family, rather than dying for his father.