36. Sloan
Sloan
Cody hasn’t been more than a few feet away from me since Mason, Maddox, Peck, and Pauly told us the plan. He’s terrified something will go wrong and I can’t blame him, I am too.
Instead of going to bed, he insisted on sleeping on the couch so he could have me in his arms. It’s adorable and I love how protective he is, but we need to do this. I'm not changing my mind.
“Cody, it’s time to wake up,” I whisper as I brush a few strands of hair off of his forehead. He’s been complaining it’s getting too long, but he can’t even go get his hair cut thanks to Jude.
“Mmm, I don’t want to,” he groans, pulling my body tighter against his.
“C’mon, we have things to do! This will be the start of forever. Once Jude’s gone, we can do whatever we want.”
“I want to get married,” he murmurs sleepily, his eyes still shut.
“Ok.” A slow smile spreads across my lips. I’ve always wanted to marry Cody Robinson, I never thought it would happen after I moved away though.
“You’ll marry me?” He peeks one eye open and stares at me like he isn’t sure if he should get excited yet or not.
“Well, you’d have to propose first.” My grin widens as both of his eyes pop open and his intense gaze finds mine.
“Oh, I'm going to propose. The question is, will you say yes?” He leans in and brushes a soft kiss over my lips. I swear I’ll never get used to kissing Cody. Each time it feels like the first time. Each kiss sends butterflies swarming in my stomach. I hope that never changes.
“I guess you’ll have to wait and see.” I place my hand over his heart, feeling it beat strongly against my palm. I get lost in his arms. In his kiss. In Him.
“Let’s go, Broseph!” Jax’s face appears next to mine and I almost fall off the couch in an attempt to get away from him. “What are you doing?” Jax laughs and shakes his head.
“Why do you always have to be so close?” I grumble under my breath as I scoot closer to Cody again.
“One word. Jude. You and Bromeo will be able to go on all the dates you’d like, once Jude has disappeared from our lives. Won't it be amazing?” He lets out a happy little sigh. “I might not come home for days. I’ll live out in the city and be the happiest I’ve ever been.”
“You’re going to get mugged,” Cody snorts with laughter.
“Well, that would be an awful turn of events.” Jax frowns at us. “Still probably better than being stuck in this house. I might even drive myself everywhere.”
I giggle. I’ve never met a grown man who hates driving as much as Jax does. I'm not sure if it’s because he doesn’t want to be behind the wheel, or if he just likes having someone else with him all the time.
“Tanner said we’re going out tonight. He even got Killian to agree to come. It’s like my maiden voyage all over again. Like I get to be a man and go out for the first time without my parents. It’s going to be so great.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so happy,” I laugh again.
“When does this crap start, Brosephine? I'm ready to get back to living again.”
“He’s in his car,” Pauly murmurs from his spot at the windows. He has a pair of binoculars and is watching Jude carefully.
“I'm getting too old for this crap,” Mason murmurs through the line. “Make sure he doesn’t spot us trying to scale this six-foot privacy fence.”
“C’mon, old man! We got this.” I can hear the grin in Maddox’s voice. He loves to give Mason a hard time about getting older. Mason’s only a few years older than Maddox, but he never lets him forget it.
“You could just use a ladder,” Peck chuckles.
He set up camp in Wheeler’s kitchen. They’re lucky they all know the second basemen of the Philadelphia Pit Bulls thanks to Wyatt. He’s made this entire operation so much easier for everyone.
Wheeler’s backyard butts up to Cody’s and Smithy, the third baseman, lives right next door to him.
“Just get over the stupid fence before he sees you,” Wes growls.
“What’s your dad doing here?” I turn and ask Cody.
“I'm pretty sure all the men of Mulberry Lane are at Wheeler’s or Smithy’s house. They want to be here in case they need to step in and help. Mason and Maddox have every employee they could pull parked around the neighborhood too. Jude won't be able to get away.”
I swallow hard as nervousness and fear slithers up my spine. If something happens and things go sideways, there are so many men putting their lives on the line. I don’t want something to happen to any of them.
“Dang, look at him go. He scampered up that thing like a little squirrel. How does he even do that?” Lincoln practically gushes.
“We get it, you have a man crush on Mason.” The eye roll is evident in Cole’s voice.
“Of course I have a man crush on Mason! Who doesn’t? He’s like a real-life GI Joe. That man is almost fifty and he’s still got it. Quite the silver fox.”
“I'm not almost fifty,” Mason growls.
“Dude, you’re forty-seven. I hate to break it to you, but that’s almost fifty.”
“Not helping, Linc,” he hisses as he pops over the top of the fence and lands on his feet like he’s done this a million times.
“Ha! Maddox, dude, are you really struggling that much? He’s got four years on you!” Lincoln howls with laughter.
I grin, wishing I could see Maddox trying to get over the fence. Leave it to Lincoln to make such a stressful and serious situation into something to laugh about.
“I’d love to see you try this, man,” Maddox grunts as his head pops over before disappearing again.
“I’d love to see Peck try this. We need to see who the manliest one is from Bennett Bradley Security,” Blake cuts in.
“My dad is,” Mason chuckles. “I guarantee that man could make it over the fence without even breaking a sweat. He’s built like a machine. I'm sure he could run laps around all of us.”
“I don’t know… Papa Bennett is pushing seventy.” I can picture Lincoln stroking his chin as he thinks.
“I could definitely do better than you, Linc,” John, Mason’s dad, murmurs.
“What the heck? You’re on this mission too?” Lincoln’s shock is clear as day.
“Of course I'm involved. I work for Bennett Bradley Security. What else would I be doing?”
“Well, you said you couldn’t babysit today, so I assumed you were busy,” Linc scoffs.
“Yeah, busy protecting the family.”
I smile at his simple statement. They don’t look at each other as being part of different families. If you live on Mulberry Lane or someone in your family does, then you’re part of the family. And they take it seriously. They will protect each other at all costs and do anything for their family.
Being part of such an amazing group of people is overwhelming, but the best thing I’ve ever experienced in life.
I know I’ll always be taken care of there.
If Cody and I get married and have kids, I’ll never have to worry about who will take care of them if something happens to one of us because they’ll have dozens of people lining up to help.
“Plus, who am I babysitting? Holt’s nineteen and Emma’s twenty-two. They don’t need babysitters anymore.”
“We got a puppy.”
“You want me to babysit your puppy? For what?”
“So we can go out for dinner. She can’t be home all alone! She’ll get scared,” Linc grumbles.
“Lincoln, I swear…”
“You’re not supposed to swear, Daddy Bennett.”
“Shut up, Linc. We’re supposed to be focusing on Jude and nothing else. We need to focus so no one gets hurt. If you can’t be quiet, I’m calling Liv,” Mason hisses as he quietly slides the back door open and slips inside.
“Zipping it! I don’t need that little spit fire to come yell at me. She’s a handful, man.”
Maddox steps inside the kitchen a few moments later with two other men following him. Mason makes hand motions and they all nod their heads, moving in different directions.
“They’re getting in place. We’ll be hidden until we know what Jude’s plan is.
We don’t want him to catch sight of us and realize he’s being set up.
” Mason places a hand on my shoulder and watches me carefully.
“I’ll protect you, Sloan. You’ve always been like a niece to me; I won't let anything happen.”
He wraps me in a hug and kisses the top of my head like a father would. Before I can even process anything, he’s stepping back and disappearing down the hallway and into my room.
“Are you guys ready? Everyone’s in place, it’s time to do this,” Pauly says softly.
There’s sympathy in his gaze. He knows how hard this is going to be for Cody and me. We don’t want to leave each other. Though we can assume how Jude will respond, we don’t know for sure.
“I’ll be climbing over that fence within a few minutes. I’ll be right back at your side as soon as I can,” Cody whispers as he wraps his arm around my waist and tugs me into his embrace.
“Are you sure you can make it over the wall?” I scrunch my nose up and giggle when he scoffs.
“Nothing can keep me away from you, sweetheart. That fence doesn’t stand a chance.” He brushes a lock of hair behind my ear and kisses the tip of my nose.
“I love you,” I whisper, laying my head against his chest, right over his heart. I'm terrified that everything will go wrong today and…
Nope! Not thinking about all the ways this could go wrong. Everyone will be perfectly ok!
I suck in a deep breath and blow it out slowly as Cody’s heart beats strongly against my ear. He’s going to be ok. He has so many people at his back.
“I love you, beautiful. I’ll be back here in a few minutes.” He kisses me slowly. I savor the feeling of being in his arms and surrounded by his love.
This could be the last time…
No! Everything will be ok. We just need to get through the next hour, then we can spend the rest of our life together.
“Let’s go, Cody.” Jax grabs his arm and pulls us apart. “If I don’t physically remove you from the pretty girl, you’re never going to let go.” He winks at me as he continues to drag Cody towards the door.
“You know the plan, Sloan. We stick to the plan. Make sure to put your ear piece in so you can hear everything going on.” He motions to the little ear bud on the counter and I quickly put it in place.
“I’ll be listening to you, babe. Anything you say I can hear.” Cody taps on his ear bud and smiles. “Everything will be great in a few minutes.”
I blow out a breath as they walk out the front door and it shuts with a thud behind them.
Nausea swirls in my stomach as I try to think of what to do next.
I'm so scared I feel like I can’t move from this position.
Jude could walk right through that door and I’d just stare at him with wide eyes. This isn’t going to end well.
“You have to look like this is a normal day, Sloan. Do the dishes or pretend you’re on the phone, anything to make Jude think nothing is wrong,” Mason murmurs in my ear.
Yeah, doing dishes right now is totally normal when I'm trying not to crumble to pieces.