“Pillows!” Jack said triumphantly. “The guy who is all over television and advertises on just about every channel all day and all night. Right now he has a promotion going on where if you buy one pillow, you get two for free. And remember this, the guy guarantees a good night’s sleep on his pillows. He manufactures the pillows here in the good old US of A! Lizzie can do all the paperwork, the export end of things, and it keeps it legal. Legal is the key word here. Think about it, Harry, hundreds of thousands of pillows! They buy one and get two free ones to sell. Think of the profit margin. Your friends will be so rich, they won’t know what to do with all their money.”

As Jack said good-bye to Harry, Dennis tried to calculate the profit margin on the pillows. He waved the calculator app on his phone around so everyone could see the numbers. “They might have to do some promotion, give away a few thousand at first. Then everyone will want one. There’s no way this won’t work, and it’s all legal!”

“Good! Good! You can give Harry the numbers and see what happens. I hear the elevator, so that means Avery is about to arrive. Do it now, Dennis, so it’s not hanging over our heads with what we are going to be dealing with in regard to Avery and Abner,” Jack said, only too glad not to have to argue with Harry again.

Dennis nodded and started to tap out his text to Harry.

Charles motioned for everyone to take a seat at the table. Fergus poured fresh coffee, and Charles called the meeting to order.

Jack narrowed his eyes. Something was wrong here. In all the years he’d known Sir Charles Martin, he had never seen the big man who had all the answers looking so rattled. And while he hadn’t known Avery Snowden and Abner Tookus as long, he was seeing something in their expressions that defied words. What the hell is going on?

He looked down at Cyrus, who was picking up on something because he had his head pressed tight against Jack’s leg, not for a head stroke or a belly rub or even a treat. The big dog sensed what Jack figured they were all feeling. He just didn’t know what to do about it.

“The short version will do nicely for the moment, Avery. Later we can delve into the intricacies.” While Charles was speaking to Avery Snowden, his gaze was on Abner, who was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. He looked drawn and haggard, but then Avery looked the same way. A shiver of something he’d never felt before rushed over him.