Jack swung around and gave Meadows’s prone body a none-too-gentle kick. “You want to talk yet? Makes me no never mind if you want to go the alternate route and have one of our friends pull it out of you one way or the other. I’m thinking we would enjoy having her do that very much. Yup, the friend in question is a woman, and you would not believe how much she would like to get hold of you after she saw Ellie Harper’s head. Right now, I’d say we’re the lesser of two evils.”

“Screw you and the horse you rode in on. I didn’t do anything, and you can’t prove I did. I want a lawyer,” Meadows snarled.

“You hear that, Harry? This piece of garbage thinks he’s entitled to a lawyer! How funny is that?”

“Pretty darned funny from where I’m standing. He’ll be singing a different tune, begging is more like it, when Maggie gets a piece of him. I heard she has something spectacular planned for all those guys in the Scorpions.”

Pete Hershel looked from Jack to Harry and back to Jack. “Are you fellas some kind of . . . you know . . . Special Forces working out of uniform? Not that I care, I’m just curious,” he hastened to add.

“In a manner of speaking.” Jack grinned.

Hershel cackled in glee at Jack’s response. “I kind of figured something like that when I met this here dog, who I know is the only one of its kind. That means he’s had some real special training.”

Harry laughed out loud. “Oh yeah,” he drawled. “He understands Greek. He can make his own bed, answer the phone, and his specialty is folding towels. That’s just a few of the things he’s really good at. The list is endless. He has so many medals and commendations, we can’t keep track of them all.”

“You don’t say! I could tell just by looking at him that he was special. Greek, eh?”

Cyrus rolled over and covered his eyes with one massive paw. Sometimes, and this was one of those times, his own accomplishments overwhelmed him.

Harry moved closer to the window and laughed. “Mr. Meadows’s ride is here! A big, beautiful ambulance. Snowden is backing it up the driveway. Mr. Hershel, you have to open the garage door for him. We don’t want your neighbors seeing any of this.”

Hershel hobbled as fast as his arthritic legs would allow. “I think I’ll go out on the porch in case some of my neighbors come by thinking something happened to me. I’ll just tell them I had a guest who collapsed. What we do not need right now is Mr. Gentry Lomax sticking his snoot into what is going on here.”

“Good thinking,” Jack said, as he walked over to where Meadows was lying. “Last chance to fess up, Meadows.”