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“Nooo,” yelled TJ as all three boys dropped their weapons and rushed him. Grabbing his legs and one arm, they seemingly overwhelmed him, wrestling him to the carpet. TJ offered limited resistance as the boys piled on top of him.

“Mercy, mercy,” bellowed TJ.

“Will you give us the pizza?” asked Junior.

“Yes, you can have the pizza. You can have all the pizza.”

The boys let out whoops as they left him on the floor and swarmed the kitchen. At that moment, Ernie entered the living area carrying a vacuum cleaner. “Bro, I don’t know how she does it. They leave a trail of destruction everywhere they go. Somehow, they managed to split a bean bag open. There are balls stuck to the damn ceiling. Which is where Maria is going to nail mine if I don’t keep the place tidy.”

TJ laughed as he rose. “Thanks for the tip-off.”

“As soon as I told them Uncle TJ was bringing pizza for dinner, they started planning their ambush.”

“Well planned and executed. They almost had me,” said TJ as they joined the boys at the counter. The three of them were smashing pizza.

“We got the drop on you, Uncle TJ,” said James.

“Yeah, we got you good,” added Ryan.

“Uncle TJ?” said Junior.

“Yeah, bud.”

“When are Mom and Dad going to be back with Hatchet and the other puppies?”

TJ glanced at Ernie, who wore a glum look. “Hopefully soon,” he replied. “It shouldn’t be too much longer.”

“Dad said I’m going to help train him,” the boy added.

TJ gestured for Ernie to join him outside. They grabbed a slice of pizza each and stepped out into the backyard.

“I don’t know how to tell him that we’re probably not going to get those pups back,” said TJ. “Deb hasn’t been able to dig up anything more on Kane. Did you hear from the guys in Victoria?”

Ernie nodded. “They got nothing useful out of Jenny’s contact. Allegedly, the Hells Angels are real bad hombres up there.”

“So, what now?” asked TJ.

“Mike and Rick want to grab one of the guys from the bar and put the squeeze on him. The girls are not supportive of that action.”

“Yeah, understandable. That’s a high-risk move. The authorities aren’t going to look favorably on US service personnel kidnapping one of their citizens, even if they are scum bags.”

“Maria has a plan, but Rick isn’t very happy with it,” said TJ.

“Is that because it doesn’t involve violence?”

“Yeah, but it also exposes Jenny to a small amount of risk.”

“I’m still not OK with this,” said Rick over Jenny’s earpiece.

“Babe, I’m going into a bar to talk to a bartender. I’m not heading to a spy meet in downtown Beirut,” she reassured him as she left her Uber and walked across the parking lot toward the Grey Beaver.

“Any sign of trouble, you drop the duress word, and Axe will be through that door with us a split second behind,” said Rick from the tiny SUV parked across the road at the 7-Eleven. He, Mike, and Axe were the quick reaction force. If Jenny used the phrase “I’m not feeling well,” they’d bust in and get her out.

Maria and Ali were in the Toyota Highlander monitoring the situation. Their job was to contact the police if anything went wrong. Mike had equipped them with radios and given them a crash course in using the digital surveillance suite.

“This is all very exciting,” Maria whispered to Ali as they watched Jenny enter the establishment.

“Maria, you don’t have to whisper,” said Ali. “They can’t hear you from inside.”