Part 22: *************************************************************************** He hit the button on his answering machine and listened as he stood there looking outside, watching his wife swim laps in the pool. "We got trouble...group meeting at the beach house..." the message went on to give the date and time and he sighed, leaning his hands on his desk. He couldn't believe things could get worse. Lou sat behind his desk, smiling to himself as he reread the article that had appeared only a little while ago. Just a matter of time, he thought as he looked up at the picture of the Backstreet Boys that still hung up on the wall, just a matter of time before your all begging. E caught up to Frankie Malone as he was doing his daily workout at the gym. "Frankie you got a few minutes?" she asked. He looked at her for a minute, "Sure why not." he remembered her from visiting Nick on tour a couple times. "What do you need E?" "Little bit of info." "All right." he got up and headed to the free weights while she followed, "About what?" "Did you read that article in the paper a while ago?" He laughed, "The one that slandered the boys? Oh yeah. Got a good laugh out of it." "So in all your time as Nick's bodyguard you never saw any of that?" He shrugged, "You see stuff E but after awhile you block it out." "You ever see anyone like put something in Nick's drink?" His face changed at that and he set his weights down. "You implying something?" "Maybe." He sat down. "Look...if we're going to be talking like that, I think we should talk somewhere less public." "When and where?" "Later this afternoon? I'll meet you down at the beach near the parking lot?" "Okay see you then." Howie let AJ into his office and shut the door. "Glad you made it over." D said taking his seat behind his desk. "Well it sounded urgent." AJ admitted, "Besides I haven't been to the head office in awhile." he smiled as he looked around Howie's office. "Looks good D, business must be booming." "Its uh going good. AJ Lou called me last night at home when Ty was there." "What?" "He called and wanted to set up a meeting or something. Shit J none of this is supposed to be going on..." "Well duh, I mean according to our old schedual we're on vacation for another nine weeks or more. Did Mr Blackmail say what he wanted a meeting about?" "No but I can only guess...and something tells me its not good." Lis watched as Nick pounded away on the punching bag and walked over in front of him. "Nick Bri's on the phone for you." He stopped the moving bag. "I never heard the phone." "You were busy talking to the punching bag. Phone's on the workbench." she said and left the room. He grabbed his towel and wiped his face with it as he headed to the phone, "Hi Rok, whats going on?" "I think we have trouble. Lets just say its a good thing Lissy came across those pictures on her own man." "Why? What shit happened now?" "Alec got an envelope filled with pictures of Kevin's alleged son." "Envelope?" Nick asked nervously sinking down onto the workbench. "What kind of envelope Rok?" "Like the one's we got. Alec told Kevin to get out of the house so I have no clue where he is but we're all supposed to meet at the beachhouse for a big meeting...Nick you sound funny bro." Nick rubbed his temples thinking back, "B when me and Lis went to get your mail...there was an envelope for Shan...Lis sent it up to her." He could hear Brian's sharp intake of breath. "What?" B asked slowly, praying he'd heard wrong. "Lis sent the envelope up to her. She's gotta have it by now B...she could have the papers." "Oh god...How do I explain this Nick? She has no clue about Cassie..." "I don't know man, truth could be a good place to start." AJ shook his head as he walked through his house, he'd gotten a phone call on the drive home from Nick who filled him in on Brian's situation. He decided it was time to talk to Jenn and fill her in before anything could be sent to her. "Jenn?" AJ called after finding the whole first floor void of her presence. "Hold on! Be right there." she called from upstairs and he sighed with relief. He took a seat at the bar and poured himself a bottled water and kept his eyes on the stairs. Upstairs Jenn quickly closed the desk drawer and looked around one last time hoping everything was back in its place. When she was satisfied it looked the same as it had when she walked in she headed downstairs. "Hi honey, how's D?" she asked walking calmly into the room. He shrugged, "Good I guess. I may have to go away this weekend." "Oh okay." He raised an eyebrow, "Just a day or two, we want to all go somewhere and talk things out some more." "Thats cool. I'll have a weekend to myself." she smiled at him. Maybe with him gone she could take a peek at that envelope she had accidentally found. She had been going through his desk trying to find his phone book since he had the number of that little hotel she wanted to take him to written in there when she came across the envelope with his name on it. Just as she had been about to open it she heard his voice call her from downstairs. "Don't go getting yourself into trouble." he teased. "I'm such the troublemaker out of the two of us J." she laughed, "I'll be fine and maybe when you come home we can go somewhere for a couple of days? Might be good to get you out of Orlando." "Deal. When everything calms down we'll go somewhere just the two of us, and no one will know where and we won't take any cell phones." he said wrapping his arms around her waist. "Perfect."