Part 39: *************************************************************************** All the women boarded the plane and sat down, they figured the fastest way home was to charter a flight so here they were, in their own plane on the way back to Orlando. It had been two days since they'd found out about Lou's possible secret and since Alec had confronted Taylor. The only one who knew about their return was David who promised to have a van picking them up. David waited at the gate, happy they had used a charter to come home. That way no one knew of their disappearance or their return. Since the Brian's so called 'assault and arrest' made front page headlines, the Backstreet Boys were all over the news and stories were coming out of the woodwork. Brian had supposedly assaulted Shan according to a hotel employee in Atlanta...he like AJ was an alcoholic and the break up had sent him straight back to the bottle. He looked up as they walked towards him, "Hey David." E greeted him. Lis walked over and stopped, "You look odd, what's up?" "There's no good way to say this, believe me I've thought long and hard and the shit's hitting the fan." Ty stared blankly at him, "Oh god Howie?" "No Brian." David turned to Shan, "He told you didn't he?" "About Lou yeah." "Well the next day it was front page news all over, not only Orlando. Now we've got stories coming out of everywhere about Brian's so called abusive behavior." "Oh shit." "And only big poppa would leak that news." Alec stated. "Yeah pretty much." "Where are they?" Lis asked, doing Nick's nervous habit of running her fingers through her hair. "Their in private seclusion at the beach house. BUT they are in my office in exactly two hours for the meeting. I wasn't sure if you'd be joining them at the beach house or not." "Probably." "Okay then, lets get you to the office. I don't know if their gonna like you all being involved in this." David stated as he led them towards the waiting van. "That's too damn bad." Jenn said, they'd gotten into this mess, they'd have to deal with te wives helping them out of it. "He damn well better show up this time." Brian muttered as he took a seat. "He had a very important meeting about our case the last time. He apologized for it, get over it." Nick said, sitting down. He surveyed the room. "Looks like its just us in here today." "Well considering we're front page news, I think he would clean out his appointments for the day." AJ said, digging for another cigarette. "Aww damnit man, I'm out." "Too bad. Its not good for you anyways J." Kevin said, picking up an old People magazine. "'Too bad, its not good for you anyways'" J mimicked, "God Kev, stop acting like my damn father." "Okay guys stop this. We're here for a meeting...we need to stay friends...or at least be civil okay?" D said, resuming his peacemaker role. "Yeah yeah, maybe I can get Frankie to get me some smokes." J mumbled, glancing out the offices glass doors at the body guards in te hall. Since Brian's little episode Kevin had hired back all their bodyguards. David walked out in the waiting room and smiled with relief seeing all five men sitting there. "Good you all made it, come on it to the conference room." he led them down a hallway into a larger room and took a seat at the large table. Laying on top were 5 report covers. "How's the investigation going?" Nick asked taking a seat. "I think its going exceptionally well. Although I've only been concentrating into a few areas at the moment." Brian nodded, "Thats all right, I've got to the bottom of my supposed secret." "That's good." David smiled, "You wouldn't mind if some others joined the meeting would you?" Kevin looked up from his report skeptically. "I wasn't aware we had brought others into this." "Me either." Nick said confused, "I thought only you and E were on the case." "We are," E said walking into the room. "Hi guys," she sat down across from David, "but we've got five others helping." "Are they trustworthy?" J asked worriedly. Last thing they needed were these pictures sold to some tabloid so someone could make a name for themselves. "I don't know, depends if you find us trustworthy." Ty said from the doorway where the five wives stood. The five men groaned, "What the hell are you five doing involved in this?" Brian asked, staring at Shan. "I think we were involved in this the minute Lou decided to use us against you." Lis answered. She looked at Nick, "And he did use us didn't he?" Nick nodded, "Yeah Lou wants to destroy us...but still Lissy this doesn't justify you...or any of you doing anything in this." Alec laughed, "So you'd have preferred us all to sit at home, getting these lovely envelopes which basically destroy all the marriages while you five what?? Give in to Lou's demands?" The five guys turned and looked at each other, and finally J shrugged, "I had to tell Jenn all right?" D groaned, "Look we appreciate your effort but let us look into Lou on our own, with David and E's help." Ty shrugged, "Fine, you don't want to know what we dug up on Lou and that we managed to disprove everything against all of you go ahead. Have fun searching blindly on your own." "What do you mean you dug something up on Lou?" Nick asked. The wives walked in and sat down, Shan setting down a few rather large files in front of them. "E go ahead." "Its really REALLY possible Lou's using mob money to back his bands." "Nuh uh even Lou wouldn't sink that low." Kevin stated shaking his head. "Wouldn't he?" Ty asked, looking at all five men. They all glanced at one another. "Ty honey you think you found something..." Howie started. "Think?" Lis said shaking her head in disbelief. "We've read at least thirty different files and we have proof. Lou isn't an innocent in anything.." Nick smiled, "We know Lou isn't an innocent Lis but come on..." "So he can make us believe AJ's a drug addict, and Howie's a money launderer but when we have concrete proof right here you guys blow it off." Alec said tossing the file down on the table. "We're not blowing it off, it just seems unrealistic." Kevin stated, facing his wife. "Lou may be unscrupulous but this...hell even this is a reach for him."