Part 40: *************************************************************************** "You must have read something wrong." Howie said, leaning back in his chair. "The hell we did." Ty muttered, "E didn't you come to the same conclusion we did?" "Yeah." All the guys turned and looked at her, "Lou may be crazy, but I don't think he's stupid enough to get into that." D stated. The other Backstreet Boys nodded their agreement, and Shan shook her head. "Who wants to burst Howie's bubble?" Ty smiled, "Let me...Guess who's the link between Lou and the mob." Howie shrugged, "No clue." "Paul Hardy." "Isn't that your v.p?" Kevin asked turning to Howie. "Uh yeah." Howie sat there stunned, trying to keep from screaming. "He is? Your sure?" David nodded, "Yeah, I've seen him have meetings here with Lou all week. He's a secret share holder/partner in TransCon. Probably so he can keep watch over the money." E nodded, "But I don't think he's doing that great a job of that since it looks like Lou might be skimming." "He's scamming money from the mob?" Nick asked in disbelief. "He's that stupid?" "No one said he was a genius." Lis said. "How'd you come across all this?" AJ asked, pouring himself another glass of water. "Research. We dug through everything we could find on Lou, which included court papers and some uh sealed transcripts." "Sealed?" "Well thats usually where all the good stuff is." David explained. "So when did he reveal it?" Nick asked, "I don't remember you guys telling me anything like that when we sued him." "Its not when you sued, it was when Nsync did. Apparently they came across this info later and thats why he settled so quickly with them. He was probably using that money to fund them." "What about us?" "We don't know if he used illegal money for your start up as well." Brian laughed, "This is sad." "Sad and a pain in the ass. How do we prove this? Can we use it to blackmail him into keeping his mouth shut?" D asked. If Paul could be connected to the mob and money laundering, it would be very possible he'd been using the company to launder money as well. A sick feeling was washing overhim and he paled. Ty watched Howie nervously, he went from almost being green to turning as white as a sheet. "D come on lets get you some air." AJ nodded, "Yeah man you look like your gonna be sick. We can fill you in later." "Yeah maybe your right, air would be good." Howie and Ty walked down the street, each lost in their own thoughts. "You okay?" he asked breaking the silence as they crossed the street. "I guess so. Why don't you want us involved in this Howie? Don't you trust your own wife." "Its OUR problem, a BACKSTREET problem. And this has nothing to do with trust." "And we're all the BACKSTREET wives Howard. And yes it has to do with trust, you kept this from me all these months. Even when Lou first confronted you with that envelope full of papers, you never said anything. You never mentioned it!! What kind of marriage is that D?" He sighed, "Ty calm down..." "So you can lie again, must be easy to lie when someone has no suspicion what the hell is going on. You know Howie its not just your lives that were turned upside down, us wives got a shitty deal too you know. Not just because you all shut down on us but because you don't trust your own wives enough to clue them in." Back at the meeting, the remaining boys were flipping through the reports David had given them while occasionally sneaking glances at their wives. Brian tossed his report down, glad to know that if Lou went public with Nick's secret they had the photographer and the woman in the pictures who could refute the claim. He still needed to call Cassie and tell her they weren't married but with the press coverage of any little movement they made lately he didn't want to risk her flying in and creating another scandal. Jenn flipped through the extra report David had handed her and surveyed the table, everyone was busy reading through the report or like the wives, doodling absently on their notepads. She leaned over to get a glass and stopped, seeing AJ watching her. He nodded his head towards the door and slowly stood up. "I'm gonna take a break." David looked up from his conversation with E, "Probably wouldn't be a bad idea if we all took one. Maybe we can all come back and concentrate." Jenn nodded, "The boys can get their noses out of joint." AJ waited outside the door waiting for Jenn to come out, "You have no idea how much I missed you." "Well then why not tell me while I run out to get a soda?" "Sounds good." Kevin caught up to Alec in the hallway. He walked in front of her, blocking her path. "Kevin move." "Why?" he studied her face, "You could at least look at me you know." "I'm not up to dealing with your stupidity right now. I've spent nearly seventy hours straight trying to prove you don't have a son and I get no thanks at all, we walk into that meeting and you say everything is false and we have no proof. If it wasn't for me and the other wives you all wouldn't have anything." "Brian..." "Fine, Brian solved his little problem on his own. You however Mr. Richardson would still have Taylor Adams claiming her son is yours. Now get out of my way or I'll make Frankie move you." she could see the bodyguard just over Kevin's shoulder. "Frankie wouldn't move me, he knows who pays his paycheck." She glared up at him, "I'm not listening to you." she said defiantly and pushed her way by him. "Alec wait!" he called. "No!!" she yelled and kept walking. "Where are you staying?" Nick asked, moving into the empty seat beside Lis. "I don't know. David thinks maybe we should all hole up in the beach house. Not sure that's wise." "Why not?" Nick asked nervously as he began to play with the pen on the desk. "Because all you men are being jerks. How could you defend Lou??" "I wasn't defending him," she laughed, "Look I just don't want to play his game okay Lis?? He made all this stuff up about us and is using it to blackmail us, if we go after him i want it to be true." "Do you think we'd make something up that could end up hurting you in the long run?" He let out a deep sigh, "I don't know what to think anymore." David and E sat in his office, "I never expected them to react like tht." he said leaing back in his chair. "Me either. I've never seen them behave so stupid. And to defend Lou, after all he's done to them. I don't see the point in that." "Maybe their afraid he'll use their blackmailing against him." "Maybe." E took a sip of her root beer and looked at the files on her desk. "Even if they don't smarten up we need to keep investigating Lou. Which means talking to the other group." David nodded, "And if they don't do anything with the info we could always make an anonymous tip if we needed to." "Somehow I think if the guys don't do anything with it the wives will. They looked ready to kill in there, albeit I don't blame them. I had the urge to strangle a few of them myself." "Hard to believe these were the same men who wanted to clear their names." "What happened to them?" "When the whole deal about Brian's supposed arrest came out they kind of all retreated. I think their scared now about what Lou will do. He had to have been the one to leak this, so their probably afraid he'll leak some of the other things. Plus what's to stop him from coming up with other stories about the Boys?"