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Kitty's Funhouse - 8:34 pm
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Joey and Lance walked through the front door to the strip club, disappearing quickly into the cloud of cigarette smoke that hung in the air. Justin, Wes, and Dre had to hurry to keep up with the two men, while fending off the hands of dancers looking to make a quick few dollars on the side. A few quick strides took Wes to the front of the group and he entered the club's back room first.

In the back offices David Bendow sat with a blond on his lap surrounded by three of his colleagues, playing cards. As soon as he saw who had interrupted his game, he brought his gun to bear on Joey. In under two seconds every hand in the room held a gun pointed at another person.

"I don't remember inviting you to my place, Fatone."

"I don't remember telling you this was your place, David," Joey said calmly. "I know that you didn't mean to step away from the Family. You aren't so stupid to think that we'd allow you to do that, are you?"

"Maybe I'm doing some reassociating."

"Let's see, if it isn't with Wright, then it has to be with Pearlman and you know how I feel about that bastard. Wright assured me that you weren't going his way, in fact we stopped over to see him earlier. Our mutual dislike for that Fatman is the only thing that binds us together. There isn't anyway that you are going to join up with Pearlman. Come back with us and we'll talk about your transgression and you can get back to business, slightly less than usual."

David stood up, keeping his gun trained on Joey, "You know something Joseph? you aren't your father. You can't command the kind of power and respect that he did and you don't really even have the right to try." David took a deep breath and shook his gun at Joey as he continued. "You were an irresponsible child. Your father always wanted you to have the Family, but mainly because of him," David swung his gun to Lance. "You know the responsible one. You were supposed to be like him, not a fuck off like Steven and maybe you would have been better if the old man had survived a few more years. You know something else, Joseph. So many of your 'associates' are only holding on because of the name Fatone and the fact that you got a Bass backing you, if it was just you it would have been over along time ago."

Lance watched the anger build up on Joey's face. He aimed his gun as if he was going to shoot David, but spoke up instead, "I can't say that I'm that surprised. I never wanted to grow up and this certainly isn't the life that I imagined for myself, but you live with what you get. The stronger I become the weaker fucks like you are. You aren't going to last very long, I really doubt you'll last the night."

Lance took that phrase as his initiative. "Ezra," he said. Ezra Bendow was David's blood brother and business partner. "We heard you wanted to branch out on your own, but Davie here didn't want you out of his sight. Here's your chance kid, everything you ever wanted. All you have to do is walk over here and it's yours." David's sneer turned to a look of worry. He hadn't thought that they'd use his kid brother against him. Ezra turned his back on his brother and came to stand by Lance, Joey, and Justin. Joey took one last look at David Bendow before he pulled the trigger on his gun. Before Bendow ever hit the floor his other two associates were dead from bullets in Lance's and Ezra's guns.

Joey turned to Ezra, "Look kid, get this cleaned up and come and see me at the restaurant in the morning. Say tenish and we'll do a little transferring. Bring your friends." The five walked out of Kitty's leaving Ezra with three dead bodies and one freaked out blond stripper.

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Fatone Compound - Joseph's Office - 10:07 am
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Dre opened the door to Joseph's office and gestured for Justin to enter. On the other side of the door Lance and Joseph were seated waiting for him. Dre took up a position with Wes, just in side the door while Justin sat in the only other available seat in the office.

"You gotta wonder why we wanted to talk to you all formal like this," Joey started. He got up from his chair and walked around to the front of the desk, leaning casually against it. "There are two things really. In order to grant the second we had to do the first."

Justin looked at Joey with a confused expression on his face. "What are you talking about."

Lance spoke up, telling Justin the story that they had devised at a warning. "We figured that you might like some of those business contacts now, and what better way to start then to work with Ezra. You have spent a lot of time with us since Steven left you with us, but we never understood how you got involved with him to start with. A petty thief hardly seems like the type to get his attention." Lance paused, Justin looked decidedly worried. "So I had several friends do a little looking into one Justin Timberlake and we got the complete sheet from the police."

"Quite a little story you have. I remember one of the cases that they said you helped build. We just wanted to let you know that you made a promise to this family and if anything like that happens here?" Joey let the statement hang. Justin breathed an inaudible sigh of relief. The information that the two had gathered was his cover, they still didn't have a clue that he was an undercover officer. Looking at Joey, he nodded his head slowly. "You and Ezra will be working together to restore David's contacts and keep them in line. Dre will be with you in case you need help, he knows the ins and outs of David's area. Here's the address at which you will find Ezra waiting for you. I expect to see results or you will end up less on protection manner." Now it was Joey and Lance's turn to breath a sigh of relief. Justin was going to be placed on the edge of Family business for the time; at a place where he could do the least amount of damage.

Justin took the offered scrap of paper and he and Dre headed out of the office. "Justin," Lance called as they neared the door. "If you need anything, let me know."

After Justin had left the two friends looked at each other in silence. "I?" Joey hesitated. "I want to tell you some thing and I need you to listen to me." Lance nodded at Joey. "And I need you to understand, or at least try to understand, because you are the only one who might."

Joey sat heavily in the chair Justin had vacated. He smiled softly at Lance. "Do you remember when we were kids and we were the Five Gang; just you, me, Janine, Steven, and Stacy. I want to have that back so bad, Lance. It was never supposed to be me, doing this thing, being the boss. That's what Steven was going to do. But I guess I also knew that Papa didn't plan on Steven taking this job, it was supposed to be you and me because then we would be just like him and Jim. They were right to think that you would be my biggest help. David was right when he said that the only reason half of my Captains are still with us is because you are here to keep me from mucking it all up."

"I talked to Jacob yesterday night, after the incident. He had the same things to say. You know the story, same plain old irresponsible Joe, same responsible Lance. Always making sure that I'm doing things right, trying to keep us all out of the news. I don't really know why I don't just give it all to you and walk away while I still can."

"Don't look at me that way. I do know why we can't just run away from this. Maybe I could have done it, if you know it was more of a gradual process. You know the old guys planned it that way, more of you and me and less and less of them until we had control of the whole operation. It shouldn't have happened like this, Steven shouldn't of killed them. It was cold blood, cold blood." Joey had reached the babbling point. It was only the second time that he had allowed himself to talk about his father's death.

Joey pulled his gun off the desk and shot rapidly at the vases that decorated the mantle nearby his desk. The sound of gunfire and shattering glass brought Wes quickly in from his station just outside the door. Joey whipped around throwing the weapon at Wes, yelled for him to get out. Lance smiled softly at Wes and the two of them were left alone again. "I'm mad, Lance. I'm twenty three and can't handle a single business venture on my own. How could they leave me like this?" Joey's eyes softened slightly when they landed on Lance. He was the strongest guy Joey had ever met, he never, ever let anything get to him. He had held Joey up through the death of his father and the betrayal of his brother, a constant help and source of reason when Joey was unreasonable. His father, Papa's underboss, had been killed by the second bullet out of Steven's gun, Lance had never taken the time to mourn him, he had been holding Joey together instead. He watched Lance watch him, green eyes unreadable as they stared holes into Joey's brain.

Lance watched Joey watch him. He was worried about his best friend and had been since the previous day. What David said hurt Joey and while Lance knew that some of the Family's partners and associated believed that Joey was being lead by Lance, those people were wrong. Lance had followed Joey from the second he was born. It seemed to be his duty, to make sure that his brother was safe, just like his father watched Papa. All his life he had followed Joey, now he could read Joey's mind. The actions he took of his own free will were the same actions that Joey himself would have asked Lance to take. Everything that Lance had done was for the betterment of the Family, to make Joey happy and to keep him safe, and to make his father proud. Lance wondered if he hadn't made a mistake.

"You didn't." Lance's head whipped around from where eyes had wandered to the mess Joey had made with his shooting. "You didn't make any mistakes doing what you did. I know why you did and I am happy you did. We can't undo mistakes anyway, just move forward." Joey pulled himself out of his chair and walked to the door. "Family protects Family, Lance. You and me."

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Lance's Apartment (in the city) - Two days later - 7:00 pm
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Lance rushed around his apartment. He didn't spend very much of his time in the apartment, preferring to stay at the Compound now that Joey had taken control of the Family. He couldn't, however, have the dark haired detective pick him up at the Compound. He wasn't James Bass of the Fatone Family, tonight he was just Lance. He didn't have to be strong for Joey or guard himself because of the cutthroat business he worked in; he could let it all go for a few hours.

Now the confident Underboss and notorious hitman that was well known amongst the 'underworld' was running around his apartment like a high schooler out on his first date. He had showered and shaved as quickly as he could but had come to a major pause when he looked in his closet. So much of his stuff had been taken to the compound and he didn't have a very large selection of clothes. Khaki pants were pulled on quickly followed by a russet pull over knit shirt.

Just as he started to tie up his shoes the intercom buzzed. He pushed the button, "Come on up," and he buzzed his guest through the door. Lance pulled his jacket on as the knock came on the door. He hurried over to open it. On the other side of the door stood a vision. Clad in black and a blue that matched the color of his eyes, stood Joshua.

He smiled softly at Lance and said, "You ready to go?"

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