Part 41: **************************************************************************** Brian followed Shan into the elevator and she groaned when the doors shut with a soft thud. They were the only two in the elevator so there was no way to escape him. In a small way it reminded her of that day back in his bedroom in Lexington. "Stop staring." she said, keeping her eyes on the numbers above the doors. "Its not attractive." "We need to talk." "Everyone needs to talk, but no one is. So why should we be any different?" He groaned, "Don't pull this stubbornness act on me." "And don't pull your greater than thou act Brian." "Fine, look I'll talk and you can listen if you want to." he leaned against the wall and looked at their reflection in the doors. He watched her play with her wedding band. "I turned the papers over to Cliff...he did some looking into things and checked the papers, their false. My divorce from Cassie went through like we always thought it did. Our marriage Shan is still legal...we're fine..." "Sure we are." she sighed and watched the numbers before glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. "I'm still not ready to forgive you for lieing." Brian frowned and closed his eyes, "I somehow knew that." The wives took over David's office, "What are we going to do?" Shan asked, glancing out the window to the Orlando streets below. "There's only six bedrooms at the beach house. You know they'd refuse to double up." Alec commented. "Well there is always our own houses." Jenn said, "But their probably surrounded by the press." "Maybe we should have just stayed at the cabin." Lis stated, sitting down. She could hear the guys holding a conversation outside. Nick ran a hand through his hair, giving him the appearance of total bedhead. "What are we going to do?" AJ shrugged, "Do you think they'd even want to stay at the beach house with us?" "Where else can they go?" Kevin asked, glancing towards the closed office door. "Face it they pretty much have to be there." "You know we're all in the doghouse." Howie stated. "That's stating the obvious D." Brian commented, leaning against the wall. "Guys, are we really gonna let Lou ruin our lives here? He's basically been controlling us for months. Ever since he gave each of us our envelopes he's been like hanging over us." "What do we do? I mean the girls aren't exactly going to back down, you saw them. Their pissed." Nick said, slidding down to the floor. "I see two ways that helping the wives with this investigation helps us," Brian stated, looking at each of his friends, "First it gets us back in the girls good graces and secondly we could find information to use against Lou. How I don't know yet, but we'll find out when the time comes." The office door opened and the women all filed out, surprised to find all five of the husbands still standing there, all blocking the door. "What's going on?" Jenn asked tiredly. They'd been there for hours all ready and she didn't feel up to putting up with anymore crap from them. AJ looked at his friends then at his wife, "We're not letting any of you leave till you hear us out." Lis raised an eyebrow, "Your keeping us here against our will?" "If we have to." Nick said, determinedly. "David and E left so we're all alone. The bodyguards went across the street for coffee so its just the ten of us." Ty groaned, "Get on with it then, I want to get out of here. Sooner rather then later." "Okay then, have a seat." Howie said, motioning them over to the couches. The wives exchanged weary looks but sat down, not saying anything. Brian stepped forward a little, deciding he would be spokesman for the group. "We want you at the beach house." "No not happening." Alec said, shaking her head. Her eyes met Kevin's, "We're not you and your not Lou, so don't try to control us." "We're not trying to control you...just hear us out." Howie nodded, "We've decided that helping you find out what else Lou is hiding isn't that bad of an idea. But we're not saying we're going to use what information it is we do find." "So what your basically saying is your going to play along with this just to keep us happy?" Ty asked, looking at each of them. "Sorry but I don't think so. I for one am not about to welcome Howard back with open arms just because now your jumping on the bandwagon." Howie sighed, "Ty please...we realize your right. David said everything so far has checked out that you've come across. Let us help you, we want to." "Before you didn't want us near this and now its perfectly fine because what you'll be there holding our hands?" Lis asked. "Your not understanding what we're saying." Kevin said. "Then just what are you saying Kevin, because so far I think your talking in circles." Shan stated, glaring at her cousin in law. "We want to help dig up what we can on Lou, after we know everything THEN we will sit down and decide what to do. Yes we want to get Lou back for what he's done and chances are high that we will use everything we can against him but we need to know everything first." Brian said, "Good enough?" "Yeah." Jenn said softly. "And lastly," Nick spoke up, "The five of you are coming to stay at the beach house. No ifs, ands or maybes about it. We've been separated way too damn long over all this. Personally another couple days of this and I'll be crazy." the others nodded their agreements.