He pulled his ringing cell phone out of his cargo pocket and answered it, taking a good look around McD's. It wasn't as busy as he thought it would be. "McLean."

"Its D."

AJ sighed as he set down his coke. "What's going on??"

"We need to talk."

"About?"

"I'll tell you when I see you. Are you free right now?"

"Pretty much, I'm just having a bite to eat at Mickey D's..."

"Can you meet me at my place in an hour?"

"I can be there in half that." AJ said, reaching for his coat.

"Let yourself in, I'll be waiting." and with that the phone went dead. AJ made a face as he dumped his trash and headed out into the Florida sunshine and towards his vehicle. Something inside was telling him something was going on.

Nick trudged upstairs, not wanting to sit in the kitchen and wait for whatever Ty was talking about to happen. He threw the door open to his and Lis' bedroom and headed for the closet, pulling his clothes out and tossing them on the bed, figuring he'd find his duffle bag later to put everything into.

Shan stared out at the sky trying to contain the rage that was growing inside her. "So let me get this straight, Paul had the audacity to threaten Howie with a murder charge????"

"Pretty much, unless of course he signs with Lou and then I guess all this would conveniently disappear." Ty answered, looking at each of her friends.

"What was D's response??" Alec asked.

"He was in shock, I think Paul gave him time to think things over. I got out of there before it ended."

"Almost makes me wish I hadn't married into the Backstreet Family." Lis muttered.

"Well if they get Howie signing, they've all ready got AJ signed and ready to go...who would they go after next?" Jenn asked outloud, glancing back at the house.

"I'd pick Nick or Kev...right now Brian's giving him the impression he'd be happy to see him go down..."

"Don't forget Nick wasn't too pleasant to good ol' Lou either." Alec added. "Lou's best bet would be to go after Kevin next..."

"But you honestly think Howie would sign a contract?" Shan glanced around the table, "Would he Ty?"

She shrugged, "This morning he said they were messing with the wrong man but...I think he'd do anything to protect me and his brothers..."

"Then what do we do?"

Ty smiled, "Finally someone asked the question. I say if they're not going to go after Lou why don't WE?????"

Jenn raised an eyebrow. "Us??"

"Uh huh."

Kevin walked inside the beachhouse, surprised at how silent it was. Walking closer to the stairs he heard the sound of the wives talking and quickly ducked upstairs, not wanting to have to explain his whereabouts to anyone. He stopped in front of the open bedroom door and glanced in, seeing Nick sitting on the floor, staring at an empty vodka bottle. Please don't let him be drinking again, Kevin thought to himself as he knocked on the door.

Nick lifted his eyes from the bottle and frowned seeing Kevin standing there. "What is it Kev?"

"Nothing just..."

"Checking up on me?" he finished for his 'brother'.

"Contrary to your belief Nick, this entire world does not revolve around you. I just wanted to say hi, you know like we used to do before this shit began but I guess those days are long gone. Sorry to have disturbed you." he shook his head and started to turn around when he heard Nick's voice.

"Sorry Kev...I guess I kinda jumped to conclusions." he waved him inside. "Its just everyone's babying me lately."

Kevin walked in and sat down across from him. "Like who?"

"Lissy, Brian..."

"For wanting to leave." A look of surprise appeared on Nick's face and Kev smiled a small smile. "News travels fast around here."

"Thats what I mean." he set the bottle down. "I'm sick of all this. Everytime I turn a corner there's one of you!!!"

"We're all living in one house Frack, what do you expect?"

"Something, anything...damnit I don't know!!"

Kevin leaned against the wall and glanced at the mound of clothes on the bed. "Going somewhere?"

Nick turned around and stared at the bed, "Getting out of here."

"Mmm where ya going?"

"Don't know yet." he looked into Kev's eyes. "You think I'm stupid don't you?"

"For wanting to go away?" Nick nodded. "No, I almost wish I'd done that with Alec when all this started. Taken her back to Kentucky the day the press release came out and spent the rest of our lives in our cabin up there...but you know what Nick?? Wouldn't really have changed anything, Lou would have still come after me even up there."

"I just...I want to get away from everything Kev...there's too much pain here right now."

"There's pain here for all of us Nicky...but we gotta deal with it, at least for a little while longer. Can you tough it out?"

Nick stared out the balcony doors for a minute, "Why? You think this is gonna end soon Kev?? Because I honestly think he could have a hold over us for the rest of our lives...and I don't want to face that, I'd rather run like you say and start over somewhere then live like that."

"Just give it some time okay?? If things don't change in a couple weeks, you take Lissy and go wherever you want and get your life back. But just give us some time okay?"

Reluctantly Nick nodded, "Just a little while longer Kev, I swear I'm at the end of my rope."

Kevin pulled him into a hug and took a deep breath, they were all at the end of their ropes and if it was up to him in any way they would be out of this situation sooner rather then later.