Julian walked in and saw Dianne sitting on the chair while Alexis lay on the sofa looking like she was asleep?

No, more like she'd been hitting the margaritas too hard. He looked at Dianne.

"How much did she drink?"

Dianne shrugged.

"Three or four…but hey, that's just perfect for you isn't it?"

His eyes flashed.

"What do you mean by that?"

She didn't look perturbed.

"Just that isn't that what you did when you first met her? Bought her drinks, walked her out because it was too warm inside the bar. Led her to your car because it was too cold outside? Got what you want and then dropped her off at the school without a second thought?"

"Dianne this is between her and me. You were leaving?"

She flashed him an irritated look.

"Yes, I've got to head back home…but try not to mess with her too much. You've done enough damage."

She exited out the door heading to her car. Then he turned his focus to the woman on the couch.

"Alexis…"

She mumbled moving on the couch.

"Mmmmm…."

He went and fetched the comforter figuring she'd be settling there for the night wrapping it over her. She moved a bit in response and opened up her eyes.

"Dianne…no wait a minute you don't look at all like her…"

"She left…"

Alexis sat up the comforter wrapped around her still.

"Wow…those margaritas…I should have stuck to wine."

"Dianne said you had a few of them," he said, "among other things she passed along."

She furrowed her brow.

"She's very loud and opinionated…but I wish she'd stuck around."

He sat in a nearby chair.

"Definitely opinionated…"

She frowned.

"I feel dizzy…"

"I'm not surprised…"

She shot him a look.

"No I imagine you're not…I listened to Dianne singing your virtues…well no more like your flaws."

"So I heard. She gave me an earful on the way out. Alexis…what did you tell her?"

She frowned.

"I'm not sure I remember…but it's none of your business Julian. You've got no right even to ask."

He just looked at her.

"I don't…"

She shook her head.

"I'm not telling you a damn thing about it. Not that I think there's any way you can use it to beat Sonny…god I can't even believe I'm having this conversation with you. It's like talking to Ric."

"Your ex-husband..."

"Yeah he had his moments…Molly was definitely one of the better ones but he's just like you. He used me any chance he could to get back at his brother…only he never used it to try to kill anyone."

She meant Shawn and he knew it. She'd unknowingly and stupidly given him info tying Shawn to Sonny though in all fairness her ex-boyfriend's number had been punched during that odd confrontation between two men in Kelly's with a heavy infusion of testosterone in the mix.

Not much he could say to that.

"I don't trust many people in my life and for some reason I trusted you…and look what happened. The hardest part of it is that there's so much I want to tell you…things I never told anyone…that I think you should know and I can't…because I'll be watching you and thinking of how it'll come back and bite me or someone I care about…or whose life is intertwined with a part of mine."

She started to get up and he tried to stop her.

"Alexis…you should sit down…you're dizzy."

She gave him one of her frosty stares.

"I'm fine…I'll be better if we just stick to our plan and leave the rest out of it."

She moved past him and entered her bedroom closing the door behind her. Julian just watched her go, wondering where that came from figuring it must have stemmed from Dianne's visit. The other lawyer had never liked him much. He wasn't sure why though she'd made a play for him and he hadn't been interested.

But then he knew that it wasn't Dianne who'd done wrong here. Because even though Shawn was responsible for nearly taking out Molly in his botched hit, Julian had started that war at Kelly's and yeah, he'd used Alexis a bit.

He'd done a lot of things to carry out a war that the feds had shut down after just a few months. All that planning, all the sacrifice and he'd been on the verge of knocking Sonny down as the kingpin of PC. The whole mobster scene would collapse like a house of cards and take a few satellites with it starting with the PCPD.

The phone rang and he picked it up.

"Julian…"

It was Carlos, a voice he hadn't heard in a while. That made it guarded as he hadn't known what had happened to his hit man after he'd severely checked him. Carlos had been weakened and made vulnerable by the same forces that Julian had run away from.

"What is it?"

The other man sighed.

"The feds are coming down really hard on Corinthos. But he's not cracking. Olivia didn't last an hour being interrogated. She started singing and then got real hysterical."

Julian sighed, sounded like her. He didn't think she'd last long and it'd be bad for Corinthos. His dalliance with her had been mercifully brief. Sonny had found out about it but Julian doubted he'd pass that info onto the feds.

"What about anyone else?"

Carlos paused.

"They're looking at Shawn carefully…wondering if he's protesting too much about being a changed man. But he just picked up a soft drink sponsorship over this jilted groom campaign he's got going."

That didn't surprise Julian. But he knew Shawn's day of reckoning would come soon enough. The man might think he was smart but the tide of public opinion had ways of turning…sometimes very sharply.

"They're going to subpoena Alexis…and I imagine put an APB on her to get her to appear. They don't buy she's just his defense counsel since they know about Kristina."

Julian digested that knowing how thrilled Alexis would be to learn the feds wanted her to spill all to a grand jury.

"She's not going to be found."

"How do you know that? Oh yeah…the whole wedding deal…man I never had you pegged for a romantic…"

Julian bristled.

"She was going to make a mistake…"

"Peace man…I just meant that when I hooked up with my woman you were all over for me over my distraction…when it came time for the action."

"You were distracted."

Carlos laughed.

"What about you? I just had one woman, a very pretty one to distract me…you had a whole family. Not that I don't feel for you, showing up in PC and then running into your baby mama when you practically get there."

"Carlos let's stick to business. Are the feds looking closely at us?"

His associate sighed.

"Not yet…but it might be a matter of time once they bring down Corinthos…so we better be prepared."

"I wonder how long that will take…"

"Hey boss…we can get ourselves more time if Alexis goes to the grand jury."

Julian vetoed that quickly enough.

"She's done enough to help us and paid for it."

Carlos whistled.

"And you told me I was getting too soft. We got to think quickly cause I got too much to lose to go down."

"We're not going down…they might stop with Sonny if they're using him as an example."

"I don't think so and neither do you."

No Julian didn't but he wasn't throwing his family under the bus to buy some time or even stopping that from happening. But he figured that the feds might start with Ava first, a definite weak link in the operation given how she'd been acting lately.

Carlos read his mind.

"Ava's hitting the talk show circuit about how her whole…affair with Morgan Corinthos was misunderstood."

"So what? She went and did that on her own."

"If she's that unpredictable, she might wind up singing too…on a talk show and they won't need to drag her in front of a grand jury."

Julian sighed knowing that was entirely possible.

"You did kill your other sister right?"

"I'm not killing Ava unless she threatens to harm my family," he said, "so far she's kept her distance."

Carlos chuckled.

"Like I said…sounds like you're the one who's soft…talk to you later. It's been real."

Julian clicked off his phone. Carlos had been pretty amiable to him considering what had happened between him when his enforcer had made a mistake that couldn't go unpunished.

With that thought, he went to bed, glancing at Alexis' closed door as he passed it.

Alexis was bright and early going on a short run down the beach. She'd woken up before Julian did fortunately. She didn't remember exactly what happened last night but knew they'd had some words.

She remembered some of them, where she told him she just wanted to stick to the plan and get out of this so she could go back to her family and create some semblance of a new life. Maybe away from PC which was in the midst of a chaotic cleanup of the whole Mafia mess.

The water looked lovely today like diamonds sparkling on the surface and boats in the distance. She'd love to live on the coastline in a beach house though she loved her current home on the lake and missed it.

She was so mad at Julian or had been last night. It hadn't been Dianne riling her up either…what he'd done to her just ate away at her. But they had to work together so she had to be able to do that.

Sam and Danny would be coming up tomorrow for the day before meeting up with Spinelli. She looked forward to seeing them and she knew Julian did too. Whatever happened between them, she knew that he did deeply care for his daughter and grandson. As much as she'd been tempted she never did anything to keep them from exploring their own relationships. She'd never deny Sam her father no matter how angry she might be at him.

No not angry not like she had been earlier but something harder to deal with…more of a weariness that every time she'd trusted some guy to be good to her they always fell short of that.

She ran up to where there was a fish stand that sold pretty tasty crab sticks which she bought along with some mango juice. She sat at a small table watching the waves crash on the beach and then heard music on the radio.

Soft jazz which relaxed her. It really was a beautiful calm day…

"We interrupt our broadcast to deliver the following bulletin. The investigation by the FBI, ATF and U.S. Attorneys' office has reached a critical point and it's been told to us that there will be a joint probe into the Corinthos Coffee Importing corporation and related businesses under the Corinthos umbrella…This just in…there's an APB out on some of the known associates of Corinthos including his enforcer Shawn Butler and Maximus Giambetti as well as primary legal counsel Alexis Davis…"

Her body froze. Did she just hear that right? The feds put out an APB on her? Oh god, what was she going to do now?

She shouldn't be surprised with all the scrutiny Sonny had been facing and yet she thought that they might not look in her corner.

This couldn't be happening to her.

Julian frowned when he was on the phone with Coleman while eating his omelet and toast.

"You're kidding me. They really put an APB on a bunch of Corinthos' people including Alexis?"

Coleman sighed.

"Damn straight they did and it ticks me off. How could they treat her like a criminal? A foxy lady like her who knows how to shoot a good game of pool."

"Well she can't go back to PC now. We're going to have to stay here and figure it out."

Coleman chuckled.

"I'm sure she'll come up with a plan of action fast. She's always thinking on her feet. You know I have half the mind when this is all over to ask her out…"

Julian clenched his jaw.

"Yeah that'd work…start off with dinner and then shoot some pool…"

"Coleman so what else is happening in PC that we should know about besides the APBs?"

Coleman chuckled obviously amused at Julian right now.

"Not much…Sonny's still not going to see the inside of a jail cell for a while yet…he could still weasel his way out of it. Course he's wondering what the hell happened with his crack attorney."

"He can keep wondering…along with Shawn."

His mind begun working because he knew they had to come up with a plan and fast. Alexis might be angry with him now but it didn't matter.

He wasn't going to let anything to happen to her.