Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with the WWE.

Author's Note: Hey! I'm back with another update! Thanks to ThePinkyPop, Expect-the-Unexpected75, x0allisonqt0x, vampiregirl2009 (you never know what will happen!), elliexhardy, the hardy boyz lover, and Evildarkwolf for your reviews! I really appreciate them! I won't keep you any longer, so here we go!

Chapter 4

Phil quickly looked over his shoulder to see why his wife had screamed, Lexie beginning to cry since she was startled by the sound. His eyes widened when he saw Shane smirking at them from the window, holding his daughter closer as he tried to shield her from the man with his arms. Jeff and Adam both stared at him with shock while Maria and Taryn moved over to the crying girl to see if they could help console her.

Matt abruptly ended the call and shoved the phone in his pocket before he started toward the door. Jay jumped up from the chair and put his hands on his friend's arms in a restraining way. "Matt, we have to think clearly about this," he told him.

But the older Hardy tried to fight out of his hold. "Let me go, Jay!" he snapped. "He threatened my brother!"

Jay sighed. "He threatened mine too," he muttered. When Matt finally stopped struggling, he lowered his hands. "We have to keep a level head with this, Matt. Adam and Jeff's lives depend on it."

Sighing, Matt slowly nodded in agreement. "You're right, Jay, you're right..."

Then, John took a couple of steps closer to the window. "He's gone," he muttered.

From beside Taryn, Drew's eyes narrowed angrily. "Well, he won't get far." He stormed over to the door and threw it open, looking up and down the dark sidewalk before suddenly running out into the night.

"Drew!" Taryn shouted.

Cursing heatedly under his breath, John ran outside after him, watching as Drew ran down the sidewalk after a dark figure he really couldn't make out clearly but was sure was Shane. He began to quickly follow after the Scotsman, watching as the man in front turned into an alley. Drew slowed down a bit, but John gasped and sped up when he heard the sound of a car starting. He reached the younger man, grabbing his arm as the sound of squealing tires echoed in the night around them. He pulled him back from the alley, both men falling onto the sidewalk as a black car sped out onto the street, disappearing from sight.

"Are you okay?" John asked, slowly sitting up as he tried to catch his breath.

Drew nodded after a moment, sitting up beside the other man. "Yeah," he answered quietly. "Thanks."

John merely nodded in response, helping the other man to his feet. "Come on," he muttered. "Let's get back."

After telling the rest of the group that Shane had gotten away, everyone went up to their separate rooms, exhausted after the long day. Jeff slowly walked up the stairs, the Kleenex Maria had given him still at his cheek since the cut was still bleeding. He would clean it more when he got to the room, but he would have to work with what he had for now.

"Jeff."

Sighing, the younger Hardy stopped and turned to see Matt coming up the stairs after him. The two brothers looked at each other for a long moment before the older sighed.

"Why didn't you call me when you were in trouble?" he asked quietly. He was relieved that Jeff had come out of the accident relatively unhurt, but he was the older brother. He should have been the one that was looking out for him.

Jeff rolled his eyes as he continued to go up the stairs. "Now you care again?" he muttered pressing the Kleenex to his cheek with a bit more pressure. "It only took a damn car accident, Matt..."

"You don't know what he has planned, Jeff!" Matt went up a couple more steps after his brother, hoping that he would stay.

This statement made Jeff stop again, and he quickly turned to face the older Hardy. "Like you do?" he demanded. "Look, Matt. Shane's after me and Adam. That's all anyone knows. So you've worked for him once. It doesn't matter now, does it?"

Matt didn't have an answer for what Jeff was saying, so all he could do was sigh and lower his gaze. Jeff's harsh green eyes softened, but he still turned and continued up to his room.

Once he was gone, Matt suddenly reached out and pounded on the wall with frustration. "I may not know what Shane has planned," he whispered to himself. "But I do know what he's capable of."

Adam and Jay entered their room in silence, the former immediately collapsing onto his bed. Jay sighed as he sat on his own bed, looking over at the other man with concern.

"Are you okay?" he wondered, knowing that he still must have been affected by the events of that night.

After a long moment, Adam slowly nodded, still staring at the ceiling. "Yeah, I'm fine," he muttered. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Jay smiled and shook his head a little. "Maybe because your car exploded and you were almost in it," he said.

"Well, I wasn't." The shortness of Adam's tone showed that he didn't want to think about it. "Therefore, I'm fine."

"Stubborn as always." When Adam didn't say anything, Jay sighed. "I'm sorry..."

Confused, Adam slowly turned his head to look at his best friend. "What for?" he asked. "You didn't set the bomb."

Jay slowly looked up to meet the other man's gaze. "No, I didn't," he answered quietly. "But it happened because of me..."

Adam slowly sat up, watching him carefully. "Jay?"

"Shane's trying to kill you to get back at me," Jay finally said, not able to look at his best friend. "It should be me, not you..."

Sighing, Adam got to his feet as he began to pace the room. "Listen, Jay," he muttered. "Turning against Shane in that hotel was the right thing. I respect you for that. Now Shane's out for revenge. It's something we should have expected. Don't beat yourself up about this, Jay. We know what he wants, so we have a better chance at stopping it. See what I'm getting at here?"

Jay slowly looked up when Adam didn't say anything else, but he still sighed. "You're the closest thing I have to a brother, Adam," he told him quietly. "Last time... It was me that almost killed you. If you would have died..." His sentence trailed off as he took a deep breath. "If anything happens to you this time, it'll still be because of me..."

Adam looked at him sadly before he sat down on the bed next to him. "I've forgiven you for what happened last year because you're my brother and also the one that saved my life," he replied sincerely. "I wouldn't have made it out of that hotel if it hadn't been for you. And with Shane now... There are more of us than there are of him. He can try to come for me, but I'm not going anywhere."

The last statement made Jay laugh a little, and he smiled slightly as he quickly hugged Adam. "Thanks." Though it was only one word, it summed up a lot of what he was feeling.

Seeming to understand the significance, Adam nodded as he got back to his feet. "Now that we have all that figured out," he said, "I'm going to kick Shane's ass next time we see him for blowing up my rental car."

Phil gently set a sleeping Lexie on the bed in their room, the television playing softly in the background, before he walked over to Maria, who was standing at the window and nervously playing with her red hair. He wound his arms around her waist from behind, pulling her close and kissing her cheek as he carefully lowered her hand.

"It's okay, Ria," he murmured, lips lingering close to her ear. "It'll be okay."

Maria sighed as she laid her head on Phil's shoulder, grateful for the security of his arms wrapped around her. "Shane's coming for us, Phil," she said, grabbing his hand tightly. "We have to leave."

Phil placed his chin on top of her head. "His main goal is to get revenge on Matt and Jay, so his targets are Adam and Jeff," he replied, squeezing her hand. "Besides, we're safer as a group since it's one man against all of us. And I'm going to make sure that we stop Shane for good this time and that Jeff and Adam are okay..."

"What about Lexie?"

His wife's quiet question made Phil sigh. "Ria," he muttered, tilting her head up so she was looking at him. "You and Lexie are my first priority. I would give my life to make sure that nothing happened to either of you."

A thin line of tears formed in Maria's eyes, and Phil pulled her into another tight hug. "We're going to make it through this, Ria," he assured her, kissing her head as she quietly cried. "We're going to get through this. I promise, nothing's going to happen to you or Lexie."

After another moment, Maria looked up at Phil, taking a deep breath as she carefully wiped her tears away. "Promise me you'll be okay," she whispered, memories from the year before when she had almost lost him when he had been shot by Shane coming back to her.

Phil sighed quietly as he looked back at his wife, tenderly brushing some of her red hair out of her face. He hated not knowing how to reply to her since that was something he couldn't guarantee, but he had to put her mind at ease somehow. "I'll be fine. I promise."

Matt paced his room, sighing as he looked down at the number he had put into his cell phone. His mind was racing, sorting through his options as he debated about whether or not he should call it. Jeff was his first priority, that much he knew. But if he wanted to keep him safe, he wondered if this was worth it.

Finally coming to the conclusion that it was, Matt pushed the call button and brought the phone up to his ear, his anxiety rising with every ring.

"Hello?"

When the familiar voice finally answered, Matt stopped walking and took a deep breath. "Tell me what I have to do."

The next day came early for everyone. Running on minimal hours of sleep, the group, except for Maria, met down in the lobby to discuss plans for that night's house show.

"We have two less cars than we started with," Adam said. "How should we arrange this?"

"Well, Ria isn't going to to the show tonight, so I could take Lexie's car seat out and fit a couple people," Phil suggested.

"And we could bring a couple more," Taryn added.

"Okay, so between the rest of us, that shouldn't be too bad," Jay muttered. "What do you think, Adam? Should we go with Phil then?"

Adam shrugged. "That's fine with me," he replied. "And then Matt and John can go with Drew and Taryn. That just leaves Jeff. Are you coming tonight?"

Jeff sighed as he slowly shook his head. "No, I don't think so," he told him. "I'll probably stay at the hotel tonight."

The rest of the group exchanged nervous looks, unsure if leaving Jeff behind would be a good idea. But, they figured that he would be okay as long as he didn't leave the hotel, and they would focus more on keeping their eyes on Adam.

When the time came to leave for the house show, Phil went out to the car to take out Lexie's seat while Jay and Adam put their bags in the back. A couple of spaces away, Matt and John were filling up Drew's car with their bags. Jeff stood at the door of the hotel, smoking a cigarette as he watched them getting ready to go.

"Hey, be careful tonight, Man," Jeff muttered when Adam came over to him.

Adam laughed a little. "Yeah, well... I'll be fine," he replied casually. "With all these guys around, I highly doubt anything will happen."

Jeff shrugged, breathing some smoke out of his nose as he flicked some ashes to the ground. "True, but this is Shane we're talking about."

"Yeah... Crazy bastard." Adam sighed. "You be careful too."

"Hey, don't worry about me," Jeff said with a slight smile. "I'll be just fine."

Matt closed the trunk of Drew's car once John put his bag in, and he sighed as he looked over at Jeff and Adam as they talked to each other by the front door of the hotel. He shook his head a little when he saw that they were laughing about something, but then his eyes narrowed when he saw a familiar black car sitting not too far from where they were standing. He watched as the driver's window was rolled down a little, and he gasped quietly when he saw the barrel of a gun stick out, aimed directly at his brother and friend.

"Look out!" Matt shouted, starting to run toward the hotel.

Adam and Jeff both quickly looked up at the sound of his anxious warning while Jay, Drew, John, Taryn, and Phil watched with confused as the older Hardy continued to run toward the building. But before anyone could do anything more, the gun aimed at the two men went off as the first shot echoed in the evening air around them.

Author's Note: As I said, expect more cliffhangers, lol! I hope you liked this chapter! A lot of unanswered questions here. But thanks for reading! Your reviews are much appreciated. Thank you!