Patrick stared at the six men in front of them. They had all stopped what they had been doing and they were staring at him like they were ready to take him out if Tim asked them to. Luckily Tim was too stupid and afraid of Patrick to ask any such thing. In fact, he told the men to listen to what the homicidal maniac had to say just so he could get him out of there as soon as possible. "You pay them well?" Patrick asked, already knowing the answer to the question. He was only asking because watching Tim twitch during their conversations was funny.
"Of course," Tim said, leaning against the wall and not act like he was nervously wringing his hands together. In an effort to put the attention on the flunkies, he started telling Patrick their names. "Sean, Taylor, Dan, Jon, Lester and Cliff. My best problem solvers should be able to do anything you ask them to."
Well no shit they should be able to, Patrick thought to himself, a little bit annoyed with his cousin for saying the obvious. If they can't, then I'm going to have to kill them and get my money back. "The best huh?" he said, resisting the urge to say what he was thinking out loud. He looked at the men and smirked. "Well if you boys can get the job done, I'll pay you triple what Tim over here is paying you."
That definitely got the flunkies' interest. Tim had very deep pockets and the triple the amount times the six people involved…well, it was going to cost an obscene amount of money to get this done. But Patrick wasn't one to worry about financial stuff and if he had to spend everything he had getting the problems out of the way so he could get to Cooper, then so be it. He would make sure it would be worth it in the end.
Patrick reached into his pocket and pulled out some pictures he had printed out awhile back. "There are four definite problems that are in my way and one that might decide to get involved. Just to be safe, I want all five of them taken out of the picture." He grinned just a little bit. "Now you can take that any way you want to, but I'm hoping you take the most extreme meaning from that and make sure these fuckers get buried six feet under the fucking ground.
"Dude, I fucking recognize these guys," Jon said, looking over the pictures. "Aren't these guys wrestlers?"
"Yes," Patrick admitted. "Will that be a problem?"
"No," Jon replied. "I've always wanted to kill someone famous."
"Excellent," Patrick said. If he had human emotions, he would have liked Jon already. "Now for those of you who don't know, the targets are Glenn Jacobs, Tom, Matt and Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton. Now I can't say for sure if Randy will be a problem, but I've done my homework and he's dating Matt, so there's a good chance he will involve himself in this if Matt is doing the same thing. And even if he isn't, going after him will still send a message to Matt." Patrick pointed to the picture of Tom. "Now he will more than likely have a gun so—"
Every single one of his new flunkies immediately reached into their belts and grabbed their own guns. Patrick looked at them and chuckled. "Of course. I should have known that wouldn't be too much of an issue." He took one more picture out of his pocket. "This is the man they will be trying to protect. His name is Cooper Lawson and he's the one I'm after. I want him for myself, so that is the one I want you to leave relatively unharmed."
"Pat, what are you doing?" Tim asked. "Have you lost your mind? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to target these wrestlers? If they go missing or wind up dead, it's going to be a big deal."
"First of all, if you want to keep your tongue, do not ever call me "Pat" again," Patrick growled, glaring daggers at his younger cousin. "Second of all, this isn't any of your concern. I'll worry about the consequences of what I'm doing. You worry about your stupid little club and not pissing me the fuck off."
Tim looked down in defeat, clearly worried about what Patrick might do to him if he kept pushing his luck.
Satisfied, Patrick looked at his new "friends". "You guys have any questions."
Six heads shook to indicate that they didn't.
"You guys ready to do this then?"
Six heads nodded.
"Okay then. Let's get this show on the road."
...
Glenn, Tom, and Jeff had gathered in one of the locker rooms to watch the match between Randy and Ted as well as keeping their promise to keep Cooper surrounded by people as much as possible. Cooper was still itching to take Patrick out himself, but at least for the moment he was focused on the match instead of his personal vendetta. That however didn't stop him from staring at the door every time someone entered or exited.
"Cooper, you gotta chill the fuck out," Glenn whispered. "Patrick ain't gonna be that obvious."
I wish he would be. Then I could teach that motherfucker what happens to people who mess with the Lawson clan.
……..
The whole focus of Randy's recuperation was to get back in the ring. It was the one thing (other than his relationship with Matt) that kept him going through the tough times of the past months. Now everything was falling into place. He was back in the ring, Matt at his side, and he was moments away from his return.
"Ring the bell!" The ref shouted and it was on.
Randy and Ted circled each other, waiting for the moment to strike. Being former tag-team partners made it difficult as they both knew each others moves and tendencies like he backs of their respective hands. After a minute of playing cat and mouse, Randy decided that the best defense would be a great offense, so he lunged at Ted, going low and tripping him with a leg sweep. Ted rolled with the move and was back on his feet in seconds, smiling at Orton.
"Alright, Randy, good start!" Matt cheered from ringside.
"Same old Randy." Cody shouted to his partner. "You can take him easily."
Matt immediately turned to glare at Rhodes, who returned the stare. Their unspoken messages to each other was perfectly clear. "Don't even think about doin' anything stupid."
Randy looked to his partner, then back at his former partner, and a familiar gleam came to his eyes. He remembered from a match that he had against Ted that he was quite vulnerable to attacks to his left side due to a nagging shoulder injury that had refused to heal properly. The viper in him kicked back in and he went right after it. Armbar after armbar, wristlocks, half-nelsons, quarter-nelsons, Randy used everymove in his arsenal to weaken the joint. He would've liked nothing better than to make DiBiase tap out in his first match back.
...
Cooper squirmed in his chair. A small part of him wondered if Patrick might not stoop to James' level and attack either Matt or Randy during their match. Visions of Tom lying on the arena floor, blood pouring out of his slashed throat didn't exactly haunt him, but they did put his current situation into a little more perspective.
"This boring you?" Tom whispered, not to disturb the rapt attention both Jeff and Glenn were giving to the monitors.
"Fuck, no," Cooper lied. Unless Jeff was in the ring, Cooper didn't care much for it. Not even Mark or Glenn's matches were high on his list of priorities. "I just gotta piss like a motherfucker."
"Well, go," Tom replied "This isn't kindergarten. You don't have to raise your hand."
"I thought one of you would wanna come with me. Y'know, make sure nothing happens." By Cooper's tone, he was being sarcastic, but his words made sense.
"You want me or Uncle Glenn to take you?" Tom clearly didn't want to leave Cooper alone by any stretch of the imagination, but taking the young psychopath to the potty was not something he'd anticipated.
"I don't care. Just hurry up before I piss all over the floor."
"Glenn?" Tom asked.
"Go." Glenn waved his hand at Tom, clearly tied up watching the match. "This is getting good."
"Fine." Tom grabbed his gun, which he'd set down beside him, and reloaded it with a cartridge also beside him. "Let's go." He tucked the pistol back into the waistband of his jeans, then covered it with his shirt.
Like the obedient son (well…as obedient as a Lawson could possibly be), Cooper followed Tom down the hall, past catering.
"Hey Tom, didn't see you arrive." Jay and Adam were scarfing down cold cuts at one of the tables.
"I'm like the wind that way."
"You ever gettin' back into the ring?" Adam asked
"Maybe one day," Tom responded. Although he'd initially burned a few bridges when he'd gone back into action without telling Stephanie his plans, he'd managed to sweet-talk her into getting back into sales once his injury was healed. He now worked specifically for merchandising, and was in charge of all the arena souvenir stands.
"Cool... Jay and I were talking and we'd like..."
"I hate to cut you off, but I gotta take my... nephew to the men's room before he has an accident." Out of the corner of his eye, Tom saw Cooper hopping from one foot to the other.
"Later." He grabbed Cooper's arm and pulled him to the bathrooms, which were fortunately nearby.
"Nephew?" Adam and Jay asked at the same time.
"Other side of the family!" Tom shouted.
...
"C'mon Randy, bro, make that spoiled brat give up." Jeff was on the edge of his chair, watching the match progress. Orton had been relentless in his attacks on DiBiase's arm, working it and the shoulder with one excruciatingly painful hold after another. Yet, the second generation superstar refused to quit, several times having to rely on the ropes to break the hold, only to be dragged back into the middle of the ring to have the hold reapplied.
Cody had seen enough and jumped on the ring apron.
While the ref was distracted with Cody, Ted mule-kicked Orton in the crotch. He fell, cupping his testicles. This gave Matt a chance to jump in and sneak up on Ted.
"Leave his man-parts alone. They're mine!"
A small chuckle escaped Ted's lips, but then he realized who had said it. He turned around.
"Mine, I tell you." Matt executed a twist of fate on Ted and was out of the ring while the official was still otherwise engaged. Eventually he turned around to see both men on the canvas in differing degrees of pain. He began his count.
"One... two... three..."
At eight Randy got to his feet, the pain in his balls subsiding to the point where he could continue. With Ted still dazed, Randy crouched like a snake waiting to strike. The crowd sensed what was coming and started to cheer.
Ted's recovery lasted about ten seconds. He got to his feet, then was dropped with a perfectly-placed RKO. The count was made, and there was nothing Cody could do to prevent the outcome.
"Here is your winner... Randy Orton!"
...
"I guess we missed the end of that one." Tom said, leaning against the wall in the men's, keeping one eye on the door and the other eye on Cooper.
"Whatever." Cooper answered. The results of the match were not what was bothering him.
"Look, I know what's goin' on with you. You gotta fuckin' trust us, okay? Glenn, Jeff, we've all told you the same thing so you gotta know we know what we're talking about."
This time Tom had a little better success calming Cooper, or at least he would have if that's what had been bothering the young man. But since that wasn't the case, Cooper just clammed up even more and reached into his pocket and he fingered the knife he had stashed in there. He stared at the floor, the pattern on the tiles getting all fuzzy and looking all weird and stuff.
Tom snapped his fingers in front of Cooper's face. "Cooper? Jesus Christ, what the fuck are you doing?"
Cooper shook his head, trying to regain his composure. But the guilt he was feeling was becoming way too fucking much to handle and he leaned up against the wall because that was the only way he could stay on his own two feet. He put his hand further into his pocket, purposefully wrapping his hand around the blade of his knife and squeezing as tightly as he could. The pain was enough to distract him from the downward spiral his mind had been heading down and he was able to breathe a little easier again. "I'm fine," he muttered, taking his hand off of the blade of his knife. He could feel the blood gushing out of the deep cut and then he was suddenly reminded of the fact that Connor always used to lick the blood off any cuts he got and that made him feel miserable all over again.
"You don't look fine," Tom said, not buying Cooper's lie for a second. "You look like you're about to pass out. He reached out to touch Cooper's shoulder.
"Don't fucking touch me!" Cooper said, using his good hand to slap Tom's arm away. "I said I was fine!"
"Lawson, how fucking stupid do you think I am?" Tom asked. "You can't fucking fool me dude."
Cooper glared at Tom, his temper starting to get the best of him. "Don't fucking call me Lawson," he growled. "You don't have the right to do that just because you used to fuck Mark."
Tom shrugged. He'd been through mood swings with Jeff before so this was nothing new, but Cooper did not seem like the hugging type. "You know..."
"Just leave me alone!" Cooper snapped, absolutely needing to take his anger out on someone. "You can help me get my family back but just don't fucking talk to me."
Tom raised his eyebrows. "I really doubt that's what you actually want Cooper."
Cooper let out a yell and threw his hands up in the air, revealing the fact that his one hand was injured and bleeding. "Stop that! What is with you fucking Hardys? Jeff gets Dad obsessed with him, Mark fucks you, Dad gets so jealous of you that he tries to kill you on national television, I can't watch a fucking match with your twink husband in it because it makes me want to fuck his brains out—"
"Don't call him a twink," Tom said, giving Cooper a good glare. "You sound like James when you do that."
"Good!" Cooper replied. "I hope it drives you as crazy as you drive me! You…you…Dad is going to fucking kill me when he finds out I fucking like you of all people!"
Tom snorted. "Yeah, I seriously doubt that. Knowing James, he's going to cure you of that little problem by trying to kill me again."
Cooper knew that was probably true, but that actually failed to make him feel better. He didn't want James to kill Tom. He tried to tell himself that he did, but deep down, he really didn't. And the fact that he didn't want that freaked him the fuck out. "You Hardys are really fucking infuriating. Are you aware of that?"
"We're infuriating? Have you taken a good hard look at your family tree buddy?"
"Yes I have. And I'm very well aware of how fucked up we are, thank you very much. You Hardys don't help a fucking thing though." Cooper looked at his hand, knowing that wasn't the best idea in the world. At this point, the sight of his own blood was enough to awaken his own bloodlust, which was not something he wanted to do in front of Tom. It wasn't so much that he was afraid he would accidentally try to kill Tom; no, he wasn't that far gone. But if the bloodlust got him hot and bothered like it sometimes did, then Tom was the last person he wanted to get that way around.
Tom rolled his eyes and grabbed some paper towels. "Damn Lawsons always find a way to blame someone else for their problems," he muttered under his breath. "It's never their fault for anything…"
Cooper jumped back like he was about to be set on fire when Tom came at him with the paper towels. "Have you lost your mind?" he asked. "What in the blue hell do you think you're trying to do?"
Tom stared at him like he had gone completely insane. "I'm trying to clean your hand off. In case you haven't noticed, you're bleeding like a mother fucker."
"Well then I'll clean myself up," Cooper said, taking a couple steps back just to be on the safe side. "I'm not fucking stupid. The last time a Lawson fell for the Hardy charm, everyone got insanely stupid and jealous and the sex that went down between everyone was not worth the fucking trouble that you guys all went through."
"First of all, I think you've already fallen for the Hardy charm," Tom pointed out. "Twice. Second of all, I wouldn't be so quick to say that about the sex. I'm sure if you ask—"
"Just shut up!" Cooper ordered, snatching the paper towels out of Tom's hands. He was careful not to make skin to skin contact just in case making skin to skin contact with Tom made everything worse. As badly as he wanted to give in to his urges, he wasn't going to do that. He was truly Mark's son in the respect that he could at least try to show some fucking restraint, which was a word that James rarely knew the meaning of.
Tom watched Cooper put pressure on the wound. "You've got to learn to come to terms with your feelings Cooper. You're going to go even crazier if you don't."
"Oh bite me Hardy."
Tom smirked. "You wish Lawson."
Cooper scowled, partly because he was annoyed at Tom and partly at himself because he thought that smirk was hot. Damn it, the only way to save my sanity at this point is if I do pull a James…but God help me, I can't. Ugh. I need to get Dad and the others back because if I spend too much more time with these Hardys, I'm gonna do something really fucking stupid.