(A/N) Hey everybody. Thanks again for all the lurvly reviews. To El Chacal, believe me when I say I do appreciate your suggestions and I do take them seriously, but my story is already almost finished, it would be impossible for me to introduce new characters if I was to make it a good ending. But I assure you that the Undertaker will play a part in the climax of the story. Also to TakerTakeMe, I'm glad you find the story to be realistic and not too lovey dovey. That was actually my main aim in writing this story. I wanted to make it as down to earth, brutally real as I could without making it too boring. With that said, the ending won't be all happy. There will be some devastation. Please don't get mad if it happens to your favorite character.
Anyway I better get on with it before I bore you guys to death with my "brief" authors note. (and by brief, I mean extremely long).
A few days had passed since Christy had called John, and now it was time to set the second part of her plan into motion. She still hadn't told Dave anything, but she knew she was doing it for the best. Once again, she waited until Dave was fast asleep before she crept into the living room, telephone and phone book at the ready. She picked up the phone and dialed the first number.
"Hello?" The voice at the other end answered after a few rings.
"Hi. Is this John?" Christy asked in her most cheery voice.
"It is… who wants to know?"
"Christy."
"Oh. You." John said rather unenthusiastically.
"Yeah. Me. Listen, have you thought about letting Dave join?"
"Wow. The way you say it, it's like you are doing me a favor."
"Please. We need this. Please I'm begging you." Christy rarely begged for anything. But this was one of those times when she was very desperate.
"Woah. We need it?" John repeated, questioning Christy's choice of words. "Does Dave even know about this?"
"Of course he does."
"Then why doesn't he call himself?"
"Dignity. It's a guy thing." She answered quickly.
"Well he's gonna have to get over 'the guy thing' if he wants to come work for me."
Silence on the line.
"Look. I wanna talk to him personally. Face to face. Tell him to meet me at the diner on the corner of Lexington and Grove at 11 tomorrow night. He is to come alone. That includes you too."
"But…" Christy started, but it was no use. She was in no position to make demands.
"No buts. He comes alone or not at all. 11 tomorrow. And tell him not to be late. John hung up the phone.
Christy replaced the receiver and let out a sigh. Not exactly how she wanted it to go, but she would have to be content with that. She had to continue with part two of her plan. This would require a lot more resolve. She had to take control of the conversation from the get go. She settled herself, picked up the phone and dialed the number.
"Hello." Came a tired voice on the other line.
"Hello Hunter. It's Christy Hemme." Christy said in her coldest voice.
"Christy? What the hell do you want? It's 1 in the fucken morning."
"I have some news which might interest you. Dave is leaving your fucking gang, and he isn't coming back." She said bluntly.
"What the fuck is this?" Hunter replied, wide awake now. "Some kind of fucken joke?"
"No joke. I know all about the little blackmail scheme of yours. You don't have the balls to lay your filthy hands on me."
"You don't think so? Dave certainly thinks I do. He wouldn't dare. He knows that if he ever betrayed me, both of you would be dead."
"We'll see about that. Good bye Hunter. And fuck you." She hung up the phone. She was panting now. Her whole body was shaking. She knew that Hunter would actually kill her if he had the chance. But she had to provoke him, so that Dave would have no choice but to leave and join John. She felt so manipulative, but she had no other option. Christy turned to go back to bed when she had the shock of her life. Dave stood transfixed at the doorway of the bedroom. She didn't know how much he heard, but she guessed he must have heard enough because he looked like he was in a state of shock.
"You have no idea what you have just done." Were the only words that came out of his mouth.
John had a lot of things on his mind. So much so, that for once in a long time, he wasn't thinking about Torrie. He had Chris to think about, Dave to think about, Hunter to think about, among other things. John poured himself a stiff drink. This thing with Dave was going further than he expected. He didn't really think much of it until the last phone call from Christy. A soft rap on the door broke his train of thought.
"Come in."
Rey Mysterio entered the office with a venomous look on his face.
"Hey Rey. Watsup?"
The small Mexican closed the door behind him and stormed in. "That sonova bitch Jericho did it. He stabbed Eddie man. It was him. We gotta do something about it. We gotta go out there, and we gotta kick his fucken ass. Then we gonna feed him to the dogs esse. We gotta…"
"Hey. Just chill for a second." John said. Rey took a seat and John continued. "So how are you so sure Chris did it?"
"Because esse. A detective came into the hospital. Asking about Eddie. Asked if he ever had a beef with this Jericho fucker. I told him no. Then I asked him, 'Why? You think it's Jericho?' Then he said, they found some fibres or hair or some shit which may make him a suspect. But it's gotta be him. Maybe he found out about Eddie being there when his brother got killed and thought Eddie killed him or something. All I know is we gotta take him out."
"Back up a little ok? We can't rush to conclusions here. Let's think it through."
"Jericho rushed to conclusions. What you gonna do? Just sit here and let him get a way with it?"
"No. That's not what I said. I say, we let the cops do their investigation, then they can throw him in jail." John replied.
"Man, you know New York cops all got shit for brains. They wouldn't know a murderer if it was fuckin their wife. I can't believe you man." Rey retorted angrily. He turned his back on John and was about to leave the office."
"Rey! Don't you dare leave this office. I'm not one to give orders, but right now, I am giving you a strict order, not to take business into your own hands. Give me some time, and I'll deal with Jericho, I promise." John ordered.
"Whatever."
"You got it? It's an order."
Rey left the office.
The next evening, things did not change between Dave and Christy. They still hadn't talked to each other. Christy had been out all day buying groceries and such. She was surprised that Dave didn't stop her from going, on account of Hunter being pissed off. Dave had a locksmith change their existing locks and install two new deadlocks. All the curtains were closed and Dave had a few of his old buddies from back when he was a bouncer to hang around the house. Not that they would do much good if Hunter brought the cavalry, which he probably would. He was probably rounding them up now, ready to bust through the door.
Night had descended and Dave was ready to go out.
"You are actually going alone?" Was the first thing Christy had asked him all day.
"Well yeah… wasn't that the arrangement YOU made." The two of them had a stare off, the tension mounting with every passing second. Finally Christy broke.
"Look, I'm sorry alright. I'm sorry. Are you going to stay mad at me forever?"
"Who says I'm going to stay with you forever?" Dave replied. He had his coat on, and was ready to head out. Christy looked hurt. She was on the verge of tears and Dave knew it. Yet, he showed no signs of apologizing.
"Are you being serious?" Christy asked, choking back the tears."
"Christy. You went behind my back, and you did things I purposely told you not to do. How the hell do you expect me to feel. Now I'm stuck with what you done for the rest of my very short life." Dave was almost yelling. Tears were starting to fall from Christy's eyes.
"I did what I thought wa…" Christy began but she was cut short.
"Don't give me that bullshit. I don't have time for this. I've got a meeting to go to." And with that, Dave left the house.
Cena and Shawn were walking together, on the way to meet Dave. John had told his partner all about Christy's plea and Dave wanting to join their gang. Shawn didn't give his opinion on the subject, only asked if he could come along to the meeting. John agreed, sensing that backup might be necessary should he run into anymore trouble.
"How long have we worked together for?" Shawn asked out of the blue.
"I dunno. A year almost."
"Wow… time flies doesn't it?"
"Yeah, I guess." John answered. He was not really interested in small talk. His mind was focused on the task at hand. Silence descended on the two as they quickened their pace, eager to get to their destination. They decided not to catch a cab seeing that the diner was fairly close to their club, and on the off chance they were being followed, their pursuers would have to hoof it as well, making them easier to spot than if they were in a car.
"Remember when I set Rick up for you. What was it you told me on the phone on the way to the rendezvous?"
"I don't remember. What's with all these questions man?" John asked offhandedly.
"Wasn't it something like we were going to live the good life?" Shawn asked, refusing to answer John's question.
"Yeah. Something like that." John replied, hands in his pockets, trudging along purposefully.
"Well what happened. Why do we still have to do all this shit for?" Shawn asked.
"Because… things didn't work out. We couldn't sell the drugs, cause the cops were hot on us. No one wanted to buy them. Plus Torrie took the money and handed it into the cops anonymously. So we were back to square one. But don't worry, things are about to take a turn for the better. Just be patient." John said.
Shawn had unambiguously slowed down so he was walking behind Cena now. Cena was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to notice. Shawn reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a small switch blade. They were a few blocks away from the coffee shop.
A shifty smirk crept onto Shawn's face. "I'm sick of waiting. I've decided to take matters into my own hands. Goodbye Cena." Shawn murmured quietly so that only him and Cena heard what was said. The knife tore through John's sweater, past his skin and into his back. A barely audible cry leapt from Cena's mouth. No one was around to hear it though. Shawn pulled the knife out and plunged it into him again, this time a little higher.
"You were always too trusting Cena. And now you are paying for it…with your life." Were the last words Shawn muttered into Cena's ear before he extracted the knife from John's back and stuck it in one more time for good measure. John sank to his knees, then fell face first onto the pavement. Blood stained the concreate sidewalk were John lay. Shawn bent down and pulled the knife out. He put it back in his pocket and calmly walked away, leaving Cena to die slowly, in the cold of the night.
Dave sat tapping his fingers nervously on the coffee table. It was 11:20 and John still had not shown up.
"10 more minutes." Dave thought to himself. He had already been through two cups of coffee and decided against another. He was nervous as hell. If John didn't show up, what the hell was he going to do? Hunter would be on his back, he would have no where to run, and Christy made sure he had no other options. She really did set him up. A commotion outside made him look around nervously. Sirens blared as an ambulance roared by, followed by two, three cop cars. Dave decided that the meeting had been compromised and he had to leave. He picked up his coat and walked out of the shop after leaving a 20 on the table. Lot's of people were gathered around the sidewalk a few blocks down the street. The section had been taped of by the police and people's murmurs of concern were carried by the wind.
"I wonder if he's okay."
"It looks pretty bad." Were some of the things Dave heard. Probably some bum got stubbed by another for a few bucks. It amazed Dave how such a regular occurrence still managed to draw the attention of so many. Dave walked in the opposite direction and caught a cab home.
Dave got home safely, and to his great surprise, found that everyone in the house was all right as well. Dave wondered why Hunter still hadn't come for his head yet. He thought about that for all of two seconds, for he had more important things to take care of.
"How did it go?" Christy asked anxiously.
Dave did not answer. He simply walked over to the telephone and picked it up. Christy sat back down on the sofa without another word. She had obviously been stressing the whole time he was out. Maybe he was being a little too harsh on her. No time to think. He dialed the John's office number at the club and waited.
"Hello" Answered a man who sounded out of breath.
"Hi. Who is this?" Dave asked, unfamiliar with the voice.
"You tell me. You are the one that called." Panted the voice at the other end of the line.
"This is Dave. Is John there?"
"Dave… oh right. Dave, well you see, John ran into some trouble."
"What kind of trouble?"
"Well… he's dead."
Dave let that disturbing piece of information sink in.
"What?" He stammered.
"He's dead." The voice repeated.
"Okay, well then who's in charge?" Dave asked, quickly regaining his composure.
"I am." Answered the voice.
"Who are you?"
"Shawn."
"Well Shawn. Did John, by any chance, tell you about my situation?" Dave questioned.
"As a matter of fact, he did."
"Right. Great. So what do you say?"
"No."
"What?"
"No." Shawn repeated frankly.
"No what?"
"I'm sorry. But I've got a lot of things to take care of right now. With John's untimely death and all. I need to make funeral arrangements, make sure his clubs are well maintained. Plus I'm still in the grieving process. Maybe another time."
"But…" Dave tried to reason, but it was too late. Shawn hung up the phone.
"FUCK!" Dave slammed the phone down so hard, he almost broke a hole through the table the telephone was on.
"What?" Christy asked, now on her feet again.
"I'm dead."
Chris opened his eyes slowly. 11:53 am.
"Shit." He thought to himself. "Slept in again."
He hoped out of bed and put on some clothes that he found lying on the floor. He had a few errands to run today. He went over to the kitchen counter to grab his wallet when there was a knock on the door. He walked over to the door.
"NYDP. Open up now."
"What the fuck?" Chris thought out loud. He opened the door and two men came bursting into his house. One grabbed him by the neck while the other grabbed his arm. Together they forced him up against the wall and cuffed him.
"What the fuck is this all about?" He asked rather loudly.
"Sir, you're under arrest for the attempted murder of John Cena and Eddie Guerrero." The cop answered monotonously.
"The fuck? I didn't do shit!" He protested to deaf ears. The cops dragged him out of the house amid shouts of abuse and pleas of innocence by Jericho, but to no avail.
(A/N) Wow. I think that is my longest chapter to date. Major developments in this one. The story is almost done! I'm so exited. Btw, being so wrapped up in writing this thing, I totally lost count of my reviews. I just realized that I got the big 100. When I first started writing this, I said to myself, "I'd be happy with 10 reviews." Anyway 10 became 20 which became 50 and so on. I never thought that I would get 100. Wow. Seriously…thanks heaps for all the support and I'll make sure you get the bestest damn piece of writing that's ever come out of my sick, twisted and at some times demented head. Peace.