Note: This is a fanfiction that is based off of a story that I am working on finishing and making it available for anyone who wants a copy of it on Kindle first before I see about making it in a paperback form. The names have been changed to suit the storyline. I don't own or have anything to do with the WWE, its partners or The Undertaker

Chapter Ten

Rushing outside of the front door of the store, Emily made her way to where Mark was nestled with the person she had seen through the front window, and locked her eyes onto that of the individual she had only seen the back of.

No…It can't be…

Her entire body froze in fear from realizing that the person that her granny's helper on the farm had by the throat was that of her ex-boyfriend, Johnathan Warrens. She had been working so hard to keep herself from being found by him again since he had been stalking her and attempted to viciously attack her before the police had to get involved.

Knowing that he had found the place she had come to for the summer and that he was already tracking her down, Emily couldn't help but feel nervous at the same time highly frightened by this revelation.

She took a moment to gather her strength before her voice managed to find its way out of her mouth while her hands clung to the bag that had her dress for the party inside of it.

"Let him go, Mark." She said, firm yet softly. Her voice shook on its way out of her mouth, revealing how anxious and scared she was at that very moment.

"Do you know him, Emily?" Mark asked, keeping his eyes on the person that was on the bench in front of him while his hand remained firmly on his throat.

"He…He is Johnathan Warrens, my ex-boyfriend."

She watched Mark turn his head in her direction, and focus upon the fear that had manifested itself on the fair complexion of her face. Emily drew in a breath of air, and tightened all over from seeing how protective he had become in both his outer appearance and in his voice.

"Do you know why he would be here in Oleander, and telling me that he is your friend?"

Her heart sank at the mention of him telling lies to Mark about him being a 'friend' of hers when he was nothing of the sort. If anything, he was a pain in the ass that would not leave her alone, and just refused to take 'no' as an answer from her.

"He is not my friend, Mark!" Emily exclaimed, deperate to get the truth out and into the open. "He has been stalking me ever since I broke up with him, and he had been in jail for beating me so bad one night that I was close to the point of death."

Oh shit…What did I just do?

In that moment, she just realized the fatal mistake she had committed when she told him about what Johnathan had done to her previously by catching a firery look of hatred boiling in Mark's eyes shortly before he snapped his head in the direction of where the individual in question was still sitting on the bench in front of him. She tried to get the words she wanted to say out of her mouth, but found her vocal cords fighting against her, and silencing her. While she couldn't speak, her ears could hear Mark utter some words in a tone that could kill.

"So…This little worm placed his hands on you, has he?"

Even though the question itself seemed it was being sarcastic, his voice was nothing but business and contained a lethal amount of seriousness to it that no one would dare to mess with.

With his attention now fixated on that of Johnathan Warrens, Mark shifted his hands, quickly, to the collar of the jacket he had on over his body, and hoisted him up from the bench to where the tips of his toes were barely brushing against the surface of the ground in front of the store that he was just in with Emily. He narrowed his eyes in the man's direction with all the intensity of a wolf looking at its prey.

"You made the biggest mistake of your life, boy, when you touched Emily."

"W-W-Wait!" Johnathan pleaded to him, looking down at him with pure and unadulterated fear pouring out of his voice towards him while his body squirmed to get out of the grasp that he had him in. "H-How do you know Emily?"

"I just so happen to work on her grandmother's ranch, and…She is a very special person to me."

He chose to place his cards on the table for Emily, as well as the stranger, to see. His feelings for her were strong, and couldn't be ignored or kept deep inside anymore. They had to come to the surface for anyone that happened to be in the area.

Even though his eyes were focused on Johnathan's body in the air, Mark managed to look out a corner of his eyes in her direction to find her possessing a look of awe there that told him all that he needed to know about how she was feeling at that moment in time from him having been so open about his emotions involving her.

He returned his full attention back towards his target, and proceeded to continue making his point to him.

"Emily is a very sweet, kind, caring…and beautiful young woman that doesn't need someone as slimy as you bringing her life down with yours. She deserves only the best…and that is what she is going to get."

"Oh really? And you think that you are going to be able to do that? You are just a stable boy while I work in sales back in Houston. I have the means to afford to give her the life she is fit for while you can't even match up to me financially."

Okay…This is it. I have had enough of listening to this prick telling me that I am not man enough to make Emily happy. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

With his words lingering on in his mind and giving his anger fuel to the fire that was already raging deep inside of him, Mark made a sweeping motion as he turned, and slammed Johnathan's body into the hood of an expensive looking, black sports car. He looked down at his sprawled out body as a faint smirk started to form across his face.

Even though I am not really a violent person…I have to say…I really enjoyed dropping that no good son of a bitch onto the hood of his own vehicle, and shutting his mouth up.

He savored the work that he had just got done doing to Johnathan Warrens, Emily's former boyfriend and current stalker. The moment that he had heard her tell him that this pervert that had been looking in the store window on her had been her ex and that he had been stalking her, as well as physically abusive with her, he wanted nothing more than to put him in his place once and for all.

"Mark…"

The sweet sound of Emily's gentle voice pulled him out of his thoughts, and caused his eyes to travel over to where she was standing with a slightly nervous and afraid expression upon the fair complexion of her face. Seeing the angelic beauty that he had become very fond of in a short amount of time to be distressed by what he had just done caused every fiber of his being to tense up on the spot, and send his emotions and feelings into a whirlwind, ending with his guilt being the overwhelming factor of them all.

Unable to stop himself, Mark moved back towards her direction from where he was nestled, and cupped a side of her face in the palm of one of his large hands. His eyes gazed deeply into hers with only unconditional love for her nestled within them, as well as in his voice as he started to speak.

"Emily…I know you didn't wish for me to do that and for your eyes to not have witnessed that…but I am not going to stand by, and let some…some bastard try to hurt you anymore or worse…take you away from me."

"You…You were afraid of him doing something to me, Mark?"

"Of course I was, darling."

"I am sure that he wouldn't have been able to do anything. After all, you were here and-"

"He couldn't have done anything with me here if he even tried…but what if I wasn't around? What if he came here when I wasn't here and did something to you? I couldn't live with myself if something horrible happened to you, Emily."

"Do you really mean that, Mark?"

"Sweetheart…You have no idea how much I care for you. Hell, I would gladly turn my soul over to the devil if it meant saving you from getting hurt again by that asshole."