Chapter 13

"Leaving us so soon?" Kane asked when he seen her heading for the exit, leaning in Taker's locker room doorway, using his friend's room for the moment. "Did they find out who knocked Taker out or is Cena still suspect number one?" He might've called off their little feud, but...that didn't stop him from finding this all amusing and showing it with a mocking smile, his eyes raking over her from behind his mask. When Rajani stepped away, he stepped forward. "Do I scare you, Rajani?" He asked, tilting his head to the side, the question sounding almost innocent.

"Of course not and, as far as I know, yes he is." What she really wanted to say was she knew he was the one that attacked Beth, but that wouldn't be very smart. "Taker is in Stephanie's office, as I'm sure you know, so whatever questions you have can be directed to him. Have a good evening, Kane." Before she could walk away, Kane moved to stand in front of her, causing Rajani to frown slightly. "What do you want?" Rajani asked immediately, knowing showing fear would only fuel him.

Suddenly, she wished her big brother was on the road with the company because this wouldn't happen if he was.

"To talk. You never really talk to me, why is that?" He wondered, his tone still sounding casual, innocent. Though his mismatched eyes, thanks to the one contact he wore to change one of them, were darkly amused. "You talk to everyone else, even Cena." Though that probably didn't count since, from his understanding, she did nothing except cut Cena's genitals off verbally, like...earlier tonight. Kane wondered if security cameras had picked that up and if he could get a copy.

"But never me. You don't like me, do you?"

"I wasn't aware you wanted to talk to anyone besides the Undertaker." Rajani stated truthfully, feeling her heart accelerating slightly, hoping she made it out of the arena with her head still attached to her shoulders. "Cena and I have issues that are between us and will be settled in due time." She left it at that, refusing to go into detail because of recent history between him and John. "And I'm not sure how to answer that question. I don't really know you, Kane..." Her dark eyes narrowed slightly, maintaining her composure for the most part against this...monster of a man. "What is this really about? I don't peg you as the 'talking' type."

"I didn't ask about your issues with Cena." Kane pointed out, wondering why she was volunteering that information to him of all people.

He HATED Cena. Everyone knew that and, considering she worked with management, she should have known that better than most. He filed that away, wondering if she had Mr. Cena on the mind right now.

"And you're wrong about the 'talking' type. Just because you see the persona doesn't mean the man," He removed the mask, revealing his face with long dark curly hair. "Doesn't like to talk every now and then."

"The only problem with what you just said is that you and your persona are one in the same. You can't fool me, Kane - Glen, whoever you are right now. I have enough problems in my life right now than dealing with your bipolar ways." Once again, Rajani was letting her mouth write checks her ass couldn't cash, but couldn't help it. "So why don't you come clean about hurting my friend, since you want to talk so badly?" Rajani suggested coolly, raising an eyebrow. "There, I think our conversation is over. Now please move out of my way."

"Now that was just plain out rude, Rajani." Kane rumbled, shaking a finger at her. "Even you are not dumb enough to think that anyone's persona is one and the same, as you so eloquently put it. And, as for hurting your friend, be a bit more specific because I have hurt a lot of people over the years."

His eyes were narrowing dangerously. When she went to move around him, he dodged forward, using his forearm to pin her back against the wall and didn't bat an eye when an automatic knee came up to his groin. Kane wore a cup; he was not a total idiot.

"The next time I make the effort to be nice to you, Raja, I suggest you play nice back." He informed her, bending down so his mouth was right next to her ear, his breath hot against her skin. "Understand?"

"Let go of me, Kane." She hissed out, struggling against his forearm and closed her eyes to keep the tears in, breathing extremely hard. "I refuse to play nice with anyone who hurts people I care about." Rajani coughed when his forearm applied more pressure, knowing she had probably crossed several lines with Kane. Rajani wasn't backing down though, a fighter at heart and always had been. "If you know what's good for you, you will let go of me." She merely whispered, having gripped his forearm with her hands to try to alleviate some pressure, but it wasn't working.

"Why?" Kane asked conversationally, acting like he wasn't slowly but surely choking the life out of her. Though...he did let up, letting her breathe properly. His face was right in front of hers a second later, his nose brushing against hers. "As far as I know, I haven't hurt anyone you care about, I would check your facts before throwing them at people who are obviously not operating at full mental capacity. You'll live longer." His lips were almost brushing against hers, almost. Suddenly, Kane pushed away from her, laughing and mockingly stepped away while bowing towards the door. "Your escape, my lady."

"You hurt Beth and you can deny it all you want, but I know the truth." Rajani flat out refused to answer his question, though she trembled slightly, her hand instantly going to her throat. "Stay away from me, Kane." She ordered before fleeing away from him as fast as her heels could carry her, not stopping until she made it to her car and all the doors were locked. "Oh god..."

Her vision was blurred by tears that she refused to let fall as Rajani searched through her purse shakily, pulling the keys out. Cursing when she dropped them on the floor board, Rajani reached down to retrieve them. She screamed out when a tap sounded at her window, her head snapping up, the keys once again in her hand.

Because the Universe hated them both, it was John, who had seen her running through the parking lot like a bat out of hell. With his new probation status had also come the order that he wasn't working tonight, mainly because it was the night of the attack. He was suspect number one and people didn't want to work with him now apparently. His reputation was in shambles and, when he found out who was behind it all, there was going to really be hell to pay. His suspect number one was Kane. He didn't care WHO vouched for him. John held up her cell phone, which must have slipped from wherever she had it while she was running. He frowned when he seen the tears streaming down her face, his eyes then landing on her throat, which was all red and looked like it might possibly be bruising.

"Rajani? What happened?"

Rajani had never been happier to see John's face than at that moment, tears rushing down her cheeks in two rapid streams. Her eyes landed on her cell phone he held and immediately Rajani unlocked the door, opening it. She didn't step out because Rajani was sure her legs weren't working at the moment, the tears not stopping. When John bent down to be eye level with her, Rajani just cried harder, burying her face in her hands and managed to take the cell phone from him when he extended it to her, tossing it in the passenger seat.

"I-I have to get out of h-here..." She shakily whispered, reaching for her seatbelt while still holding the keys, which were rattling from her quaking. "Damn it, not now!" She cursed when her cell phone began vibrating, knowing it was her big brother and reached over to press the ignore button.

It was more than obvious that she wasn't able to even work her car, much less try to drive it in this condition, and John reached out gently plucking the keys from her trembling hand. "Raja, you can't drive like this." He said gently, wondering what had happened to scare her so badly. "What happened? Who did this to you?"

He used his free hand to gently trace what was definitely becoming a bruise. Rajani shook her head, knowing she couldn't tell anyone about her run-in with Kane. It would just create more problems and issues, especially with John. Her hand reached up to grab at her throat, trying to cover up the bruising and hoped there was a way to cover them up before Stephanie noticed them.

"I-I'm fine...I just need to g-get out of here..." She tried to speak normally, but Rajani was still too shook up. "I-I need my keys...I need my keys..."

John wasn't handing over the keys though; she was still just too shaken up. Though, he fully expected that when she recovered, she was going to kick him in the nuts or bash him in the nose again for withholding the keys. "Raja, you can't drive like this." He repeated patiently. "And you need to report this, you can't let whoever did this get away with it or it could happen again."

John watched as her eyes widened at that, his own darting back down to the bruising. It was like a car accident; he just couldn't keep from staring, even though the sight of it disgusted him, filled him with an anger he was admirably containing. When her cell phone began vibrating again, Rajani reached over and shut it completely off before tossing it in her purse, the tears never stopping.

"No, I-I'm not reporting anything!" Rajani practically cried out, wincing since her throat was still very tender from Kane's forearm.

If she told John who attacked her, there would be no stopping him from breaking his probation. Once again, Rajani was protecting him the only way she knew how, even after all the nasty things he called her. Her eyes slowly moved to where his hand held her keys and all Rajani did was reach hers out, staring into his blue concern-filled blue eyes while slowly calming down.

"I'm fine now, really. I can drive and I need to get back to the hotel, John. Please." That last word was a mere whisper, her other hand never moving from her neck.

John hesitated, wondering just why the hell she wouldn't report this. He knew the woman had brass balls. Look at how she talked to him in front of people! Not to mention the other night and everything that had happened -the kiss, the jacking of his nose-, so he knew she wasn't a chicken shit, but whoever had done this had her scared beyond...well, John didn't know because he had never seen her this way.

"How about I drive you instead?" He offered softly.

"No, I don't need to be driven. I can do it myself. I had a momentary freak-out, but I'm fine now." Rajani plucked the keys away from him while he was still fixated on her neck, slowly pulling her hand away and slipped them in the ignition, firing the car up. "Forget everything you saw tonight. This never happened because, if you breathe a word to anyone, I will deny it. And given what's happened tonight, nobody will believe you. Now please move so I can get the hell out of here." Glancing in her rearview mirror to make sure Kane wasn't coming to finish the job, Rajani did a full body shiver of dread. "I have to go, John." If he would only move, Rajani could shut the driver's door and peel out of there.

"And there's the bitch I know and love so well." John muttered, suddenly thinking of two morals: The road to hell was paved with good Samaritans -no idea why he thought of THAT one- and no good deed goes unpunished.

Talk about a low blow, John was genuinely concerned for her and she had pulled an underhanded card on him. Apparently she was scared enough of someone to mess up his already tarnished reputation even more. Sighing, he stepped away from the car and went to retrieve his bag, half expecting her to run him over just to make sure he kept his mouth shut or something. Rajani put the car in reverse and pulled out of the parking spot, making sure she didn't hit John, before hammering on the gas speeding out of there. The entire ride back to the hotel, all Rajani could think about was her encounter with Kane, once again touching her bruised throat. What was she supposed to do? Was she on Kane's radar now? The mere thought made the trembling start up again. Then something occurred to her and Rajani nearly hit the brake, her dark eyes widening. Had John really said the L word regarding her?!

"Oh my god..."

Poor Rajani wasn't aware that she had been on Kane's radar for awhile now and things were only going to get more...entertaining.

John had decided now would be a great time to vacate the parking lot and head to the hotel, where he had every intention of enjoying some malt liquor, before he got blamed for something else he hadn't done. Not to mention, he needed to do some serious thinking about what had just happened and who might've done that to Rajani. Kane automatically came to mind, but then again, John knew he had a serious problem in that he assigned Kane as the guilty party whenever any bad things went down. Though...with good reason.

Rajani was about to find her room covered in flowers again and perhaps a surprise or two.

"I'm fine, I promise. My cell phone died, what was I supposed to do, bro?"

"How about keep it charged?"

Rajani rolled her eyes, wondering what possessed her to call her big brother back and chalked it up to needing to hear his voice after what she endured. "Well I'm so sorry I'm not perfect like you." She snorted, heading inside the hotel and pulled her hotel keycard out, just wanting to get to her room. "I'm at the hotel now and I just want to crawl in bed. It's been a stressful night."

"Everything alright?" He became concerned for his little sister, frowning. "Raja, if something's happened, you know you can tell me..."

"Nothing's happened, I'm just tired. I love you and I'll see you in a few weeks."

They ended the call just as Rajani stepped into her hotel room, the door closing behind her. As soon as she flipped the light on, the phone slipped from her grasp as dark eyes could only stare straight ahead, trying to keep from hyperventilating. What in the hell was going on? If Rajani had thought the scent of roses had been almost overwhelming, then that was nothing compared to what she had just walked into too.

Lilacs came in shades of purple and sometimes a purple so pale it was white, but those shades were what greeted her, along with the scent. Lilacs had a beautiful soft scent, but in this volume...it was overpowering. As before, they were everywhere. Only this time they had also been spread on the floor, creating a lilac carpet for her to walk on. The last time this had happened, it had only been roses in her room. Now, sitting in the center of her lilac coated bed was a cream colored envelope. Inside of it was a cream colored, unlined, single sheet of paper with the word SOON printed on it in bold lettering.

This was starting to get scary.

Rajani no longer found this romantic, not after what happened with Kane. There was also no way she was staying in this hotel room tonight, the smell of lilacs doing absolutely nothing to calm her down. If anything, she was on high alert more than ever, deciding she would be getting a can of mace and a few other weapons to carry with her daily. Rajani packed all of her things and managed to find her phone that was dropped in the carpet of lilacs petals. Before she left though, Rajani paid a visit to the hotel manager, who told her the same thing as the other had with the roses. They had no idea who was doing this.

There were advantages to doing everything from a computer screen or a telephone. The wonders of modern technology had the ability to turn a person from a telephone into either a man or a woman, voice changing technology at its finest. All management knew was that someone must have paid one of the staff members to do this and promised to look into the situation. But it would lead them nowhere because the staff members who did these things for the mysterious person had never actually met that person. They were just promised a great payday and did as they were told, all without knowing who was actually doing the telling.

With no answers to who was doing this, Rajani headed to another hotel in the city, trying to keep from shaking. Her throat was killing her and Rajani knew she would have to ice it to bring the swelling down when she finally got settled in. It took her about an hour, but Rajani finally found a small motel that looked deserted for the most part. She checked in with her own credit card and made sure to lock up everything with her rental. Grabbing her bags and purse, Rajani headed up to her room, kicking the door shut behind her. She locked the door and made sure the windows were secure as well, keeping the shades drawn before finally kicking her heels off, tears spilling down her cheeks.

"If this keeps up, I'm definitely not staying after WrestleMania." She whispered, collapsing on the bed after getting some ice for her throat and fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.