Chapter 43

As soon as they landed at the unknown destination, Stephanie immediately called Paul and ordered him to bring the kids to their secluded spot with the girls. Alex called his lover and demanded Mitch to get on the first flight he could because Cena was on the move. Rajani couldn't believe they were all going to hide out together in this three story mansion, but there it was. Two gays, a married couple with three kids and...Her and Taker. This was going to be interesting to say the least. This was going to be hell. They were going to hide until what? Police finally caught Cena? So far the guy had evaded a nationwide manhunt! Taker felt absolutely useless and like the world's biggest asshole.

"This is insane, darlin'."

Insane didn't even begin to cover it. The mansion was huge! Even with everyone there, they could all have their own private corridors and Alex had insisted on Stephanie clearing out the staff ahead of time just to be on the safe side. That 'one step ahead thing' had really sank into everyone's mind.

"I know."

Rajani sat on the bed with her arms wrapped around herself, fresh out of the shower. Their room was amazing with a private bathroom, a huge king sized bed, two dressers, a flat screen television with cable and all the trimmings. No matter what though, she couldn't stop blaming herself for everything that had happened, including them hiding out.

"We're not going to be able to hide here forever. We need to draw Cena out somehow and catch him off guard."

"Darlin', drawing him out means putting you out there in the open where he could get at you." Taker said flatly. "Unless we found a lookalike." Even then, he wasn't so sure he wanted to subject a woman to John's brand of insanity, the man would probably snap an imitation Rajani in half. "You're keepin' your pert ass right here." Where she was safe.

"When are you going to stop treating me like a porcelain doll?" Rajani demanded, standing from the bed and turned to face him, planting her hands on her hips. "That's why I didn't tell you about Kane's calls because I knew you wouldn't have let me meet him. You would've stopped me, even if it meant locking me up. John is not going to stop until he has what he wants, Taker. Me. And we both know it. We can't hide forever, we have to face him head on or else we'll never be fully together. You deserve better than that and so do I. This is my fault, please let me try to fix it."

"Darlin'...no offense, but the last time you tried to fix it was by meeting Glen and, if the phones hadn't been tapped, you could very well now be with John." Taker reminded her patiently, not realizing his own part in allowing the phones to be tapped indicated, on some level, he didn't trust her judgment. He did, to an extent. If she thought her loved ones were in trouble, then no, there wasn't any trust there.

"That's a nice way of saying you don't trust me or my judgment." Rajani read his mind and pursed her lips when he looked away from her, shaking her head. "So we're just supposed to lay low and hide out here until he's caught. That's the master plan? I'd rather be out there luring John out of HIS hiding spot and ending this for good. But of course, I'm insane for saying that, right?"

"Yes." Taker said bluntly, ignoring the look she shot him and shrugged. "You asked, darlin'. Give me credit, I'll never lie to you about what I think." He was just overly honest and blunt, probably not exactly what a woman wanted in a man, but that's just how he was. "We haven't been here all that long, give Alex time to do...whatever it is he's going to do and, if he ain't come up with nothin' in a reasonable amount of time, then we'll look to a different plan of action, alright?"

"I hate this. I hate all of this." Tossing her hands up in defeat, Rajani slumped back on the bed and scooted up until her back pressed against the huge headboard. "It's not that I don't enjoy being here with you because I do. I just hate that we have to hide out like cowards. I've never backed down from anything in my life and neither have you, so that's why I feel cowardly right now. I don't want to fight with you, Taker. I just want to be with you freely without this asshole breathing down our necks."

Then they should have went with the 'killing him is a viable option' theory. Not that he was going to say that one out loud, nope, she already looked like she was fixing to burst into tears. "Darlin', I-"

"Uncle Marky, Auntie Raj!"

"Am going to kill Paul."

"Keep dreaming, Deadman." Paul strolled in after his kids had jumped on the bed with Rajani. "Alex wants to talk to you two."

"Hey my princess!" Rajani grinned, catching a flying Aurora coming straight at her and hugged her tightly, followed by Murphy and Vaughn. The girls loved her and always wanted her to take them shopping whenever they were on the road with Paul and Stephanie. "How are you beautiful ladies doing?"

"Great!" Aurora answered enthusiastically. "Daddy said we're all here on a vacation, isn't that exciting?!"

Rajani smiled warmly and nodded. "Yes it is." She looked up at Paul, pretending not to be worried for the girls' sakes and stood up from the bed. "Where is he?"

"Downstairs in the drawing room." Paul snickered when Murphy began tugging on Taker's... Mohawk... if it could be called that. "Now Smurf-"

"Mama doesn't like it when you call her that..."

"Smurf...don't tug on..." Paul winced when Murphy yanked on that fringe of hair. "Uncle Marky's hair."

Taker just gritted his teeth into a painful smile and planted the little girl on his hip. "Lead the way."

Without Taker noticing, Rajani had snapped a few pictures of Paul's daughter with him on her cell phone, slipping it back into her pocket before he noticed. She hoped Alex had some kind of plan to stop John because, if not, murder would be next along with a move to Canada. She didn't want Taker to commit murder, but at this point, Rajani would go along with it if it meant being divorced and unchained from John forever.

"Murphy, stop pulling on Mark's fuzz, sweetheart." Stephanie softly scolded, taking her daughter from Taker with a smile and walked over to set her in the playpen Paul put up. "I still have no idea what possessed you to cut your beautiful hair off, Deadman."

"Neither do I." Rajani agreed, already knowing he did it because of her and hoped he would grow it out again because she loved it. "Anyway, Alex summoned us down here to talk, so where he is?"

"Would you hate me if I decided to get my hair chopped?" Paul asked, looking up at Stephanie with a smirk of his own because he'd already made plans with his barber to get it done as soon as this situation was over with.

"I wouldn't hate you." Stephanie said nonchalantly, staring at her husband thoughtfully. "But I wouldn't rule out the possibility of divorce either."

"So he can get away with chopping off his hair but not me?"

"Exactly."

Taker was staying out of this one. He already got enough shit from everyone about his short hair and just glanced at Rajani with a slight shrug. He had every intention of letting his grow back out, cutting it had just seemed like a good idea at the time.

"You wanted to talk to us, darlin'?"

Alex nodded, suddenly looking troubled because Undertaker was in the room with them and he knew the plan he had in mind, he wouldn't go for it. There were no other options though. John was very smart and had made sure his hands were squeaky clean, paying off people to do his dirty work and whatnot. He talked it over with Stephanie for several hours and both of them came to an agreement, of sorts, but Rajani was the wild card in all of this. If she didn't agree to the plan, they were back to square one.

"Raja, you know I'm very fond of you, right?"

"Of course..." Rajani wasn't sure if she liked where this was going, feeling Taker's arm snake around her waist and kept her brown eyes on Alex. "What's going on?"

Stephanie sighed, knowing she had to interfere because Alex looked as though he might piss himself because of Taker's intense gaze. "The show has to go on. We can't hide out forever, obviously. We have jobs and we can't disappoint the fans. So Rajani, I know you don't like this, but...we brought someone else here."

"Hello Raja."

Her head snapped to the side, eyes widening at the sight of her big brother standing in the doorway and felt tears fill her eyes, turning to stare back at Stephanie. "I told you to leave him out of this! What is wrong with you?!"

"I love you too, sis."

"What the hell is going on, Stephanie? Enough with the secrets, I want to know why my brother is here, after I specifically told you to leave him out of this."

Rajani was pissed, her dark eyes flashing and hoped Taker didn't know about this happening or else she would find a way to punish him. For once, Taker could say in all honesty that he had no idea what was going on. Of course, it would take a blind, deaf, dumb idiot to not see what this was, or where it was headed, but he hadn't KNOWN until just now. They were going to bring in Dwayne, but for what reason? Just what was big brother going to do that none of them could? Besides kill John, which he was still calling dibs on.

"Someone best start talkin' now." He ordered, looping an arm around Rajani to keep her from flying off and punching someone, or bolting in a fit of anger.

Paul raked a hand through his hair and sighed, shooting Alex and Stephanie an 'I told you so' look.

Stephanie ignored her husband, actually having a set to do something about this situation instead of hide out like criminals, which they were not. "Dwayne has a match at Backlash." It hadn't been confirmed yet, but now they could start advertising since Dwayne had some downtime in between movies.

"I know, didn't think it was still on though..." Rajani slowly began putting the pieces together in her mind, eyebrows furrowing in thought. "You're not serious, are you?"

"Raja, I would never put you in danger if I knew you wouldn't be perfectly safe." Stephanie assured her, ignoring Taker for the moment and looked over at Dwayne. "He's agreed to this too, so will you help us put an end to John Cena once and for all?"

"What do I have to do?" If it meant getting John out of her life forever, Rajani would do whatever was necessary, including being bait, which is what she knew Stephanie was working up the courage to say aloud.

"We're going to do a storyline that involves everything that's happened..." She held her hand up before Taker could open his mouth. "Let me finish first before you fly off the handle, Mark." She ordered, clearing her throat. "I know this is a risk because it means everything that's happened up to this point would be exposed for the world to see. We're not going to show anything that happened with Mark because he's not going to be part of the storyline. It's going to be a big brother protecting his little sister from a brash young rookie who wants his torch, so to speak. Do you think you can handle being your brother's valet for a few weeks?"

While Rajani mulled it over, Taker had immediately processed and snorted. "Brilliant Stephanie and, if I know you, which I do Princess, even though this exposes everything for the 'world to see', it'll still be unbelievable enough to be passed off as another storyline." Honestly, this nightmare that had gone on for so long was something almost straight out of a movie. If people only knew and could believe the truth wouldn't they be surprised?

"We can fill in the blanks with 'interviews', short little segments from Raja and Dwayne."

"Am I the only one who thinks this is stupid? Using Raja as bait? We're talking John Cena here, the kid has shown he isn't as dumb as we- OW!" Paul shut up when Stephanie slapped him upside the head. "What?! I'm just saying- OW, DAMN IT, STEPH!"

"I'll do it." Rajani stated, making the whole room grow completely silent and blinked, tears sliding down her cheeks. "If it means getting rid of this dick, I'm in." She knew Taker didn't like this plan a bit, but there was nothing else they could do. "We can't hide out here forever and I'm done being pushed around by the puny bastard. It's time to put an end to this."

Stephanie and Alex both breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing those words because it really was all up to Rajani at this point. "Dwayne, are you in or not? You have to agree to this before we move forward with the storyline and it has to start on Raw this Monday if we're doing it."

"I'm in." Dwayne said, having already been spoken too by both Alex and Stephanie.

They had figured it would be best to get him in the loop before bringing him in in order to avoid a blow up when everything had been laid on the table. He was pretty sure he didn't know everything, but he knew enough and if they wanted to gloss over some of the more... finer... details, that was all right with him. Dwayne still remembered what had happened before Rajani had left him in Florida, after that, not so much. They still had a rough relationship, hopefully, once this was all over, they could work on that.

"And I am to stay out of this?"

"That would be a big help if you did." Alex said, studying the Deadman thoughtfully. "Are you going to?"

"I'll sit back and watch." The 'for now' was implied in his tone.

Rajani walked over to her brother, staring into his dark eyes that matched hers and reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, more tears falling. "I'm sorry for what happened between us." She whispered in his ear, feeling his arms tighten around her and just stood there, not wanting to fight with her family. She needed everyone she could find on her side in the fight against Cena. "You were right, I didn't see the warning signs and I wish I had listened to you." Pulling back, Rajani let her big brother wipe her tears away, just like he had so many times when they were younger, and cracked a small smile. "Forgive me?"

There was no way Dwayne would condone her being with another wrestler, but Rajani hoped Dwayne learned his lesson getting into her love life. Hopefully he would let her figure things out for herself because there were no warning signs with Taker. They loved each other and he'd protected her even when she walked away from him to marry Cena, even when she broke his heart into pieces.

"Of course I do, can you forgive me?"

Dwayne smiled when she nodded, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of her head before glancing over her at Taker. He would have had to be a complete moron to not know about their relationship. Hell, before there even was a relationship it had been almost impossible to notice the way the man was protective of Rajani, so... he wasn't going to say anything. If she had to date a wrestler, Taker Calaway was probably the best choice for her. Even if he had gone and chopped off his hair, which Dwayne still didn't understand what the man was thinking personally.