________________________________________

Stephanie continued to pace the length of the hotel lobby, causing people coming and going to stare at her.  She didn't care and ignored every one of them.  Her mind was focused on one person and that person only.  Nothing or no one else mattered at the moment.

"Oh, God!" she cried when Kurt Angle suddenly stepped through the automatic double doors of the hotel's entrance.  She practically ran over to him.  "Where have you been?  Why did it take you so long to get back here?"  She was so relieved that she threw her arms around the man and hugged him tightly.

Kurt was so surprised it took him a moment before he put his arms around the obviously distraught brunette.  He stroked a hand down her back and long hair, enjoying the feel of the woman in his arms.  "Steph...you were...worried about me?"

Stephanie pulled back and looked into his face.  "Well, yeah, of course I was..."  She glanced around furtively, noticing stares from people around.  She was thankful none of them happened to be anyone employed by the WWF.  Pulling out of Angle's embrace, she reached down and tugged on his hand.  "Come on...come up to my room and tell me everything you know..."

*

Vince McMahon paced back and forth in his hotel suite, not realizing that this was an identical gesture to what his daughter had been doing at about the same time.  He repeatedly glanced at his watch angrily, hoping that, this time, the man had gotten the job done.

He looked up at the knock on the door, instantly going over to open it.  The man stepped inside, the expression on his face looking not at all pleased.

"God damn it!  You screwed up yet again, didn't you?!"

The younger man ran a hand quickly through his hair, his head down for a beat before he looked up to meet the angry eyes of his boss.  "I did the best I could, Vince...I smashed into the side of their car.  I ran them off the fucking road, down a hill.  I was hoping they would run into a tree, but no such luck.  I-"

"You stupid son of a bitch!" Vince shouted, and the man could see the veins corded up in the enraged older man's neck as he regarded him.  "Let me take a wild guess - Copeland came out of it without a single scratch!"

"That I don't know...I couldn't get a good enough look from that dis-"

"Shut up!!!  What the hell is wrong with you?  I hired you to kill that bastard, and somehow, he's gotten off unscathed twice already!  You're so stupid that you can't even hurt him!"  Vince pointed a furious finger in the man's face as he continued.  "Even when he was in the hospital, Amy Dumas told me that the worst injury he had was a bump on the head!"

"Vince, I don't..."

The older man cut him off for a third time.  "If you don't do this, you're fired!  Damn you, don't you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?!  Didn't you take me seriously when I told you this the first time?  So help me...Do not fuck with me!"

The man pressed his lips together, trying to rein in his own temper.  He had a bad one, and Vince McMahon knew this perfectly well.  He had to reel it in so he would not suddenly turn on his boss, because the man was really starting to annoy him.

He knew he would somehow have to release all this pent-up aggression later on.  Thoughts of Nora suddenly zipped through his mind as Vince continued to berate him.

*

Amy rested her head wearily on Adam's shoulder as the police officers who had answered their call drove them back to the hotel.  She placed one hand on his face, which currently wore an expression that looked to be a combination of concern and uncertainty.  The blond man seemed to stare straight ahead, his gaze concentrated on nothing, and she gently pulled his face around to meet her eyes.

"They're going to find the creep, Adam..."

He gazed down into her eyes, the expression on his face wrenching her heart.  "Who the hell is doing this, Ames?  Why would anyone want to hurt me?"

"I don't know, baby...but they're not going to.  I won't let them," she said firmly, her voice softer.  As he continued to stare into her hazel eyes wordlessly, she added, "Anyone that's going to try to hurt you is going to have to answer to me."

The blond man wracked his brain, trying to think of who could possibly hate him so much as to try to attack him.  He honestly couldn't think of anyone.  The only person who came to mind for a second was Vince McMahon - the boss hadn't been thrilled when he and Stephanie had first told him they were dating - but after a short while, Vince had accepted him.  But it couldn't be him.  He'd seemed almost thrilled when he and Stephanie had broken up - which told Adam that the man had never completely accepted them as a couple after all.  And the idea of the man trying to run him over or run him off the road was utterly ridiculous.  He just couldn't picture it.

He put an arm around Amy, drawing her even closer against him, his fingers gently caressing a lock of her red hair.  He knew he was going to be distracted by this for awhile.

*

"Okay, we're here," Stephanie said breathlessly as she locked the door to her hotel room before turning back to Kurt.  She grasped his hand and led him to the bed, sitting on the edge of it.  He joined her as she continued holding onto him, and her other hand gripped his other one as well.  "What's going on, Kurt?  What did you find out?"

The Olympian shook his head.  He didn't know where to begin.  "It's strange, Steph...I traced my steps, like you asked me to - I got off an exit and drove back to the area where he got out of the car...and when I got there, there was a police cruiser there..."

Stephanie's blue eyes widened.  "And?"

"...And I got out of the car and looked down the precipice to see what was going on down there..."  He gripped the brunette's hands tighter as if to brace her.  "...you are not going to believe this, Steph...I couldn't quite make them out for a minute, but I could swear it had to be Amy Dumas and Adam...it looked like he might have run them off the road."

"What?" Stephanie cried, her eyes even wider.  "He ran-"

"Although, I can't be certain," Kurt interjected.  What if he'd only thought that was what had happened, but he was completely wrong?  He would be incriminating an innocent man.  "I didn't see that happen.  I only saw him looking down at them."

"Oh, my God!  Kurt, he must have done it!  Can't you see?  He's up to no good!  I caught him watching them earlier...He...he gave me the creeps - the look in his eye," Stephanie said.  "I...I don't trust him."

"Well...I don't know for sure if he really did it."  Despite his words, Angle suspected the man was guilty of running Adam and Amy off the road.  He had been acting very strangely, at least from what Kurt had seen.  Besides, it hadn't looked as though the man had done anything to try to help the blond man and the redhead.  And Stephanie certainly believed he was up to something unwholesome.  After a moment, he asked, "What are you going to do?"

The brunette pulled her hands out of his grip and ran them through her long hair.  "I...I don't know yet," she admitted.  "Maybe I should go to my dad...maybe I should just talk to Adam whenever he gets back here.  But what I do know is that I have to do something."