Xavier gazed steadily back at them.
“I gather you know who Qin is?” Cassandra asked him to break the silence between them.
“Why do you think I know who that punk is?”
“Okay, so we’re going to play that game. You’re still trying to deny who you are.”
Xavier started eating the conch salad the server had placed on their table. He thoughtfully chewed on the shellfish ceviche. “You’ve obviously made up your mind on who I am.”
“So that wasn’t a friend of yours who stopped those guys who were following us?” Cassandra asked drily.
“What?” Xavier held her gaze, his body still, his expression unreadable. “Why don’t you tell me what you think you know?” he asked calmly.
“Oh, so we’re going to play dumb?” She rolled her eyes at his determination to continue being so secretive. “Okay, I’ll pretend that you don’t know that there were two men following us and that you didn’t have them intercepted the other night. I’ll continue to pretend that you didn’t notice my stalkers weeks ago. Do you know who they are?”
“Who is stalking you?” Xavier was no longer calm, appearing pissed that she was aware of her stalkers. “When did this start? Do you know who they are? Why are they watching you?”
“Yeah, I know who they are,” Cassandra muttered. “I’m sure you know who they are as well.”
“Don’t mess with me, Cassandra.” Xavier glared at her. “Who is following you?”
“Come to think of it, I don’t need to pretend,” she muttered peevishly. “I really don’t know who you are. Before whatever this is between us goes any further, why don’t you tell me what I need to know?”
Xavier stopped eating and pushed the bowl of salad away. He leaned back in his seat, and his lips barely moved as he said, “It didn’t seem to matter last night who the fuck I am.”
“Xavier—”
“You know me dammit,” he whispered fiercely. “You know all the important shit like that I would die protecting you and I want you more than I want my next breath.”
“Xavier—”
“No, we’re not doing this here!”
Cassandra was shocked at his sudden display of emotion.
The server placed their lunches on the table before them.
“Eat your lunch. We’ll talk later,” Xavier said more softly as the server left them to it.
“Well, I’m certainly happy to see that you can lose that ‘daddy cool’ persona,” Cassandra harrumphed.
Xavier grunted.
An hour later, Xavier placed his palm at the base of Cassandra’s back and steered her toward the SUV in the parking lot. He handed her into the car and moved around to the driver’s side door. The fine hairs on his arm and the base of his neck tingled, alerting him of being watched. He dove to the ground and whipped out his gun just as bullets pummeled the back of the SUV, exactly where he’d been standing a few seconds before.
“Stay down,” Xavier shouted to Cassandra. He ran away from the SUV, trying to draw the fire away from Cassandra and the number of taxi drivers who were waiting for fares in the parking lot.
Qin’s men ran and followed him, guns blazing.
Xavier ducked and weaved among the parked cars in the lot, staying low, making himself as small of a target as he could. Listening to the noises around him, the direction of the gunfire and approaching footsteps, Xavier was confident of where the shooters were. With no hesitation, and in a move he knew would surprise his attackers, Xavier jumped into the air to gain superior elevation and fired off six consecutive shots while suspended mid-air. The bullets struck the men in their shoulders, stomach, and legs, forcing them to the hard ground. His attackers safely disarmed, Xavier moved closer until he stood over the two men. He coolly lodged a bullet squarely in the middle of both men’s foreheads. They were dead.
Farther up in the parking lot, a dark Lexus pulled out of the space close to the entrance, and the tires angrily scorched the paved driveway as the driver accelerated onto the main road.
“Well, mudderfucker, I wasn’t interested in y’alls’ little mom & pop drug trade in the islands. But you just made this shit personal,” Xavier muttered as he watched the retreating vehicle. He jogged to the two men on the ground and gleaned as much information as he could from the bodies before the local authorities arrived.
Cassandra came to stand beside him.
“I guess it was too much to hope for you to stay put?” Xavier asked dryly.
“Qin and his goons shot at you because I wouldn’t give him the time of day, and I must stay put?” She frowned at him.
Xavier stared back at her without saying a word.
“I did stay down as you instructed until the shooting stopped and Qin sped out of here,” Cassandra pointed out. “I should have anticipated that ass would do something like this. He’s Chinese mafia and not used to anyone on the island talking to him like you did.” She narrowed her eyes at his continued silence. “You did know who he was.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“Cassandra, I have to deal with this mess now.”
Police sirens could be heard coming in the distance.
“This will take some time.” Xavier gave her the keys to his condo. “Wait at the condo while I sort this out with the local police.”
“Thanks for thinking of me, but I’m not leaving you here with them. Our police can be a bit much, and there’s no telling how many of them are in Qin’s pocket.”
Xavier gave her a hard kiss on the lips. “Go sit in the car and put the air conditioning on. I can’t deal with your hard head right now.” He turned away and pulled his phone out.
Chapter Ten
Xavier looked across at Cassandra as they walked barefoot on the warm sandy beach that served as a backyard to his condo. She is so damn beautiful, and she wants to be with me. How the fuck can I trust that? She has no clue that I’m a damn monster and is choosing to ignore the fact that I look like a monster. It was late afternoon, and the sun was low on the horizon, making it seem as if the sun would soon enter the crystal clear water that stretched endlessly before them. After the hot and humid hours they’d endured in the parking lot of the restaurant, the light ocean breeze on their skin was quite soothing and therapeutic. He knew he had a lot of shit to explain to her, especially since he had no intention of ever letting her out of his life.
The unmistakable message from Qin was that he was going to try and impose his will in regards to Cassandra. Getting Xavier out of the picture was only the first step in his campaign. There’s no fucking way I’ll let him touch her!
“My name is Xavier Bautista. I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, with my mom in a single-parent household,” Xavier said softly.
Cassandra stopped walking and looked up at him. She seemed surprised that he was speaking about himself, but there was no judgment in her expression.
“We weren’t poor or rich. My mom, who was originally from the Dominican Republic, did the best she could, keeping food on the table, clothes on us both, and maintaining our apartment in a fairly safe neighborhood. She worked as a secretary in a local bank, not earning a lot, but we were never hurting for anything. Her parents lived close by, so I grew up with them in my life as well. I was always too big for my age and started playing football when I was ten. I took to it like a duck to water, and pretty soon some of the private high schools in the area wanted me on their squads. My mom was happy for me to get a private school education without it costing her anything. Ever since I could remember, she preached the importance of an education. She always felt that the black man’s plight would only improve with education, so I promised her that I would go to college and get a degree.”
“She sounds as though she’s an amazing woman,” Cassandra whispered.
“She was.” Xavier swallowed the lump he always got in his throat when he thought of his mother’s death. “My mother died when I was twelve years old in a car accident.”
“Oh my God, X, I’m so sor
ry.” Cassandra wrapped her arms around his waist.
For the first time in his life, Xavier let someone try to soothe him over that loss. For years, his grandparents had tried, but he never let them see the pain. Shocked that he was even capable of it, he quickly blinked to push back the tears that had welled up in his eyes. This is exactly the shit I was trying to avoid. Suddenly I have feelings, and they’re turning me into a fucking pussy! He swallowed again and rested his head on her soft hair. God, she smells so damn good. Her alluring feminine scent was slowly driving him crazy, distracting him from his good intentions. He cleared his throat to continue and hopefully distract himself from the effect she was having on him. “An asshole teenager thought it was smart to go for a joyride in his dad’s Benz after consuming a shitload of alcohol. Said asshole had four other teenagers in the car, who were just as stoned as he was. They all died in the collision and took my mom with them. I was the only person who walked out of that accident with minor scrapes and bruises.” And it was also the first time I questioned who I was. Who the hell walked out of a mangled car unscathed?
“Indestructible,” a voice whispered.
Cassandra clutched him tight against her. “I’m so sorry, baby.”
Xavier melted into her softness. She was a soothing balm to his tortured memories. Feeling slightly weak in the knees, he sank with her to the warm sand. He held her in front of him between his thighs with her back pressed against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “I went to college on a full athletic scholarship and was scouted to enter the NFL draft in my sophomore year. I opted to get my degree in criminology instead.”
“Why would you chance getting injured in college and missing out on a lucrative contract?” Cassandra asked.
“My mother believed no black man could survive in a white man’s world without the weapons of the white man. Education is the white man’s most lethal weapon.”
“The last thing we need is more uneducated black men.”
“Exactly.” Xavier swallowed, falling silent briefly as he remembered his overworked mother. “I need to explain why I am the way I am about your safety. Everyone who I’ve ever cared about has died. I have no one left.”
“That can’t be true,” she whispered. “X—”
“No, you need to listen to me. This is important.”
She nodded her head and fell silent again.
“In my senior year, we were coming back from an away game when our bus hit a patch of black ice trying to avoid a car being driven recklessly. The blizzard had been bad the entire drive back and visibility had been extremely poor that late at night. However, our driver was very experienced in driving through such storms and had warned Coach that it would be better if we waited the storm out instead of driving through it. Coach wanted to get back. A car with a group of young people came out of nowhere.”
“Good God!”
“Yeah, so despite the driver’s experience and the precautions taken with equipping the bus for such conditions, the bus spun out of control, ploughed through the guardrails, and plunged into a ditch on the side of the highway.”
“Oh my God, X, that’s terrible,” Cassandra hissed.
Xavier never spoke about his life like this and wouldn’t be surprised if he was sounding as if he was telling a story about someone else’s life. This had happened so many years ago it almost felt like it was about someone else. “I remember being upside down, covered with glass, and snow coming through the broken window. Some guys were badly hurt and trapped, but I was able to climb out of the window and started helping some of the players out from the broken windows.” Xavier stopped speaking, horrified at the emotion that had crept into his voice. “The fire started in the rear of the bus.”
“It’s okay, X, I understand. You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”
If only that were true, but she needs to know what she’s dealing with. He swallowed and clamped down on his emotions, icing himself to feel no pain, as he had been doing for years.
“I was able to pull some of them from the bus before it exploded.” He didn’t tell her that he had been less than a foot away from the bus when it had burst into flames. While sparks had lit his skin, he had healed almost immediately. “Some had bad cuts and burns, but despite my efforts, too many died that night.” Xavier stopped speaking, as again his throat became clogged. I shouldn’t have been able to walk away from that accident. No one who sat in my section of the bus survived.
Again, the whispered response to his retelling of events: indestructible.
“God, X, I’m so sorry.”
Xavier squeezed her tighter to convey his appreciation of her support. “After I graduated from college, I spent only one year in the NFL before enlisting and spending a few years in US Special Forces and then joining the DEA six years ago.” The money he had earned in the NFL and over the years with the US government had been sitting in an investment fund earning him substantial wealth. He had had nothing to spend money on until meeting Cassandra.
“Ah! I knew I was right!” She turned in his arms, excitedly threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him on his lips.
He pulled away from her and held her gaze. “Yeah, baby, you’re right. But I’m not here for your brothers. I’m on an extended leave.” He almost wanted to shake her to make her understand the pain he was in at the possibility of losing her. “Cass, you have to listen to me. My mom and teammates are not the only people who died in my life. The reason I’m on leave is that, following my last undercover assignment, six men from my team at the DEA, some of their family members, and my grandparents were assassinated.”
“Oh my God, X!” Cassandra covered her mouth with her hands, and her eyes glistened with sympathy. “So much pain,” she whispered.
“No, don’t get upset for me.” Xavier tightened his grip on her forearms. “Those bastards who killed my family need your sympathy more. I used my time on leave to ensure that there was no one left to fuel more revenge killings; no one left to fuck with decent people!” This thing in me is a curse. Everyone around me eventually dies. The icy fingers of dread slithered up his spine. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her against his shivering body at the thought of possibly losing her.
“You have to see that everyone who I’ve ever cared about has died,” he said again, wanting to ensure she understood the risk. “I can’t lose you too. Cassandra, do you understand what I’m saying to you? Please, Cass, I need you to listen when I tell you to stay out of harm’s way. I need to know that you’re safe.” He held her face against his chest and couldn’t hear her mumbled response. She tried to lift her head, but he was reluctant to let her go.
She pushed at his chest.
He loosened his grip to allow her to raise her head and look up at him. “I’m truly sorry for all that you have gone through,” Cassandra said tenderly. “I can’t imagine losing so much. I will try my best not to add to your pain. I don’t deliberately set out to go against what you’ve asked me to do. However, in order for me to maintain my voice, not only with my brothers and thugs like Qin and Nado, you have to allow me to use what I know about them to defuse the situation. Their response to you would be to draw their guns because they perceive a threat from you. Their response to me will be different because they don’t consider me a threat.”
“I don’t give a damn what their perception is. This is going to get more violent before it gets better. You can’t be hurt, Cassandra,” Xavier insisted.
“Okay, X.” She shushed him, trying to alleviate his concerns. “Stop worrying about me, please.” She caressed his face tenderly. “In future, if there are weapons involved, I will rely on your expertise.”
Xavier hugged her close. “Tell me about the men following you.”
“I’m sure I won’t tell you anything you don’t already know,” she teased.
He squeezed her in response. “Humor me. Tell me about them anyway.”
“Well, I don’t really
have much to tell. I noticed two Asian guys tailing me a few days before I realized you were following me too. They didn’t try to approach me or even talk to me, so I’m still clueless as to what Qin wants. I mean, if he was interested in me as a woman, having his men stalk me is a strange way to court a girl, right?”
“You thought I was stalking you too. What’s the difference?” Xavier grumbled.
“Oh, I don’t know. Your approach was so sweet. And I don’t mind being stalked by you.” She laughed.
He grunted, his thoughts consumed with Qin’s violent action.
She continued to tease him. “I hope you know that you’re not going to get the sand out of those clothes in a hurry.” Cassandra giggled. “You’re sitting in damp sand.”
“At least I have on jeans. You have on a dress,” he smirked, picking up a fistful of sand and spreading it on her exposed legs.
“Hey!” Cassandra sprang up from his lap. She walked a few feet away from him, meticulously filled both of her palms with sand, and threw the missiles at his head, catching him in his face.
Xavier growled in mock anger, and an impromptu sand-ball fight ensued. In mere seconds, they were both completely covered with fine white sand, but Xavier was definitely the loser in this fight. There was barely an inch of skin on his face and neck that wasn’t coated with sand.
She started running back toward the condo, giggling uncontrollably as he advanced on her, growling with false outrage.
Despite her being a collegiate athlete, he was too fast, and his long legs closed in on her in seconds. He swooped down and picked her up by her waist and threw her over his shoulder.
“Hey,” Cassandra shrieked.
Xavier: (Indestructible) Page 9