Xander King BoxSet

by Bradley Wright

  “And Sam?”

  “Sam apparently beat the hell out of Melanie before the cops made her quit.”

  Zhanna couldn’t help but laugh. She didn’t really understand why she was so happy about the outcome. She barely knew the group. But there was just something about the way they made her feel like they had known her forever. Like they were this exclusive club and they just brought her right in. She had always been a loner, so the feeling of being part of a group meant more to her than she could ever have imagined.

  Marv continued, “I know Xander is going to be so grateful for all you’ve done.”

  “It’s the least I could do for what he did for me in Moscow.”

  Marv nodded. Then his phone began to ring.

  “Oh God, I forgot to call Director Hartsfield back! Do you mind?”

  “Sounds important,” Zhanna said.

  As he answered the phone, he took her by the hand and led her back to the SUV. Zhanna listened in.

  “Mrs. Hartsfield, yes. No, I know. I know you’ve called several times. I know. I’m sorry. I know, but you can tell the President his daughter is safe. Zhanna pulled her from the warehouse and kept her safe. We have Adeline in our truck now. It’s all over. They did it.”

  50

  Saving the World Is Hard, But Love Is Harder

  Xander put away his phone, sat back in his chair, and closed his eyes. He was exhausted, but he couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t believe the nonstop coverage of Natalie’s kidnapping and her subsequent rescue. He knew she was famous, he knew she was widely loved, but every single media outlet on the planet was only reporting on one thing.

  Natalie Rockwell.

  Of course, they had no idea about Adeline. If they had discovered how the President’s daughter had gone missing, coverage certainly would have been more split. The President himself had called Xander a little over an hour ago. Xander was honored to speak with him, but it was a short conversation. He told President Williams that it was his team that had found and kept Adeline safe. He was proud to say so. Kyle showed unbelievable courage by putting Adeline’s safety ahead of his own. In Xander’s mind, that was the very definition of hero. Sam of course had been her normal self, as had Sarah, but Zhanna really showed what she was all about. Adeline herself said that she would be dead if not for Zhanna’s quick thinking and all-around badassery. Xander told the President that it was his team that deserved the praise, and he happily passed their information along so that the President could call them as well.

  It would be a bit before Kyle would be able to take that important call. Xander left Natalie’s hospital bed only long enough to check on his friend. The battered and beaten Kyle was sound asleep. Completely exhausted. Xander tried to get Sam, Zhanna, and Sarah to go with Jack and Viktor to a hotel, but every last one of them insisted that they stay until Kyle came around. The doctor said it would take him a while to heal, but he would make a full recovery. Several broken bones and a nasty concussion were an odd way to get lucky, but Xander knew that his friend was just that. Lucky. He very well could have been dead.

  As Xander looked over at Natalie sleeping peacefully in her hospital bed, his heart was heavy. It seemed to him like a broken record now, but he couldn’t believe the danger that he had thrown his friends into once again. And even more amazing was how they responded. Throwing themselves into the danger when most would run away from it. Giving everything they had to see to it that Natalie and Adeline were safe. Xander knew it was a big deal that they stopped Akram Khatib from killing Natalie on the live feed, that they stopped the bombing at the nightclub, and that they saved the President’s daughter. But the biggest deal to him was the fact that they would do it all again tomorrow if something else came up. That was why he had to make certain that it didn’t. This life of violence was where Xander thrived. But it was also where his friends would die if he let it continue. He knew what he had to do; he would distance—

  “Xander?” Natalie called to him softly from her bed.

  Xander jumped up and ran to her side. He took her hand in his and brushed the hair away from her forehead.

  She asked, “Is everyone okay? No one got hurt trying to help me, did they?”

  Xander smiled. Even after all that she had been through, Natalie was more worried about everyone else than herself.

  “Kyle got a little banged up, but he’s going to be okay. He’d do it all over again a hundred times to make sure you were all right.”

  Natalie looked sad. She scooted over in her bed, then patted the empty space for him to lie beside her. He quickly obliged, and once he laid down, Natalie nestled her head on Xander’s chest as he held her in his arms.

  “Why did they come after me? Just to hurt you?”

  “Yes. Sam and I took down his brother’s terrorist faction, and he wanted revenge. I suppose he found coverage of us at the Kentucky Derby together. I’m sorry I brought you into my mess. I should have just steered clear of you that night in San Diego.”

  Natalie looked up at him and smiled. “Like you even had a choice.”

  Xander returned the smile and gave her a squeeze. He knew there was absolutely no disputing that fact. Then he felt Natalie shaking. When he looked back down at her, she was crying.

  He gave her another squeeze. “It’s okay now, Natalie. You’re safe.”

  She sniffled twice, wiped her tears away, and propped herself up on her elbow. Xander could see in her eyes that she wasn’t scared, she was heartbroken.

  “It’s not that, Xander.” Her voice faltered. She looked away toward the back of the room, stifling more tears.

  Xander knew what was coming, but he didn’t see what came first.

  Natalie looked back at him, holding his eyes. “I love you.”

  Xander sat up. “I—”

  “Wait,” Natalie interrupted. “Please, just let me get this out.”

  He nodded.

  She continued. “I love you, Alexander King. I have never felt this way about anyone in my entire life. Every second of every day I think of you. Whenever anything happens to me, whether it be getting that new role in a movie I wanted, or if it is just something stupid like the lady at the grocery store who looks like Carol Burnett, all I want to do is share it with you. I’ve never met a man like you. A man who cares more about the people close to him than he cares about himself—”

  Xander interrupted, “That’s not exactly true—”

  “Please. Please let me finish.”

  Xander nodded.

  “And there are a thousand more things I could mention. Your sense of humor, how sexy you are, but it’s your heart that makes you irresistible. And in your case, the very thing that makes you is also the very thing that breaks you. You want to fight everyone’s battles for them. Because you know you can. But as selfless as you are in doing that, it would be the thing that will always keep us apart. Because I can’t fight those battles with you. I’m not like Sam or Sarah. They were made for your world.”

  “I can change my world.”

  Natalie hung her head. Then she began to shake it. “No, you can’t.” She looked back up at him. “It’s who you are. There is something in you that is special. It’s what makes you the guy that people can call to come and save them. But I need someone that I know won’t go off and die for a righteous cause when he has a family at home that he needs to be around to protect.”

  Xander was the one to hang his head this time. She saw enough in him to see herself having a family with him. Xander’s heart twisted inside his chest. He knew she was right. He knew it because his sister had been giving him this same speech for years. “You can’t save the whole world, Xander, and it isn’t your job to do so,” she would always say. And whenever Xander told her that he wasn’t trying to save the whole world, he always went running the next time he was called upon. And that is exactly what Natalie was saying to him now. But he would do anything to be with her. Whatever it took. She needed to know that.

  Natalie spoke before he could
. “And I know what you’re thinking. You could give it up if you wanted to. And I know you believe that, Xander. But one day, and it could be a month from now or it could be ten years from now, but one day your phone will ring and someone on the other end of that line will convince you that going and saving the country from another madman will actually be saving your family. And they may be right. But one of those times you take that call, I will get one from someone else telling me that this time, you didn’t make it. And that would destroy me.”

  Xander shook his head, then made an attempt at lightening the mood. “So I take it you don’t believe in the old saying that it is better to have loved once than to never have loved at all?”

  It fell flat.

  “My heart wouldn’t be able to take it.”

  “So that’s it?” Xander paused. He was trying not to get angry, because he knew she was right. But . . . “You’re just going to give up on someone you say you love?”

  “You don’t understand—”

  “No, you don’t understand, Natalie. You are right. I am a fighter. I will fight for those closest to me and those who need me. But I would never fight for anyone like I would fight for you. For us. And you’re right, maybe one day there would be a call I couldn’t refuse. And then I may not make it back home. But until that day, no one will ever love you like I will. No one will ever give more of themselves to you than I will. And if you think denying what we have forever is better than giving it all we’ve got until it’s over is the best way forward, then we see things very, very differently.”

  Natalie just stared back at him. He hoped she would understand and see things his way. But if she didn’t, she didn’t. And he would spend as long as it took to try to change her mind.

  “I’m sorry, Xander. It’s not that I disagree with you, I just can’t put myself through that. If I give myself to you fully and then lose you, I would never recover.”

  Xander settled back down into the hospital bed and pulled Natalie into him. Neither one of them said another word, and he held her until they both drifted off to sleep.

  51

  First Kisses Beat the Hell Out of Last Kisses

  When Xander woke up a couple of hours later, his head was pounding. He hoped that his conversation with Natalie was just a bad dream, but he knew that it wasn’t. He managed to free his arm from under her neck, shimmy out of the hospital bed, and make his way out of the room without waking her. Since that went so terribly with Natalie, he decided he may as well make it 0 for 2 and go ahead and have a conversation with Sarah. He knew better than anyone how Sarah was going to feel, having just been rejected himself.

  He walked around the corner of the hallway into the waiting room, and Sam and Sarah both stood when he entered.

  Sam said, “You look like hell. You need to get some sleep, Xander.”

  “Thanks, Sam. I can always count on you for a nurturing hand.”

  Sam put her hand to her hip. “I didn’t mean it like that. But bloody hell, at least let the nurse get you an Advil or ten.”

  “I’m fine. Sarah, will you walk me down to get some coffee?”

  Sarah gave a half smile. “Of course.”

  “We’ll be right back, Sam.”

  Xander started down the hall, and Sarah quickly caught up to him.

  “Are you all right? You’ve been through a lot,” she said.

  “I’m okay. Listen—”

  “Xander, you don’t have to have this conversation with me. I’m not like a lot of girls. I don’t need you to coddle me. And I’m not blind. I can see how you feel about Natalie.”

  “I’m sorry I took advantage of the situation and took it too far with you. I should never have let it happen feeling the way I do about Natalie.”

  “It’s fine, Xander. You were confused. And it takes two. I wouldn’t change a minute of it. Don’t you remember how much fun the other night was?”

  There Sarah was, letting him off the hook again. Unbelievable. Two amazing women and he couldn’t be with either one of them.

  Karma.

  He gave Sarah a wink. “It was an electrifying night, wasn’t it?”

  Sarah smiled. “It really was. I’ll never forget it.”

  Xander stopped walking and wrapped his arms around her. She hugged him back, then leaned away to look him in the eye. “Just promise me one thing?”

  Xander nodded. “Of course.”

  “Marry that girl. Make her the happiest woman in the world?”

  Xander really didn’t know what to say, so he just went with what he felt. “I will do everything I can do. I promise.”

  Sarah gave him a genuine smile. Then she leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. Xander thought she was trying to let him off the hook, but instead it was clear that she wanted him to remember what he was missing. And miss it he would.

  Sarah ended the kiss and gave his jaw one last caress. “I really have to go now and file all of this back in Langley. It’s going to be a mile of paperwork, so I’d better go so I can get started. Do me one last favor?”

  “Of course.”

  “When Kyle wakes up, tell him to call me,” Sarah said with a wry smile. “Tell him I still don’t believe he’s the ladies’ man everyone says he is.”

  Xander raised his eyebrow, nodded, and smiled from somewhere deep inside himself. “I will absolutely extend that challenge.”

  “Goodbye, Xander.”

  Xander watched as Sarah walked away, disappearing through the door to the stairs. He turned and walked back to the waiting room where Sam was waiting. She walked over to him, shaking her head in total disbelief.

  “What?” Xander asked.

  Sam continued shaking her head. “Have you got actual silver on that tongue of yours, or what?”

  “Me?” Xander played coy. “Nah, it’s platinum.”

  “I believe it after seeing that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Sam stood with her hands on her hips. “Please. You break it off with a woman and she kisses you on the lips. What have you got hiding in those underpants of yours anyway?”

  Xander just raised both arms, palms up, and made a “what can I say?” face. But it was clear that he didn’t pull it off. Sam saw right through it. Just as she always does.

  “I take it, it didn’t go so well in there with Natalie.”

  He shook his head.

  “I’m sorry, Xander. I know what she means to you.” Sam leaned in and gave him hug.

  “Thanks. Don’t get too mushy, though, you’ll ruin your reputation.”

  Sam smacked him on the arm, and they walked over and sat down in the waiting room chairs.

  Xander cleared his throat. “So, Viktor told me that he overheard Marv telling Director Hartsfield that one of the police officers told him you put quite the beating on poor ol’ Melanie.”

  Sam let out a satisfied sigh. “Ah, you should have seen it, Xander. She wilted like a flower in a drought. It was embarrassing really.”

  “I wish I could have seen it.” Xander laughed.

  “Speaking of beatings, Kyle managed to tell me Khatib beat your ass out there on that boat.” Sam laughed.

  Xander laughed and nodded. “Oh, is that what Kyle told you? Who’s the dead man? Answer me that.”

  “Tough terrorist bloke, huh?”

  “Right up until I put a bullet in his forehead.”

  The two of them sat back and let a wave of exhaustion flow over them.

  “Sam, what the hell is wrong with us?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Xander clasped his hands behind the back of his head. “What kind of people constantly run toward danger instead of away from it?”

  “Real morons, I assure you.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” Sam confirmed.

  “Yeah,” Xander agreed.

  “But—” Sam stood as Kyle’s nurse entered the waiting room. Xander stood with her. “We may be complete morons, but at least we don’t run from who we
really are.”

  Xander nodded, but as the nurse told them that Kyle was awake and they could go in and see him, Xander realized that the conversation he was about to have with all of them couldn’t contradict that sentiment more.

  52

  It’s All Over but the Crying

  Xander and the team walked into Kyle’s hospital room to find him sitting up with a smile on his battered face. Xander would never be able to express how much he loved that crazy son of a bitch. You just couldn’t keep his spirits down. But Xander thought he’d give it a shot.

  “You wouldn’t be smiling like that if you knew what your face looked like.” Xander and everyone else, including Kyle, had a laugh at his expense.

  “Ha, ha. I still saved your ass by nailing that guy coming up behind you on that boat.”

  Xander walked over and gave Kyle a hug. “That you did.” He decided to let Kyle have the moment. He would of course tell Sam as soon as he could about the whole “Yahtzee” thing. It was too good not to share.

  Kyle said, “Thanks you guys, for hanging around. You didn’t have to do that.”

  Zhanna spoke up as she pointed to the casts on Kyle’s arm and leg. “This might cramp playboy style for a little bit, no?”

  Kyle smiled. “Oh, I see how it is. Zhanna does have a sense of humor. And you mean these?” Kyle furrowed his brow and scoffed as he looked down at the casts. “These, I assure you, will only help.”

  They all laughed. Jack tipped his cowboy hat. “Kyle, you got more lead in that pencil than a Number 2 factory. I swear, I ain’t seen nothin’ like it.”

  Viktor laughed. “Maybe Kyle and Viktor look for women together in Kentucky. I heard it is land of beautiful women and fast horses.”

  Xander laughed. “I agree, Viktor, the two of you should definitely look for women together, but you’ve got the saying backward. Kentucky is the land of fast women and beautiful horses.”

  Viktor really liked that one. After the laughter died off, Sam spoke up before Xander had the chance to say what was on his mind.