Xavier: (Indestructible) (3 page)

Xavier tucked his gun in the waistband at the back of his
jeans, pulled the hoodie over his head, and silently melted into the night. The
car license of the Honda Civic had been etched in his memory.

Xavier stood under the hibiscus tree across the street from
the basketball court. His obsession over Cassandra Kelly had gone to a whole new
level. He had spent the last three weeks basically stalking her every movement.
It had started at first with him trying to ensure she was safe from her violent
brothers. However, whatever leverage she had over them was solid, and they
didn’t dare hurt her. She definitely had them by the short hairs.

She left the house in Yamacraw every morning around five a.m.
for a run to Fox Hill Road and back again. Driving the same Honda Civic, at eight
thirty a.m., she left the house again, dressed in colorful sports gear to go to
work at the sporting goods store in Harbor Bay. At one p.m., she crossed the
parking lot to the food store, purchased a two-liter bottle of Gatorade, two
granola bars, and two bananas. She left the sporting goods store at exactly four
p.m. and drove to the basketball court at the foot of the Sir Sidney Poitier
Bridge. A male coach worked out with her for an hour, and then she met up with
her brother Cameron and a few of his friends. They played basketball for hours,
pitting their skills against each other in teams and in one-on-one contests.
After they were done around seven p.m., she sometimes ran the two bridges, the
new bridge going over Paradise Island and the old bridge leaving the island.
Exhausted and dripping with sweat, she drove home to Yamacraw.

Yeah. I noticed all of that about her. I did say that I’m an
obsessed mudderfucker!

Xavier had watched her maintain the same regiment for the last
three weeks. He was in awe of her discipline and dedication to her sport. He
loved watching her move about the basketball court. It was something he could
easily appreciate even when she wasn’t playing basketball. Because of her
prowess on the basketball court, it was easy to see why she moved with such
innate grace.

She was also being watched. Someone was sending men to watch
her. He had spotted the men the first night he had seen her confrontation with
her brothers. It was interesting that the men who watched her had not tried to
stop her brothers’ abuse. Xavier stayed well out of their line of sight after
that. He watched as they dogged her every step. Fortunately for Cassandra, she
was never stationary long enough for them to act upon whatever plan they had
for her. However, three days ago, they had made a move to grab her while she
jogged. He had revealed himself by pretending to be a normal jogger, forcing
them to pull back. The emotion that had engulfed him at the thought of harm
coming to her had surprised and alarmed him. Never before had he felt so
strongly about a woman. Lust he understood, but this other emotion wrapped in
such choking vulnerability paralyzed him.
I don’t fucking like it, but it
doesn’t look like I have much of a choice. I’m hooked.

Ever since that day, he had no longer remained invisible to the
men following her, letting them know that they would have to go through him to
get to her. He couldn’t afford to have them harm her. They continued their
watch and so did he.

Today Xavier pushed off the tree he was leaning against as a
new group of young men joined Cassandra’s usual group of opponents. At first
the game progressed as usual, with Cassandra and her crew taking on this new
group. As point guard, Cassandra was quick, agile, and exceptionally skillful.
Her dribbling dexterity in front, on the side, behind the back, and through the
legs was completely obliterating their opponents. And, with her usual cocky
demeanor, Cassandra taunted and teased her male defensive guard.

“Come on, Kenny, can’t you stop me?” Cassandra dribbled the
ball toward him and then, at the last second, dribbled the ball behind her back
out of his reach.

“I can take you, bitch,” Kenny growled. “I’m just playing with
you, little girl. When I’m done with you, you’ll be on your knees, where you
belong.”

“Ah, a misogynist.” Cassandra laughed gleefully, and after a
particularly smooth between-the-legs dribble, step fake forward, and a quick
side step, she drilled a three-point shot over the head of an astonished Kenny for
the fifth time.

Everyone hooted with laughter. Even Kenny’s teammates
appreciated her flawless accuracy. Kenny wasn’t so magnanimous. On the very
next possession, with a clothesline move to rival any professional wrestler, Kenny
slammed Cassandra to the hard asphalt ground.

What the fuck?
Xavier sprinted across the road, ignoring
the forty-mile-per-hour on-coming traffic, weaving between cars to get to the
court. His muscles churned, and his head buzzed with angry intent to beat the shit
out of the bastard for hurting her. But by the time he reached the perimeter of
the court, Cassandra was already on her feet and charging toward Kenny. Cameron
quickly grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back.

“I’m going to kick your ass, you big douche,” she yelled.

“Cass, calm the hell down,” Cameron shouted.

“Shit,” Cassandra said softly as her knees buckled and she
passed out against her brother.

Xavier roared, no longer rational as he advanced on Kenny.
My
Cassandra is hurt!
With the vision of her fainting helpless against her
brother etched in his mind, he went berserk. Kenny’s eyes bugged out as Xavier
picked him up with one hand around his throat and lifted him high in the air
before bending his knees and slamming Kenny hard into the asphalt. Xavier smashed
a massive fist into Kenny’s face, causing blood to gush from his nose.

“Hey!” men shouted around him.

Xavier felt male hands pulling on him, trying to restrain him
from pounding the bastard into the ground. In cold fury he ignored all of them
and lifted his fist to pummel the bloodied face again and again. And then soft
feminine hands closed around his bicep.

“Please stop. As much as I appreciate you defending me, I don’t
want you in Fox Hill Prison.” Her warm amber gaze held his captive.

Xavier rose slowly to his feet, unable to look away from her. If
her touch wasn’t paralyzing enough, the sight of her almost sent him on his
ass. She was dazzling up close and in daylight.
It’s a good thing I rarely
speak because I’m sure I would be speechless right now. What the fuck has she
done to me?

“So let me get this straight. I had to get knocked on my ass
before you came over to say hi?” Cassandra grinned with a mischievous glint in
her eyes.

God, say something! I feel like a fucking boy confronted by
his first crush.

“Hi, are you going to speak?”

“Hospital,” Xavier croaked.
I should have killed that piece
of shit. How could he hurt her? She still looks dazed, despite her smile.

“What?” She frowned in confusion.

Xavier cleared his throat, pissed that he was so tongue-tied
around her. “You, hospital,” he choked out again.

Cassandra started shaking her head. “Ah, no, I’m fine.”

Enough! I’m not a damn punk. She will listen to me.
Xavier
looked beyond her to Cameron. “Take her to the hospital,” he demanded.

Cameron opened his eyes wide in astonishment. “Dude?”

Cameron’s wide-eyed alert was enough to let him know that Kenny
had come up behind him. Xavier didn’t need to turn as he drove his foot with a
backward kick into Kenny’s stomach. He had never lost his concentration in the
middle of a fight, but Cassandra had the ability to distract his senses from
everything else around him. He never removed his gaze off her beautiful face. He
couldn’t, and he didn’t want to.

Only by sheer luck did he hear Kenny wheezing in pain behind him
when Kenny, yet again, tried attacking him. Xavier turned then, pissed that
this idiot was interrupting his visual feast. This time he punched Kenny hard
enough to send him crashing to the ground.

Kenny was now out cold, his face bloodied and almost
unrecognizable.

Cassandra grimaced in pity. “Just goes to show you can’t beat
sense into stupid.”

Xavier felt the slight crack in his face again, and his gaze
returned to her in wonder.

Everyone reassembled, including Cassandra, as if they were
about to continue the game.

Xavier came out of his dazed state in a hurry then and stood in
front of Cassandra, blocking her attempt to dribble the ball.

“Hey, you need to move.” She grinned up at him. “We’re about to
smoke these guys.”

The remembered intoxicating scent of her hit him hard. She
smelt of sweat and pure female, uniquely Cassandra. It made him immediately
think of them writhing around between the sheets having sweaty marathon sex. He
held his breath, afraid to breathe her in. The need to touch her, to taste her,
almost made his eyes cross. “Hospital,” Xavier muttered between clenched teeth.

Cassandra raised an eyebrow and looked him up and down slowly.
“You’re panty-droppin’ beautiful and all, but I don’t take orders from any man.
Thanks for your concern, hon, but as you can see, I’m fine.”

Did she just call me beautiful?
He mentally shook his
head at the absurdity.

Xavier turned and walked over to where she kept her gym bag. He
picked it up from the sidelines and came back toward her.

She looked up at him in astonishment and backed away as he came
closer.

Cassandra gazed in disbelief into the “I’m taking no shit” dark
eyes of her chocolate obsession. She had been thinking about him since he tried
to rescue her three weeks ago. Because of the criminal nature of what her
brothers did, Cassandra had always taken meticulous notice of everything and
everyone around her. Three days ago she had noticed his bulky figure watching
their pickup game in the afternoon. Every day after, she noticed him jogging a
half-mile behind her and caught glimpses of him sitting in the crowded parking
lot outside the store where she worked. Knowing it couldn’t be a matter of courage,
she had been hoping he would come over and eventually ask her out. It never
occurred to her to be afraid of him or his stalker-like behavior. She was just
as fascinated with him as he seemed to be with her. Besides, she knew in her
gut that he was law enforcement. She had no idea which branch, but she was
absolutely certain he was either an American police officer or a soldier. He
reeked of discipline, authority, and danger; she was more than hooked.

Everything about him had fascinated her three weeks ago,
especially his unmistakable masculine strength and his beauty, despite the
scars on his face.
God, his voice alone, that deep baritone, makes my clit
pulse and quiver, sending tingling need flittering in my stomach. Before him, I
didn’t even know my clit could do that tip-tap dance.

A week ago, she had noticed the other men who watched her as
well. They were much more menacing in their intent. She knew who’d ordered them
to do it and wasn’t at all fascinated by the Chinese boss who controlled them.
Whenever
he decides to make his move, I’m ready for his ass. Is this why Xavier is
watching me? Perhaps he isn’t watching me at all but must be here for those
guys. It will only take men like Xavier to bring men like them down.

She couldn’t believe he was serious about her going to the
hospital for that fall on her ass.
I’ve fallen harder than that on the
basketball court before. Those girls in college don’t play! Granted, I’ve never
lost consciousness before, but he doesn’t need to know that.
“Look, big guy,
I’m fine. I don’t need a doctor,” Cassandra insisted as she continued stepping back
away from him.

She had never seen a guy that big move so fast. Before she
could blink, his massive arm circled her waist and pulled her into him.

“Hey! What the hell, man?” Cameron protested.

Cassandra didn’t know if it was from the fall or from him, but
she suddenly felt lightheaded again. Her body melted into the hard contours of
his. His shining onyx gaze drilled into her. He seemed just as dazed as she
was. He went perfectly still. It was as if he was the Rock of Gibraltar. He was
so solid, immobile, staring at her as though he wanted to devour her instead of
taking her to the hospital as he’d been insisting on.

Cassandra licked her suddenly dry lips. And then she did
something that she would swear on any stack of Bibles never happened if anyone
asked: she surrendered to him.
God, he smells divine.
She closed her
eyes in bliss.
What the hell is wrong with me? I’m going to kill Kenny for
making me act like a ninny! I feel weak as a damn kitten.
She then
committed the ultimate sin of placing her head on his broad shoulder in a
helpless swoon.

“Drive her car and follow us to the hospital.” With an arm
under her knees and at her back, her black knight lifted her in his arms.

Cassandra heard his voice as if it was muffled and came from a long
away distance; she was too content to lift her head and investigate what was
going on. His chest rumbled beneath her cheek as he gave her brother further
instructions. Carrying her as if she weighed nothing, he walked to where he had
parked his car across the street. She was only vaguely aware of being hustled
into a dark SUV and driven about one mile along Shirley Street to Doctor’s
Hospital.

Once he was physically separated from her, it was as though her
senses rebooted and came back on line. Being touched by him was like being
zapped by electricity. “This is so unnecessary.” She tried reasoning with him
when some of her equilibrium had been restored. “Have you ever been to this
hospital? Getting in to see a doctor will take forever, and it’s bloody
expensive. Trust me, you’re wasting our time.”

He grunted.

“You’re not much of a conversationalist, are you?” Cassandra
asked impatiently.

“Where do you hurt?” he asked her.

“Damn, he speaks,” she teased. “Look, are you even listening to
me? I’m fine. I’ve been hit to the floor numerous times. I ain’t dead yet.”