Xavier: (Indestructible) (14 page)

“No, I feel it too,” Neo said softly. “I can’t see how this
dude poses a threat though. No one knew you would be trying to leave the
island.”

“Yeah.” Xavier narrowed his eyes. “We don’t have time for this.
I’ll call you once we land.”

“I’ll get Cassandra’s documents from her home and send them to
you once this storm passes,” Neo promised.

“Thanks, man,” Xavier told him, grabbing him in bear hug.

Despite the scowl on Xavier’s face, Cassandra hugged Neo as
well.

Xavier boarded the jet behind Cassandra. They fastened their
seatbelts as the pilot started down the runway. He could feel the wind pushing
hard against the small aircraft, but the pilot determinately ploughed through
and got the plane airborne. The aircraft shook violently with sickening
instability. Xavier started to question his decision to take Cassandra on an
airplane in this severe weather. As a child, he had been through a number of
hurricanes in Miami. He knew better than to travel anywhere in a Category 1
hurricane. He held Cassandra’s hands as she bent her head, closed her eyes, and
whispered a prayer for their safety. As the plane climbed higher, the pockets
of turbulence grew less and less as they topped the clouds.

However, ten minutes into the flight, the pilot started to
descend out of the clouds again. It was only a few minutes after seven p.m., so
Xavier could still clearly see the ocean under the aircraft with an approaching
landmass in the distance. “Why are we descending?” Xavier shouted to the pilot,
trying to be heard above the noise in the cabin.

“It takes at least thirty minutes to get to Grand Bahama,”
Cassandra said. She frowned in confusion.

The pilot ignored them both and then did something neither of
them anticipated. He suddenly got up from his seat and took off a bulky jacket
he had been wearing. He had what looked like a parachute strapped to his back.
Xavier reached for his gun, but the pilot shot him with three consecutive shots
point blank in the middle of the chest and forehead before he could retrieve
it.

“X,” Cassandra screamed in shock.

Xavier remained stiff in his seat. Initially, the pain from the
gunshot temporarily stunned him.

This gave the pilot the opportunity to riddle the control
console of the plane with bullets, disabling the plane. He then opened the door
of the plane and jumped out before Xavier could rise to his feet.

“Oh my God, X,” Cassandra sobbed as she unclasped her
seatbelt and started to come toward him. The plane nosedived violently. The wind
from the open door pushed her back and pinned her to her seat.

“I’m fine, Cass. Keep your seatbelt on.” Xavier’s shirt was
soaked with his blood, and the thick liquid leaked into his eyes, obscuring his
vision. He was grateful that he wore a black T-shirt so Cassandra wouldn’t be
able to see the extent of the injury to his body. There was nothing he could do
with the wound to his head.

Xavier sprang into action and launched toward the opened door
of the aircraft. With brute strength, he pulled the door of the plane closed.
“Sit tight, Cass,” he shouted as he climbed into the pilot’s seat.

“When I see that bastard again, I’m going to kick his ass,”
Cassandra foamed.

Xavier only grunted, impressed that she wasn’t freaking out and
assumed that he would get her out of this alive. It took him only seconds to
note that not only were they too close to the ground for him to do much about their
descent but also that the aircraft was not operational. He had only one option.

The forest trees below were rising quickly to meet them. He
only had sufficient time to launch himself toward her. He unbuckled her
seatbelt, folded her against him and tried to drape his body all over her. Trembling
violently, she wrapped her arms around him. He held her tightly against his
hard body, shielding her from the imminent impact.

Xavier had no idea if they would survive this. He held her gaze
and whispered urgently, “I love you.”

“I…” He knew what she would say, but the plane crashed through
the trees.

Cassandra screamed into his chest and then passed out on
impact.

He shielded her as best he could. The impact was brutal and
loud. Excruciating pain exploded throughout his body as the plane split apart,
the jarring sound of metal being ripped apart filling the air around them. His
skin was cut to ribbons. Almost every inch of him was cut or bruised. He determinately
held her, being her armor against the tree branches, the metal of the aircraft,
and then against the hard ground. He absorbed all of it. He was barely
conscious of rolling them both out of the wreckage, knowing that he had only seconds
before the plane ignited in flames. Everything then went blank.

Cassandra woke up disoriented, initially wondering why she was
lying outside on the hard ground. There was barely any light left in the
cluster of trees. It had to be barely eight p.m. Still confused, she turned her
head and saw Xavier lying beside her. He was unconscious and covered in blood.
It all came back to her in a mad rush.

She covered her mouth to stifle the scream that rose up in her
throat. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. She was also bloodied, but she
was puzzled. Not only did she not have any broken bones she barely had any cuts
on her.

They were both several yards away from the plane, which looked as
if it had caught fire and was still burning. The bushes around them were also
on fire, and the flames were growing larger.
How did we escape that?

“X,” she whispered urgently and shook his shoulder. She pulled
her hand away. Her fingers were wet and red with blood. He wasn’t moving, and
there was no apparent air expanding in his lungs. “Xavier. Oh God.” Her voice
cracked to barely above a whisper. She refused to belief that he was dead.

“Xavier, wake up.” She sobbed, shaking his shoulder to try to wake
him. “Xavier, sweetheart, please wake up.” Tears poured down her cheek and
splashed on his face. “Baby, I can’t do this without you. You have to be
asleep. God, please let him be asleep.”

The fire was expanding fast in the densely vegetated pine
forest. The flames around her were growing, as the wind seemed to grow fiercer.
They had to move or risk being engulfed.

Cassandra determinedly wiped the tears from her eyes, got to
her feet, and grabbed Xavier’s hands. She started dragging him along the forest
floor. He was so big and heavy she could barely move him. Her tears were
flowing more earnestly now as she despaired that she wouldn’t be able to save
him. She fell on her ass numerous times in her attempts at dragging her over-two-hundred-pound
burden.
After surviving a plane crash, I can’t let us die in the damn fire!
She
had never felt such heat on her skin. It was as if she was being slowly roasted
alive.

“Oh sweet Jesus, please help us,” she whispered. With renewed
determination, she got to her feet again, angrily wiped the tears from her eyes,
and grunted and groaned with dogged strength to pull Xavier away from the
flames. It was getting dark, and she was concerned about trying to navigate the
forest without adequate light.

She had pulled Xavier almost a half a mile, but still the
flames were spreading too fast. This time, when she fell on her butt, she
looked around trying to determine which direction the wind was blowing. She
knew that, given the amount of time they had been in the air, they were likely
on Andros Island, which had one of the most dangerous forests in the Bahamas.
She climbed to her feet again, but before she could start her laborious journey,
Xavier groaned.

Her heart exploded with joy. She fell on her knees beside him.
“X?”

Xavier opened his eyes and gazed directly at her.

Cassandra couldn’t contain herself. She was awash with such euphoria
that she fell on him, wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, and kissed him
with complete abandonment. At first he was rigid in her arms, still
disoriented, but then he slanted his lips over hers, returning her passionate
kiss.

The heat of the fire bit into their skin, effectively ending
the brief intimate interlude. Xavier raised his head, and his eyes widened as
he took in the size of the flames around them. He sprang to his feet, grabbed
her hand, and started to run through the thick foliage.

“X, please stop!”

“We have to get out of here,” he shouted, pulling her along as
he continued to run.

“X! Wait!” She tried desperately to pull away from him.

“Babe, we can talk later.” Without breaking stride, he picked
her up and threw her over his shoulder.

“X, stop! There are blue holes in these forests!”

“Blue what?”

“Blue holes. They are oceans in the middle of the forest.”

Xavier stopped abruptly. “What are you talking about?” He
stared down at her in confusion.

The wind whipped around them, sending heat and smoke toward
them. It was becoming difficult to breathe and almost impossible to see.

“I don’t have time to explain now, but we have to be careful
running through the forest. There are these huge vertical caves in the ground
that are filled with water. We can barely see two feet in front of us. We have
to tread carefully before we fall in one of them.”

“Okay,” Xavier agreed. “Let’s go.” He grabbed her hand and
started running again, but a little more slowly. They were running for about
five minutes before bursting through the tall pine trees and coming upon a
clearing of low shrubs.

Cassandra again stopped suddenly, forcing Xavier to stop as
well.

“What is it?” he asked her.

“There is some sand on the ground, and I think that’s poison
ivy in front of us.”

“So?”

“Most blue holes are surrounded by poison ivy.” She grabbed his
hand and started moving in another direction cautiously. They had barely moved
a yard before a mass of darkness with no shrubs or trees expanded before them.
“This is a blue hole,” Cassandra whispered. “It’s a bottomless mass of black
water that leads out to the middle of the ocean.” She looked behind them to the
blaze of fire and then to the space of nothingness in front.

“Come.” Xavier carefully skirted around the huge hole of water.

They stumbled upon a dirt road a few minutes later and ran
along the road for another ten minutes. It was a good thing that they were so
fit. Otherwise, Cassandra was convinced they would have never made it out of
that forest alive. However, they did survive and soon found themselves on a
large paved road.

There were a number of vehicles parked on the side of the road
with numerous people milling about. They had obviously come to investigate the
fire. Several people moved toward them as they stumbled onto the road.

“Hey, you okay?’

“Y’all was in dat fire?”

“What happen’? Was dat a plane crash?”

“Where y’all come from?”

Questions were being hurled at them, but she and Xavier had
their hands on their knees trying to recapture their breath. They had inhaled
too much smoke while running to safety.

Two police officers approached them. “Please come with us. We
have a few questions for you.”

She and Xavier climbed into the back of the police car,
offering no resistance or protest. Xavier held her hand and squeezed it.

Hours later, they were finally allowed to get a hotel room at
the San Andros Hotel. The hotel was across the street from the small airport.
There were few other buildings around. It was almost midnight before they were
settled in their rooms. Luckily, Xavier had his wallet and cell phone in the
back pocket of his jeans. He was able to pay for their lodging. However, that
had been the only thing they had salvaged. Torn and bloodied, even the clothes
they wore were permanently damaged.

Cassandra sat on the bed dressed in an oversized T-shirt Xavier
had purchased from the hotel’s gift shop, which the manager had opened for them
when they checked in. They had been able to get a few other provisions— a dress
for her and a shirt and shorts for Xavier as well. He washed his jeans and hung
them to dry.

Everyone had been extremely nice to them. The story of how they
survived was met with incredulous stares, as neither she nor Xavier had been
able to give a plausible explanation of how they’d walked away from a plane
crash with only minor scratches. In Xavier’s case, despite the blood, there
were no obvious wounds. As far as she was aware, they had both been unconscious
at the point of impact, so there wasn’t much she could add to clarify their
story. When Xavier omitted the mention of their pilot’s defection, she went
along with it.

Xavier had a hell of a time trying to convince the local police
to not call in the fact that they had survived the crash. Xavier wanted to be
able to return to Nassau after the storm without Qin, or whoever had paid the
pilot to kill them, knowing that they had survived.

Xavier exited their tiny bathroom with just a towel around his
waist.

Cassandra was helplessly mesmerized by his tall, sculptured
physique.
My God, I will never get tired of looking at him. He is truly
beautiful. His tattooed muscular biceps, massive chest, chiseled stomach, lean
waist… Wait, didn’t he get shot in the chest several times a few hours ago? And
what about that bullet wounds to his head?

“X, were you wearing a bulletproof vest today?” Cassandra
frowned at him, starting to doubt her own recollection of events.
Didn’t the
pilot shoot him?
“I thought you got shot in the chest.”

Xavier stilled in the center of the room.

“And what about the shot to your head? Did I imagine that?”

Xavier stared at her for a long minute.

“X?” Her heart started beating fast, even though she had no
idea what he was going to say. She felt it in her bones that what he had to say
would be monumental and would forever change their life.

A knock sounded at the door.

Xavier moved toward her and pulled the duvet on the bed over
her bare legs. He cupped her cheeks in his rough palm and held her gaze.
“Remember that I love you,” he told her tenderly before he kissed her forehead
and stood to go open the room door.

What was he going to tell me? How could I have imagined him
being shot? I must have imagined it, right? Otherwise, what is the alternative?

The hotel was more like a motel with all rooms on a one-story
structure shaped like a U, so the door of each room led to an outside
courtyard. The knock came again.

Xavier opened the door, and the hotel manager stood there with
two other men. The men did their best to try to look into the bedroom behind
Xavier’s big frame. Xavier stepped out of the room and closed the door behind
him, effectively eliminating their ability to stare at her.

Cassandra had no idea why her appearance was causing such a stir
among the men on the island. She tried to listen to their conversation but could
hear only the muffled sound of their voices.

Xavier re-entered the room a few minutes later with a tray of
food in his hand.

“What’s going on?” Cassandra asked him.

“They came to tell me that they will be boarding up the windows
of this room. Apparently, the storm has changed directions and has strengthened
to a Category 3 hurricane.”

“What? That’s not good. We could be here for days!”

Seconds later they heard the loud sound of hammering as the men
installed plywood over the various windows of the building.

Xavier walked deeper into the room and placed the tray on a
table in the room.

Cassandra was shocked at how hungry she was. Her stomach
growled loudly as the scent filled the room, reminding her that they hadn’t
eaten since lunchtime. She sprang from the bed and eagerly removed the chrome
coverings from their plates. There were four huge plates heaped with fried
chicken, French fries, steamed vegetables, and a plate of salad with
vinaigrette dressing. Cassandra piled food on two plates and offered Xavier one
of them. He sat in the only armchair in the room while she sat in the middle of
the bed and dug into the delicious food.

The room was quiet except for the scrap of the fork on their
plates and the sound of their hungry consumption of their meal.
I know I’m being
a coward. I just don’t want to know.