Free Xavier: (Indestructible) by D.M. Mortier

outer skin. I really hate being shot.
    “Get back in that damn car,” Xavier muttered as Cassandra
started toward him. Xavier dragged Nado behind him and advanced on the stunned
young shooter.
    “What the hell…” the young man started, his eyes opened wide in
fright. A bullet to the stomach should have brought Xavier to the ground. The
young man turned to run.
    Xavier shot him in the hand that held the gun and then in both
legs. The young man crashed to the cobblestoned ground.
    Three other gunmen raised their guns. Xavier pivoted swiftly
and disarmed them with rapid, precision shots to their gun arms. Damn the
lengths I would go to not kill anyone in front of her. These bastards are lucky
Cass is here and I can’t afford to show her what a barbarian I am.
    Xavier bent his head and spoke directly into Nado’s ear.
“Leonardo, if I even smell your fat ass near Cassandra or her family, I’m going
to come back here. And I wouldn’t stop with a few harmless wounds. Do you
understand what I’m telling you?”
    Nado nodded vigorously.
    Xavier dragged Nado toward the SUV again. Before climbing into
the driver’s seat, Xavier pushed Nado hard to the ground. He climbed in, turned
the ignition, and sped out of the neighborhood.
    “I thought that guy shot at you?” Cassandra asked him.
    “He did, but he missed,” Xavier lied smoothly. It’s
fortunate that I’m wearing a black shirt. She can’t see the blood splattered
over the front of it and even now pouring from my wound.
     
     
    Cassandra turned and looked to the back seat of the vehicle at
her battered brother and wanted to weep for him. He looked shell-shocked, as if
he’d lost something tonight. Cassandra was pissed because she had done
everything she could to spare him this.
    Xavier drove the SUV silently.
    The atmosphere in the car was part shock, part relief, and many
parts anger. Well, I’m angry dammit! Cameron shouldn’t have been in that
situation. Those bastard brothers of mine need their asses kicked.
    “Cameron, what the hell were you thinking?” Cassandra asked through
clenched teeth.
    “I just wanted to see how the guys did their business,” Cameron
said softly, gazing out the window at the passing scenery instead of looking at
her.
    “So you want to become a drug dealer? Wow, never thought you
would take the lazy way out.”
    “Man, it wasn’t supposed to go down like that. It was a simple
drop. Nothing major or dangerous, only a few ounces,” Cameron complained. “They
said Nado is usually an easy mark; he never checks his purchase from them. So
Duane thought we could give him some not so authentic coke. But Linc, with his
suspicious ass, checked the quality before they left. Nado got pissed and said
that they would hold onto me until the guys came back with decent shit. The
guys don’t have anything at home. They’re expecting a major shipment in next
week though. Nado decided to keep me anyway and said that the longer the guys
took to come back, the more injuries they would inflict on me.” Cameron slumped
back in his seat, his eyes wet and red as if he was on the verge of crying.
    “What did they do to you?”
    “Nothing, sis. Nothing I can’t handle,” he mumbled. “They
didn’t have time to do much. You came before they could do what they wanted to.”
    “I saw how Linc was looking at you. Did he hurt you?”
    “That sissy mudderfucker didn’t have time.”
    Cassandra let out the breath that she had been holding. “I
really hate sissies. I like gays just fine, but sissies, I can’t stand them.”
    “What the hell is the difference?” Xavier asked in surprise.
    Cassandra grinned at his confusion. “Gays own their shit. They
like members of the same sex, and they are up front with that. They live their
truth. I can respect that. However, sissies are a brunch of deceitful bastards.
They live a lie, pretending to be heterosexual while secretly having a
homosexual lifestyle behind closed doors.”
    Xavier roared with