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CHAPTER FOUR
Clay paced back and forth across the floor of the penthouse suite the team had rented as soon as they’d located Indi—aka Judas Iscariot. What. The. Fuck? Sure, he’d betrayed the team by ghosting them when it should have been a time for everybody to pull together and lean on each other. His betrayal had been bitter but to change his name to Judas Iscariot? Fucked in the head, much? Even worse, did Indigo feel like the team had betrayed him?
Susannah, aka Lydia, the team member that had been chosen to work hand-in-hand, cash under the table, with Indi’s escort service, had to be mistaken—no way was Indi asking for Travis to come back for another session. Remembering the fury over seeing him put himself smack in the middle of danger right before the last time they’d been together might be more than Clay could control when they were once again face to face. He would be torn between wanting to whip his ass until he couldn’t sit for a week or fuck him hard enough that he couldn’t sit for two weeks…or both.
Indigo Banks had been a thorn in Clay’s side since the first day he joined the team which didn’t make sense because Indi had every quality needed to fit in with the rest of the group. He was smart—almost genius smart. He was a smartass—Clay loved that part. He could shoot a mark at twenty-six hundred yards without blinking an eye. He was a bit smaller than the rest of the team but made up for any strength shortcomings with extraordinary speed. He got along well with the rest of the team. He could kill, without hesitation, if it called for it…but would agonize over it later.
Yet, Clay disliked him from the beginning. He treated him worse than the other guys. Rode him harder about each and every detail. Demanded more. Expected more.
Protected him more.
Yep, to the point where Clay was falling down on his job because he was too damn busy making sure Indi stayed safe. Now, if Indi had been a woman, Clay would have immediately known what the problem was—lust or attraction…or maybe even more. Indi wasn’t a woman, though. He was all man, through and through. Not Clay’s thing.
So, Clay disliked him even more—somehow blamed Indi for whatever the fuck Clay was feeling. He was like a puppy, though. He just kept coming back for more. No matter how Clay treated him, Indi took it and worked to improve on whatever imaginary flaw Clay had found to bitch about that particular day.
Then, he’d gotten hurt. Badly. It was a freak accident that was too freaky to really be a freak accident. There was more to what happened on that fateful mission, but before Clay had time to begin digging into the facts, Indi had disappeared. Ghosted the entire team. Well, except for Sky. The team had sent his drug-sniffing, bomb-locating, man-killing military dog to be trained as a service dog once they accepted Indi’s sight was lost forever. Thank fuck his pride hadn’t kept him from taking Sky.
When Indi first disappeared, Clay agonized over not knowing where one of his team was, how he was surviving or if he needed them. Flashes of memories began to haunt him. The times that he’d noticed how full Indi’s lips were…how the perfect shape accented the plumpness. How Clay’s eyes would immediately hunt Indi out when he entered a room. Even worse, how Clay would make up ridiculous delays to either his training or Indi’s training to ensure they were both in the showers at the same time. He’d lied to himself the entire time, convincing himself that he simply didn’t trust the guy, but trust had not one damn thing to do with the fact that Clay always noticed the curve of Indi’s ass, watched the soapy water trickle from the top of his body to the soles of his feet…eyed his cock and balls. His balls would bounce with movement while his long cock hung between his legs.
There was still no convincing Clay, though. He fought the images and then tried to justify them with some crazy-ass excuse or reason. He tried to fuck the images from his head by bedding every available woman, and there were many. He wasn’t gay—didn’t look at any of the other guys like he had Indi. None. Not. One. Guy. He finally compartmentalized all the questions and focused his team on finding Indigo. You could walk away from them, but nobody got the chance to run from their self-made family…at least not until they confirmed they were safe. Indi was currently the opposite of safe.
“Hey, hot stuff! Better hit the shower and shave off that chest hair that was starting to grow back,” Lydia teased. “No time for your regular waxing appointment. Our beloved Judas is demanding you and won’t even discuss taking another escort in your place.”
