Page 17 of Xtasy

Wallace leaned forward on his elbows and massaged his forehead. “Hell, Hawk. None of us feel good about what’s going on with this shitshow. We don’t like that Indigo ghosted all of us when he was injured. We don’t like that he’s now blind, living in a fucking dangerous neighborhood with no protection other than Sky, and we certainly don’t like that Clay waltzed into his house and decided to pretend to be something and somebody he isn’t! I realize that the betrayal knows no bounds here…but I also realize that Clay, the straightest man I’ve ever known before Indigo showed up around here, has gotten in way over his head.”

Hawk jumped to his feet. “Over his head? Over his head, Wallace? He’s pretending to be somebody Indigo doesn’t know and he’s fucking him! I think that’s a bit more than him being in over his head.”

“Wow,” Atlas muttered quietly, shocked by what he’d just heard. He definitely had a hard time believing Hawk would be part of a lie so heartbreaking and potentially humiliating if this Indigo person ever found out the truth. Atlas knew such a betrayal would completely shatter him.Shit. He was sitting on his own potential time bomb at the moment with the whole Hawk and Ambrose situation.

“Wow can’t even begin to cover this clusterfuck, Atlas,” Hawk ranted. “I know I told you we were good guys doing good things, but this one thing is our horror show…and may end up being our undoing.”

“Clay is in love with Indigo, Hawk. I know he is.” Wallace said.

“And you somehow think that makes it better?” Hawk asked in disbelief. “In my opinion, it makes the betrayal even worse.” Throwing up his hands, Hawk added, “And the last time I checked, Clay was straight.”

“Riigghhtt,” Wallace answered. “Just try and have some faith in Clay, Hawk. Trust me, this is driving me nuts, too. I’m worried sick about Indigo’s entire situation, not just what’s going on with Clay. The fact that he could walk away from all of us and try to face this on his own? That shit kills me. I love that kid and you know it. We all do. I don’t know why he left us or if he’ll ever come back. All I know is that I have to try. We have to try.”

Hawk sat back down and took Atlas’ hand. Studied it. Caressed it. Huffed out a breath of frustration that was clearly directed toward Wallace and not Atlas. “Tell me again how we ended up in this shitshow.”

“We had surveillance on Indigo and Sky, keeping a safe distance, giving him time he clearly felt he needed to deal with his injuries, making sure none of those fuckers in the drug infested neighborhood he chose to abandon us for, and, of course, hacking into all his technology…just in case he needed us and wasn’t sure how to reach out.”

“Bullshit,” Hawk muttered but gestured for Wallace to continue anyway.

“One morning, Indigo called for a male escort to come to his house.For sex.” Wallace whispered like there were children in the room.

“I’m certain both Atlas and I know the job description for many male escorts, Wallace—no need to explain it to us. Continue. You’ve yet to convince me that we aren’t the bad guys in this scenario.”

“I know it sounds bad.”

“It is bad. Keep talking.” Hawk requested, squeezing Atlas’ hand and sending him a wink.

“Well…uh…you know…Clay just wasn’t going to have anything to do with a strange man, somebody we knew absolutely nothing about, going into Indigo’s home…much less having sex with him.”

“Because Clay is Indigo’s legal guardian?” Hawk asked sarcastically.

“No, of course not.”

“Because Clay somehow owns Indigo?”

“Stop being such a smartass, Hawk. You didn’t see them together—their chemistry.”

“So, because Clay feels like he needed to protect a man who is trained to killandhas a military-trained police dog, he decided to, let’s say, take one for the team. You know, pretend to be someone he isn’t and fuck Indigo…and took money, I’m certain.”

Wallace frowned. “How could you be certain of that?”

“Because this is a worst case scenario, Wallace! If it’s bad, it has happened on this operation! To our own god damn people!” Hawk clarified. “What the fuck was Clay thinking? What were you thinking?”

“Clay thought he could change his appearance, well at least the parts that Indigo might touch, fake an accent—something we are all good at, dress up real nice, change his cologne, and when it came time for the, you know,act, he planned on not being able to get it up and leave. They’d planned to send a different guy in each time. Nobody was supposed to get, well, fucked.”

Atlas had had about enough. “Everybodygot fucked, Sir. Especially this Indigo man. You should all be ashamed of yourselves!”

Wallace through up his hands. “We are ashamed! All of us, most especially Clay. He just…he couldn’t stop himself when he went in that first night. He’d expected to be turned off and didn’t figure keeping his dick in check would be an issue. As it turned out, Indigo started a fire that Clay hasn’t been able to put out.”

“So, he just keeps going back, stacking one lie on top of the other?” Atlas demanded, but then dropped his head when he realized, while not nearly on the same level, every time he didn’t tell Hawk about the gifts from Ambrose, he was, in a sense, pulling the same deception.

“Stop the visits instantly, Wallace. If Indigo wants a male escort, allow a service to send him one. This stops now. Dear Lord, Indigo may end up killing us all and I wouldn’t be able to raise an arm to defend myself.”

Atlas swiveled his head around to face Hawk. “Youagreed to this?”

Wallace was quick to jump in. “No! Hawk had no idea what was happening, other than we were keeping an eye on Indigo after his injury. He only found out about this when he called me for an update on Indigo’s health progress.” Wallace focused on Hawk. “It has ended, Sir. Indigo fired Clay, aka the fake male escort, weeks ago.”

“Well, I can’t lie and say I’m not happy that Clay got his ass handed to him. That must have been a blow to his ego.” Hawk looked at Atlas and added, “And, trust me, Clay has a huge ego.” Back to Wallace, Hawk said, “What was it? Please tell me Indigo told him he wasn’t any good in bed. At least I'll have something to laugh at when I’m serving my jail time for Clay’s stupidity.”

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