His mom sighed. “Give Hudson a kiss for me, okay? Tell him I sent his mama a box of her favorite candies and some of that tea she loves. I hope the ladies at her home make sure she gets it.”

Aidan softened and glanced at Hudson again, whose expression was inscrutable now. It always was when it came to his mom, or anything to do with his past.

If Aidan and Gray thought they’d had a rough childhood, Hudson and Jacob’s past made theirs look like a walk in the park. They’d grown up alone with their mother, who suffered from mental illness. She was on meds now and in special-needs housing, safe at least. “That’s nice of you, Mom,” he said. “So now that that’s out of the way and all is well with my pores, we’re going to have a truce, right?”

“Hmm,” she said. “I’ll consider it. Love you, baby.” She disconnected.

Aidan stared at the phone. “Shit. We’re not going to have a truce.”

“Nope,” Hudson agreed and took another long pull of his beer.

Aidan shook his head. “Can you imagine if she ever decided to use her powers for good? She’d obtain world peace in a few hours.”

“There’s no doubt,” Hudson said.

The bartender came over. Shelly again. “Another one, handsome?” she asked Hudson, completely ignoring Aidan.

“Yeah,” Hudson said with a warm smile. “Thanks, Shel.”

“Suck-up,” Aidan muttered to him beneath his breath.

Shelly graced Aidan with a long look. “Huh. Didn’t figure you for the chemical peel type. Your skin looks annoyingly perfect.”

Hudson grinned. “He just had a facial.”

Aidan gave him a shove that nearly knocked him off his barstool.

Hud winked at Shelly. “He’s had a rough day at the salon. Think you can bring him a beer?”

“Sure,” she said sweetly.

“And you won’t … do anything to it?” Aidan asked.

She smiled. “Of course not.”

Uh-huh. “So you’re not mad at me anymore?”

“Oh, I’m still mad. But the boss is here tonight.” She nodded her head to the tall, dark, and tough guy at the other end of the bar. Mason. He and Aidan went way back. Mason ran a tight ship and had an extremely low tolerance for bullshit.

Shelly moved off and Aidan turned to Hudson. “So what’s up?”

“Besides your skin resembling a newborn’s ass?” Hudson grinned but it faded quick. “I did some digging.”

“And what did you dig up?”

“Jacob.”

Everything inside Aidan stilled as he tried to read into Hud’s flat voice, but Hud was good at not giving anything away when he didn’t want to.