“When you’re nice to me, something’s always up.”

Gray blew out a breath, and Aidan’s bad feeling deepened. “Mom?”

“No, she’s fine.”

Aidan gave him an impatient go-ahead gesture.

“It’s Dad,” Gray said. “He finally caught up with some of Hudson’s messages and called me back instead of him.”

Aidan stared at his brother’s profile, totally and instantly pissed off for Hudson’s sake. “What the hell did he call you for?”

“Because he’s an asshole who doesn’t want to acknowledge Hud and Jacob exist.”

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

“Hey, I agree, but it doesn’t change the fact that he called me. He wanted to tell me why he wasn’t coming back. Ever.”

Aidan didn’t show his relief, but he was glad he was sitting down.

“Don’t you want to know why?” Gray asked.

“Don’t give a shit, as long as he stays away.”

Gray slid him a look that had Aidan’s feeling going from bad to worse.

“So you’re telling me you don’t care that you are the reason why he doesn’t want to come back or be a part of our lives?”

Fuck. “Pull over.”

“I’m—”

“Pull the fuck over,” Aidan snapped.

Gray yanked the truck to the side of the road. For as far as the eye could see there was the narrow two-lane road and trees. Miles and miles of trees. Aidan shoved out of the vehicle and started walking.

“Where the hell are you going?” Gray yelled after him.

Aidan kept moving.

“Goddammit.” This was followed by the sounds of Gray’s running footsteps as he tried to keep up with Aidan.

“You should’ve told me,” Gray said breathlessly. “Back when it happened.”

Aidan shook his head and kept moving. No, he couldn’t have told Gray when it happened. And they weren’t going to talk about it now either.

But Gray finally caught up with him and grabbed his arm, whipping him around. “He told me you caught him,” Gray said, his hair blowing away from his face in the breeze. His eyes went hard. “And he also told me what happened after that.”

Aidan doubted that. “No. No way he’d tell you.”

“You’d walked in on him and his admin going at it at the resort. You tried to run out, but he wouldn’t let you.” Gray’s voice was low and dangerously quiet now, the way it got when he was really seriously ticked off and trying to keep his shit together. “He said that he got so furious and pissed off that he beat the shit out of you and then drank himself into a stupor and passed out. When he woke up you were gone.”

Aidan tipped his head back and stared at the sky. Azure blue. So bright it hurt. He kept staring at it.