“What’s your room number, Darling?” I asked, scooping her up in my arms, feeling relief at finally feeling her against me.

“Thirteen seventy-two.” She cried into my chest. I picked her up bridal-style, found her room, and got us inside quickly. She was still crying when I walked us to the sofa in the living room. It was a beautiful room with windows from floor to ceiling.

“Jane, I’m so sorry you had to go through this alone.” I sat down, still holding her.

“I wish we could have been here for you, helping you, and taking care of whatever you needed.”

Jane pulled away, staring at me. “Nathan, what are you doing here?” she asked, again.

“I told you we were worried.”

She held her hand up, and I stopped talking.

“Last time I was there, you guys decided I needed to go home, and what we had wasn’t something that would last a long time.” She looked at my arm in the cast, bringing attention to it. I felt it throbbing.

“What you heard wasn’t the entire story. You walked in … ”

“I know what I heard Nathan, don’t make it seem like I made it all up in my head,” she snapped at me.

“Jane, we wanted you to go back to Dallas for a little while. We wanted to figure out what was going on with Lucio; we were scared something might happen to you.”

“So, you thought if you sent me away that I would happily oblige?” She got up from my lap.

“It was supposed to be a discussion between all of us when I got back from the hospital.” I tried to stay calm, but my nerves were feeling like this was going badly and we might not get out of it.

Jane stared at me like she was trying to decide if I was telling her the truth.

“On our way home from the fight, we talked about it because Lucio was fucking crazy after Cal lost his fight. He threatened Cal and said if he lost again, he would show him real pain. We all worried he would go after you and we wanted you out of harm’s way, at least until we could figure what the hell was going on with Lucio,” I said, pleading and hoping that she believed me.

“That still doesn’t explain why Callum said we were only temporary.” I could see her resolve crumbling.

“Cal was afraid. Cal needs to explain that to you because as much as I understand him, and know why he said that, you guys need to have that conversation.”