Jane nodded at Nathan; her expression changing from sad to angry to passive.

“It was my fault.” Cal finally spoke up. “I panicked. I was angry, scared, and I felt like I was being backed into a corner. If something had happened to you, Jane...”

“Cal.”

“Lucio is a loose cannon,” Cal interrupted her. “He started out as a loan shark, then fighting rings, and from what I’ve heard, he’s started dealing drugs. I had to take his offer and now I’m tangled in his web. I’m expendable to him. If one day I’m of no use to him, he could make me disappear, and I don’t even want to think of what he might do to you.”

They stared at each other; the moment charging with unsaid words and emotions. Jane looked away first, like whatever went on between them was too much. She looked at Nate and then at me.

“I get why you guys pulled away but… It…” She looked up, clenching her jaw, and a tear slid down her face. “It was awful waking up alone and being shut out was even worse. You know how scared I was? All you had to do was say something. ANYTHING!” She stood up, walking away from us, and turned back around. “Do you think so little of me, that you couldn’t trust me with letting me know what was going on?”

She glared at all of us. For just a second, I felt like I was being scolded, and I pictured her as a dominatrix. Fuck. Not the time to be thinking about this.

“It wasn’t…”

“Don’t give me some bullshit excuse, Callum.” Jane snapped. “You took the easy way out, the coward’s way out.”

Callum looked taken aback by her explosion of emotion.

“We’ve never done this before, Jane,” Nate said, getting Jane’s attention. “We’re sorry that we messed up.”

“We didn’t know what to do, and we chose the wrong path to go down,” I added, hoping to ease her anger even though she had every right to be mad at us.

“I thought if I pushed you away, Lucio wouldn’t take any interest in you. That didn’t matter because he still took an interest in you,” Cal said, standing up, walking slowly to Jane. “Nate said you had enamored him. Aiden sided with me, because we wanted you to be safe. We made a rash decision and I’m sorry. It was all my fault.” He cupped her face. “Please forgive us.”

“It’s not that easy,” she said, pulling his hands away. “I have to go. Thanks for telling me everything.” She turned around, walking away from us, almost getting to the trail before she turned around walking to her backpack. She wiped her face angrily as she picked it up only to have stuff fall out of it.