Shadows In Durango

Chapter 123

*****Vincent's POV*****

The silence in the car was killing me.

I kept my eyes locked on the road, gripping the steering wheel so hard that my knuckles pulsed around the leather.

The tension between us was thick, almost suffocating, and I figured that it wouldn't have been so severe since we had both spent some time apart...

But boy was I wrong!

I could feel her growing antsy beside me, fidgeting, probably lost in her own worried thoughts, and all I could think about was how badly I'd screwed this all up from start to finish.

I knew that I couldn't avoid this conversation any longer, but damn, I still wasn't as ready for it as I thought I would be.

Not even close.

There was a million things to say and to talk through, yet all I could give her right now was thickening silence...

She had every right to be angry, every right to hate me for how I had handled things. The way I'd kept her in the dark. The way I'd gone behind her back.

But what the hell was I supposed to do?

Did she expect me to just sit back and watch her get pulled into even more danger? Watch her father finally catch up with her? Watch her get hurt because of me?

I only thought I was helping...

I glanced over at her, just for a second, and saw the tension in her face, her hands twisting nervously in her lap below.

She was hurting like I was over this, probably more.

And I hated it.

one who'd put that

I couldn't take the silence anymore. I

Anything.

My eyes stayed glued to the road ahead, my voice low, as if saying

could feel her gaze burning into the side of my face. "What? I mean, how?" Her voice was shaking, and I could

running a hand back through my hair, trying to figure out how to explain myself. "I don't blame you for what

her for Daryl getting shot at all, but I knew it probably seemed that way

yet why could I see the guilt all over her face as though it was her who had

for a moment to think on my words, and then, almost like she couldn't stop herself, she whispered, "I feel that I'm responsible for all of this. If I hadn't come into your life at all, none of this would've happened to any of you." Her voice cracked, and

believed she was a curse, or some kind of bad luck, hearing it

she was wrong, but I didn't. I had no right to snap at her, not after everything that she's already been

something just thinking about that bastard alone. "He made his own choices, and he hurt people because of his own issues. That's nothing to do with you. But..." I hesitated, knowing what I was about to say wasn't going to be easy for her to hear. "What was to do with you, was

I couldn't pretend like it didn't bother me. She should have told me. I

only wanted to keep

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pause, and when she finally spoke, her voice

I didn't want to selfishly add another problem on top of that... but what I didn't know was that your stress all linked back to contacting my father behind my back... Why didn't you just

hard next, pausing

say to that? She's

but nothing else comes after that, I was truly at a loss for words as I stared ahead and waited for my street

her emotions taking their toll now since

car in to park and took a second to think... allowing my head to bury in to my hands, the weight of this conversation

a thousand times, thinking through all the things I would say when we found her, but now that we were actually here, it was like every word I

this heavy

had chose to reach out to

up majorly, I knew that, but I was now fucking terrified of what might happen once everything was

breath, I raised my head, forcing myself to face her on this. She was staring

she had already been hurt many times before, now hurting because of me, the one she had finally began to

going to manipulate the situation like he did, and the whole arranged marriage thing wasn't mine or my fathers idea, it was all him - believe me!" I begin

of it was malicious, at least not intentionally, but the same fact still remained - I should have discussed it