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.

knowing that I was the one

couldn't take the silence anymore. I

Anything.

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

my eye her head snapping toward me, and I could feel her gaze burning into the side of my face. "What? I mean, how?" Her

a hand back through my hair, trying to figure out how to explain myself. "I don't blame you for what happened to Daryl. I'm angry, yeah, but not at

wasn't angry at her for Daryl getting shot at all, but I knew it probably seemed that way with how I had acted last night, but

see the guilt all over her face as though

"I feel that I'm responsible for all of this.

she said it, like she really believed she was a curse, or some

urge to yell, to tell her she was wrong, but I didn't. I had no right to snap at

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 not telling me sooner that you knew he was here, in town."

like it didn't bother me. She should have told me. I needed her to tell me. To

wanted to keep her

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long pause, and when she finally spoke, her voice was so small, I almost didn't hear

guilt. "You seemed so stressed and on edge that at the time, I didn't want to selfishly add another problem on top of that... but

me hard next, pausing any

say to

loss for words as I stared ahead and waited for my street to open up

taking their

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

to me, her presence close but distant at the same time. I didn't even know where to start now. I'd run it over in my head a thousand times, thinking through all the things I would say when we found her, but now that

this heavy

owed her an explanation for why I had chose to reach out to the one person she feared most in this world: her

up majorly, I knew that, but I was now fucking terrified

I raised my head, forcing myself to face her on

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

air, I push myself to say: "Sofia I thought I was doing the right thing in order to keep you safe, I didn't know he was 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!"

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