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.

was the one who'd put that very look on

the silence anymore. I

Anything.

I said quietly, not daring to look at her. My eyes stayed glued to the road ahead, my voice low, as if saying

head snapping toward me, and I could feel her gaze burning into the side of my face. "What? I mean, how?" Her voice was shaking, and I could hear the confusion in

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 you

probably seemed that way with how I had acted last

the real fucking monster here, and yet why could I see the guilt all over her face as though it

was quiet 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

she was a curse,

my jaw, fighting the urge to yell, to tell her she was wrong, but I didn't. I had no right to

own issues. That's nothing to do with you. But..." I hesitated, knowing what I was about to say wasn't going to be

me. She should have told me. I needed her

wanted to keep her

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

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 what I didn't know was that your stress all linked back to contacting my

hit me hard next, pausing any and all thoughts

I say to

start, but nothing else comes after that, I was truly at a loss for words as I stared

you just tell me?!" She demands to know, her emotions taking their toll now since this very matter had been well overdue

up the quiet road and in to my driveway, I put the car in to park and took a second to think... allowing my head to bury in to

it over in my head a thousand times, thinking through all the things I would say when we

heavy

owed her an explanation for why I had chose to reach out to the one person she feared

I was now fucking terrified of

forcing myself to face her on this. She was staring out the window, tears glistening in

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

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

intentionally, but the same fact still remained - I should have discussed it with her from the very