CHAPTER 179

DARLENE

The car ride back to the McKenzie manor had been quiet and stiff. I stared out the window, my eyes raking over the blurred spine of trees as they whizzed past in my vision.

Alexander’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel as he sped through the highway, making me pause on a long, drawn-out inhale as I resisted the urge to tell him to slow down.

I didn't trust myself to speak past the burning in my throat, and I couldn't bare the way his eyes seemed to burn a hole into my head as he stared at me through the rearview mirror.

”How’s your brother doing these days Xade? Same old?” Dennis cut in suddenly, breaking the awkward silence so that I cringed, shaking my head at him when his copper-red shock of hair turned to look back at me.

Alexander ignored him, his eyes narrowed at the road that seemed to be stretching on for hours.

I let my eyes wander over the chiseled line of his side profile, feeling something stir between my legs as I took in the wash of his obsidian hair, the