His Dangerous Ways✔️

Chap. 40 Flying Bullets

River's POV

It all happened so fast.

One minute they were standing there with their guns drawn and the next, Kenneth was on the ground with blood soaking through his clothes.

And Cat's scream, my God. It was the thing of nightmares. It was the kind of scream you hear when you care about someone. The same scream she gave when Mason was shot. It was haunting and baffling seeing that he was the enemy. He was the one who shot her. He was the one who killed Gracie and Bryce. He took her away. But that didn't seem to matter as Cat ran from behind me and toward him, his blood quickly pooling around him and the color quickly draining from his face. He wasn't going to survive this.

"Oh my God, oh my God," Cat whispered, tears already falling down her face as she knelt next to him and pressed her hands to his wound. "No, no, no. Kenny, you can't die on me, please."

"Cat, get away from him. He's a traitor," her mom coldly spat, though I could see the pain in her eyes. And though I desperately wanted to shoot her right between the eyes for everything she'd put my baby girl through and wrap my arms around Cat and leave, I stopped myself. This isn't just about what I wanted anymore, it's about Cat now too and I wouldn't pull the trigger until I heard her say so. My finger tightened on my trigger. Please say so.

"How could you?" she angrily spat at her mother.

"Cat," Liam said. "You need to-"

"No," she harshly said, cutting him off as her attention returned to Kenny whose noisey, painful breaths made my heart hurt. No matter what he'd done, slow deaths were always the hardest for me to bare. "Kenny, I'm sorry I got you into this. God I'm so sorry." Blood now stained her hands and was leaking between the cracks in her fingers as she desperately tried to stop the bleeding.

"Cat it's fine," he painfully said, his voice broken and strained. "It's...my time anyway."

"No, we said we were going to fix you, remember?" Cat begged, her voice slightly breaking at the end. "We were going to save you guys from this and all of us were finally going to be happy."

"It's too late for me, Cat," he shook his head. "I've...done too much. There's no s-saving me. My judgement day's here, love." This caused a broken sob to escape Cat's mouth as she pressed harder. "Cat, stop," Kenny begged. "I'm done." His eyes met mine. "Ri-River, I'm sorry," he weakly said, coming as a shock to me."They didn't need to die. I just...just need you to know that I'm sorry." He looked at Cat then back to me. "Treat her right." I found myself giving him a silent, curt nod, causing him to slightly grin  before he let his head fall back. "I'm done."

This caused another scream to escape from Cat's mouth as he stopped fighting and his eyes becoming glassy. "No, no, no!" she shrieked. "Kenny, y-you can't-" she was interrupted by Liam wrapping his arms around her and gently rocking her as she screamed and sobbed into his shoulder.

"Shh, it's okay, Cat," he comforted as she began hyperventilating, causing my chest to hurt and my heart to shatter for her.

"You're outnumbered, Katherine," I seethed as I stepped toward her, my gun aimed right at her brain. "Give up now."

She swiftly turned and aimed her gun at me. "Never," she spat. "I'm not letting you rip apart my family after I've fought so hard to get it back. I'd rather die trying."

I scuffed. "Bold words for a dead woman walking-"

"No," Cat interrupted, her voice deathly calm and low. Her eyes were red and locked on her mom while tears were still silently falling down her cheeks. It was haunting. "I'm not your family and I never will be. You lost that opportunity the day you decided that drugs and violence and money was more important than your own family. More important than me. Then you just barge into my life, threaten to kill everyone who I love and who actually love me back because you're insecure and jealous of them?" She scuffed as she walked toward her mom. "You send your lap dogs to spy on me and even when I beg you not to leave me alone with the one who tried to rape me, you still didn't want to listen. And to think that I actually had a sliver of hope in you. A chance that you'd change." Her eyes went to Kenny. "I guess when you're presented with the opportunity you just can't resist ruining everything, huh?" By now she was face to face, virtually chest to chest with her mother. "So let me make this perfectly clear: I am not and will never be your daughter or your family ever again and there's nothing you can do to stop it. So let me and my real family go or I will kill you."