Page 71 of Flawed Revenge

The squeak he heard was everything.

Kate stood in the middle of the room, her startled expression staring at the guns, which lowered when they saw it was just her and not one of the guards. There was no fresh blood on her, and she held a lampstand in her hand. Blood dripped off it, and he saw River Gardner sitting in a wheelchair beside her, head limp and unconscious.

At least he thought she was unconscious.

But just as he was about to be consumed with relief and pride in his girl for being the one to bring them River Gardner on a platter, the woman’s head jerked up, and she moved with surprising speed for an old woman.

The guys had lowered their weapons, since Kate wasn't a threat, and the split second it took for them to raise them again was enough for the woman to grab Kate’s hand, catching her by surprise and overbalancing her, sending her toppling down onto the wheelchair.

River pulled out a knife from somewhere and pressed it against Kate’s neck hard enough to cause a trickle of blood to trail down her neck, making Lion see red.

“I wouldn't do anything stupid if I was you,” River warned. “It wouldn't take much for me to split her neck wide open. Maybe you’d kill me, but you'd kill her, too. Now, if you don’t want me to blow this entire house to smithereens with all of us inside it, I suggest you lower those weapons and we talk.”

March 19th

11:07 A.M.

She’d messed up.

Should have killed the old woman when she had the chance.

Instead, she’d found that when the time came to slam the lampstand into River’s head a second time, or as many times as it took to crack her skull wide open, she couldn’t do it.

Because of that, Kate might have signed all their death warrants.

Her gaze found Leo’s, and she tried to convey her regret and tell him how sorry she was. But instead of finding fear in his eyes, or worry, or anything similar, all she saw was determination and calculation. The same thing she saw in the other guys’ gazes. They could hate her for leading River Gardner right to them, for not killing her when she had the chance, but instead, she saw confidence and reassurance.

They were formulating a plan, and she had to trust that they would find a way to save them and to end this once and for all.

“Why are you doing all of this, Mom?” Rose asked, stepping forward and dodging Steel when he tried to grab her and drag her back behind him.

“You ruined this, didn't you? You got out of the bedroom, let them all out,” River snapped, and since she was sitting in the woman’s lap, Kate could feel her vibrating with rage.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have pretended to be dead and let my deranged brother raise me,” Rose snapped back, clearly not intimidated by her mother. “Did you know what he was doing to me? Did you know that he tortured me for my entire childhood? I was four when you supposedly died, and eighteen when I escaped him and started building my own life. That’s fourteen years of hell I lived through.”

“Your brother served his purpose,” River said.

“Supposedly to keep the focus off you,” Rose said, taking another step closer. “You think you can create a drug that will give you immortality? Is that really something you think is possible?”

“Anything is possible,” River replied. “But now you're ruining everything. I needed the girl. The genius one. Ridge kept ruining her drugs, but I kept every single one of them. I worked on them myself, improved them, and made sure I received copies of all her notes sent to me. You worked with them to free her, and that ruined everything.”

“She worked to free herself, mother,” Rose corrected. “That’s the problem with you, isn’t it? Always underestimating everyone else, always overestimating yourself. You did know, didn't you? That Ridge was torturing me.”

“He was training you, preparing you. But you turned out to be a disappointment, not smart enough to work with us.” River tutted in annoyance, but Kate had already been told that Rose was perfectly smart enough to understand chemistry and biology, she just understood that pretending not to get it was her only way out. If anything, Rose was smarter than the rest of her family, and the only one of them with a conscience.

“So you thought I was too stupid to be of any use to you, but you still let him abuse me. What kind of psychopath are you?” Rose demanded, and despite the anger in the other woman’s voice, Kate could hear the pain as well. Rose might hate her mother, but River was still her mother, and there was no doubt a part of her craved her mother’s love.

“The kind that changes the world,” River answered simply. “At least I would have if people hadn't kept interfering with my work.”

“Why did you fake your own death?” Rose asked, taking another step closer.

While River might be too preoccupied with this little catch-up session with her daughter to notice that Rose was continuously closing the distance between them, Kate was not. Rose had a plan, she was sure of it, and the guys were watching, ready and waiting to do whatever they had to do to make sure that what Rose was planning worked, and they all walked out alive.

“Is Dad really still alive, too? Was I supposed to die along with my grandparents, or did someone really push me under the table like I remember?” Rose asked.

“You were supposed to die, too,” River replied, not bothering to sugarcoat the words. “But your father saved you.”

“Dad? He’s the one who pushed me under the table?”