They crouched low behind the Lincoln in the dark multi-storey and unholstered their guns silently. Esposito held up two fingers and pointed a finger towards the bumper. Beckett took a breath and steadied her weapon. Two fingers, two men. Two men that had been tailing her for the past three days. Two men that had no idea they were about to be ambushed by New York's finest. Beckett exploded sideways at them as Esposito cleared the hood, weapon drawn, battle cry loud and ringing from the walls. The men had had little time to react when the detectives had caught them at close range and startled them, and they'd drawn their Sig Sauers instinctively, splitting up to become separate moving targets. Beckett ID'd herself, knowing full well it would make no difference. They had Castle. They weren't going to lie down without a fight and they knew it. She didn't care.
"NYPD!" She yelled, levelling her own gun at the man's chest. "Put your weapon…" the sound of a shot from his gun drowned out the rest of the sentence and she felt the whistle of the bullet as it grazed an inch above her head. She rolled, ducked behind a concrete pillar and checked for Espo who had done the same. She watched the two men in the reflection of the car window, held her breath and calculated the distance, and sprang to her feet. Her aim was good and her bullet sent one of the men cart wheeling backwards into the black sedan they'd been using to tail her, his shoulder blown out, blood on the glass. The second man quickly rounded the pillar where Esposito had been crouched moments earlier, raising his gun and shooting haphazardly. The bullets missed their mark. Esposito was gone. Beckett began to run toward him as she saw the detective reveal himself from behind a car, the stranger pivoting to shoot as he backed away, watching as if in slow motion as Esposito raised his weapon.
"Espo, NO!" She yelled. If both men were dead, they'd never find Castle.
Half a second was all it took for her to level her gun at the second man's hand and pull the trigger, watching as his look of horror turned to agony as his palm exploded around the gun and he crumpled to the floor. Beckett was on him in a second.
"Where's Castle?" She yelled, barrel to his temple. "Why are you following me? Where is he?"
"My hand!" The man yelled. "My hand!" He was turning white quicker than he was giving her information, and Beckett was worried he'd pass out before telling her anything.
"You have another one, and if you don't tell me where Castle is, I will put a bullet in that one too." She wound the fingers of her free hand further into his collar. "Where is he?"
"In the trunk! He's in the trunk!" The man put his remaining hand to his face, whimpering and groaning in pain as Beckett released him and Esposito cuffed him roughly, ripping a key from his pocket and throwing it to Beckett as she rattled at the latch on the trunk with panicked hands. "Bracken's appeal team just wanted to scare you off…" As the lid popped open, the first thing Richard Castle saw as the light hit his eyes was the first man that Beckett had shot raising his gun from his slumped position and shooting at her.
