This was originally going to be a one-shot but I decided to continue it. Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorite, and followed!
As always reviews and suggestions are welcome. :)
*Disclaimer* Still don't own Castle. Still hoping for a musical.
Kate lightly twirled her mother's wedding ring back and forth, pausing momentarily, staring down at it. The ring she wore everyday close to her heart used to be a simple reminder of the life she lost and the reason she became a cop. Now it was a reminder of so much more, a reminder of the day she almost died herself at the hands of her mother's killer and the love she gained because of it. She glanced down at her own engagement ring, smiling at the memory of the day Rick proposed. She let her mother's murder consume her once and it had almost torn her and Rick apart, but in the end brought them closer than she ever thought they could be. She let out a deep sigh, tucking the necklace back under her shirt, feeling the cool metal slide against the scar from the bullet that almost took her away from him.
"Yo," Esposito interrupted her from her thoughts, "where's Castle?"
"Oh, he decided to sleep in. Late night." She hated lying to Ryan and Espo but she wasn't ready to tell the boys about the previous night's events. She wasn't ready to face the questions and concerned stares from her closest friends when they heard she was going after Bracken again, not until Castle was here. "Oh. Well Ryan and I started running through the Gregg's Baker account again only to find that it was emptied and closed late last night."
"Dumped to another account setup by another shell corporation," Ryan laid the folder on her desk, "also untraceable."
"And Kelly Nieman?"
"Disappeared without a trace. No activity on her cell phone or credit cards," Espo folded his arms across his chest.
Kate noticed Castle getting off the elevator, "Ok guys keep checking into it, me and Castle are going to take another shot at Carl Matthews." She grabbed her coat off her chair and hurried to intercept him before he could say anything to Ryan and Espo.
"She's acting weird," Ryan said casually sitting back down at his desk.
"You're too suspicious bro."
"I'm a cop," he smiled, "but seriously, you don't think anything is wrong do you?"
"No. If there was she would tell us."
"You didn't wake me this morning."
"I thought you could use the sleep seeing as how you stayed up half the night watching me," she smirked keeping her eyes on the road.
"No I…"
"Don't try to deny it Castle. I know you. How many times do I have to tell you it's creepy to stare? Especially when I'm sleeping," she was still smiling, almost joking.
Just as he was about to make a comeback her phone rang. "Beckett. What? How? Ok. We were already on our way." She hung up and immediately dialed Ryan's number. Rick was staring at her from the passenger seat waiting patiently. "Hey Ryan. You and Espo meet me at the prison. Carl Matthews was found dead in his cell this morning. Looks like a suicide."
"You don't think it was actually a suicide do you?" She glanced at him, "No. He and Dr. Nieman were our only leads. Now he's dead and she could be for all we know." Rick reached for her hand, running his fingers in a slow pattern across her knuckles, "we'll get him. I promise."
She glanced at him again, this time instead of seeing his normal smug smirk she saw the look of pure love, sincerity, and worry. "I know we will," she squeezed his hand, "he'll slip up eventually."
They rode the rest of the way in silence, Carl Matthews' last words to them resonating in her head, "I know you think you've got this all figured out, but you don't."
Thanks for reading!
