priceless
chapter 10

The corner of Lexington and Langley was jamming. Too much for the likes of Ryan but he continues to search the grass, hoping for something anything. Then by luck, he spots something shiny, reflecting off the sun rays. "Told you!" Ryan shouts to his partner as he bends to retrieve the shiny thing that caught his eye.

"What do you got bro," Ryan holds up the proud treasure.

"Is that..." Espo was getting excited now, they might have a lead on where Beckett might be.

"Her phone." a pause then Ryan nods, "Yes it is." he hits the 'on' button, and the screen lights up. "And guess what, it works."

"Any calls, on it bro?"

"Looking," Ryan scroll his finger down the phone. "The last thing was a text..."

"To who, does it tell us?"

"It looks like to Castle."

"What? When? Why would she?"

"A couple of hours ago," He sighs. "It looks like she texted him begging for help. It looks that way anyway."

"What do you mean, looks like it. What does it say?"

"A castle..."

"What does that mean, 'a castle' person or a place."

"That I don't know. I don't know of any castles still up around here," He starts to scroll down the rest of the text. "Wait it says one of the girls says the castle is on..." Ryan stops reading. The phone went black.

"Does it give a location, Ryan where is it? Where bro, where's Beckett."

"I don't know the phone went all black. Crap."

"It just means that the battery went dead."

"Then we will have to recharge it."

"And that takes to long to do. I have a connector in my car bro, " he sighs, "Which is at the precinct."

"Then back to the precinct, we go," They jump in their car and speed off using their police lights.

Castle leans against the limo, having Beckett was great but he didn't know what to do now. Should he sit in the back with her or should he get in the front and just leave her in the back where hopefully she felt safe. He decides to text his driver who was sitting not two inches away from him. His driver wasn't all that helpful. Castle slowly opens the door to where Beckett was. He sees her jump some, so he decides that he would sit across from her so he wouldn't scare her anymore. And for a few seconds, he did. He notices that she was shaking some. He couldn't just let her go through this alone. He was her partner or at least he thought of himself as hers. He slowly slides to the edge of his seat. Oh how he wants to touch her but, would that do more harm than good right now.

He couldn't help himself when it came to her and getting a touch in, any kind of touch. He tries to reach out and touch her face, but she backs away. Standly, seeing Beckett's reaction, speaks softly. "It's okay, little one. I mean you no harm. I am here to get you to safety, I have been doing this for years. A few of you girls at a time." Castle couldn't believe what he was hearing, his own driver rescuing these women. Why wasn't he notified about this earlier? Castle starts to text his driver. But got no response. He just figures cause they started to move again. "I take the girls to my house where I get them help. I want to keep the blindfolds on so they don't have to see where they have been, it's less traumatized in the long run." Castle could see that Beckett was starting to relax some. Was this helping her? He wasn't sure but he was going with it.

"The handcuffs?" Beckett lefts her hands some.

"For my protection and the girls, so they don't try to run. I had one that tried to kill herself with one of my liquor bottles. So now, I talk to them on the way to my home and they start to trust again, which I know these men broke." Castle's heart was breaking, about what these girls, a lot younger the Beckett went through. Beckett was strong on but the others. He had to do something to stop this. Maybe that's why the case came to them in the first place. Did his driver finally speak up? But if it came to the 12th it meant one of them had to have died, was it the one that Standly was talking about? He only just got this driver, who happens to also be a neighbour, so there was much to learn about him.

"Can," Beckett coughs, "Get some water." she coughs again.

"Next red light, I'll get you some dear." Standly nods to Castle, who smiles. This was his opportunity to help Beckett to her recovery. Castle takes one of the glasses in the limo, pours water into it, leans it so that Beckett can drink it. Before he knew it the glass was all empty. She was now starting to take is touch as being okay, which to Castle, was a big relieve. She even let, unknown to her Castle hold her hand, well her fingers anyway. He gives his driver a thumbs up. "We are almost there, my young lady."

TBC...