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Chapter Twenty One

Gina, of course, slept through the entire ordeal, but wakes up the second the plane begins to jump and shake with the landing, sitting up straight in her seat to stretch. By that time, Castle, Kate, and Lanie have spoken at length about the problem and the two former have told the latter Rick's true identity.

"That makes more sense," Lanie had said, only half-surprised by the revelation. "I mean, I'm a true romantic and all, but no guy just jumps in front of a bullet for a girl he just met, even if they are doing the frick frack."

Kate snorts at that, cracking a smile for the first time since the attack. "Frick frack?" She asked, sharing a look with Castle, who smiled as well—only half out of mirth; the other half is the fact that she seems to have forgiven him…somewhat. Her smile disappeared quickly, however, as she looked back at her friend.

"Isn't that what all the kids are saying nowadays?" Lanie said. Kate snorted and shook her head, but she couldn't miss a slight glint in Lanie's eye. The shorter woman didn't say anything about it then, but Kate knew she'd be hearing her thoughts sooner or later—likely the former.

They'd spoken about plans to meet up with Kevin Ryan and have Javi come back to New York as soon as possible to help with surveillance.

"Y'all know you're just bodyguards, right?" Lanie had said. "Not cops."

"We're a security team," Castle replied. "And we'll do whatever it takes to eliminate the threat, even if it means putting ourselves in the line of fire."

"Well, I'm sure Kate appreciates that; don't you, Sweetie?" Lanie asked her friend, pointedly.

Kate nodded. "Yeah," she said, "thanks." The fact that she didn't even glance at Castle did not go unnoticed by her friend, but she didn't say anything, thankfully.

When Gina wakes, she's still incredibly foggy with the after-effects of her Xanax-induced slumber and doesn't even notice the grim looks of the guards, flight attendants, and friends around her—or, if she does, she does a pretty good job of ignoring the blatantly obvious.

As they make their way out of the terminal, she doesn't even notice anything's amiss until she sees Anya, the would-be killer, being led away by one of the guards in handcuffs.

"What the hell is going on?" she asks the guard.

"You'll have to take that up with Storm, Miss Cowell," the guard replies.

"Oh, trust me," Gina says, turning away, "I will."

He, Lanie, and Kate, are nearly outside by the time Gina catches up with them.

"Rick!" Gina hisses when she gets close enough, causing all three of them to halt in their tracks and turn back towards the blonde storming towards them. "What the hell happened? Why is the flight attendant being arrested?"

"She tried to kill Ka—Lola," Castle replies, simply. Lanie and Kate nod as if to back up his claims.

"What?!" Gina exclaims, causing a few standers-by to turn their heads. She clears her throat. "What?!" she whispers hoarsely. "Why didn't anybody tell me?"

"We didn't want to stress you out," Kate lies. In reality, they'd agreed not to tell Gina about the possible connection between Anya and Kate's late mother. Not until they'd connected the dots, anyway.

"Well I'm stressed out," Gina growls. "Do you know what this means?"

"That somebody's trying to kill me?" Kate says. "But we already knew that."

Gina sighs, rubbing her temple with her right hand. "It means," she says, "that you're in even more danger than we originally thought."

"How so?" Kate asks.

"How—THEY GOT INTO YOUR PRIVATE FUCKING JET!" Gina explodes, not caring now that other people are starting to listen in. "Do you know how many fucking background checks we do on these people before we let them within a hundred yards of you? Yet, somehow, this woman who tried to kill you didn't raise a single red flag! Don't you find that even a little bit alarming?"

"Of course I do," Kate replies, angrily. "I'm fucking terrified, Gina! But what do you expect me to do?" She's whispering, but Castle can feel the anger radiating off of her in waves. "I already let you hire me a bodyguard, plus the three other meatheads that were with us on the plane after it was swept for explosives—yet somehow they were too stupid to check the flight attendants for weapons—and I left LA early because somebody tried to shoot me—again—at a funeral. What else do you expect me to do?"

Throughout Kate's rebuttal, Gina had deflated, and now her face is dreadfully hopeless. "I don't know," she admits. "But I'll tell you one thing; you're not going back to your apartment."

"What?" Kate asks, her eyes wide. "But I—why not?"

"Kate, somebody tried to kill you three times already! Once was on a plane that was thoroughly checked over and filled with security! There's no telling what might happen if they've found out where you live."

"But then where am I supposed to go?" Kate asks. "What about Royal? I'm not putting him in a kennel; no fucking way."

"You can stay with me," Castle says, suddenly, startling Kate, who looks over at him with wide eyes.

"What? No, I can't—"

"Yes, you can," Gina hisses. "It's perfect. Nobody knows where he lives and at least he'll be there to protect you and keep you safe from harm, right?" She looks up at Rick, who nods, solemnly.

"Always," he says. He looks back at Kate. "We have plenty of room for you and Royal. I mean, it's not going to be the Four Seasons, but…"

"It should be fine," Gina says. "So long as she has a bed, warm food, and nobody's trying to kill her."

"Well, there're no guns, but you'll probably die of boredom if you try asking my mother about her latest role and she breaks into a history of her high school drama stories." Castle gains a grin out of the woman for that, but it's still painfully awkward. "You'll be safe there, Kate," he whispers to her. "I swear; I won't let anybody hurt you."

Her expression turns hard at that, her eyes boring into his. "You already have," she whispers back, not loud enough for Gina or Lanie to hear. Castle's heart lurches at that and he looks away for a second. When he glances back to her, she's already turned towards Gina.

"Fine," she says. "I'll stay there, but only for a couple of days."

"You'll stay for as long as it takes to get rid of this threat," Gina says, firmly, leaving no room for argument. Instead, Kate takes her sunglasses out of her pocket and puts them on, turning on her heel and walking away from them, dragging Lanie after her.

Castle watches, sighing. "Is she always this pigheaded?" he asks Gina.

"You have no idea," the blonde replies, rubbing at her temple.

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And, oh, the reason for celebration….

I MET STANA FUCKING KATIC. ANYBODY WHO FOLLOWS HER ON TWITTER KNOWS ABOUT THE ROSE, RIGHT? WELL GUESS WHO GAVE THAT TO HER.

THIS BITCH