Ian

Chapter 36

Castle wondered if his quarry just might be slipping out to use the men's room, but the slight patron walked right past it. While being given a guest tour, Castle had memorized the layout of The Thicket as best he could. The hall ahead forked. To the left were the private rooms, but no egress. To the right was the exit. If the man he followed turned left, Castle would be stuck. Castle prayed for a right turn. His prayers were answered as the departing patron headed for the underground parking structure. With a destination in mind, Castle stopped for a moment, staying back in an effort to make his tail less obvious. Continuing his journey to the garage, Castle slipped behind a pillar when he spotted the familiar sedan. He breathed a sigh of relief that the front of the car was facing him, and curled his fingers around his cell phone. The suspect opened the car door and turned in Castle's direction before sliding into the driver's seat. Peeking out from his concealment, Castle snapped a straight on full face picture and captured the license plate. "Got you!" he exclaimed as the sedan drove away.

The pouches on the costumes of the Birds at The Thicket were designed to accommodate cash tips, but very few patrons paid their tabs that way. Most charges were either to a credit card or a club account. Either way, there would be an identification Kate could trace, if she could get a number or a name. Unfortunately another Bird had delivered the check Kate was interested in to the cashier and it had been recorded in The Thicket's computerized system to which no Bird had a password. Kate had noted that the cashiers were extremely conscientious about signing in and out of their terminals if they had to step away for any reason. If Kate was going to get a look at the records, she would have to resort to drastic measures. As her mind struggled to formulate a plan, her eyes searched the room, falling on a little red box on the wall. Playfully exchanging teasing banter with a customer who had built up a considerable bar tab, she eased toward it. A group of Birds, not including Kate, started another titillating exhibition. As the eyes in the room turned to the stage, Kate pulled the fire alarm.

It was as Kate had hoped. In the chaos of rushing to escape the building, the cashier had left her terminal logged on. As the building emptied, Kate scrolled through the transactions. There was only one bill within the last hour that had mozzarella sticks on it. Using the note Castle had slipped to her and one of the many pens given to customers to sign checks, Kate made a note of the credit card number, stuffed it in her pouch, then quickly left the club.

As he was returning to The Thicket building, Castle heard the whoops of the alarm. At first he was frantic about Kate's safety. His eyes searched the rush of patrons and employees pushing their way out. There was no sign of Kate, but he saw no flames and smelled no smoke either. He began to wonder if she had created a distraction for some reason. Finally he saw her emerge, shivering as the outside air reached her exposed skin. He rushed toward her, removing his jacket. Smirking, in hopes of appearing to any onlookers as a customer exploiting an opportunity to make time with a Bird, he wrapped her in the garment. In the confusion, the two of them headed for his car and made their escape.

Kate pulled Castle's jacket tightly around her as he drove. "Castle, I hope you were right about that guy. I broke the law in two different ways to get a credit card number. It better have been worth it."

Oh it was Kate," Castle assured her proudly. "I saw the car he got in. It was the same one we were trailing, and Kate, I got his picture and his plate." Castle reached for a control on his dashboard to turn up the heat. "Wow, you're still shivering. Are you all right?"

"Aside from sore feet and an aching back, I'm fine Castle. If Birds really do pull down the kind of big money Mother Bird told me they do, they earn every penny of it."

"Ian is at school and my shower has a great massage setting. We could swing by your place and pick you up some clothes, then you can avail yourself of the output of my super-sized water heater," Castle proposed. "I might even throw in some hands on attention to your most needy areas."

Kate reached a hand out to the warm air now blasting from a vent. "That's sounds heavenly, Castle, and there's no way I can go back to the precinct looking like this."

"I sincerely doubt that many of the boys in blue would object, but I suspect it is outside the dress code. And it doesn't quite fit the description of under cover," Castle added, wiggling his eyebrows.

Kate rolled her eyes. "Just drive, Castle."

Kate luxuriated under the pulsating hot water that was everything Castle had promised. It caressed her skin and felt comfortingly warm against her feet. Still, she was imagining what Castle's large hands could do for the knots in the small of her back, as the door of the stall opened a crack. Castle was still wearing his clothes as he uncertainly peered through the steam. I was wondering if you could use a hand."

"Castle, I think I could use two."

I'll be right back," he promised, closing the door again. He returned, wrapped only in a thick towel, which he dropped before stepping into the swirling vapors. Taking a place behind her, he rotated his thumbs at the base of her spine. "Here?"

Kate leaned into the pressure and sighed. "Oh yeah."

Castle could feel her muscles relax beneath his hands as her head fell back against his chest. His lips found the moist white skin at the base of her neck and the breath rushed from Kate's lungs. "Castle." She turned to him. Even tortured as they were, her toes made no objection as she stretched upward, her open mouth meeting his. His hands cupped the shapely globes above her thighs, lifting her upward. She wrapped her legs around him and, his lips never leaving hers, he rotated them both, bracing her against the shower wall.

Her desire exploded as his growing heat pressed against her. She reached for him, stroking him to fullness, becoming ever more desperate as the pressure against her need grew. She writhed against him, their skins slick beneath the spray. As one, their breathing grew rapid and rough. Kate needed more. She needed Castle, all of Castle. She guided him, their joining urgent and deep. Drops flew from their bodies, splashing against the sides of the stall. The glass door rattled with their effort and steam rose even hotter from the heat of their skins. Kate could feel the inner sparks that signaled the oncoming waves of release, spreading within her, but the sudden climax rocked her to her core. She clung to Castle as the aftershocks left them both depleted and replete.

Castle panted as he retrieved his own towel and handed one from a rack to Kate. "If that's what happens when I rub your back, remind me to do it more often."

Kate wrapped lush terri around her wet but still vibrating body. "Castle, you have a deal."