Playing Hard to Get
Chapter 28
Kate was a very happy woman the next morning. Having sex with Castle had helped to make her that way. Now she was in the kitchen looking over her breakfast options while Castle was in the shower. She was in the loft and surrounded by people that cared about her.
She knew Castle had ordered 300 of his books, but she didn't know when they would arrive. It wasn't so much about when they got here. It was about her hand being able to recover after signing so many of them.
They had a venue and a date of June 3rd. A choice of wedding invitations, and for those, they just needed to decide who would get them. Rick was working on his list, and she had started on hers.
"Hi, Kate. I can only stay long enough to take the dogs outside, and then I have to run for my class." Alexis gathered up what she was going to need. "Leave Lilly behind if you like." It sounded like the Precinct was busy. Too busy for a dog.
"Thanks, Alexis," Kate called out and heard her cell phone ring. "Beckett."
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Kate was still standing in the kitchen, looking a bit shocked when Castle joined her in search of coffee. "What's wrong?" She seemed a little lost to him.
"The FBI found a dead body at my front door. Remember the possible dead woman from the parking lot? He dropped her off at my front door." Kate still wasn't entirely with him, which concerned Rick.
But Rick saw a silver lining. "So he knows where you live but not where you are now."
Relieved, Kate began to smile. Coming here had turned out to be a good idea. She kissed him.
"How many clothes did you bring with you?" Rick queried.
"About a week's worth, why? Do I need to pack more after we get there?" Kate asked.
"Pack all you want, but I want you to take it into the Precinct with you. He doesn't know you're here, so let's keep it that way. Put you and your bag in a taxi, take that to another cab, and that one to a waiting town car. I'll meet you there and drive you home. You can watch for a tail." Kate thought those were too many changes, but she didn't argue. She didn't want him to present a danger to Alexis or Martha, so she nodded her agreement.
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"Now we know why he took the body," Jordan pointed out as she knelt next to it, with Kate beside her.
"He's telling me, 'I know where you live,'" Kate said.
Jordan smiled at her. "And yet, you weren't here."
Kate glared at her. "I am engaged, you know."
"Yes, I'm aware," Jordan replied mildly.
Kate was quiet for a moment. "This was a threat, wasn't it?"
"Oh, no." Then Jordan stood up, as did Kate. "This was more than that. He gave you fair warning that you had to catch him. You failed and didn't stop him. He's saying this one is on you, on Nikki Heat. Not Kate Beckett. Don't lose sight of that, Kate," Jordan cautioned.
"I'm profiling him, Detective, not agreeing with him," Jordan told her. "The guy is a freaking nut bar!"
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Kate caught up to Lanie. "What do the bullets say this time?"
"Burn," Lanie responded.
"Nikki will burn." Kate looked at Castle. "It would be better if I went to a hotel." Kate didn't think going back to the loft was all that safe for any of them.
Rick tried again. "One more time. The building is secure, the door is solid, and no one will get inside without being noticed. Dahlia and Lilly won't allow it, and we both know what Lilly's willing to do to protect you. The loft is perfectly safe. We only have to get you there unobserved."
Lanie grinned at her. "You spent the night at the loft?"
Kate fairly bristled in annoyance. "I am engaged, Lanie."
"Oh, I know, girlfriend. Trust me, I know. If I don't get a wedding invitation, there will be a killing." Lanie glared at her. "And I know what to do with a dead body."
Kate glared right back at her. "June 3rd at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx."
"That's better. So who are your bridesmaids?" Lanie waited impatiently for an answer.
"We're still working on that and a lot of other things. We've got six months. I have to survive Christmas first. Alexis said something about taking Christmas decorations out of storage before we left." Kate sighed; she just knew she was in trouble.
"Christmas decorations!" Rick's face brightened since he was so ready to start decorating. He suddenly had something he had to do. "I have to get you a stocking to hang over the fireplace!"
Kate rolled her eyes at Lanie. "See what I mean?"
"But you love him, so you get to love what Castle loves. It won't kill you, Kate," Lanie chided her.
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"Ben Conrad. Got you, you son of a bitch." Jordan was beyond happy.
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Jordan checked him. "Dead. It looks like he had a plan. He was extracting vapors from the formaldehyde to construct a military-grade explosive. He had floor plans for the entire Precinct. He was planning to blow up the 12th and take everyone with Nikki Heat." Jordan walked around looking at everything and picked up a cell phone.
"Goodbye, Nikki. Goodbye, Nikki." It was programmed to talk before triggering the explosion.
"And then, Nikki will burn," Rick said.
"Well, the good news is I'm out of your hair," Jordan said since their guy was dead.
Kate shook her head. "No, the really good news is that it's over."
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"I don't have to do this, Castle," Kate insisted. "He's dead." She was packing but didn't see the need for changing cars before going to the loft or even packing extra clothes.
"Humor me. If I wrote this, there would be a twist that no one expected. He's not dead. He comes back as a ghost and tries to kill you. He has a partner that we had no idea existed. He's married, and his wife wants revenge. He's a member of the mob who wants revenge. Please humor me, Kate," Rick asked, almost pleading.
"Fine." Kate went back to packing though staying with Castle meant that she could make love to her soon-to-be husband. Before she had said yes, they had been fucking each other. But beginning with that day, Castle had been making love to her. Slow, soft, sensual love. She even understood the difference. Oh, they still fucked, though only when they wanted that.
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Kate was walking across a park with her suitcase. That was after she got out of the town car waiting for her after getting out of her taxi. It was right around the corner, and Kate had no idea where the driver was taking her. So much so that she had her hand on her weapon in case he tried something. But he had just stopped and told her to walk across the park.
Kate spotted Castle sitting in his Mercedes. She opened the back door, put in her suitcase, and got in the passenger seat. Then Castle pulled out into traffic. She was keeping an eye out for a tail as Castle kept speeding up, slowing down, and making turns. "You know, he might know where you live," Kate finally said to him.
"I considered that, but the only people that know we're engaged are all in the Precinct," Rick replied. "As far as the Botanical Gardens or Weylin are concerned, I paid to reserve a space for a special event. It might not even be mine."
He had her there. "Good point." She watched him finally pull into the underground garage and park beside a gorgeous red Ferrari. "Nice car." Kate liked it. She was betting it belonged to someone else in the building.
"Thank you," Rick told her and watched her turn to look at him. "I bought it after my first book became a best seller. It was a splurge that cost me a lot. I only drive it occasionally. I have the keys if you want a try," he offered. "If you think you can handle her."
"I'm a cop, Castle. Of course, I can handle a Ferrari. But maybe later." Kate wanted to get to Lilly and pet her puppy.
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Kate was sitting there throwing a stuffed animal to see who got it and brought it back. Rick was beside her, watching, when he suddenly exclaimed, "HAND!" What was he talking about now? Castle was up and opening a folder. Kate followed close behind him.
Kate frowned. "You have pictures? No, don't tell me." He had stolen pictures again.
"Hand, the bruising showed that he was left-handed. See this handwriting? He's left-handed. But Ben Conrad shot himself with his right hand. The 45 is in his hand, and the shell casing is next to the gun, not ejected halfway across the floor. But the Ben Conrad we saw in the window had the weapon in his left hand. So how did he manage to change hands and shoot himself before Jordan and her team entered a split second later? They were right outside and went in after the sound of the shot." Rick looked at her.
"It's not Ben Conrad." Kate was following him. "He's clever enough to plant all this evidence and get us chasing our tails while he outsmarts us. The killer murdered Ben Conrad and made himself look like Ben Conrad." Kate could see it.
The color drained from her face. "Castle, what if he followed me here? What if he wants you just as dead?" Kate's biggest fear just might come true. Kill her, kill Castle, and kill his family.
"Call Jordan right now," Rick told her. "Get her over here and get Montgomery to send a team to your place. The cyclonite that we didn't find has to be somewhere. All we found was the formaldehyde." As he watched, Kate pulled out her cell phone.
"Twenty minutes for us. Thirty for my place at best," Kate told him.
"Everyone into the master bedroom bathroom. Go! Go!" Rick shouted, and everyone ran. Alexis yelled for the dogs, "Dahlia! Lilly! COME!" And everyone ended up in the bathroom. They hugged each other as they sat on the floor and waited.
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Kate's cell phone rang. "Beckett." She listened intently. "Understood." Kate hung up. "My apartment just blew up without Lilly or my being in it. Jordan is downstairs. She has her team searching the building and wants us to stay put for now."
"It wasn't Ben Conrad, and the killer does know where you live. But he doesn't know that you're here," Rick reminded her.
"It's not over yet." Kate had honestly believed that it was. "He's just going to start killing again, Castle."
"But we know who it's not. The man can't hide behind some other identity any longer. He has to come out into the open now," Rick countered.
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Jordan acknowledged Kate showing up at her destroyed apartment. "Beckett. How are you?"
"I'm fine. I locked the door, the windows were closed, and nothing looked out of place when I left. But I don't... I thought this case was finished," Kate said.
"It's not, but you are," Jordan informed her.
"This is my apartment, my life, and my case," Kate said heatedly. Fed or no Fed, she was on this case.
Jordan proceeded to fight back since she had jurisdiction here and could do what she wanted with Kate. "Fine, but you do what I say and when I say it, or I'll put a monitor on your ankle and confine you to Castle's place. Are we clear?"
Then Espo came into the living room and broke it to her. "It's not as bad in the bedroom as it is in here, but your clothes all smell like smoke."
"Does anyone know if insurance covers this and pays for dry cleaning?" All she had were the clothes at Castle's place now.
Kneeling, Jordan scratched at the floor. She stopped and looked up at Kate."I found the bomb site. The lab will have the breakdown by morning, but this is cyclonite, the same stuff as last time. Military-grade. It didn't need to be big. A hollow book, maybe. Maybe, even Heat Wave."
"We were right outside of the apartment. I heard the shot and immediately broke inside. So if Ben Conrad didn't kill himself and there's no other way out of that apartment, how the hell did he get past us?" Jordan didn't understand that at all.
"Let's find out," Rick urged her. Kate's life was at stake.
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Kate found something in a closet. "Guys, take a look in here."
Jordan looked the hidey hole over. "This means the real Ben Conrad was being held prisoner in his own apartment."
Kate answered her phone while still in there with Jordan. "Beckett."
The killer now knew she was alive. "You are supposed to be dead, Nikki."
"Sorry to disappoint you," Kate retorted.
"It was supposed to be over, Nikki, to be done. But now I have to keep going." A woman screamed in the background, and they could all hear three shots before the call ended.
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"She's dead, all because I lived." Kate hated this. She wasn't Nikki Heat. No one should die because of her.
"You can't blame yourself for that," Jordan told her. "How did he know you weren't dead? Besides calling and having you answer?"
"He was watching my apartment blow up and saw me show up with Castle." Then it hit her. Kate looked at him, scared for Alexis. "CASTLE!"
"It's still a secure building, Kate," Rick reminded her. "Alexis didn't go to class, and Dahlia and Lilly still are there. He would have to go through both of them first."
Kate worried her lip and looked up at him. "Except when Alexis takes them outside to do their business." She watched as Castle hurriedly pulled out his phone. He spoke to someone briefly, then ended the call. "Montgomery is assigning a team to be inside with them. She goes outside, they go with her," Rick told Kate and watched her nod in relief.
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"DAD! KATE!" Alexis saw both of them come through the door. Martha was right beside her granddaughter when the teenager launched herself at her dad. Rick was thoroughly hugged, followed by Kate, who was busy petting Lilly since Lilly had missed her.
"You two can go. I'm armed," Kate told the uniforms and watched them leave.
"Alexis, I know this is a sacrifice, but I need you not to leave this building unless the uniforms or myself are with you. Montgomery has a detail watching this building, but we need to be safe," Kate told her.
"I know. The officers walked step by step with me the entire time. It was weird, but I understand. I'm pretty sure neither of them would let anything happen to me." Alexis knew what Lilly had done for Kate and her dad, so Dahlia and maybe even Lilly would do the same for her.
"That may be, but you don't go outside alone until we catch this guy. He doesn't really have anywhere to hide this time." He didn't have Ben Conrad to hide behind now.
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"All clear," The heavily armed and armored team called out, allowing Jordan, Kate, and Rick to enter.
"Now, this is creepy," Rick commented. He opened a copy of Heat Wave. "Hey, I signed this. To Scott, write what you know."
"He's writing." Rick picked up a stack of bound pages. "Dead Heat."
Jordan had another one. "Night Terrors. It looks like it talks about murders of prostitutes in Seattle." She stood there for a moment and then made a decision. "Everybody out," she ordered and exited the room. "He has to come back sometime."
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Furious, Kate stormed into Montgomery's office and told him what Jordan had done. He listened and then told what she already knew. "The FBI has complete jurisdiction, so there's nothing I can do. You intrude on her case, and she can arrest you. She does that, and you'll end up knocked down to junior detective. That's something I can't do anything about. My hands are tied.
"I suggest you go home and let the FBI do their job. That's it, Beckett. Your involvement is over," Roy told her.
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"I'm homeless and careless all in one day. My place is destroyed. My furniture, my books, even my clothes are a mess." Kate could hardly believe it.
"One, you have a home, and you know it," Rick told her. "Two, I'm the king of going rogue, and you were right to chase after Dunn. Maybe not slamming the door on my poor nose, though."
"And Jordan was right about taking me off this case. I would have done the same thing. I'm too close. I can't think objectively about this case. He blew up my apartment." Kate pushed her cup of coffee away. It wasn't helping.
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Kate was in the kitchen scrambling eggs for breakfast when Martha breezed in. "Morning, Martha!"
"Did you see the hunky guy out front with the ear plug?" Martha asked her.
Kate nodded. "He's FBI. Jordan's making sure I'm not only safe, but that I'm out of her hair."
Rick chose then to try to snag a piece of bacon, but Kate swatted at him. "Hands off, Castle!"
Martha liked Kate even more.
"My mother was an amazing cook. I got brunch that included everything. She taught me everything I know. I just don't cook often because it reminds me that she's gone," Kate confided to Castle and Martha.
"Nonsense, dear. You cook because it allows your mother to live in you. She taught you, so you should cook so that she lives on. Now, how is the wedding planning going?" Martha wanted to know.
Kate sighed. "I'm afraid you need to ask Alexis. I'm not even in control of my own wedding at the moment. She has Castle and me working on who we want to invite. I'm still working on my list."
Then her cell phone started ringing. Kate reached for it. "Excuse me." While she was on the phone, she caught Castle helping himself to her breakfast since that she wasn't guarding it. "Castle, that was Agent Avery. Jordan never made it home last night."
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"This is wrong," Rick stated. "I feel like Princess Leia on the Millennium Falcon. It's too easy. We know he's smart. He has to know that that window has a hole in it. Jordan might be there, but he's not," Rick asserted.
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Rick and Kate had to watch from the FBI van and watch it on TV.
"I don't know how he's doing it, but he and Jordan are not up there," Rick insisted. He just knew this wasn't it.
"And what are you basing that on?" Kate was willing to listen.
"I don't know. I just..." It felt wrong to him.
"Castle, you and I have known each other long enough to trust each other. Some of your theories are right, so if you have something, now is the time." Kate waited patiently to listen to what he had to say.
"It's not how I would write it." That was all he really had.
"Alright. Tell me what happens in your version," Kate asked.
"If it was me, I would be watching nearby. The second that the FBI agents are in there, I would blow up the building. Kill them all, then kill Jordan and keep the game going till he kills you," Rick explained.
"Where is he then?" Kate needed that information if she was going to catch that bastard and save Jordan.
"I wouldn't even be in the same building. I would be across from it, watching closely and waiting. One phone call later and..." Rick used his hands to demonstrate a bomb blowing up. "He uses cyclonite. Maybe he has more than we think."
"Come on." Kate was leaving, and she wanted Castle as her backup. "Here, I want you to take this. I know you can shoot, Castle. I don't know how you manage it yet, but I know you do. Three quick shots in the ten ring, remember?" She certainly did.
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Dunn was on the run, and Kate was after him while Rick freed Jordan."Where's my team?"
"Across the street, sitting on 19 pounds of cyclonite," Rick said grimly.
"She was bluffing?" Jordan hadn't expected that. "Go help her, I've got this." She was loose enough to help herself, and Dunn had left his weapon behind.
"I believe this is your collar," Jordan told Kate a little while later.
"This isn't over, Heat," Dunn snarled while the cuffs went on his wrists.
"My name isn't Heat. It's Beckett."
"Hell of a shot, Castle." He had shot the gun right out of Dunn's hand since that animal had the drop on her with her own gun.
"I was aiming for his head." Joking was his way of dealing with the event. He was in danger of losing Kate, and that would destroy him.
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"You know what impresses me the most? That you came in after me with Castle. That was spectacular." Jordan was quite awed herself.
Kate shrugged. "Some might call that downright foolish."
"He loves you, Kate. He really does. Losing you will kill him if that ever happens. And I still expect a wedding invitation. I want to introduce you to my husband and my daughter." Jordan smiled. "I get to tell her I defeated another dragon."
"Detective Beckett." Jordan shook her hand. Just then, Rick walked over. "Mr. Castle. You two need to keep up the good work. And I will see you two later." Jordan left so she could finally go home.
Rick sat down in his chair. "See us later?"
"She expects a wedding invitation," Kate explained.
"Ah, which we still need to finish," Rick noted.
"We have a lot to do yet, Castle. I haven't even started to look for a dress. We need to select a food choice and a drink choice. I need to find you a ring, find something blue, get a photographer, find someone to marry us." Kate stopped talking and sighed, feeling overwhelmed.
"We're in so much trouble." She had only mentioned the big items. They still had to figure out all the little ones. Like where did everyone sit after they sent their RSVPs? "We still have to get on the wedding list and select items for the registry. Where do we do that, that won't break the bank?"
"Macy's?" Rick suggested since it was all he had. He knew about that. They would walk around with a gun to scan codes to add to the list. It was something he wasn't looking forward to doing. Maybe he could talk his mother into doing it for him.