That afternoon, Beckett's back at Black Pawn to pick the fan mail up. After she's told to wait in the lobby she sees Gina followed by three guys each carrying a heavy looking box. "Is that Castle's mail?" she asks seeing the hours of reading, reading and more reading in her future.
Seeing the hesitant look on the bodyguard's face Gina feels bad for the girl but shrugs. "His fans love him almost as much as he loves himself" the publisher hands her another smaller box. "Here are the letters we did see"
"Right" Beckett sighs taking the package. "Follow me" she tells the guys and shows them to her car.
When she finally gets the boxes up to her apartment, she decides to get a head start. Beckett looks for her evidence gloves – which she kept from when she was in the NYPD – and rummages through the smaller box.
All the letters are printed and of course there's no name or return address.
Right now her mind is flashing back to when she used to go through heaps of files to find evidence...
Before she knows it, she has to get ready for her girls' night, so she puts everything back in the box and jumps into the shower.
At 6, Beckett hears the bell ring. She opens the door, revealing Lanie Parish.
"Hey, girl" Lanie wraps her arms around Beckett. "Long time no see"
"Long time no see" the bodyguard repeats with a smile as they pull apart. It's been so long since they've talked!
They settle on the couch, each holding a glass of wine.
"So, how's it going?" Beckett asks.
"Same old thing at the ME's office. But what I'm really interested in is what you have been doing that hasn't even given you the time to call" Lanie says with a bit of reproach in her voice.
"Oh, I'm sorry Lanie" Kate looks at her apologetically. "It's just that with being kicked out of the force and then the new job…"
"Speaking of the new job… What is it that you do exactly?" Lanie narrows her eyes.
Beckett lets her head fall back on the couch lips pursed, not wanting to get started on her new job.
"You didn't change your name to Nikki Heat and become a stripper did you?"
Nikki Heat? Beckett looks at Lanie quizzically. "Um… No"
The ME looks at her encouraging her to spill it already.
"I'm a bodyguard now"
"A bodyguard?" Lanie's eyes widen. She honestly can't see her best friend doing that. She's not exactly patient… "Whose bodyguard?"
"Richard Castle's" Beckett sighs sounding annoyed, but the ghost of a smile crosses her features.
"Richard Castle the author?" Lanie says surprised. "You're his bodyguard?" she wants to make sure she heard all of this right. "Wait" she looks dazed when she realizes something. "Why aren't you over the moon about this?" she used to go on and on about how great of an author he was.
"It's just… He's like a 9-year-old on a sugar rush. Totally incapable of taking anything seriously"
"And you like him"
"What?" Beckett says confused. "I didn't say that"
The ME looks at the bodyguard telling her she's not fooling anyone. "It's all over your face"
"Ugh…" the former cop sighs frustrated about the fact that Lanie can read her like an open book. "He is a nice guy, and a gentleman, and such a great father…"
Lanie gives her a "And you don't like him? Really?" look.
"But he's such a child sometimes!" she whines. "It's complicated" she says in surrender.
"Only because you want it to be"
"Whatever"
"Mmm-hmm" Lanie decides to drop it. For now, "I'll have to meet him, you know"
"Yeah" the bodyguard rolls her eyes.
They start watching a sappy romantic movie on TV. Beckett doesn't really enjoy these. They're too idealistic and bright-and-shiny for her liking, but she doesn't feel like looking for anything else.
"Aw" Lanie gushes over a scene. "Look at him. He's so sweet" she looks at her friend. "Who says romance is dead?"
"I do" she replies bitterly. "Every Saturday night"
"A little lipstick wouldn't hurt" Beckett gives her a look and Lanie shrugs. "I'm just sayin'"
Castle has been inspired today, so he's been writing most of the morning and afternoon.
He's in the middle of a scene when he realizes he needs to do some research.
Derrick Storm is thrust into the underworld of the Russian mafia. Castle needs to learn more about that universe, and what better way to do it than while playing poker.
Michael Connelly had told him about a place in Chinatown where some mobsters play. He decides to go there for the sake of factual storytelling… And maybe to have a good time too.
He calls his mother to come and sleep at the loft to not leave his daughter alone.
Once Martha is settled upstairs, Alexis tries one more time to discourage her father.
"Come on, dad!" she pleads not wanting him to get into something so dangerous.
"Don't worry, Alexis" he puts his coat on. "It's just research"
"Yeah, research that's going to get you killed!" she insists. "I'm serious, dad. Why don't you at least take Beckett?" isn't that what she's there for?
"Are you kidding? She'd never let me go in there" he chuckles. "Fortunately it's her job to keep you out of trouble and not to prevent me from getting into it"
She scoffs and rolls her eyes.
"Relax, pumpkin" he kisses the top of her head. "Now, don't stay up late"
"Won't" she waves him off from the couch.
"Love you"
"Love you too" she says before he's out the door.
Castle walks down a back alley and turns a corner to find two bouncers guarding a back stairway. An old man, considering Castle a wealthy-enough looking guy nods to the bouncers and one of them pats down the writer to make sure he's not a cop, then the other one motions him through.
He surveys the poker tables around the room with glee from the bar. He's going to get so much information here!
He's interested in the table of Russians so he decides to sit there after getting some tips from the barman. He's sure he'll get excellent insight with these guys. "How's it going?" he says confidently, staring at his competition.
"This is no-limit table" one of the really tough looking Russians tells him.
"Which is perfect, because I am a no-limit kind of guy" he chuckles and slaps a stack of cash on the table. "Change for 20,000, please"
"Nice tattoos" Castle mentions casually after a few moments. He notices that a lot of the Russians have similar tattoos. "What do they say?"
"It says mind your own business and play cards" another one answers. They don't like it when an outsider asks too many questions.
"Alright. Don't mean to pry" the writer quickly says. He doesn't exactly want to get on these guys bad side. "I'm just, uh... I'm actually just a writer. I'm just doing a little bit of research"
"A writer, huh?" a third Russian steps in. "Anything, uh, we might have heard of?"
"Uh, Storm Rising, Storm's Last Stand…"
"Derrick Storm" the first Russian says in recognition.
"Yeah" Castle smiles.
"I love this guy. Is that what this research is for?"
"Yeah, I'm working on one about, uh, underground poker. Very hush-hush. I just kind of came down here to get a feel for the world, you know?" the writer explains.
"And you, you want for it to be authentic" the third Russian states.
"Exactly"
"No problem" but he'll keep an eye on him, just to be sure.
About 20 minutes after Castle left, Alexis decides to stop trying to sleep and gets up and starts pacing the room, debating with herself. She finally makes a decision and grabs the phone to call Beckett. She has a really bad feeling about this.
Right before the end of the movie, the bodyguard's cellphone rings.
She looks at the number and wonders why Castle's calling so late. "Beckett"
"Hey" Alexis says doubtfully.
"Alexis" she gets worried when she hears the teen's voice, sitting up on the couch ready to jump to action. "What's wrong?"
Lanie looks at Beckett wondering what's going on.
"Nothing" she quickly says hearing the bodyguard's worry. "Well, not nothing..." She's suddenly not sure this is a good idea.
Beckett furrows her brow in confusion. "Alexis, what's going on?"
She sighs, she might as well tell her now. "Dad went somewhere to play poker and I'm worried it might be too dangerous. It's with some mafia people"
"What is he doing there?" Beckett says in frustration. And why didn't he call?!
"He's doing research. And I told him to call you... I don't want him to get in trouble..."
"Yeah, well" he already is in a lot of trouble. By now she's in her room getting ready to go. "I'm on my way" she's not about to let her boss get injured or killed. She shudders at the thought. "Do you have any idea where he is?"
"All I know is that it's in Chinatown, and some Russian mobsters play poker there"
That's not a lot to go on, but she can work with that. "Don't worry about your father, Alexis. I'm on my way"
"Thank you, Beckett"
"Sure" she hangs up as she goes back into the living room. "I'm sorry, Lanie. I have to go. But you can stay if you want…"
"What is it? Maybe I can help?" the ME asks curiously.
The bodyguard thinks about it for a second and then nods. They might need her.
Castle starts explaining his crazy story to the Russians without realizing how much trouble he's getting into. The thing is his crazy tale is not as far off as he thinks.
One of the guys at the table is actually living a similar story at the moment, and Castle's description makes him seem like he knows way too much to be just a guy with too much money to spend. Now he's a threat. And there's only one way this particular Russian takes care of threats.
In her car on the way to Chinatown, Beckett calls one of her former colleagues and gets some Intel on the most probable place Castle could've gone to. It's a long shot, but she heads there anyway.
She identifies the alley and parks in a way so that they can't see the vehicle She needs to get Castle out of there before he does something stupid.
"Whoa, what are you doing? Shouldn't we call the cops or something?" Lanie asks concerned when Beckett steps out of the car.
"Uh, I'm gonna go in there" she needs to move quickly. "And if I'm not out in ten minutes, call for someone. Can I have my purse, please? And that sweater" she leans back into the car, and points to the back seat.
Lanie hands Beckett her purse and sweater. "What're you gonna do? Lip-gloss them to death?" the ME says sarcastically, though this might not be the best time for sarcasm.
"Something like that" Beckett steps back, kicks off her heels, takes off her shirt and pants, pulls on the long sweater she had in the back like a dress and ties it with her belt. She shakes out her hair and puts her high heels back on. She does that figuring captivation might be her only way in.
If she gets Castle alive out of there, she might just kill him herself.
AN: This story is now featuring an amazing cover-art made by the awesome dtrekker!
And I'm also looking for a beta reader for this story, so if anyone's interested, send me a PM.
Thanks for your support! You guys are the best!