:::::::::: Abandoned warehouse ::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The two men hurried into the room. They poked at the motionless body. Nothing. One of them took out his cellphone. He speed dialed a number and waited for the other side to pick up. He motioned to his partner, "Check if he's dead."
"Now how the hell am I supposed to do that?"
"Check his vitals, put a mirror to his nose or somethin'- Yo boss, we have a problem here. The guy bled out. - Not there fool, on his wrists! Do I have to draw you a picture?" He turns his back and continues "No boss, not you, I was talking..."
Untying the ropes to get a good feel of any pulse, the man mumbled "Yeah Dr.-I-watch-House-and-think-I'm-a-genius-'cuz-I-know-it-aint-no-Sarcoidosis..."
Once the ropes were no longer bounding his hands together, Castle surprised his captor with an upward jab to his nose that left him squirming on the floor, blinded and choking from his own blood. Castle lunged to retrieve the fallen man's gun from his waist holster, and readily pointed it at the man on the phone who had just swung around, completely taken back from the sudden commotion. Castle signaled to cut the conversation and with a threatening raise of his eyebrow and a finger on his lips, signaled him to not say a word to the other side.
"Uh Boss? Errr, ok, I gotta go now. Yeah we'll take care of it just fine. Ok." He turned off the phone and set it down on a stack of closed boxes. "So, fella... you wanna tell me what you want here? 'Cuz we can come to an agreement here... you know what I'm sayin'? I can.. -"
"You can shut the hell up and tie up your friend here."
"Ok, ok, nobody needs to get hurt here, alright?" The man looked at his friend, squirming and moaning undecipherable things on the floor. He grabbed the rope that had until recently confined Castle. He noticed the blood stain on Castle's flank "You won't last long bleeding like that." He tried to make his best pitch "Boy, you really gotta ask yourself here, do you feel lucky?"
Castle stared at the man. "Seriously?" He hesitated and lowered the gun for a moment "Seriously?" He resumed his aim and moved sideways to grab the man's cell phone from the boxes. "Just tie him up..." He squinted "..and it's ask yourself do I feel lucky! You know you really shouldn't misquote one of the most famous cop lines in history when you have a writer-slash-cop-adviser pointing a gun at you. Oh and you..." he pointed the gun at the bleeding tied up man. "House?" Castle shook his head in disdain. "He's diagnostics. You should of gone with ER on that one... Oh!, and I won't even begin to tell you what a sundae actually means..."
While keeping his aim locked on the two men, Castle shrugged his shoulders and copied the last number dialed on the phone to a text that read I'm hit, Kate's gone. The number is the boss' cell. He typed Esposito's number, hit send and placed the phone in his pants' pocket. His hand returned covered in blood. He winced but stood firmly on task: Kate. He asked slowly, "Now tell me, where is she?"
"Hun, who? Oh, your girlfriend?" The first man mocked "Oh don't worry, she's fiiiiiine." He nodded mischievously, and with a mumble added "She truly is migh-ty fine..."
Castle instinctively struck the man's face with the butt of the gun, his elbow locked as he set aim to the man's head and with fire in his eyes, he repeated in a cavernous voice "Where. Is. She?"
The man spat the blood that had rapidly filled his mouth. He looked up and daringly spoke, "It doesn't matter where she is no more. You see,... Your girlfriend is dead."