Kate sat on the edge of the sofa, studying the cover of the book in her hands. One Bullet, One Heart by Richard Castle. She had read the summary on the inside flap at least three times and decided it sounded interesting enough, and then she would turn to the title page and shut it again.
Feel free to handcuff me anytime. Richard Castle. It was followed by his phone number.
God, he was such a jackass. Why was it so irritating? It's not like she was ever even going to see him again, she thought, looking at his easy smirk on the back cover of the book. For some reason beyond her knowledge, that was irritating, too.
The image of Castle taking a step closer to her and backing her up into the counter of the little coffee shop was haunting her mind. Unacceptable. Obviously she needed a distraction. Kate let out a breath of air in defeat and turned to chapter one.
. . . .
Kate shot up from her sleeping position on the couch to a loud bang from the floor beneath her. It was Mr. Roscovious, her downstairs neighbor. He tended to beat on the ceiling whenever she watched her TV to loud or let the phone continue to ring for too long because her hands were full.
She started to get up and felt the book drop from her chest. That's right. She had read that entire book last night. She couldn't remember the last time she'd stayed up all night reading a book straight through. It had to have been at least since high school.
Kate grumbled and pushed herself up from the couch. Stomping extra loud for the benefit of Mr. Roscovious and his ancient calico cat, she made it into the bedroom to silence the blaring alarm clock. Just earlier that month she'd started presetting an extra alarm clock next on the desk in the corner of her room. She'd been spending so many nights up that sometimes she ended up falling asleep in her work and not even making it to her bed.
After resetting the clock for the next day, Kate went to the bathroom and started the shower. Turning the knob as far as it could possibly go, she stepped under the drizzling, lukewarm excuse for water pressure that it had to offer. Nothing like a crappy shower and a sleep-deprived migraine to start the day. It didn't even take a half hour for her to get ready and leave her apartment and head out to the station.
Going to work at least put a little bit of excitement into her day. Usually Kate decided to get out of her squad and do some foot patrol at the beginning of her shift. Actually being out in the public eye had gotten her more respect and a little more action most of the time. By the time lunch came around she'd busted two thugs with a hefty amount of crack-cocaine in their possession, stopped a theft in progress at a local deli and saved a mob of tourists from the quick-fingered pickpocket honing in on their vacation spending money. Not bad for a routine Thursday morning if she said so herself.
However, her deprived stomach let her know with a loud moan that it was time to take a break. Kate backtracked to the deli she was at earlier and found it to be the best idea she had all day. Even walking in the door, the smells surrounded her. The combined scents of coffee, meats, cheeses, and fresh-baked bread sending her grumbling belly into overdrive. It all looked so appealing. Walking up to the counter she grazed her teeth over her lower lip and studied her options.
Deciding on a tuna melt and going for the largest cup of black coffee that they had to offer, Kate sat down in the booth closest to the back hallway so that she wouldn't have to be facing away from anyone. You never know what could happen. Like being snuck up on, and stabbed, and discarded in an empty alley like a useless pile of garbage. She couldn't eat with things like that running through her mind, though.
She distracted herself with the cork board full of advertisements on the wall and dug into her sandwich. The aroma of the place definitely didn't deceive her, the tuna was delicious and the coffee was fresh. Kate didn't even realize how quickly she had eaten it until it was gone. She had been to busy reading poster for none other than Richard Castle's One Bullet, One Heart. The critics seem to have enjoyed it according to the numerous reviews listed.
"Richard Castle has done it again!"
"A thrill ride with a new twist around every corner. Pure genius!"
"Captivating. You can sense the real Richard Castle's charm coming out with every word."
Yea, Kate thought to herself, rolling her eyes. Real charming fellow. But she still couldn't shake the image of him from the morning before, disarming her with those deep blue eyes and that smug grin. The picture on the poster didn't do him justice, not really. It didn't feature the laugh lines around his eyes or the day old scruff he was sporting that made him look sexier than Kate would ever admit aloud.
She could at least admit that the book was good. Okay it was a little amazing. But that was it. Nothing else about the man had any appeal at all. As far as Kate was concerned he was just an asshole with some skills. That's it.
She almost jumped out of her seat when her radio beeped and startled her out of her thoughts forbidden thoughts. It was dispatch about a suspicious death on the third floor of a building two blocks away. All of her thoughts about Richard Castle melted away at the words suspicious death. It could be a homicide. All she needed was a foot in the door.
She grabbed at her radio and practically flew out the door. "Dispatch, this is 1 Lincoln 40, Officer Kate Beckett responding to the suspicious death on 5th and Harding. 10-4."
. . . .
Kate arrived at the building even faster than her ETA. She didn't even bother with the elevator because the stairs were right next to the doorway, and jogged up to the third floor taking them 2 steps at a time. However, when she got into the hallway she made herself take a breath and take it slow. She had to take it all in, not miss any details.
There was a woman sitting on the ground in the hallway, hugging her knees to her chest in one hand and her phone in the other. Clearly she was the one that must've called it in.
"Hello, I'm Officer Kate Beckett. Can I get your name? Are you hurt?"
She knelt beside the woman to introduce herself but couldn't make much out of the woman's sobs. There didn't seem to be a medical emergency though, so Kate excused herself and pulled her weapon. She pushed open the door to a well furnished living room. It was clean. Good, she thought to herself, not a lot of places to hide. She cleared the kitchen and one bedroom quickly, being careful of the corners since no backup had arrived yet. She swung through another bedroom door low and easy. Unlike the others this room was messed up, some things were knocked over and the mirror was broken in the bottom right corner. The blankets were off the bed and there was clearly some bodily fluid left on the expensive silk sheets.
What in the hell. Kate's mind flashed back to the ransacked bedroom in Castle's book from the night before.
Focus.
Just because she couldn't get the man out of her head didn't mean she had to think about his stupid book in the middle of a crime scene. She needed to finish clearing the apartment. So she put her guard back up and went over to the last door in the hallway. She opened the door to a bathroom with a big, claw foot tub. In the tub was a girl hardly older than 25, with a bullet hole right in the middle of her forehead. Her hands were placed in her lap, holding the heart that had been surgically removed from her chest.
Kate's jaw dropped as she lowered her weapon in the cleared room. That bedroom with semen on the sheets was no coincidence. This was Richard Castle's crime scene.
. . . .
Rick stood in his kitchen doing nothing. He was supposed to be unloading the dishwasher, but he was just standing there staring at his phone. Apparently telepathically telling it to ring was beyond his power. A call from anyone would be okay, really.
He was secretly hoping his mystery cop would read his book and call him, though. He wrote down his private number just for her. It was a good book, all the reviews said so. She'd have to call him and make up for her general rude and uptight attitude from the day before. He could think of a couple of ways she could make it up to him, too.
He sighed and resigned to actually putting the dishes away. She didn't even tell him her name. Apparently it is possible to be immune to his ruggedly his ruggedly handsome face.
Later that day when his phone did ring, it wasn't her. The unknown number gave him a small glimmer of false hope, but it was just Meredith. Alexis was out playing with a girl that lived down the street that she had made friends with. Rick smiled at that but didn't smile when Meredith asked if she could stay for another week.
"I don't see why you don't want her to stay with me Richard. She's having a good time with that other little girl, and she's invited to her birthday next week. It'll be good for her."
Rick wanted her to have fun, he really did. But he missed his little girl. Couldn't she have fun here with him. Plus he wouldn't have to worry about Meredith being her caretaker out there, the woman was hardly responsible for herself sometimes.
"Look Meredith, she needs to come home and get settled in before school starts again. That's only three weeks away. We already have the plane tickets bought and everything," he said a little bit too quickly into his phone.
"Come on, kitten. That still gives her time. Just another week here, it'll be over in no time."
Past experiences with Meredith told Rick that she wanted her to stay there for some other reason. She usually never asked for Alexis to stay longer than planned, and whenever she came out to New York she ended up leaving early. Something was going on. He would not let Alexis get hurt because of something she had cooked up.
"Why don't you tell me why you really want Alexis to stay for another week?" he suggested easily.
"Just to spend time with my beautiful daughter, honestly Richard. I can take her to that birthday party so she can play with her new friend. It'll be no trouble. Her friend's Uncle is an independent film director so I can just chat with him while Alexis – "
Rick's phone beeped with an incoming call from Paula, and he sighed in relief. "Look Meredith, we can talk about this later I have to take this."
With that he switched over to the other line and answered to his frantic publicist.
"What the hell writer boy, did you see what's going on?" He could barely hear here over all the people talking in the background of her phone.
"No Paula, where are you?"
"Never mind that, just turn on your TV. Go to the ABC news and just watch."
Rick didn't even bother to ask her anything else he just obeyed her and went out to his TV. He flipped to the ABC and his stomach dropped when he read the headline at the bottom.
ONE BULLET, ONE HEART. MURDER SCENE SIMILAR TO CRIME NOVELIST RICHARD CASTLE'S NEWEST FICTION.
He dropped his phone and turned the volume up. A reporter was showing some footage from the end of the hall and couldn't get past the crime scene tape. They were shouting questions at the cops on scene and a Detective Bremer came up to make a statement. Rick hardly registered the words, though.
There. In the back. It was his cop. Holy shit, she was just as gorgeous on camera. She was bending over with gloves to bag up some sort of wrapper as evidence. She handed it off to some sweepers and went back inside the apartment and out of his view.
He used his DVR to rewind the last thirty seconds and watch her again. She just had this style that was fierce and stunning all at once. After watching her bag the same piece of evidence three times he just paused it and fell back onto his couch. He would find this woman again, he had to.
Then there was a loud and sudden pounding on his front door. "Police. Open up. We're here for a Richard Castle."