At the sound of the voice, which cracked like a whip, Rogers was startled enough that he actually did pull the stun gun from Castle's side, although he didn't step away as he'd been ordered. Neither did Jeremy. Both men turned, and among the various stacks and pallets of boxes and crates, they saw movement and in the sudden silence in the large room heard the unmistakable sound of guns being readied and ammunition being racked into various chambers of weapons. In the middle of it all, Kate Beckett exposed herself enough to allow the men to see her and the large handgun she had in her right hand.

"Step away," Beckett ordered, her voice filled with the authority of someone who has an army at her beck and call, and suppressed with fury at the treatment of the man hanging from the rope in the middle of the room.

They'd arrived silently only a few minutes before and had been surprised by the lack of any kind of security. Obviously Rogers and Jeremy had decided that they weren't going to bring anyone else in on the job – at least not yet – and they had probably figured that it would only take minutes to get the information from Castle so they'd be done and gone long before anyone found where they'd taken him. Of course, Castle hadn't known and Beckett had been forced to watch them torture him while she anxiously waited to hear that all the police officers were in position around the warehouse. She couldn't move on them until she was sure that they wouldn't escape, and because they weren't using deadly force on him, she couldn't just shoot them like she wanted to.

The man with the stun gun had part of his body concealed behind Castle's now silent form, and Beckett watched him carefully as she stepped out from behind the crate she'd been watching from.

"Show me your hands – both of you."

"Can't do that," Jeremy told her. "If I do, then I won't be able to kill your boyfriend before you shoot me."

"You can't kill him before I shoot you," Beckett assured him. She had a good view of him, and all she could see was the stick he'd been holding. Beckett knew she'd be able to shoot him before he could hit Castle with it again. She might even be able to justify it.

The sound of another gun cocking suddenly filled the air, this one coming from somewhere between Castle and Rogers. The man smiled when he saw Beckett's expression at the noise.

"You can't kill me before I kill him, though," Rogers told her. "Although you're welcomed to try – and feel free to start with Mr. Henderson here."

Henderson. That would be Jeremy's last name, then. Beckett lowered her weapon just a tad, showing Rogers that she understood the danger and was ready to see what he wanted.

"It doesn't have to end badly," Beckett told him, as both of them ignored the sudden burst of annoyance from Jeremy, who was clearly not pleased at the comment his partner had made. "You haven't done anything that can't be-"

The sound of a gunshot roared through the room, deafening all of them and startling everyone. Jeremy dropped, and for an instant Beckett thought that Rogers had shot him before they could even begin any kind of negotiations. The man looked just as surprised as the rest, though, and Beckett took advantage of that to bring her gun back up and fire. The gun in Rogers' hand clattered as it landed several feet away, and his body landed with a thump on the warehouse floor.

There was a commotion to the right and Beckett turned just in time to see a few of the police officers disarm and then throw Adam Madison to the floor and cuffed him. Ryan stepped up and kicked the gun even further from Roger's fallen body while Esposito went over to Castle and wrapped his arms around the writer's torso to take some of his weight off the rope and his abused arms. Beckett joined him as soon as she realized what he was doing.

"Hold on detectives," one of the other officers said. This man was taller than Castle, and he waited until he was sure that Esposito had Castle – who still hadn't uttered a sound – and then he reached up and cut the rope.

Castle slumped, but Esposito was strong enough to catch him and keep him from going down. Mainly since there were two puddles of blood under them, one from Jeremy and the other from the equally unlamented Rogers. Castle roused and moaned softly when his arms came down, and Beckett slipped her shoulder under his armpit to help Esposito support him.

"Easy…"

"I do not like Jeremy…" Castle gasped, his voice pure agony. His head drooped but Beckett and Esposito were both careful to make sure neither of them touched his badly swollen face.

"Yeah, well you don't need to worry about him, now, Bro," Esposito assured him.

"Or the other guy," Ryan added, coming over to take the other side. "Ambulance is on the way, Castle. We'll have you doped up with painkillers in no time."

Castle leaned a little sideways – mainly because Beckett wasn't as steady as Ryan and Esposito were and she was sagging under his weight. He realized who it was and tried to raise his head to meet her worried gaze.

"He told me you were dead…"

She shook her head, and tried to force a smile. It didn't come.

"I'm here. Hospital this time, though. No arguments."

"No." Castle wasn't going to argue. He couldn't get around the pain wracking his body and he didn't have the energy to protest. There was an oppressive blackness bearing down on him, and he didn't have anything in him to fight it back. He vaguely heard a siren in the distance and wondered if it was coming their direction.

"You're going to go with him," Esposito pointed out. Her forehead was bruising and she looked a little too pale for Esposito's comfort. He took her spot at Castle's arm and he and Ryan mostly carried the writer over to a clear spot and had him lie down, even as a swarm of paramedics arrived to take over the writer's care.

Beckett nodded at Esposito. She knew she needed to get looked at, too, now that they had Castle safely back. Not whole and hale, but alive and breathing, at least. She sighed, and walked over to the two bodies on the floor. Ryan and Esposito followed, even though they both kept looking over their shoulders as though to make sure that Castle wasn't going to need them.

"You realize we probably will never know what happened to that diamond?" Ryan asked, watching as both bodies were covered.

"They didn't know where it was anyway," Beckett told him. A paramedic came over and handed her an icepack and took a quick look at the cut on her forehead.

"We're taking Mr. Castle as soon as we get him stabilized," the man told her. "You should get your head looked at, Detective."

"How's he doing?"

"We'll know more when we get him to the hospital. He passed out – but I didn't see anything life-threatening."

She nodded, and looked at Ryan and Esposito.

"You guys mind taking care of things here?"

"No. We'll meet you at the hospital later," Ryan told her.

"Do we call his mom and Alexis?" Esposito asked.

"Not yet," Beckett told him. "We'll wait until he can call them – that will keep them from panicking."

Which made sense. If he was smart, Esposito decided, he'd just tell them he and Beckett were in a car wreck. It would be the truth and far less scary than the reality.

"We'll process Madison, too," Ryan said.

The paramedics were putting Castle on a backboard, now, and getting him on a gurney to load him into the ambulance. Beckett turned to go, too.

"Call Montgomery, too," she said. "And have him call Doctor Cutter."

"We'll take care of it, Beckett," Esposito promised. "Tell Castle we'll see him soon."