Genre: Drama, Crime, Romance, Humor

Rating: M for language, sexual situations and violence

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters featured on the show Castle, they belong to the creator of the show, ABC, and the others who do own them.

A/N #1: Wanna note that I'm not an expert horse rider, and I have a saying here that I don't think exists, but I feel like I've heard it before, and it works in my head, lol. So I'm taking artistic license with that.

A/N #2: Again, I need to say a very heartfelt thank you to vetgirlmx for reviewing yet again! I really am happy to see when you do so. And I am really; really glad that you liked the action in this chapter, as I know I had a lot of it, lol. And your comment about my narrating style was an incredible compliment and I loved reading that. But I am very happy that you like how I write that of course! So thanks yet again, it has to be said, because I do really enjoy seeing your reviews, and I do appreciate you taking the time to let me know what you think!

A/N #3: The title of this chapter comes from the song All You Horse Riders by Paul McCartney, again it's on disc 2 of his remastered McCartney II album.

Get Your Horses Out

Running to the front stall on their right, Beckett unlocked the gate and slid it open before she ran across to the other side. She turned away from the opening as the horses ran past her and jumped over the burning hay. She turned to go across the aisle when she saw Castle had that gate and was opening it. She then ran down the aisle until she reached the very last one, and that horse was out. "Why isn't he going? Hey!" she said as she tried to get Asturias; in the last stall on the other side; to run out, slapping at his flank to spur him to run.

"He's got a bridle on," Castle said suddenly as the horse only neighed loudly and stamped its hooves into the ground. "Beckett, we have a way to get out."

"What? How?" Beckett asked, starting to cough as the first curls of smoke reached them then. She watched with wide eyes as he climbed up onto the wall next to the open gate before he grabbed the stallion.

Pulling Asturias to him, Castle murmured soothingly while he hooked his leg over and sat on its back. "Come on, he's a great jumper, he can clear that hay even with us on him," he said, turning to Beckett and holding his hand out to her.

"Are you crazy?" Beckett said. "You want to ride a horse, jumping over burning bales of hay and ride off into the sunset?"

"There's no other way out, and I doubt Ryan and Esposito would be able to find us in time before the smoke kills all three of us," Castle said. "There's no other way out of here Beckett."

"Do you even know how to control a horse?" Beckett asked, knowing he was right.

"Yes!" Castle said, getting a little exasperated.

"Sober?" Beckett said.

"Ye-" Castle started to say.

"And fully clothed?" Beckett then said.

"Kate, get on the horse before I jump down and throw you over his back!" Castle finally yelled as the smoke made him cough heavily; Asturias shying slightly before he pulled on the reins to calm him.

Beckett quickly climbed up on the wall with his help and slid behind him on the stallion's back asking, "Have you ever ridden bareback?"

"No, but we'll figure it out right now," Castle said. "Hold on," he said as Asturias stepped out into the aisle at his direction.

"Let him go, he knows to get out," Beckett said as she wrapped her arms tightly around Castle's middle.

"I know," Castle replied before he dug his heels into the stallion's flanks. At Asturias' first jerk into a gallop, he felt Beckett's hands and arms squeeze around him and they both had to grip the horse's body tightly with their legs to keep from falling back. He watched the flames get closer and finally yelled behind him, "Duck!" doing the same just in time before Asturias jumped right in front of the bales of hay.

Beckett could feel the heat of the flames that had climbed up to the ceiling around them as they passed through the smoke. Before they came down, she felt something striking against the back of the stallion, but didn't have a chance to react as they hit the ground, nearly knocking the wind out of her. But Asturias was fine and kept on galloping as she looked behind them, seeing that one of the men was on the ground. Two men then started to run after them; guns at the ready, and she yelled to Castle; "We need to get to the park."

"Why do you think I'm letting him have the bit? He knows where to go," Castle said, yelling back to her.

When they had reached the street, they found two more men at the three black cars that had swerved onto the sidewalk in front of the stables. They rode past them, Beckett glancing back to see their startled looks before they jumped into the cars as the two men from the stable ran up to them, yelling. She then remembered the street, and watched as Castle let Asturias go, not even bothering to watch out for cars. She winced as brakes were slammed and horns began to honk. Luckily the street wasn't that wide, and they were soon riding down the path where the stallion knew his way.

"Beckett, the killer knows how de Alba went," Castle said as they passed near Cathleen de Alba's body but couldn't see it since they had been so far off the path in what had felt like a lifetime before.

"Go to your right," Beckett said, looking behind them. She didn't see anyone behind them, and after he'd gone off the path and further into the trees she looked at him as he slowed the stallion down. She breathed out a sigh before there was sudden barrage of bullets to their left, and Asturias suddenly reared before taking off again. She was gripping onto Castle as hard as she could before looking over her shoulder again. "It's the killer!" she yelled to him, shocked to see the man, all in black, riding another horse and firing at them. "We need to go faster."

"I think he's going as fast as he can," Castle yelled over his shoulder before he felt her legs moving behind him. All of a sudden, the stallion seemed to jump and he was gripping onto the reins as tightly as he could as the horse was running so fast the trees and people they were passing seemed to blend into a blur.

"Slow him down, the killer's too far back," Beckett said as they pulled so far ahead she couldn't see the man in black. She breathed out heavily as Castle managed to slow Asturias to a trot and she could relax her grip on him. "Are you okay?" she asked as he turned them to the left towards a path.

"Yeah, thought you were going to break my ribs," Castle said. "But I wasn't expecting the killer to come after us. If we were in the desert this would so be a Western," he said as he looked around at the trees and then tried to figure out where they were.

Looking behind her, Beckett was about to reach for her phone when she heard a popping sound and looked down to see a divot had appeared in the grass. "We need to go!" she said as she saw the killer bearing down on them. She grabbed onto him again as Castle dug his heels into Asturias' sides and they took off again. She glanced behind her, judging the killer's speed before she turned back to Castle. "We need to lose him again so I can call backup," she told him.

Spurring the stallion on faster, Castle managed to get them far enough ahead of the killer that he brought Asturias down to a walk before stopping him. "We can't keep doing that, he's going to collapse," he said, nodding down to the horse.

"Ryan and Esposito won't have time to get to us," Beckett said, looking around and guessing they were likely in the middle of the park. "We need to take him down ourselves."

"With what?" Castle asked.

"First we need to let him go," Beckett said. She looked at Castle as he stared at her, and watched as he slid down to the ground. She swung her leg over, sliding off herself into his arms before she turned and slapped Asturias' side as hard as she could. "I just hope he goes far enough away," she said as they watched the horse gallop the way they'd been heading.

"I have an idea," Castle said, before he pulled on Beckett's arm, taking her to the nearest tree.

When the killer rode up to the tree only a minute later, Beckett watched as he and the horse approached her, the man jumping easily off the stallion before striding to her, his gun up and aiming straight at her heart. "Where is he?" the man asked in a gruff voice.

"We lost control of him and he threw us off," Beckett said, trying to stay calm as she glanced at the silencer at the end of the gun.

"The same as Patrick, a smart horse," the killer said. "Do you know who I am?"

"No, but you know I am a detective, if you kill me-" Beckett began to say before the cock of the gun cut her off abruptly.

"I do not care," the killer said easily as he stepped up to Beckett so the end of the silencer was mere inches away from her. "Where is the man who was with you?"

"I don't know," Beckett said quickly, hoping she wasn't giving anything away. "He ran for help I think."

"I do not believe you," the man said, his accent coming out thickly then. "Turn around." When Beckett only stared at him, he grabbed her shoulder and threw her against the tree trunk. "I don't ask Detective."

Beckett looked up at the tree, and glanced over her shoulder as the killer watched her.

"Praying for help isn't going to work," the killer said before he took a few steps back. "Definitely not this time," he said as he cocked the gun. Before he could fire though, he was suddenly hit by something, and knocked down to the ground, the gun flying out of his hand.

Trying to grab the killer's arms, Castle ducked out of the way of a punch that landed on his shoulder and felt Beckett helping him grab the man's right arm. But before she could get enough of a grip to hold it in place, the killer nearly got out of their grasp, trying to stand. He acted on instinct, and punched the man square in the face before he and Beckett could get his wrists together, and she cuffed him. "I told you it would work," he said as he stood up.

"I know," Beckett said, hurrying to the gun and pointing it at the killer who remained motionless. "But really, jumping out of a tree?"

"Best I could come up with in the time we had," Castle said, standing up as the killer stopped struggling. "And you didn't really have anything in mind yourself," he said.

"Take off his mask, we need to see who this is exactly if it isn't Gutierrez," Beckett said, shooting him a look.

"Right," Castle said, making the killer sit up before he took off the man's sunglasses and the hood covering his hair. He paused abruptly at the hair that fell down past the killer's shoulders, and looked up at Beckett.

"The mask," she said, her eyes wide.

Castle took off the surgical mask, and stood up yelling, "Oh my god I hit a woman!"

"The secretary from the bank, Munoz," Beckett said in shock. "You're the killer?"

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry-" Castle tried to say to the woman. But she cut him off by yelling in Spanish, derogatory words she literally spat at Beckett and which he understood.

"Castle, don't," Beckett said, grabbing the back of his jacket when he began to lunge towards the woman. "Gates hears about this she'll get rid of you. Who are you? And if you call me what you just said again I'll punch you this time."

"I don't have to say anything," the woman hissed. "I want a lawyer."

"Yeah, you might," Castle said, as he glanced over at Beckett who had her phone out.

"Espo?" Beckett said as soon as the detective had answered.

"Beckett? Where the hell are you, we're at the stables but all we found was a burning stable and a guy knocked unconscious with about six guys carrying weapons," Esposito said.

"Long story, look, Castle and I are…" Beckett started to say before she glanced around. "Where are we exactly?" she asked him.

"I think we're north, or northeast of the carousel," Castle said, coming back to her after he'd went to the path they were closest to, trying to get his bearings. "Tell them they can't miss us since we'll have a grey horse with us," he said as Asturias came walking up to them then. Walking over to the horse, Castle held out his hand and as the stallion smelled his palm, he grabbed the reins. "What do you say we put her on the back of him and take her to the stables?" he asked Beckett once he'd walked back to her as she hung up her phone after telling Ryan and Esposito where Cathleen de Alba was.

"I wouldn't want to be investigated for cruel treatment of an animal," Beckett said, looking at the killer who she assumed probably didn't have the last name of Munoz. "And I'm talking about the horse," she said as the women shot her a murderous glare. "At least give us your name."

"Paula," the woman said with clenched teeth.

"Paula Gutierrez," Beckett said; having seen then the resemblance to the man who'd burned the stable; as she knelt in front of her but kept her gun trained on her. "Who are you and what is your relationship with Patrick de Alba."

"Es mi primo, my cousin, the thief," Paula said angry. "He is mine," she said, jerking her head at the stallion.

"And your brother," Beckett said, wondering if it was the threat of dragging her back to the stables on the horse she'd tried to steal that had broken her resistance.

"He wanted our grandfather's stables, with the horse, we could get enough money from races to buy it from my cousin," Paula said. "Bastard wanted to give it to our Palma cousin; it belongs to me and my brother."

"Okay, I get it, you're angry with your cousins," Beckett said. "Did you have to kill the Lakes, Victoria Alvarez?"

"None of them matter," Paula said with a shrug. "They were close to figuring us out, they needed to go. As you did, both of you."

"Great mentality," Castle said. "Boy am I glad they went all out, made them kind of over confident."

"I know," Beckett said before she stood up. "I hope you'll enjoy American jail, because you can kiss Spain and Dos Lagos goodbye." She wasn't surprised when Paula tried to roll over to get up, instead she expected it, and cocked the gun loudly as the woman was able to get on her knees and slowly stand. "Or you can stay here in a more permanent condition than life in prison," she told her easily as Paula stared at the gun with wide eyes.

"I'm pretty sure she's serious about that," Castle said as he could tell the woman was weighing her options.

Paula then smirked; to the surprise of both Beckett and Castle before she turned to run. But before she could get far, Esposito appeared in front of her from the tree trunks that surrounded the clearing they were in, his gun aimed at her face. She turned to go in the other direction, but Ryan was there in her way, his gun trained on her.

"You got this Beckett?" Esposito asked.

"I think you do Javi," Beckett said, transferring the gun to her other hand then.

"Your hand," Castle said, grabbing her scarf and putting pressure on the wound that was seeping blood through the fabric.

Watching as Ryan and Esposito went through the trees with Paula, Beckett let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. "Over here," she called as she saw an EMT coming through the trees after the two detectives had left.

"We got a call that an officer was shot," the woman said, watching as Asturias followed Castle and Beckett over to her.

"That would be her, and she was grazed," Castle said. "I managed to stop the bleeding, but the wound re-opened just now."

As Beckett allowed the EMT to take off her scarf, she looked over at Castle, Asturias behind him. She felt a sense of relief that he wouldn't have to tell her daughter that she was seriously injured and they had managed to save the stallion from being owned by the unreasonably vicious Gutierrez siblings. The case was solved, but she knew there was one more thing left to determine.