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A defeaning silence had remained for a few minutes in the car since Lanie hung up the phone. Bowers was driving with one hand, as the other was holding the gun tight against the wheel. He remained silent and kept driving, God only knew where. He was driving faster since the call, anyway. He perfectly knew this was the final act, and he couldn't afford to make a mistake.

Behind him, Lanie and Martha remained petrified. The young ME couldn't stop staring at the gun their kidnapper was holding and she was biting her lower lip nervously. The writer's mother couldn't stop glancing at Bowers, then Lanie, feeling powerless. What could they do anyway except for saving time and hoping that help would come soon?

"What are you planning to do, now?" the actress dared asking to Bowers. That silence was becoming unbearable.

"Shut up," he replied to Martha.

The actress raised her eyebrows and turned to Lanie again, who shook her head. Fine, he wasn't in the mood for chit-chat. But at least, she had the right to ask the question. After all, what did he want to do with her?

"You know, it's not too late, you can still back-pedal," Lanie tried to convince him.

"I said, shut up," he groaned, as he hit the wheel with the gun. "You just shut up, both of you."

He seemed to be thinking. As if he didn't know what to do now. He orchestrated everything, from A to Z. From Gina's raping, her murder, the dog's slaughtering, the cars and the network's wrecking, the power cut, the traps in the forest, Alexis's kidnapping, to the fire he set and his escape masterfully done. Everything happened as planned for now.

But now...

Right now he wasn't sure of what to do exactly, and it was frustrating. He needed time to think about what would come next. He had been thinking of killing them and leaving their bodies on the road. But since the cops were chasing them now, he wasn't sure of whether he had enough time to do it. He could use them as hostages so he could go as far as he could and negotiate for a helicopter. But that option didn't sound that good either. Dammit. He couldn't think. So if these damn ladies could just shut the hell up, that would be helpful.

Lanie kept watching him discreetly. She knew that as a schizophrenic, he could have unpredictable reactions. She had to be careful. But she also could convince him to give up and yield. After all...she had to try.

"Think about it. It's over now, they're going to find us anyway."

"Maybe yes...maybe not," he mumbled as he stared at the road, his eyes wide open.

"They managed to trace the call and the car's position. You can't imagine how many cops are after us, and within a few minutes, there'll be a helicopter above us."

"Let them come," he snorted sarcastically.

"If you yield, if you let us go, we can plead for you," Martha offered as Lanie nodded too.

"You really believe that after all that I've done, they're going to give me an early release?" he said as he turned towards them. "You really think I'm fucking stupid or what?!"

"That's not what I said," the actress pleaded. But Bowers barked, irritated.

"Enough now, I told you to shut up!"

Furious, he turned the wheel a little bit too abruptly and the car swerved.

"Watch out!" Lanie yelled as she held her seatbelt tight.

Bowers took control of the wheel again. They almost left the road.

"See what happens if you upset me? I become careless and we almost had an accident. Is that what you want? No? Then, you shouldn't distract me. And you," he said to Martha. "You, I really should have smashed your head in that bathroom so that I wouldn't have to listen to your bullshit now."

Martha winced as she remembered what happened a few hours ago and stopped talking as she didn't want to make the situation worse.

"This is no bullshit," Lanie dared saying despite his threats. "You know we're right. Okay, so you made mistakes and did things...unreasonable. But there's still a chance! You...you spared Alexis's life, that means that actually you're not as bad as you claim, are you?"

"Bullshit," he snorted. "I was planning to let her burn alive in that shed, but your colleagues arrived on time to save her, too bad."

Lanie sighed and backed off against the seat in frustration before she glanced at Martha. Bowers was stubborn and determined. She wouldn't manage to make him change his mind so easily. She had to try though, until Esposito and the others would come to their rescue.

"Fine, you did want to hurt her," she said. "She's Castle's daughter so you wanted to get to him. But then, why didn't you do to her the same thing you did to Gina?"

Martha winced and did her best not to protest. Imagining that pervert doing to her own granddaughter what he did to that poor Gina disguted her.

"Don't you dare psychoanalyze me," he groaned as he shook his head. But Lanie refused to stop.

"Answer me! Why? You could have hurt her, tortured her, but instead, you just left her in that shed..."

"Fine," he cut her off to make her shut up. "Fine, I couldn't, I left her there, I did nothing to her, I just set fire to the shed and ran away like a coward, is it what you want to hear?" he barked.

"So I'm right," Lanie said as she glanced at Martha who encouraged her with a nod. "If you were able to re-think about it at that time, if you were able to spare her, it means that, deep inside, you have an ounce of empathy."

"She's right, and I'm sure you know it too, deep inside you...Think about it, there's still time to stop now," Martha approved.

Bowers was about to say something, and hesitated, taking into consideration what they were saying. After all...they were right. He had spared the ginger girl. All things considered, he did spare her because at that time, he had no intention to fuck her. Because she had shut her mouth during her kidnapping. Because she hadn't treated him like a criminal. And she had seemed to be a smart girl. Not like Gina. Who the hell did she think she was with her superior manners? Well he did show her who the boss was, oh yeah he did.

But now the ME and the mother were there in the car. Technically, they were innocent. He could stop the car, tell them to get out and he could take the road again, as far as he could. He might...

Or he might not.

No, don't delude yourself man. You're screwed anyway. You can think and re-think about it, it won't change a thing. They wouldn't be indulgent. He went too far. So he had no choice now.

Lanie watched him being lost in tracks. She could swear she saw him doubt and change his mind for a second. But when he spoke again, her last hopes vanished.

"Nah...No I can't do this. I can't let you go."

"Bowers, please," Martha pleaded.

"It's too late, anyway," he kept talking without hearing her. "I've done too much harm around me, and even if I wanted...No, it's too late, I'm sorry."

Martha and Lanie shared a concerned look. What did he mean?

"I'm truly sorry", he repeated as he shook his head frenetically. He was staring blankly at the road, but he wasn't even seeing it anymore. "Everything is accomplished now...and I don't expect anything more."

"Bowers?" Lanie called him. "What...what are you doing?"

"Sorry..." he whispered as he turned to them one last time and raised the gun he was holding in his right hand before he put it against his temple.

The seconds after were like a slow motion movie. Lanie's eyes widened, horrified. She didn't have time to react. Martha and she screamed at the same time.

"OH MY GOD NO!"

There was a gunshot. Only one. Then the car swerved on the right and rolled over, three, four, five times, before it ended its crazy race in a field with a defeaning noise.

The landscape was passing before their eyes. One could cut the atmosphere with a knife.

Rick Castle barely looked at Javier Esposito who was driving for long, very long minutes now, stoical. Focused on the road, he was upset. Or just mad. It was hard to tell, seeing his expressionless face. But Rick could see he was holding the wheel so tight he could break it in two. Even the way he was driving was harsh. And fast, for a dirt road...Way too fast. From time to time, the detective glanced at the milestones on the side of the road. Bowers's car was too far. Way too far. Especially since he certainly didn't stop driving and he should be even more far away by now. Thinking about it made Esposito feel sicker as the minutes passed. He was worried to death for Lanie.

Finally Castle dared talking, breaking the heavy and disturbing silence.

"Esposito, you...you're driving a little bit too fast." The writer said shyly.

"Don't you want to find your mother?" he mumbled a little bit coldly.

"Precisely, I want to find her, that's why I don't want us to die on the road...You do want to save Lanie right?" he replied, trying to calm him down.

"Of course I do. If we don't hurry up, he's going to kill them," the latino replied coldly.

"You don't know that..."

"I know he's a maniac. And I want to have a chance to put a bullet in his head before it happens."

"If you try something like that, he'll kill them for sure..."

"How do you know that?" Esposito mumbled as he glared at the writer.

"I don't, that's true..." Castle admitted. "Listen, the guy is disturbed, we know that. But now that he ran away...I'm sure he could negotiate and spare them," he added as calmly as he could despite the circumstances.

Esposito smirked and shook his head.

"I don't negotiate with a son of a bitch. Have you already forgotten the hell he put us through?"

"No," Rick said calmly. "Of course it makes me sick and I want to make him pay for what he did to Gina, what he did to my daughter who almost died if you hadn't been there on time, and I'll always be grateful to you for this...But if we want to save my mother and Lanie, we need to put a little water in our wine and maybe we should make an offer..."

"Well, for that, we need to catch him first, right?" Esposito said, still irritated. Then he sighed and cooled down for a few seconds. "I just want to find her...alive." he confided, more calmly.

"I know," Castle said. "And believe me, I want the same thing."

"So let me drive as fast as it pleases me, Castle," Javier said.

Rick sighed and didn't argue more. He just watched at the rear-view mirror...Gates and Kate weren't behind them. Esposito had lost them as he was driving too fast.

After a short moment of silence, Esposito took the radio abruptly and put it in front of his mouth.

"Captain Gates?" He waited a few seconds before he called again.
"Gates, Beckett!"

After a sizzling sound, he finally got an answer.

"Yes Espo, we can hear you." Kate's voice. "Where are you now?" she asked.

"A few miles ahead, I guess...Anything new about Bowers? Has the helicopter started to chase him?"

"No, the pilot had to go back, there was a technical failure."

"Wh...You're kidding me?"

"No but..."

"Dammit, who chose this lame duck team?" he groaned.

"Javi, don't yell at me," Kate tried to temper. "Which milestone, where are you exactly?

Rick glanced by the window and answered instead of Esposito after a few seconds.

"589" he replied.

"All right, you're shouldn't be far away from them now..."

"I doubt it Kate..." Esposito replied as he shook his head. "I'm sure he's got a bid lead since he made Lanie hang up, he's scared we're chasing them..."

While Esposito and Kate kept talking on the radio, Rick glanced at the landscape by the window. He was looking at the horizon, hoping to see something, a sign or even better, Bowers' car, even if it was an illusion.

And yet...

(n/a: music suggestion : Thirteen Senses - Do No Wrong)

A thick grey smoke appeared in the writer's field of vision. He frowned, surprised. The smoke was coming from a wide field, a hundred meters ahead, on the side of the road. It was half hidden by the trees. That's why Castle and Esposito didn't see the fire at first. When he frowned, Rick could see what it was : a car overturned, windows broken. One piece of the car had been torn off and was burning. His heart sank. Even more when he realized it wasn't any random car...

"Esposito..." he stammered as he pointed at the window. His voice trailed off.

Still holding the radio in his hand and the wheel with the other, Esposito turned to Castle surprised by the writer's shaky voice.

The latino's eyes widened and his blood turned to ice as he realized what was between the trees, a hundred meters away from the road.

"Oh fuck," the detective let escape as he slowed down the car, more concerned about what he was seeing by the window of the passenger seat than the road.

"What?" Kate's voice interrupted on the radio. "What's going on? Javi, Rick?" Kate asked impatiently.

It took a few seconds for Javier to reply, as he was hypnotized by this vision of horror. Some pieces of the car, huge flames, and a thick dark smoke that was raising above the wide field.

"There's a fire in a field on our right, about two hundred meters away. A wrecked car is on fire." Esposito said, shocked.

Rick slowly turned his head towards Esposito, fear in his eyes.

"Esposito...did you see it? It's a...police car." He said, trembling.

Esposito's eyes widened in shock as he slammed on the brake and stopped the car, in the middle of the desert road. Javier slowly turned his head to the window to see and check himself if it was a police car.

Unfortunately, the color and the logo on one of the doors proved Castle was right.

The radio made a sizzling sound again.

"Guys, we've just been told that a witness heard a gunshot and saw a police car driving way too fast before it ended in a field...Apparently it wasn't an accident, and I'm sorry to tell you that according to the description and the milestones...it's certainly Bowers." Victoria Gates's voice explained as stoically as she could despite the horrible news.

Esposito didn't have the strength to reply anything, devastated.

"It's not them...It can't be...It just can't be...not Lanie..." he whispered several times, trying to convince himself.

Sadly, everything leaded to that conclusion, and he knew it.

He was the first to get off the car in a rush, while Castle, sitting next to him, stayed paralyzed on the passenger seat, as the words of Victoria Gates kept resonating in his head. He kept staring at the scene in front of him and his heart sank as he heard Esposito screaming Lanie's name, running desperately towards the field. Rick had never seen him so demonstrative, hot-headed, furious, destroyed...devastated.

"Esposito!" Gates's voice called on the radio. Disconnected, Castle barely heard her but found the strength and the courage to take the radio and put it close to his mouth.

"It's Castle."

"Where's Esposito?" Gates asked, worried.

"He went off the car...He's running to the field and the fire." Rick said, too shocked to speak.

"Castle, from where you're standing, can you see Lanie, your mother or even Bower's body?" Gates asked, trying to find the right words as she felt the question sounded horrible to the writer.

"No...the road is too far away from the accident...and there's too much smoke...i can't see anything," he stammered, still in shock.

"Okay, I got it," Gates replied.

"Rick, it's Kate," she said as she probably took the radio from Gates's hands. Hearing that voice that was the only one to soothe him in the worst moments, Castle couldn't manage to reply anything though.

"We've called the firemen and the ambulances, okay? We're only a few kilometers behind you...We're coming right away. Try to join Esposito, I hope he's not doing stupid things..." she explained calmly. She couldn't be more effusive on the radio and with Gates by her side, even if she wanted to, so badly.

"Yeah..." Castle said as he swallowed hard.

"And Rick? Hold on," she added with a soft voice.

Completely in shock, Castle couldn't reply and let the radio go before he went off the car, slowly, his whole body shaking.

After he crossed the first part of the field by running, Javier Esposito arrived next to the fire, as close as he could, until the heat stopped him and made him suffocate. Tears were filling his eyes and his throat was aching because of the smoke, but he wouldn't back off.

"Lanie!" It was the only name he would scream, relentlessly, as he tried to see something through the thick smoke.

"Lanie, answer m..." he couldn't finish his sentence and coughed, as he inhaled the smoke. The heat was burning his skin, and the more he came closer, the less he could realize that the vision in front of him was real. The flames, the heat on his skin, the wrecked car he could see through the smoke...All this was real, unfortunately.

Rick arrived next to Esposito and shared a look with him. He could see the tears in his eyes the latino wouldn't even try to hold back.

"Lanie..."

The writer said nothing to the detective. He wouldn't tell him it was useless to call her, because he knew it, Esposito wouldn't stop even if he did. His own mother was in there and he wouldn't stop calling himself if it was Kate who was involved in the accident. The writer turned his head towards the huge flames raising up above the wrecked car and stared at the disaster, tears filling his own eyes.

That weekend in the Hamptons had almost made him loose his mind. But this time, he had no words. There was nothing more to say anyway.

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THE END

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(DUNDUNDUN! of course, Hell-and-Bliss and I are not cruel enough to let you guys like this, there will be one last update soon with a final chapter! Thank you folks for reading! :D xxx)