So, not only did I write a chapter and posted it during my vacation. I have this chapter as promised and in time! I took my youngest daughters (twins) to Disney World with a friend for their high school graduation present. We all had an awesome time. We were up past midnight everyday and a couple of days past 3 am and up at a park by 9am the next day. I wrote on busses, waiting in line and just about anywhere I could. I hope it's ok and you enjoy. I ask that you please let me know what you think! Thank you to everyone who faved, reviewed of followed. I'll be able respond to reviews this chapter! This is my entry in the Castle Summer Hiatus 2014 Ficathon!

I don't look, I hunt.

Kate Beckett

Kate's eyes widened as she stared down the barrel of a gun. She hadn't seen or heard anyone approach the car. The phone in her hand slipped from her fingers and onto the seat beside her. Then her training took over and her brain went into tactical mode.

It only took a fraction of a second for her thoughts to process. When asked later she would reply that she didn't remember it exactly but she knew she couldn't allow herself to be captured. If Castle was up there, and they caught her, she wouldn't survive. They would use her to torture him then dispose of her all while he watched. She knew Castle could not handle that. Her eyes quickly flicked from side to side as she scanned the area around her without moving her head; she saw no other motion outside the car. Their only hope was for her to take this guy down and ambush any others before they could escape with Castle. Taking this guy quietly or arresting him wasn't an option. She was going to have to shoot him. She felt the beginning of an adrenaline surge and fought to hide it from whoever was out there.

In a show of compliance she raised her hands to shoulder level in gesture of surrender. She needed whoever was behind the gun to think she was helpless and afraid.

Kate looked up toward the man she knew was hidden in the darkness behind the gun, with scared doe like eyes. With her hands still at shoulder level she allowed them to tremble visibly and pointed to her seat belt. The gun moved slightly up and down; she took that as assent and slowly lowered her right hand. Then she turned her shoulder slightly to the right away from the gun to give her better access to the glock in her shoulder holster and hesitated with her thumb on the release. Her movement gave her the few precious seconds needed to devise a strategy. She watched as his gun swung to the left, and motioned for her to get out of the car. The phone had stopped ringing, indicating that Esposito had finally answered. Before he could speak she yelled, "Please I'm getting out please don't shoot me!" She hoped her voice would silence Espo before he gave away that her phone was connected on a call. She wanted Espo to have enough time to pull the GPS location data from her phone.

In the darkness she knew her assailant couldn't see her movements clearly. She watched as the gunman moved his gun off her for better access to the door handle, reached for the door and started to open it. With catlike reflexes, she clicked the belt release, pivoted in her seat and kicked the door as hard as she could with both feet.

The door slammed into the startled gunman with enough force that he stumbled back onto the pavement and fell. His gun was jarred from his hand as he hit the gravel and landed somewhere in the shadows behind him. He muttered something angrily in Libyan as Beckett jumped out of the car, threw herself to the ground toward the rear of her car, and put the open door between them.

Kate rolled to her left side and yanked the Glock from her shoulder holster as she turned toward her assailant. It felt like she was moving through wet cement. She could clearly see him under the car. The glow of the car's interior lights washed over the gunman as he searched frantically for the lost gun. She knew instinctively that she had to take a shot. These men were terrorists and ready to die for their cause. It was either him or her and in this battle there could only be one victor.

She pointed the gun in his direction and fired five shots under car as fast as she could pull the trigger. She learned later that two of them had hit him directly, the other three hit the ground and ricocheted into various parts of his body. He collapsed immobile. Kate scrambled to her feet, carefully approached the back of the car, and took a quick glance at him.

Blood bubbled from his mouth, and oozed from his neck, torso, and one of his legs. He was unable to move let alone continue the attack.

She kept her gun pointed at him and approached. He couldn't move, one knee was blasted to bits. He couldn't even make a noise because as she watched he stopped moving, the blood coming out of his nose and mouth stopped bubbling and the lights went out in his eyes. She moved closer, quickly checked for a pulse and found none. She wiped the blood off her fingers on his clothes and then took a few seconds to get her bearings and plan what was next.

If there were more of them here, the gunshots would have definitely alerted them. She had no idea how many times she'd fired so she quickly popped the magazine out of her Glock and saw it had eleven rounds remaining. She spotted his gun right by the front tire. It was a ... Glock 17. It had 17 rounds left in the magazine. And ... he had two more full magazines on him. She quickly disposed him of all of it. "Thanks asshole, I need this more than you do," she thought.

Just then the light in the room where she'd hypothesized Castle to be went out. The entire building was engulfed in darkness. She had to move, she stood very exposed by the interior lights of the car.

She glanced again at the dead man, quickly grabbed his ID, his radio, and the knife sheathed at his waist. The more weapons she had the better. She carefully slid the knife and his gun into her belt, reached into the car, retrieved her phone and slammed the door closed.

The shots had caused a commotion. She could hear several voices as they checked in on the radio she'd appropriated from the dead man. It wouldn't be long before they figured out who hadn't responded. She quickly checked her phone. The line was dead, she hoped Espo had heard the altercation and had traced the call but now was not the time to call him back.

They were coming for her, of that she was certain. She had to intercept them and capture Castle before they attempted to move him to a new location. Sadly she hoped Castle's injuries would slow them down.

Beckett made her way to the building. Pressed firmly against the wall, she hid behind overgrown bushes and vines that climbed the building's facade. There was no way anyone could see her in the dark.

She knew she had to outwit them, get inside their heads, and think like them. There were so many unanswered questions that could affect the final outcome. Her main problem was how many of them were there. She struggled to keep her head and fight off rising panic, she instituted the combat breathing technique Espo had taught her. She inhaled for count of four, held it for a count of four, and exhaled for a count of four, waited for a count of four, repeated. By the time she'd done a few cycles of that she was once again in control and focused.

Castle was definitely here. There was no question about it. She made sure she silenced her phone and lowered the volume on the radio, then contemplated her next strategic move.

She heard a sound off to her right and was glad her vision had begun to adapt to the dark because she spotted one of the terrorists approaching her car. She froze with the realization that he had been outside in the dark the whole time but apparently standing guard on the other side of the facility. The way he moved his vision was completely adapted to the dark. She turned off the captured man's radio just before she heard someone's voice say something in a foreign language that was clearly a profanity. He had just found one of his team taken out and the shooter was now at large.

Jesus, that was close. If he'd heard his transmission coming from her radio she'd be dead now.

The terrorist engaged in a brief conversation with someone and apparently his news wasn't well received because he kicked the dead guy, snorted something unintelligible, and then headed at first in her direction. To her intense relief, he altered course toward a door she could barely make out about twenty feet away. She remained motionless in the shadows of the over grown vegetation near the building.

She counted to fifteen, then moved quickly along the wall to the entrance. The doors and windows of the building had clearly been vandalized. The door he entered through swung open and stayed that way. She took a quick glance and pulled back to analyze what she'd seen. He was moving down the hall with just a dim flashlight clearing his path.

She shrank back for a few seconds then went into the single person building clearing routine she'd learned during an advanced tactical training class. She silently entered the doorway, stepped immediately aside and remained motionless, all her senses fully alert.

The hallway was dark except for the dim flashlight the man she was following had at the far end of the hall. She took advantage of the light to note there was an over turned chair partway down the hall on the left. She stayed to the right. It was clear on the right. Then the light rapidly dimmed out as he turned and vanished from the hallway. For a moment she was engulfed in total darkness. With no time to waste, she put her hand on the right wall and moved rapidly down the path she knew was clear. By the time she reached the location where he'd vanished her eyes had adjusted to the dark enough that and she could make out the shadowy outlines of a stairwell and continue carefully.

She entered the stairwell and froze, all senses straining to determine where this gunman was. He apparently thought he was alone because she heard him as he climbed the steps with a heavy tread. Proceeding as quietly as she could, she kept track of each flight. After the sixth flight the footsteps stopped. She estimated he had climbed at least one flight before she had arrived at the stairs. As quietly as possible she started her assent. Each step got her one step closer to Castle.

Her heart beat frantically in her chest. She forcibly slowed her breathing. There was no way she would lose him now! Slowly she made her way up the flight of stairs. When she reached the last landing she stopped and listened for steps or voices. She had made it to the fourth floor when she was grabbed from behind and expertly immobilized, feet off the ground, with her mouth covered.

Don't forget this will continue with weekly updates, after August 7 with longer chapters (hopefully). I'm honored at the reception this story has gotten! Thank you to my helpers because without them, my ADHD mind would drive all you readers away! They rock! Thanks again for reading. Please review! :) Follow me on Twitter glo1196 - Tumblr: MyCastleObsession and on Pintrest glo11962 where I have a Castle board!