CH26

We go back in time: (December 1, 1999)

Rick had taken Kate dress shopping, however it wasn't for just any dress. This was going to be a dress for her to wear to his latest book launch party. Rick wanted to get Kate a dress that she would remember and everyone else would remember her in.

Kate was standing in front of the mirrors wearing what was the 9th dress she had tried on. She had been worried about finding something. Now, however, Kate was standing there feeling beautiful and completely sexy.

It was a backless chiffon halter with sexy straps that had diamonds embedded in the straps. From the halter top, the straps crisscrossed her bare back to meet up on the sides to frame her breast area nicely. They continued across the front then also down to the hips in back to a point just above the crack of her ass. The sides hung loosely just at her hips.

The straps were gold in color while the dress itself was burgundy. It left her shoulders, her entire back all the way down to the curve of her back, as well as a hint of her bare hips were exposed. It was $3295.

"Castle, no. It's too expensive and when am I ever going to wear something this gorgeous ever again?" She needed to find something less costly. Maybe one just like it just without all the diamonds.

"It's perfect Kate. Wear it with your diamond earrings, the bracelet that matches which is waiting for you at home, plus the look of seeing Jill as a beautifully brilliant diamond ankle bracelet with your high heeled sandals that just so happen to be gold in color...it's perfect and we're getting it." Rick ran his fingertips across her bare shoulders leaving a trail of goosebumps. Kate was still amazed at how her body reacted to his touch, even craved his touch.

Rick spun Kate around to face him. "And just think where my hands will be when you dance with me in my arms." Rick wrapped his arms around Kate forcing her arms up around his neck as she felt his hands on her bare back.

"And you could go naked under this dress, knowing all night long what I'm going to do to you when we get home." Rick kissed the tip of Kate's nose.

Three hours of Castle running his hands over her bare back was going to leave her so wet and without panties she was going to feel her juices running down her leg. There had better be someplace in this venue where they can be alone for a few minutes while Castle pounded himself into her. Just the thought of what was to come was making her wet.

Kate moved her lips to his ear. "Fine Castle, we'll buy the dress, however you are going to fuck me while we are there. Bent over a table or sitting on a counter, I don't care but you are taking me." Kate bit his ear lobe, getting Castle to suddenly pull her in tight, getting a huff of air to blow out her lips.

"You are such a tease Officer Beckett. I'm going to make you scream." Rick kissed her to prevent any reply or he was going to take her right now.

Rick was dressed in his tux; Kate had never seen him look so handsome. Rick helped her into the car and plugged in the address for where they were going.

20 West 44th Street, The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesman of the City of New York.

It was someplace Kate had never heard about, still she had never run in the same circles Castle did while publishing his books. "Relax, you'll be fine. Photographers will take your picture, you'll get to talk with people with me right next to you the entire time, and we'll dance the night away with you securely in my arms." Rick reached across to take one of Kate's hands that were presently restless in her lap.

"Sorry, just nerves. I've never done anything like this before, I don't know what to expect." Kate wanted to make a good impression; he was Richard Castle after all.

Rick gave the keys to the valet and watched as another man opened the car door for Kate to step out. Kate looked up at the building. It looked old but in good shape. There were camera flashes the second she got out of their car.

Kate let Castle take her inside feeling out of place the entire way. Inside they made their way to the ballroom area where everything was set up.

There were already a number of people inside with more arriving. "How about a drink first?" Rick offered and walked them over to the bar.

"Can I help you?" the bartender asked.

"I thought there was only supposed to be wine and champagne." Rick mentioned while looking at all the different types and brands of alcohol behind him.

"No sir, I can fix you anything you like," he responded and waited for Rick to reply.

"Can you fix me something that will kill Gina?" Rick asked angrily. He turned his back on the bartender and started searching for a sign of Gina.

"Lend me a hand?" Rick asked looking at Kate. "Just think of it as all the bottles we found at your home." Rick escorted Kate around the counter and they started dumping it all down the drain.

"Sir, you can't do that! Open bar doesn't mean dump it all down the drain!" The bartender didn't really know what to do.

"Relax son. This is my party so it's all mine anyway and I want it all gone." Rick just kept opening bottles and dumping them down the drain. Unfortunately they had gained an audience by now.

"RICHARD! What the hell do you think you are doing?" Gina was now at the bar staring at him with shock and hatred.

"I told you no hard liquor Gina, but you didn't listen." Rick kept right on pouring it all down the drain.

"I did listen and rejected it immediately. This is a Black Pawn event and it was decided to serve hard drinks. Now stop Richard!" Gina demanded.

"Did it never occur to you that if anything at all happened to someone that I would sue you and Black Pawn for the damage done to my name? Having my name forever associated with someone dying in the accident that was caused because they were drunk?"

"Why don't you ask the press that is standing right behind you that you and Black Pawn care nothing about someone getting drunk at YOUR party and killing someone? I'm sure you and Black Pawn can hire the best lawyers in town and prevent from being sued into oblivion."

"Just good luck ever getting a job in this town again." Rick continued dumping the hard alcohol.

Gina was now completely flustered and didn't know what to do. Then Rick handed her a full bottle of vodka. "Here, drink it yourself, sell it to someone, or dump it down the drain." Rick placed Gina on the spot.

"I... I'm sure Black Pawn has no desire for anyone to get hurt because they had too much to drink and no one stopped them." Gina needed to do damage control, so she opened it and poured it down the drain. However, it was the only bottle that she dumped. She started planning on how to get back at Rick for this embarrassment.

The rest of the event went off without any trouble, but Kate noticed that Gina never seemed to take her eyes off of her all night long.

"You're tense." Rick pointed out. He could feel it in Kate's back and shoulders as they danced.

"I don't think Gina likes me much." Kate mentioned and began wondering if she should start defending herself and likely Castle too.

"Gina can think what she likes, since I'm the one that loves you." Rick countered, moving Kate closer to his body as they kept dancing, working on making everything else fade away. While Rick stroked Kate's bare back with his hands while they danced. "Castle, we need to go home soon. ... I'm so wet, please Castle?" Kate was sure everyone on the dance floor could tell she was horny beyond description. They had to be able to smell the juices running down her leg.

Castle made a short speech and read a passage from the new book just to get people hooked and leave them hanging, all the time with Kate standing right behind him. She was right where Rick had placed her. Kate did her best to ignore the daggers Gina was throwing at her.

Kate was lying in bed in Castle's arms after having made love to each other. "I still think Gina hates me." Kate whispered.

"Gina hates everyone, including me most of the time. It's why she calls and bitches about where my chapters are." Rick pointed out.

"Have you considered getting someone else?" Kate thought getting some distance between them might be good.

"Black Pawn has been good to me, they gave me a break. They published my first book when no one else would." Rick felt he owed them.

"Does it have to be Gina? Was she your first editor? How many books has she published for you? Have your sales increased because of her?" Kate had questions, and when Castle was silent for too long. "Castle?" Kate twisted to look up at him.

"Gina was assigned to me when I got here from Los Angeles. There are other editors. I just don't know if they have anyone else available. And sales have gone up since I came to New York, however all of those books have been Derek Storm books. All of my other books have been standalone books, not a series like Derek Storm." Rick finally commented.

"So is it Derek Storm that is selling or is it because of Gina? Are you the only author that Gina does work for?" Kate had still more questions.

"I don't actually know. I never asked Gina if she was working for another author. I suppose she is since that would be more economically feasible. I just don't know." It never occurred to Rick to ask or talk about how Black Pawn handled their authors. It was his job to write and their job to advertise and publish.

Kate had a plan, she just needed some time to put it into action. "I'm going drinking with Lanie tomorrow night. I promise not to drink anything with alcohol in it." Kate told him a lie.

"Lanie, isn't she the ME in training that you met at the Academy?" Rick thought he remembered her.

"Yeah, she was nice, she just doesn't have a lot of time between all of her classes." Kate was telling the truth. The two of them had already tried to get together twice only to have Lanie bail on them because of a class.

"Have fun with your friend." Rick said to her and bent his head down to kiss her head. Kate drifted off to sleep knowing that Castle didn't mind her going out without him. He was letting her live and not be held a prisoner, though Kate liked doing things with Castle.

It is now 24 hours later:

"Have fun with your friend." Rick simply waved from his desk where he was typing.

"I'll be back before midnight Castle." Kate told him and left, giving the taxi driver an address near the offices of Black Pawn.

"Security camera disabled." Jill said to Kate as she approached a door leading inside.

Kate used Jill to unlock the door and disable the alarm system. She headed for a stairwell, walked up one flight, moved over to the elevators and went up to the floor of Black Pawn.

Using Jill again Kate unlocked the door and disabled the security system. "All cameras are disabled." Jill told Kate. "You realize this is called breaking and entering." Jill pointed out.

"I haven't actually broken anything. Gina is doing something to Castle and I want to know what it is." So it wasn't technically BREAKING and entering. Still if she was caught no one was going to see the difference.

It had taken Kate a lot of arguing with herself to get her this far. If she really was a detective she would have worked at getting a warrant to search Gina's records, but she wasn't so she couldn't.

She wandered around till she found Gina's office and used Jill to unlock the door. Inside Kate turned on Gina's computer and waited for it to boot up. Next she used Jill to scan for any files on Castle. "I have several files concerning Richard and his present contract as well as the new one that was thrown in the trash by Richard."

"There is also a newer contract that is being worked on…interesting." Jill found something.

"What Jill, what?" Kate wanted to know with it was.

"Allow me to download it and you can read it at your leisure later; now scanning for any other of Gina's clients. …Gina only has two other clients, both of whom are women and are just starting out." Jill told Kate. Jill warned her that there was someone entering Black Pawn's offices, so Kate turned off the monitor and activated her invisibility mode.

Kate watched the guard poke his head into Gina's office and use his flash light to look around before closing the door and re-locking it. Jill continued to scan the computer the entire time. "All data has been copied, we can go Katherine." Jill announced.

"Not just yet I want to see if there are any hard copies not on the computer." Kate remarked.

"I have already scanned all documents in the entire office and made a copy of anything associated with Richard. We can go now." Jill countered, getting Kate to open her eyes wide, even if no one was going to see them.

They worked their way back out the way they had come, while Kate listened to Jill explain that the security system had been re-set and the cameras turned back on, only to have it all turned back off by Jill.

A little later Kate was sitting at Castle's desk with his laptop looking for another one just like it for her to use. Using Jill, Kate was able to bypass Castle's password and was reading what Gina had planned for Castle's new contract.

Then she compared it to the last one page by page. It was now 4:00 am and Kate was beginning to get a headache from being up too long without sleep. "Oh she's sneaky the little bitch."

"Gina has placed sections with wording that makes it sound like she is not taking control of Richard's life, when according to this she can use these sections to do just that if Richard signs this crap." Jill had already read everything she had downloaded.

"I knew she was up to something, I just knew it! She has practically made herself his wife with Castle as her slave. Any chance Castle or his lawyer, if he let him read it, would find all of this?" Kate was curious.

"Some of it perhaps, all of it, not likely. …And then there is this section here." Jill brought it up on the monitor for Kate to read.

Kate was trying to wrap her mind, which was getting a little fuzzy, around it. "Jill, all of this sounds familiar, what are some of these words?" Kate had never heard of them before, she could almost swear that they were a foreign language.

"Perhaps this will help." Jill changed the wording to something less difficult to understand.

"THAT BITCH! This part is a marriage contract! Castle signs this thing and he'll be married to Gina. That bitch is trying to marry Castle out from under me." Kate was not mad, she was furious. Gina was trying to take Castle away from her.

"How do we fix this Jill? I can't let Castle sign this crap. He'll end up married to Gina and she'll end up living in OUR home!" Kate could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Kate knew if she hadn't gone snooping she might have lost Castle.

"I've already re-written the contract and taken everything out that Gina has inserted. My question to you is do you want me to leave the marriage contract portion?" Jill asked.

"You can't be serious?" Kate thought Jill was on her side.

"If you will let me finish, I want to know if you want me to leave that section only Gina ends up married to a certain Rogan O'Leary since I can get Jack to make the necessary changes to Mr. O'Leary's signature that is on file so it happens to look like Richard's chicken scratching." Jill informed Kate which made Kate laugh.

"You're a genius Jill! Those two deserve each other. How do we change out the contract for this one?" Kate asked.

"You left the computer running like I asked you to. That will allow Jack to hack into the Black Pawn computer system, change out contracts, and keep his eyes open for any new changes between now and when Richard signs it." Jill informed Kate.

This was cheating and Kate was having a little trouble with it, however Gina was screwing with her future with Castle. She just couldn't sit there and do nothing. "Do it."

Two days later Rick and Kate left for Boston and Kate got her first taste of what a book signing was like behind the scenes. Meeting the book store owner; setting up the site of the signing; arranging pile after pile of Richard Castle books, most being the new book along with every book the owner has in inventory; setting up posters; arranging seating; making sure Castle has more than enough Sharpies. The list seemed endless. "Is it everything you thought it would be?" Rick asked Kate just moments before the owner opened the door to the line that went on for blocks.

Kate was thankful that the signing was limited to a 3 hour time frame. Kate watched Castle thank all of the workers of the book store and gave each of them a signed copy for their hard work. Then Kate found herself in his arms while he kissed her.

They repeated it all over again the next day, just at a different bookstore. Then they had to run to the airport to move to the next city.

Kate only ever saw Gina at the book store. The daggers she sent Kate's way didn't seem to have their usual venom. Oh, if only Gina knew what Kate did. "I hope you enjoy being married to Rogan; he's a real piece of work." Kate whispered to herself as she walked away with her prize.

"We have our bags we just need someplace quiet so we can get out of here." Rick said to Kate.

"We're not flying home?" Kate really wanted to go home.

"We can go anywhere in an instant and I know you brought a bikini since I've seen you wearing it. Sooo, where do you want to go?" Castle smiled and arched his eyebrows a couple of times.

Kate grinned. Castle wasn't Gina's, she was his and Kate was keeping him. "We need a beach." Kate responded.

"May I suggest then, The Royal Phuket Yacht Club in Thailand." Jack offered and with bags in hand, they found themselves in Thailand taking a putt-putt taxi to get to the hotel.

After they arrived in the Yacht Club, they checked into a suite on the top floor of building B. The suite featured a king size bed, 864 square feet of space, and offered a stunning view of Chalong Bay. The large balcony featured an outdoor dining area. It also featured a rooftop lounge via a stairway. Up there was a private Jacuzzi with loungers.

The room featured an open area with bed, living, indoor dining, and kitchen. "Shall we go find dinner?" As was typical they hadn't eaten anything all day.

"Room service in the Jacuzzi, watching the sunset?" Kate offered instead.

"Why Officer Beckett, are you showing your romantic side?" Rick teased.

"Shut up Castle and feed me." Kate loved him with all of her heart.