CLEANING LADY

Chapter 7

"This is a bad idea, such a bad idea," Kate told herself, but that didn't stop her from going to his place. She hadn't even called ahead to see if she would be welcome and was just going to show up.

Kate found herself at his front door and waited, debating whether this was a good idea. A little anxious, she pressed the buzzer and heard it buzz. "Too late now."

The door opened, and she saw an older lady. Kate knew it was his mother since she had met her when she was there before.

"Katherine. What a pleasant surprise. Do come in." Martha stepped aside and saw her hesitate. "Please?" She smiled as Kate finally came into the loft. She escorted her to the kitchen. "Richard, we have company."

"Kate!" Rick was happy to see her. He wiped his hands on his apron and greeted her with a hug. "What got you to change your mind?" he asked. "Never mind. You're here and that's what's important.

"Forgive me, but I need to get back to making dinner." Rick retreated to the kitchen, leaving Kate with Martha.

"Richard speaks of you all the time," Martha mentioned.

"Giving away secrets, Castle?"

"I…" Rick stumbled a little. "You didn't tell me it was a secret."

Kate smiled at getting him off balance.

"Oh, you're good, dear."

Rick narrowed his eyes as he stared at her. "I see. I'll get you for that."

Kate merely smiled wider, happy with herself. "I am sorry, though. I should have called ahead."

"Nonsense, you're always welcome here. I'm just making a casserole and putting it in the oven. We'll have more than enough," Rick assured her.

Alexis was halfway down the stairs when she saw her. "Kate!" She hurried the rest of the way, came over to her, and hugged her. "Dad didn't say you were coming for dinner. You are staying for dinner, aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm staying, and I didn't call ahead. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision."

"I'm so glad to see you." Alexis looked over at her father. "Do you need help, Dad?"

"No, I've got everything covered."

"So what are you making, Castle?"

"Chicken Alfredo Stuffed Shells."

"Sounds good." Kate approved of his choice. She would eat better at the hotel, but she would be eating alone there.

"It uses a lot of cheese – Parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, and mozzarella cheese." Rick looked at her. "Is cottage cheese a real cheese?

Kate shrugged. "Don't look at me. I have no idea."

"Anyway, it's a lot of cheese. I hope you like cheese."

"I like cheese," Kate assured him.

"The hard part is stuffing the shells with the sauce. On second thought, I could use some help. If someone would shred the chicken for me, please?"

Alexis immediately volunteered for the task. "I can do that, Dad."

Working side by side, they put the casserole together. "There, all done. It goes into the oven for 25 minutes." After preheating the oven, Rick put his dish in, then took off his apron. "Wine, anyone?"

"Of course, Richard." Martha would take a glass.

"Yes, please." Kate would like a glass too.

"I think I'll have a glass of Coke." Alexis got it herself.

Together they retreated to the living room, where Kate sat in a chair several feet away from Castle. "So why Pumpkin?" Kate remembered him calling Alexis that instead of using her name.

"When Alexis was a baby, and her hair grew in, I saw it was orange. Combine that with her light skin, and she reminded me of a pumpkin. I started calling her that, and it stuck."

"I kinda like the name," Alexis told her. "Maybe in a few years when I'm older, not so much, but I like it for now."

"I see," Kate said.

"Richard has told us about your mother," Martha said. "I'm so sorry. That must have hurt dreadfully."

"Yeah, it did. It still hurts, actually. It's been weeks since I visited Mom's grave. I'm due for a visit. I talk to her all the time."

"It's good that you do. I know it's been some time, but celebrate your mother's life by doing something you used to do together, something you will remember her by. Doing that, she'll always be in your heart."

"How did you get so smart, Martha?"

"I'm a mother. Mothers know things."

Rick stared at her. "Since when?"

"Hush you," Martha said, causing Kate to burst out laughing. She didn't know why that was funny, it just was.

Rick eyed each of them. "Since I'm going to be made fun of, I think I'll check on dinner." Grumbling, he got up to check on the casserole.

"I didn't mean to offend him," Kate whispered.

"Dad's teasing you, Kate. He's not offended, not in the least."

"Oh." Kate looked at Rick while he was checking his oven. "Hmm." She would have to get him for that.

~oo0oo~

"Ten minutes," Rick called out. "If someone wants to set the table."

Alexis got up, followed by Kate. She didn't know where to look for anything but could set the table after Alexis got them out.

They sat down to dinner. "This is actually pretty good," Kate told him.

"Thank you. I accept tips which include money, gift cards, and checks."

"I said it was good, not that kind of good."

"AH, right in the heart." Rick mimed an arrow piercing his heart.

Martha wasn't at all impressed with his acting. "Richard, honestly. Have I taught you nothing?"

~oo0oo~

Dinner was over, and Rick suggested they watch a movie. "I think I'll go to bed. I need my beauty sleep. Good night. Remember, do what you loved to do to keep her memory alive in you, Katherine."

Alexis hugged her. "Good night, Grams."

"Good night, Martha."

As the movie began, Castle was on one side of Kate and Alexis on the other. Kate realized that she liked it.

"John Wick," Kate remarked.

It got to the part about him busting open the basement to open the box buried beneath the concrete to show weapons and the coins, and Kate inhaled sharply. It wasn't her coins, but they were still coins.

There was the moment when he entered the Continental Hotel with the black man behind the desk. It was eerily similar to her hotel.

Even his hotel room reminded her of hers. Then the bullet entered his pillow, waking him up to Perkins trying to kill him.

She watched as Perkins killed someone on hotel grounds which was outlawed. She sealed her own fate when she did that.

She watched as he paid in coins. They weren't her coins, but they were still coins.

When the movie got to the part where he broke into the vet's office, freed the dog, and walked away, she was amazed at how similar everything was to her life. She sat there, unnerved by it all. They had made a movie about her life.

Kate needed out of there. She needed to think. "I should go."

"Okay." Rick didn't understand what the hurry was. He thought they were making progress.

Kate was up and on her way to the door, leaving Rick and Alexis still sitting there. Before they could even say goodbye, she was gone.

"What happened, Dad?" Alexis didn't understand it. "I thought she was having fun and that she liked us. Was I wrong?"

"I don't know, Pumpkin. I just... I don't know." Rick was at a loss.

~oo0oo~

Kate made it all the way to her room when she finally saw the note Lanie had left her. She still didn't know what to do about that either. Lanie had reached out to her, and she didn't know what to do.

She got ready for bed and got into bed but couldn't sleep. Her phone told her she had a message. Looking at her phone, she saw it was from Castle. She put the phone aside and didn't read it.

~oo0oo~

Kate was on a mission come the next day. She was looking for someone, and she found him in the lounge.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" she asked the Administrator.

He motioned for her to take a seat. "Please do, Miss Beckett."

Kate took a deep breath. "I have a few questions. There is a movie called John Wick."

"Ah yes, John Wick. Let me guess. You have questions about that movie."

"Yes. It was so similar to real life."

He nodded. "Yes, the hotel, the front desk, you, me. There is an organization called High Table. They own this hotel. I can be replaced whenever they see fit and can do so in a heartbeat.

"The coins, much of what we call the truth, is in that movie. How is that possible, you ask? We. Were. Betrayed. He got in close and betrayed us all.

"I hear there is going to be a second movie," he said. "Even a third, perhaps. Maybe a fourth. John Wick himself doesn't exist. He is purely Hollywood. However, the rest is real life."

"Amazing." Kate didn't believe it. Her life was in a movie. Well, not exactly, but a team that used coins to clean up dead bodies existed.

"There are other hotels in other cities. Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, Hong Kong."

"Moscow?"

He shook his head. "No, but there is one in Saint. Petersburg. Does that interest you? I can arrange it if it is. You will do the same job there that you do here."

Kate considered it. "Maybe." She would get to use her Russian. She would get a clean start. Then she thought of Castle. "I have some unfinished business here, though."

"Let me know what you decide. You won't even have to go through Customs."

"I'll think about it."

"Take your time." He watched as she hurried out of the hotel.

~oo0oo~

Kate immediately went to see Castle. She needed an answer.

She rang the doorbell and waited. Castle opened the door. "Kate!" He was surprised to see her, given how she left last night.

"I need to talk to you. Can I come in?"

"Of course." He stepped aside. "It's just me. Alexis has school, and Mother is out."

"Talk about what?" Rick asked, and suddenly he was being kissed; it was a hard kiss. In the beginning, she caught him off guard. But he recovered quickly and returned her kisses.

Kate led him to what she took to be a bedroom.

~oo0oo~

This section contains M-rated material. If this is not to your liking, scroll down until you see the all-clear. Thank you for understanding.

~oo0oo~

Kate took off her top and bra, and got down on her knees and worked at taking off his pants. She found he was wearing bikini briefs, red bikini briefs. However, what was hidden held her interest. It had been a long while since she had done this to any man. Reaching down, she massaged Castle through the material until he was hard. Then she pulled them down and got to see his cock. He had a nice one. Not overly large, but large enough for her.

She took him in her mouth and got him all wet. Then she stood up and took off her pants and her panties. "Get in bed, Castle, on your back."

Kate waited for him to comply, and she straddled him. She lowered herself onto his cock until he was buried deep inside her. She rested for a bit to allow herself to adjust to his size.

Damn, but he felt good, really good. Kate began to rock back and forth. She was glad that Castle found her breasts. His hands felt so good. She closed her eyes as she rocked.

She went slowly at first, but soon she was speeding up. Eventually, she bounced up and down on Castle. "I'm going to come. I'm going to COME." She climaxed with him deep inside her.

Except she didn't stop. She didn't know whether Castle had come, but she was interested in coming again. So she was rocking, riding him with his hands on her breasts.

Then Castle focused on her nipples. He was squeezing them, rolling them between his thumb and finger. It was all she needed as she climaxed again.

She dropped down on him and lay there, recovering from her orgasm. She lifted up just enough to start kissing him. Over and over again. She needed him to make love to her. It had been far too long since anyone had made love to her.

"Did you come?" She watched him shake his head. "Really?" He had staying power that amazed her. She got off, knelt next to him, and took him in her mouth. She was going to give him the best blow job she could.

She finally tasted him as he groaned and spurted cum into her mouth. She kept most of his cum in her mouth as she moved to his head where she kissed him and fed him some of his own cum. She liked that he swallowed all of it.

"Fuck me. I need you to fuck me." She wanted it hard and fast this time.

So she got off the bed. Since Castle's bed was rather tall, she leaned over the edge of it, showing her backside to him.

She felt him slowly enter her. "Fuck me. I need it hard and fast, Castle. Fuck me."

Rick began fucking her hard and fast. Then he did something unexpected. He spanked her. "Yes, spank me," she panted. "I've been naughty and need a spanking. Spank me."

He was fucking her, and he was spanking her. She loved it, really loved it. She looked back at him fucking her and spanking her.

"Yes, that's it, fuck me harder. Spank me harder."

She eventually climaxed all over his cock. Her rhythmic squeezing of his cock got Rick to climax. He came inside her, deep inside her.

Then he lifted her onto the bed and turned her, spreading her legs wide, and buried his face in her pussy. He tasted himself and her as he ate her pussy.

Kate ran a hand through his hair. "Don't stop. Please don't stop," she begged him as he ate her pussy.

Kate climaxed again, and she arched her butt off the bed and forced her pussy into his mouth. He continued licking her as she calmed down.

~oo0oo~

It is now safe to read. Thank you for being so kind.

~oo0oo~

Rick was resting with Kate on his chest. She was listening to his heart beating.

"Not that I'm complaining, Kate. Far from it, in fact, but where did that come from?"

Kate smiled and got up on her knees. She was still naked, but he had seen everything, so what did it matter? "I have something to tell you. Try not to interrupt me while I explain."

She waited for a moment. "You remember that movie from last night, John Wick? Well, that's my life. I'm a cleaner. I clean up dead bodies and clean up the mess they make. I get paid in coins mostly. Occasionally I get paid in cash but not often.

"Too much of that movie is my real life. The hotel where I live. The front desk. The Administrator and all of that. There's an organization called Top Table. They own the hotel and other hotels all across the world.

"I clean up the dead bodies and put them into my incinerator. I average two coins per event. John Wick is make-believe, but everything else is real. I carry a weapon with a silencer which you've seen for protection. What I do is dangerous."

Kate waited for a while. "Say something, Castle."

"You're a cleaner?"

"Yes, it's my job to clean up dead bodies before the police become involved. I think I'm pretty good at it. I have a trick for cleaning up the blood.

"Say something, Castle, please. I'm falling in love with you, and I need to know."

Did she really say what he thought she did? "You love me?"

Kate smiled at him. "Yes, I'm falling in love with you and it scares me. With what I do, I need to know."

Rick got up, forcing Kate to back off just a bit. "I love you too. So you're a cleaner. That's actually pretty cool. But why are you telling me this now?" He was almost certain the other shoe was about to be dropped.

"There are other hotels all across the planet. There's one in Russia, and I'm thinking of taking it. I need to escape here. The why is a long story."

"Russia. Meaning you'll be moving?"

Kate confirmed it. "I know it's short notice, but I want you to come with me. I'm falling in love with you, and I want to know if you'll come with me?"

"Move to Russia? You know I don't speak Russian."

"But, I do. I'll teach you." Kate suddenly had an inspiration. "Alexis can come with you. She'll be a transfer student, just one in Russia. I don't know about Martha, but maybe she can come too. I know what I'm asking, and it's a lot. I get that. But think about it. Please.

"I did it in high school. Alexis can too." Kate waited, barely breathing.

"Move to Russia." Rick tried to think. He was in love with her but was that enough to get him to move to Russia? Alexis would probably jump at being a transfer student. He doubted his mother would ever leave New York City.

"I'll think about it," Rick finally told her. That seemed enough to get Kate to kiss him and keep kissing him.