Because Of You

Chapter 15

The team pull up outside the storage unit. Esposito's heart drops as he sees no sign of his partner or his car. Beckett takes the lead walking up to the door with her gun in her hand. She tries the handle. The heavy rusted door swings open. Clearly whoever was in here last didn't care to lock up after themselves. Certainly not her blue eyed friend's style, which only serves to worry her more.

The team breach the premises. As they make their way down the corridor they see no signs of life. Espo's heart drops as he spots something on the floor in front of them. With the knowledge that Sherman and Beckett are covering his back, he bends down to take a closer look. In front of him lie the shattered remains of a cell phone and Esposito can only assume that it belongs to his partner.

"What is it Espo?" Beckett questions as she beckons for her husband to come closer to her. She's pretty certain the place is clear, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

"It's a phone and I'm pretty sure it's Kevin's" Esposito replies in a worried tone.

"Are you sure it's his?" Sherman asks, doubting that this detective can tell if it's his partner's phone from a mere look.

"Who else could it be? It has to be him!" Esposito exclaims, beginning to get frustrated as he stands up "Malone, or whatever his real name is, took him! He's got Kevin!"

Espo walks a few paces away from his colleagues to hide the fear in his eyes. Every new horrifying scenario that enters his mind causes his heart to drop to more painful levels. What he's feeling right now is the worst kind of pain, worry, and fear he thinks he's ever felt and he was a soldier! A war zone is nowhere near as terrifying as the thought of losing his best friend. There are a million possibilities as to where Kevin could be and what could be happening to him right now. Some scenarios are painting a very vivid and abhorrent picture in Esposito's mind. Who knows what Malone is doing to him!

"Espo, you need to stay calm" he hears his boss trying to soothe him "We'll get him back"

"Yeah" is all he manages to whisper out.

"I didn't see Ryan's car outside so maybe we'll get lucky and we can turn on the GPS in Ryan's car or use traffic cam footage to see where they went" his captain announces before she dials the precinct to inform them of the new developments.

Esposito puts his hand above his head as he tries to control his rapid breathing. Sherman looks sympathetic, but has no idea what to say. The fear he has is that anything he says will just upset the panicked detective even more. So, instead, an intense silence lingers amongst the three men until Beckett returns. After hanging up with Tory, who is already working on getting a location on Ryan, she heads back over to her detectives.

"Any news?" Castle questions his wife.

Three pairs of eyes are suddenly locked onto her and she feels a small lump forming in her throat. She has nothing. It's killing her inside that one of her boys is out there (quite possibly in a ridiculous amount of danger) and she hasn't got a clue where to start looking. There's no information on her suspect; who she thought was just a detective in her squad. Malone lied about everything so how can she expect herself to know where to look? Usually she'll have a bit of background on a perp and might even know where their go-to places are, but she feels like she doesn't know Malone at all. The guy could be anywhere with Ryan right now. Worst of all, he could be doing anything to Ryan right now...

"No, not yet. Tory's working on it" Beckett admits sadly.

"She can trace the car so that's something, right?" Sherman adds trying to find some light in the dark.

"I don't think the car is with them anymore. Malone is clearly a smart guy. He managed to fool us all for months. I doubt he's stupid enough to take a cop car with him, knowing that the full force of the NYPD will be on his ass. I hate to say it, but he's probably ditched the car by now" she points out with a frustrated sigh.

"Why would he take Ryan's car in the first place? I mean he knows it can be traced. Regardless of whether he dumps it we still have a lead on his whereabouts. If he'd left the car here I doubt we'd have a lead at all" Sherman argues back; trying to cling to any hope that is left.

"Unless he doesn't care if he's found" Castle starts to theorise as he shifts his gaze from person to person "Like you said before, Kate. This guy is obviously very good at what he does. There's no way he'd make a mistake like this unless he didn't care. We don't know what his motives are yet. All we know is that he's fixated on Ryan and from what's happened today, I'm willing to make an educated guess that it involves the Irish mob too. A likely scenario is that Malone wants us to find him or somethings going to happen pretty soon that means us being able to find his location won't be a problem"

"Let's just focus on getting Kevin back safely" Javier finally replies, staring fiercely at the crime writer.

Just as Castle is about to reply, Beckett's phone starts ringing. The phone only gets to ring for a couple of seconds before she's answers it.

"Hey Tory, what have you got for me?" Beckett talks into the phone.

The men look on expectantly, hoping to gauge her reaction, since they can't hear what Tory is saying on the other end of the line.

Beckett nods her head in conformation of what she's hearing "Alright, thanks Tory"

"Well?" Sherman asks eagerly.

"She managed to trace Ryan's car to an abandoned warehouse in the industrial district down by the docks" Beckett announces with a level of reservation to her voice.

"Great. Well, what are we waiting for?" Sherman eagerly asks his captain.

In his mind, he's responsible for what has happened to the blue eyed detective, because he was the one who was with him when he got taken the first time. No matter how many times he's told it's not his fault there will still be a small part of him that truly believes it is. There's also the fact that Malone is his partner of less than a day, to most this is just grasping at straws, but in Sherman's mind, it's his partner and he should have some how seen that he was bad.

"I know we all so desperately want to get Ryan back, but I'm not losing anyone over this, okay? We go in there, we take Malone down, then rescue Ryan" Beckett orders in her stern captain voice.

Already she can tell that her newest detective is blaming himself for Malone's betrayal, but how was he to know his partner was crooked? Sherman's only been in the unit for less than 24 hours! Plus, if none of the other detectives, who are very experienced, didn't see through Malone's lies after months then how can Sherman expect to have seen through it in one day?

"You got it, Captain" Sherman replies with a nod.

"That okay with you Espo-" Beckett says turning to face the detective, however she finds nothing but air "Where the hell is Espo?"

"He kinda left" her husband tells her, but when she glares at him, he becomes worried for his own safety. Castle is well aware of his wife's abilities with a gun and how deadly accurate her aim can be!

"He left?! When?!" she exclaims in outrage.

This is the last thing she wants! Esposito will probably go in there all guns blazing and somebody will get hurt or worse.

"Remember when you said Ryan was at a warehouse by the docks?" Castle questions.

"Yeah, I said that not so long ago" his wife replies with her hands on her tilted hips.

"Well he left as soon as you said it... five minutes ago" Castle answers and squeezes his eyes shut preparing for Beckett's wrath.

After feeling no pain of any kind he opens one eye an takes a peek. Nothing. Everyone's disappeared. A very confused Castle looks around for his missing companions.

"Rick, come on! Espo has a five minute head start on us already! No doubt he'll want some back up!" Beckett yells to her husband from the end of the hallway.