Double Up

Chapter 36

He then threw the phone on the bed, beside her and got up and went straight to the bathroom.

That's when Kate realized. It was Jo's phone. "What was Castle doing with Jo's…" she asked herself

and then

'No he didn't' played on in her head as she looked after him until he closed the door behind him.

Kate quickly unlocked the screen and read.

Castle showered quickly and then went out to get the coffee started. Kate walked out a few minutes later and went straight up to Castle.

"Good morning" he said without actually looking at her.

She was just about to reply, when Jo came running downstairs

"Where's my phone?"

And that's when she spotted it in her mom's hand.

"Why do you have my phone?" she asked with bitterness in her voice.

"Come here Jo; don't yell from there, you'll wake your sister."

Jo walked closer to where they were but still kept a safe distance. Her dad was not looking directly at her, but her mom had a stern questioning look on her face.

"Jo, you lied to your dad yesterday?"

"What? What are you talking about?" she wasn't making eye contact with her mother.

Trying her best to hold a poker face. But she was fooling no one. Kate Castle was a trained detective. She knew all the tells.

"You lied to your dad about where you were going after school yesterday"

"I don't know where you got that from"

Castle spoke now,

"From your phone. Your chat with 'Danny'", he said, using his pointer fingers to make air quotes to the name Danny.

"You sneaked up on me and checked my messages?"

"Jo answer me… you lied to your dad, and me too, now tell me who this Danny is, where did you go with him and why did you feel the need to lie to us about where you were?" Kate raised her voice at her daughter

"That is not the point!" Jo yelled in anger

"Yes it is!" Castle said.

"Joanna Castle, you answer my questions right this instant" Kate said.

"He had no right to check my phone!"

"He's your father, he has every right!"

"No he doesn't, it was a total invasion of my privacy! What happened to 'Trust'?"

"Are you serious? We just found out you lied to us, and you want to talk about trust?"

"I want my phone back"

"Not until I get answers!"

"I'm not answering anything until I get my phone back."

"Even if I give you your phone back honey, I have this Danny's number and I'm going to find out everything from him if you don't tell me"

"Oh my God, you can't be serious"

here's when Castle interrupted again.

"Oh you want to know how serious we are?"

"Dad, you had no right!"

and even before she could finish her sentence castle had grabbed her phone out of Kate's hands and thrown it to the ground, and smashed it under his foot.

"What the hell dad!"

"Castle, babe cool it"

Kate put her hand on his shoulder. Of late his temper had gotten bad. He often got this way when it came to disciplining the kids. But what Kate hated was that it sometimes scared them.

"You're grounded. For a month." He said.

"What? MOM! Say something to him"

But Kate didn't.

"Wow. This is just fantastic!" she turned around and rushed back to her room, passing Nate on the staircase. He had awoken a long while back and had seen the entire exchange between Jo and his mom and dad.

Castle turned and walked straight to his study. Kate followed him, but first patted Nate on the shoulder and said

"sweetie, Could you please go check on Becky please?"

"Yea yea, I will" he assured her.