775. Chapter 775

After Deep in Death

Episode 2.01

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Nyet! I do not own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above

"How do I look?" She said in a Russian accent, while standing in front of a mirror.

He smiled at her. "Gorgeous, as always."

"Is not too much?" She turned to look at herself sideways.

"I have seen you in a lot less, remember."

"I am so lucky to have boyfriend like you." Suddenly she frowned. "But I am only girlfriend. You have wife."

"And I love my wife, but somehow I don't think she minds my relationship with you."

"You think so?" She said, with a tinge of disbelief.

"I also don't think you should be doing this."

Kate dropped her Russian accent. "I have to. There are only two officers in the NYPD that speak Russian well enough to pass for a Russian. There's me and Detective Oleg Timoshenko, and Oleg looks, acts and talks like a cop. His cover would be blown in two seconds. That leaves me. That said, even though I have to go, you don't. You're not a cop, Rick."

"Of course I have to go. I couldn't possibly let you do anything dangerous by yourself."

"You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?"

Castle did his best to look shocked at the suggestion. "Me? Do something stupid? Where would you ever get an idea like that?"

Kate put her arms around his neck and gave him a quick kiss. "Oh, how about from the first time I pretended to be Tatiana, the Russian Party girl. You could have gotten killed if I hadn't come in to rescue you."

"Yes, but I had to do more than just walk in and get some photos of some tattooed Russians."

"You had to?"

"If you remember, you hated me for looking into your mom's case. I had to do something to win you back. Risking my life for Kate Beckett's forgiveness seemed very reasonable. It still does."

"Seeing as how we're married, you will not risk your life tonight." Kate leaned against his chest and hugged him. "If you'd listened to me….I don't know what would have happened. President Bracken? The idea makes me sick. I should never have treated you like I did. When we get home, I think I'm going to have to be extra nice to you tonight."

"You are always extra nice to me."

"Just remember, we're going to this poker game to try to find Ekaterina Petrova. She's our witness, but she's in this country illegally. She does not want to be found by the police, so we just look around. Okay?"

Rick leaned into kiss her. "Don't worry. If they try to deport her, I'll have so many lawyers working on her case, she'll be old and gray before they even start deportation proceedings."

"And remember, I'm Tatiana, not Kate. Remember that?"

"Certainly, Kate, um, Tatiana."

She gave him a glare.

Unlike the first Russian card game they had gone to, this one was in a nice hotel some miles up the Hudson River from New York City. Rick and Kate walked into the room where the game was being played and sat down.

"We don't allow whores at the table." One man sneered.

"Good. I don't want to be bothered by whores." Kate, as Tatiana, shot back.

The man grabbed her arm and twisted it. "You don't hear so well, you dumb whore? Go in other room with other whores."

Tatiana smiled at him, then rabbit punched him in the neck, then reached around, grabbed his pistol from his waistband and pushed the muzzle into his ear. "I hear just fine. Perhaps I should clean your ears out?"

The hands of the other men at the table were headed under the table and towards their own weapons. Rick tossed two bundles of cash onto the table. "I came here to play poker with my girlfriend, Tatiana. But if you gentlemen are more interested in arguing, then we can take our fifty thousand dollars in nice crisp hundreds and go elsewhere."

The other men eyed the piles of cash on the table. One said something in Russian which caused the other men to laugh. The man across from Castle translated. "I am Georgi. I said that perhaps Pavel there should go sit with the whores. We came here to play poker. Anyone who has money is welcome as far as I'm concerned. Anyone disagree?"

Georgi was obviously the alpha male of the group. Everyone, even Pavel, nodded. Tatiana took the clip from his weapon, ejected the round in the chamber and tossed everything onto a couch. "Then let's play cards." She said, sitting down next to Rick.

It became obvious after a few hands that Pavel had been invited because he had lots of money and was a terrible poker player. He had no poker face, stayed in hands far too long and bet way too much when he had anything resembling a good hand. Worse, he drank too much. Rick and Tatiana, not wanting to drive anyone out of the game had trouble not beating him and even managed to lose to him. This at least made him feel better about what Tatiana had done to him.

After three hours, everyone except Pavel was up, whether a little or a lot. Tatiana was up by some five hundred dollars and Rick was up by over seven thousand. Tatiana stood up. "I need to go powder my nose."

Georgi pointed to the adjoining room. "Bathroom is in use. Go next door."

Tatiana found four young, underdressed and unhappy Russian women sitting in the room next door, watching TV. "Bathroom okay?" She asked in Russian.

A blonde with obviously fake boobs nodded. Tatiana went inside and waited for a few moments before coming back out. "What are you watching?"

Another blonde answered. "The Bachelor. Very sad program. These American girls are no prettier than we are, but they are American. They get chance at nice, rich American husband. We get Russian men. Who are you with?"

"My boyfriend, Rick."

"Rick? He is American? Is he rich? Is he handsome? Does he have a wife?"

Tatiana told them a fairly accurate story about her life with Rick, where they lived, what Rick did and their relationship. The story was interrupted by a crash in the other room and then the sound of men yelling. The women rushed into the other room and saw two men holding Pavel while Georgi wiped blood off of his face. Pavel was yelling in Russian.

"Tatiana, what the hell is he saying?" Rick yelled.

"He's saying that Georgi and the rest are cheating him. He says he'll kill you all." Tatiana went to the couch, grabbed Pavel's pistol, slammed the clip in and worked the slide. Then she went to stand by Rick, gun in hand.

"I think the game is over for the night. We'll take Pavel's pistol. And I don't think we'll be back if Pavel is at one of these games."

"He won't be." One man said.

They were in their car and well away from the hotel before Rick said anything. "Did you learn anything?"

"All the men talked about in Russian was how good they were in bed with their girlfriends, how much money they were making and how good they were at poker. Kind of typical men." She teased.

"I bragged about how good you are in bed when you were gone." Rick replied. "Get anything from the women?"

She shook her head. "I didn't get a chance. But there are four Russian women who are madly in love with you."

"Just four?"

They stopped by the precinct to check on the murder investigation and were surprised to find Ryan and Esposito still there.

"You're still here?" Kate asked.

"We had to wait for you for the interrogation."

"What interrogation?"

"Ekaterina Pavlova walked in about four hours ago. Said she'd only speak to the Russian speaking lady cop."

"At last we made some money tonight." Rick said.

"Let's see what our witness has to say." Kate and Rick headed for Interrogation.