Vincit Omnia Amor (Love Conquers All)

Chapter 24 - Startled

Chapter 24 - Startled

Rick Castle's POV 

When we walked down the stairs I made sure I was the first one down. I felt Kate trying to get in front of me, probably because she was like me who didn't want the other one to get hurt. The doorbell ringed again to my surprise. If it really was any of our agencies, why did they bother to call on the bell? Wouldn't they just barge in so that we wouldn't be able to make a run for it first? I looked at Kate and gave her a look trying to talk to her through my eyes. I could see that she immediately had shared the same thoughts. The door ringed again and we made it to the last step. I signaled to Kate to stay there, and started walking towards the door. The person on the other side gave up the door bell and started knocking instead. I peeked out the little door window in the door and saw a woman and a man, the woman held a big smile while the man started to look irritated. I put the gun in the back of my pants and looked over at Kate. I shook my head and she put away her gun the same way before nodding. I unlocked the door, being ready to pull out my gun just in case. I opened with a small smile on my lips.

"Eh, hi, what can I do for you?" I said and tried to sound friendly.

"Hi! Sorry for disturbing I just had to show my husband I was right when I told him that someone finally moved in here. You're Richard Warren, right? We live in the house right over there" the woman explained and pointed to the house right across the street.

Kate came to my side and I felt her hand on my back were I had my gun. I lay my hand around her waist and I made sure to be able to reach for her gun in case something would happen and it turned out we were in danger.

"Yeah, I'm Richard Warren, this is my... girlfriend, Katherine Hale" I said and Kate cut me off.

"Call me Kate" she quickly said and I smiled.

I pulled her closer to my left side and kissed the side of her head. She giggled and I could almost hear the blush taking place on her cheeks in her giggle.

"I'm Robert Hopkins and this is my wife Viola, she's a very nosy one who can't stay out of people's personal life" the man said with an apologizing voice.

The woman hit the man on his arm and he exclaimed with an "Ow!". 

"I'm really not that nosy" she defended and Robert gave her a look. "Fine, I am. I just wanted to know how come you moved in now. It said you bought it a few years ago" Viola continued.

"Oh, uhm" I tried to think fast.

"That must be about the time you met me right? You see, I had a few... problems back home that I had to deal with. Rick here was the nicest man and stayed with me until it was all over" Kate said and I was surprised by how truthful it sounded.

I looked at her and I could see some tears appear in her eyes before she looked up at me and smiled saddly. I hugged her into my side as I calmly whispered "it's ok now". I figured it was best, for the show. If I hadn't done they would've gotten suspicious. 

"Oh, I'm so sorry for prying..." Viola said with a hearbreaking voice.

"It's okay, it's over now" Kate said but her smile was still weak.

Even though I knew it was all fake and it was for show my heart broke seeing her like this. I swore to myself that I would do anything in my power so that she never had to be that misserable for real. 

"Well, we should get going, just wanted to see if the house had gotten it's owner back, welcome to the neighborhood" Viola said and we all said bye before I closed the door.

"Phew, that was close" I whispered and locked the door.

Kate wiped away the fake tears she had acted with and I smiled at her. When she looked up at me she shared a confused look and added a "what?".

"Nothing, you're a really good actress, I gotta say" I said and even I could hear the amusement in my voice.

Her cheeks went a light pink and I stepped closer to her. She looked up at me and our eyes met.

"We should, uhm, call our friends and start the hacking" she said and stepped on her toes to give me a soft and quick kiss.

I nodded and we walked down to the secret room with our phones in our hands. When we got there Kate dialed a number while I simply threw away a text to Javi and Kevin telling them I was alright but that I couldn't tell them what was going on until they had new untracable phones. Of course I use a code word we had all agreed on in case I would need to go into hiding and they couldn't come with me. I quickly got a reply. "Ok, Imma grab the beer later" Javi replied and Kevin replied  with "Sure, meet you there", both were codes saying they would go buy new phones later and contact me on this number. I put my phone on the table and opened the laptop box. I took out the macbook air and installed the necessities. I had made the computers impossible to trace, in case they would notice we were in their system and try to find the threat. I looked over at Kate, she talked low and was pacing in one of the corners off the room. I wondered if I should be worried if she was fooling me but then I thought about the past four days  and everything we've already been through. She wouldn't betray me, if she would have she wouldn't have told me who she was in the first place. And I had a feeling about her that told me to trust her. I felt like I knew her and that feeling was enough for me.