Chapter 6

Carlos pulled into the Malloys' driveway and killed the engine, trying to ignore the ATF agents' unmarked car and the cruiser that drew up behind his own vehicle. He climbed out of the car and shut the door slowly, hesitating, and looked toward the house.

Hearing doors close behind him, he glanced over his shoulder and started up the walk. Before he reached the front door, it opened and he saw Tommy standing there, the twins on either side of him. "Carlos…?"

The screen door opened and Tyler started out, only to have his older brother catch his arm as Carlos shook his head. "Take them inside, Tommy."

A moment later, Trent appeared behind them, and Carlos heard him say the same. However, the kids would have none of it. Even as Tommy moved back and toward the stairs, Tandy pulled away and glued herself to Trent's side. "No," she said stubbornly, reminding Carlos for a moment just how stubborn the entire Malloy clan could be.

It also reminded him of how stubborn the agents waiting outside could be. He glanced over his shoulder and saw MacPherson's hand hovering over her sidearm. Galiano's was in his hand, held against his thigh. Carlos had considered leaving his own weapon in the car – there was no way he could ever bring himself to fire against Trent, especially not knowing he was unarmed and with the kids right there. But he'd decided it might be necessary, if one of the agents got antsy. He shot them both a fierce look and, while MacPherson relaxed, Galiano ignored him.

"Trent—"

His friend turned away for just a moment, pushing Tandy back toward Tommy. "Go on, kiddo."

"Trent, what's going on?" Tommy held the girl against him, but didn't budge.

The martial arts instructor didn't respond, just turned back and looked at Carlos expectantly. Taking a slow, deep breath, he held up the papers in his hand. "I have a warrant for your arrest for the murder of federal agent Kristin Deville." He took a step forward, tucking the paperwork under his arm, and produced a pair of handcuffs. They were hardly necessary, but he wanted this to be as by-the-book as possible, for all their sakes.

Trent turned slightly, putting his hands behind his back without having to be told to, and Carlos saw him flinch as Tandy started crying, then broke away from Tommy and ran to him, throwing her arms around his waist.

No sooner had Carlos snapped the cuffs on than he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and spun around, hand dropped to his gun. "Hold—"

Then everything went to hell in little more than a heartbeat. Galiano's hand wavered and Tommy stepped forward to pull his little sister back. Then the muzzle on the agent's gun flashed, the shot somehow more deafening than any Carlos could ever remember hearing before. Tommy froze where he was, then took a sudden step back, his hand moving toward his right shoulder as if in slow motion. He stumbled back as Trent, hands still cuffed behind him, spun toward the younger man. Tandy screamed and Tyler tried to scoot out of the way before his brother fell against him.

"It hurts to be shot," Tommy mumbled, sagging back against the wall and sliding toward the floor.

ATF agents forgotten for the moment, Carlos dropped to his knees next to the boy and pulled his cell phone from his pocket, only to feel a hand close it as he snapped it open. "Ambulance is on the way," MacPherson said, her voice soft. She knelt down in front of Tandy. "Can you show me where your mom keeps your towels?" Still crying, the girl nodded and headed back into the house.

As they went, Carlos kept his eyes on Tommy. "You're gonna be okay, kiddo," he told him softly, unable to raise his eyes to Trent's, knowing the kind of pain he'd see in his friend's face. He did, however, look over toward Tyler, hovering worriedly a few feet away. "He'll be okay."

"Hurts."

He returned his attention to the boy half-sitting, half-lying next to him. "I know, Tommy. Been there once or twice myself." He forced a smile and kept talking, unsure of how much he was really grasping. "The girls'll be all over you when you tell them you survived getting shot."

"He's got a big enough head already," Trent murmured, "without you inflating it even more."

"Do not," Tommy mumbled.

They fell silent as MacPherson and Tandy returned with a couple of towels. As the female agent knelt down next to him, Carlos unbuttoned Tommy's shirt, slipping it off his wounded shoulder. MacPherson folded one of the cloths over and handed it to him to hold against the injury. Then she held out her hand. "Keys."

He glanced at her sideways. "What?"

"Keys. To the handcuffs. I'm going to release him – temporarily." After a second or two, he handed her the keys, keeping one hand pressed firmly against Tommy's chest.

He moved aside once Trent finally knelt next to him, and allowed his friend to take over. Then he stood up, pulled MacPherson away from the Malloys, and said, "You might want to get your partner out of here now, because if I so much as see him, I won't be held responsible for my actions."

"I wouldn't hold you back," she replied curtly, catching him off guard.

Any other reply was forestalled as an ambulance, lights flashing, drew into the driveway. As the paramedics guided the stretcher up to the door, Carlos put a hand on Trent's shoulder, pulling him back slightly. "Come on, man."

Slowly, Trent nodded and rose, taking a few steps back, out of the way, watching as Tommy was loaded onto the stretcher. "Oh, God," he whispered, sagging back against the door.

"He's going to be fine," Carlos said softly. Then, to his annoyance, MacPherson approached, forcing his mind back to the issue that had brought them to the Malloys' home in the first place. "I still have to bring you in." He took his handcuffs back as the two uniformed officers – where the devil had they been for the last fifteen minutes, anyway? – came up to them.

Trent ignored the newcomers. "The twins—"

"I can take them down to the hospital and wait for your mother," MacPherson offered.

Carlos shook his head. "No. He," he pointed toward her partner, "is not getting anywhere near them. No, I'll take them with me, then to the hospital." He turned to the two patrol officers. "Call Katie Malloy—"

His friend interrupted him, wrenching his eyes away from the stretcher now being put into the ambulance. "No; Carlos, please, let me. If it's anyone else, she'll panic—"

"It's all right," MacPherson said. "Let him make the call."

Just as she spoke, though, the phone inside rang and Tyler ran for it, coming back a moment later, yelling for his brother. "It's mom!"

Trent pushed past Carlos and took the cordless from his younger brother. "Mom, it's me."

Carlos moved to stand beside him, close enough that he could hear every word Mrs. Malloy said. "Trent, why does Tyler sound so upset?"

Trent was quiet for so long that Carlos started to wonder if he was even going to reply, but then he said, "I'm… being arrested." He hesitated. "One of… Tommy was shot. Just in the shoulder; he's going to be okay, but he's not really conscious right now. He's being taken to the hospital."

Few times in his life had Carlos seen Katie Malloy truly worked up, but from the sound of it, this was one of them. He couldn't understand what she said back, just rapid-fire words injected with worry for her sons. "Mom, please, calm… mom!"

Seeing Trent's own control over his emotions start to slip, Carlos reached over and took the phone from his hand, putting an arm around his friend's shoulders. "Katie, it's Carlos." He spoke quickly, before she could bury him with questions. "I'm going to bring the kids to the hospital as soon as I run Trent downtown. Tommy is going to be fine, I promise you. Now, I've got to go." Guilt plaguing him even as he did it, he hung up, vowing to himself that he'd let her tear into him to her heart's content.

The whole damn thing was, after all, his fault. It was the least he could do.

As he pulled Trent's arms behind his back and cuffed him once more, then started to guide him toward his car, he decided there was something else he could do – later. Keeping one hand on Trent's shoulder, he motioned the twins over.

Just as he closed the door after his friend was inside the car, Tyler and Tandy seemed to brighten – barely but enough to take away some of the strain he was feeling. "Can we ride in the back, Carlos?"

He glanced between them, then back to Trent. "Sure, why not?"

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"Walker." Trivette looked up as the tone in his partner's voice changed. "When? Saint Matthew's?" Walker went quiet for a second, then picked up a pen. "You have names?" He watched him scrawl out a few notes and tear off the page. "I'll see you down there."

As the older Ranger replaced the receiver and looked up, Trivette just waited expectantly. Gage, though, who had just come into the office with Sydney, spoke up. "What was that about? Someone hurt?"

"That was Carlos Sandoval. ATF's people are in town; they went with him to take Trent in, and his younger brother was shot."

"Tommy or Tyler?" Trivette asked, pushing his chair back and standing.

"Tommy; Carlos said it's a shoulder wound, and he should be okay, but he's in rough shape. He has the younger kids with him, but he wants someone to go down to the emergency room to meet Kate."

"Walker, what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking I want to find out more about how Tommy Malloy was shot before I come up with anything." He stood up. "Trivette, go down to Dallas Police HQ and keep an eye on how things go with Trent's interrogation." Jimmy nodded and Walker turned to the other Rangers, holding out the sheet of paper.

"Gage, you and Sydney see what you can find out on these two. All I know right now is that Galiano's the one with the itchy trigger finger." He paused. "If you run into any walls, give Alex a call and see if she can't pull some strings."

"Got it, boss." Gage saluted, holding the single sheet up to his forehead. "We'll call you if we come up with anything."

Walker shook his head. "Meet us at CD's later; Carlos sounds pretty strung out right now. I want to get him on more neutral territory."

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"Mom!"

Walker looked up at the exclamation, rising in tandem with Kate Malloy as her two youngest came running down the corridor toward her, a strained police detective trailing behind them. Kate knelt in front of them, taking both kids into her arms at once, then stood and gave Carlos a hug. "What happened, honey?"

"A lot," he said, voice weary. "How's Tommy?"

"They're removing the bullet now," Cordell said, shaking the younger man's hand. "He's going to be all right, Carlos."

"Sure." He sighed and raked a hand through his hair. "I'm so sorry, Kate."

"What happened, Carlos?" she asked again.

"I got paged back to the station; Burnett and two ATF agents were waiting for me. They told me that I was being pulled off the case, and that they'd gotten a warrant for Trent's arrest. I don't know how; I know it wasn't Alex."

"No, it wasn't," Walker said quietly. For one, she'd have told him. For two, she wouldn't have obtained a warrant on what little information they had at the moment.

Carlos nodded, looking grateful for the validation, then continued his story. "I talked Burnett into letting me go, because I knew someone was going to get hurt." He shook his head and Walker watched his fists tighten. The Ranger stepped forward, pushing the younger man into a chair.

After several minutes, he looked up again. "I had him cuffed, Walker; he wasn't fighting or arguing… he didn't say a word. Then Tandy started crying and ran forward, and Tommy went to pull her back, and that scumbag fired… hit Tommy in the shoulder."

"It's not your fault, Carlos," Walker said, sitting down beside him. "I have Gage and Sydney looking into both of those agents."

"Thanks, Walker." The skepticism in the man's voice was obvious, and Walker knew it would take more than anything he could say to assuage the guilt he was suffering from.

"Mom."

"Not now, Tyler," Kate said, putting her hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Mom, it really wasn't Carlos's fault. He even yelled at the man not to shoot – or to stop, or something – and he did it anyway."

Walker glanced sideways at Carlos, who had raised his head to watch Trent's younger siblings.

"It's true, Mom," Tandy said softly. "It's my fault."

"No!" Carlos slid off the chair to kneel in front of the girl. "Tandy, it is not your fault, not at all."

"If I hadn't'a—"

The detective shook his head. "No. It's not your fault. It's just that agent, the one who shot Tommy. It's only his fault."

"Then I guess it's not your fault either, huh, Carlos?" Walker pointed out, earning himself a grudging glare from the younger man.

"It isn't, Carlos." Kate reached a hand out and rested it on his shoulder, then slid it down his arm to take his hand. "It's just one terrible series of events, and between you all, you're going to find out what's really going on." She gave him a smile. "How's Trent?"

"Angry. When I left he was stonewalling Galiano, doing his best to piss him off." Carlos cracked a smile and shook his head. "It was working, too."

"I bet."

They were interrupted by a doctor's approach. "Mrs. Malloy?"

Kate released Carlos and turned to face him. "Yes."

"I'm Doctor Madero; I'm the surgeon who removed the bullet from your son's shoulder."

Out of the corner of his eye Walker saw Carlos step forward to stand next to her, and the kids slipped in between each of them to stand by their mother. "How is Tommy?"

"He's going to be just fine. He'll be unconscious for another couple of hours, and when he wakes up he'll be in a lot of pain, but eventually he'll be as good as new. We're going to keep him on morphine for another day or so, and then I'll prescribe him something for the pain. Is there anything he's allergic to?"

Kate shook her head. "Not that I know of." She hesitated. "Can we see him, or…?"

"Certainly; one at a time, please. I'll take you to his room now."

Trent's mother looked to Carlos and, when he shook his head, Walker did the same. "You go on. We're going to head down to CDs to meet Trivette and a couple of my people." Not that he'd mentioned it to Carlos, but he hadn't planned to give him a choice in the matter. He needed a break, from the looks of it. "We'll come by later, though, to see how you're all doing."

Kate nodded. "Thank you, Walker, Carlos." She turned to the detective and held her arms out, giving him a quick, tight, hug before taking the kids with her and following the doctor back down the hall.