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DOPPELGANGER

Chapter Six

Trent inhaled as he felt the warm sensation of the sun caress his neck as he stood over a patch of weeds Katie Malloy had been begging him to pluck up for weeks. It had still been dark out when he woke up, wanting to get an early start on the yard work at 118 Providence Way before the rest of his family was awake. With each clip of the shears around his mother's delicate flowers, regret chipped at his heart as he replayed how harsh he had spoken to Katheryn yesterday. He could still almost see the glint of a tear in her eye as he turned to walk away.

With the growing anger and disappointment in himself, Trent threw himself into his work, not even realizing he was not alone.

"You're gonna get blisters if you keep that up, Malloy."

Startled, Trent whirled around, nearly dropping his tools. He took a deep breath once he saw Katheryn's familiar face and turned back to continue what he was doing. "Hey, Kath. What are you doing up so early?"

"I promised Sydney I'd spar with her at the Ranger gym before we did a little more digging on Harris."

"Oh," Trent's voice was even and flat. Even with the apology welling in his throat, he couldn't bring himself to set aside what was gnawing at him long enough to come to terms with someone who meant a lot to him. But standing to his feet slowly, Trent approached Katheryn, removing his gloves as he did so. He cleared his throat, noticing how observant Katheryn was of his every move. "I think I owe you an apology. I shouldn't have been so angry at you yesterday."

"That's okay."

"No…it's not. It was unacceptable."

Kath nodded. "It's been quite clear that you haven't been yourself lately. And I think it has a lot to do with Molly. I know you don't want to talk about it. But we have to. You can't move on until you do."

"You and Walker," Trent chuckled. "You both have that instinct."

Katheryn shook her head. "Well, I don't know about that. But I'm not blind when my best friends are going through hell. I know men are always so macho and claim they don't like talking about their feelings. But you need to, Trent. You're gonna lose all that you've worked so hard for if you keep letting it effect you this way."

"You're right," Trent admitted with a brief nod. "But I've already talked to Molly. It didn't help matters any. She's getting a place of her own up there. I don't think she's planning to come back."

Katheryn couldn't believe it. Molly would have called her to tell her she wouldn't be coming home. It was impossible for her to believe she'd not tell her that. Suddenly she understood why Trent was upset. She didn't excuse it by a long shot. But she could definitely understand. She was feeling a bit angry at the notion already.

Trent noticed this and gave Kath's shoulder a squeeze. "But I still shouldn't have snapped at you yesterday. Can you forgive me?"

Kath's face showed a broad smile as she reached to wrap her arms around the only brother she'd ever have. "Of course I forgive you! Don't ever think otherwise."

As they separated, Trent motioned to the house and flashed a mischievous grin. "Have you had breakfast? I think there's some leftover chocolate cake in the fridge."

"Oh! Sounds good. Count me in."

Trent wrapped an arm around Kath as they walked up to the house. It was a start to putting things right, Katheryn concluded with a smile to herself. If only Carlos and Molly were there to share the moment with them it would have been perfect.

The burning sensation in his eyes didn't last long as Carlos blinked it away, staring straight into the morning sunlight. Or was it noon? He couldn't quite tell from the position he was lying in next to a tall pile of what appeared to be crates of explosives. Another few seconds past before he realized the natural light was coming to him through a gaping hole in the roof of the disserted shack he found himself in. It was filthy and smelled like a corpse. The buzzing of flies did nothing to comfort Carlos regarding this newfound revelation.

As Carlos tried his best to readjust his posture into an upright position, a sharp pain seized his neck and upper back, causing him to realize just how long he had been unconscious and not moving. He craved the chance to rub at the muscles that were giving him grief but gave his tied up hands a scoff and tried to think about something else.

Glancing around the room the best he was able to, Carlos spotted a bloody hunter's knife on the floor beneath a table that was soaked in blood. Suddenly the nausea was almost too much for Carlos to stand as he winced and looked away. The smell was bad enough without the visual added to it. Thankfully something else took his mind off of it…his bloody forehead. But that brought an entire new load of memories sweeping into his mind. His last memory flashed before him. The escape. The weird guys calling him Rico. The car blowing up. It was all a blur but seemed to be filtering into place in his mind as Carlos thought about it more.

The last thing Carlos could remember was being hit on the back of the head by what he assumed was a rifle just after he had scraped himself up off the pavement. He hadn't seen any faces whatsoever.

Carlos was just about to attempt to scoot to the nearest exit despite the pain when the door of the cabin flew open. Three semi-automatic pistols were suddenly pointed his direction from three different angles as the jacketed officials filtered into the corners of the shack, each one yelling at Carlos to freeze.

A fourth individual filed into the cabin next, his eyes piercing into Carlos as the shimmering sunlight settled on the three letters gracing the middle-aged man's jacket...F-B-I.

"Rico Gonzales, you are under arrest…"

"Look, I know you want to help out Harris and all. He's a wayward guy being led astray by Lyons at one point. But we don't have jurisdiction. As far as we know, he's only committed petty theft. That's a job for the DPD to handle…not Texas Rangers."

"Gage, I know that. But Katheryn said he clearly was familiar with the local prostitution rings."

"That may be so, Syd. But we still got nothing to go on."

"Maybe we do…"

Gage and Sydney whirled around from their perch by Walker's desk to see Trent and Kath striding in with a few files on hand.

"Thanks to one of Carlos' old DPD buddies, I was able to squeeze out Harris' record. It seems that Scott owns a little bar in Deep Ellum."

"But that's not all," Kath's face glimmered with happiness as she took a second file and handed it to Gage and Sydney. "Scott recently got into a brawl with a guy who he hired when he started soliciting his customers to come check out another venue across town. After the police came and checked it out, Scott and the other guy kept quiet. They made a deal that the soliciting would stop and Scott wouldn't fire him."

"But I don't understand," Sydney piped up. "How did you get all this information?"

"That's the good part. The guy who Scott hired is the same undercover cop that we got this info from."

"Ah!" Gage grinned. "Nice work!"

"That's not all," Trent chimed. "It seems Scott is involved a little deeper in some stuff. But they haven't been able to pin him down. So I told our friend at the DPD that the Rangers are looking into Scott now. He says he could use the backup to dig a little deeper."

"Great!" Sydney beamed. "So where do we go from here?"

"I was thinking," Trent glanced from Katheryn to Sydney, "that Scott might look into hiring some pretty gals to work his bar."

"But he's already seen me," Katheryn interjection, concerned that this plan was flawed.

But Trent raised a finger in protest. "That's perfect actually. It gives you a leg up since he was already coming on to you."

"You're right!" Kath suddenly could see the plan taking shape. "He'd never suspect me at all. In fact, it would be the perfect distraction you guys would need to find out just what kind of operation is going on behind the scenes."

"I like it," Gage added, but there was hesitation in his voice. "But do you really need Sydney then?" Gage let out a sheepish wince as Sydney punched him on the arm.

"Well, Sydney could be my backup for now. We would just be two friends going for a drink as an excuse I needed to see him. Then we can feel our way in from there."

Gage nodded and seemed to like the idea as well as Trent.

With the plan in motion, Sydney and Katheryn returned home to change into something a bit more appropriate for the undercover mission, citing a change of makeup and attitude to complete the looks.

As soon as they were ready to go, Katheryn's cell phone rang out across the apartment. Kath barely caught the phone on the last ring, her hands sore from trying to put on an earring as she ran across the room. "Katheryn Beaumont," she sorted herself out with a few deep breaths as she waited to hear the other voice.

"Kath, it's me."

Katheryn's weight fell into the nearest chair as she heard the raspy, tired voice of the man she loved. "Carlos! Where are you? Are you alright?"

"I—I'm fine. But I've been arrested…again."

"Where? By who?"

"The FBI. I'm currently warming a seat in interrogation in Austin. Say a little prayer for me, will you?"

"Carlos, this isn't funny. What's going on?"

"Well, I'd love to chat, but the gray haired leader of the pack is staring me down right now. I'm supposed to be getting proof that I'm not Rico Gonzales."

"Who?!"

"I can't explain. Just let Gage or Sydney know about this. They'll know who to contact."

"Okay," Katheryn answered lamely, knowing very well that Gage would never let them go undercover alone while he had something else to attend to. "I'll mention it. I love you."

"I love you, too. See you soon."

The flat-line tone that followed ripped through Katheryn's heart. Carlos' absence had gone from confusing to absurd in less than a minute.

As Sydney appeared in the living area, she quickly noticed Katheryn and hurried over to her. "What's the matter?"

"That was Carlos. He's currently in the custody of the FBI." Sydney's eyes enlarged at the sound of the news. "Yeah," Kath agreed with a bob of her head. "I don't know about you, Syd, but I think today is going to be a very long day."