Jealousy is a Gift
Chapter Three"Did you know Dana was arrested a couple of years ago for man slaughter in Chicago?" asked Samantha Marques asked one of her close friends.
"Man slaughter? God, that's really bad. Wait, if she was arrested, then shouldn't she be in jail or something?" responded Delinda who was getting creeped out.
"I would think so. But it says here that the she had a judge ruling and he found her not guilty," she said looking into a folder.
"Where did you get that?" asked Delinda who started to look through the 'confidential' file.
"Mike. Danny told him to run a background check and give the results to me if he found anything interesting."
"I dated that guy!"
"Who?" Sam asked looking at the name, Delinda Deline was pointing to. "Him. Jonathan Cortez."
"You dated a judge?" the mysterious woman asked, shocked about her findings.
"He was cute. Lived like a pig though."
"Let me guess, you met him at a bar in Mexico."
"Actually no. We were neighbors."
"So what was he doing in Chicago?"
"I think he and his family moved there when I was about fifteen."
"Oh." After their conversation ended, Mary walked into Cup A Joes' to meet up with them.
"Hey, guys."
"Hey, Mary. So how did things go last night?" Delinda asked with curiosity.
"Fine."
"So nothing bad happened?" Sam asked.
"No, everything was great."
"Did he ask you to marry him?" Ed's daughter asked.
"No. I don't think we're ready for that quite yet."
"Omigod, Mary. I am so happy for you," Nessa said as she walked in and gave Mary a hug.
"Thanks. You think you could come over Saturday to help?"
"Sure! I'd be delighted."
"What's going on?" asked Sam who was getting frustrated.
"You didn't hear?" the English woman asked.
"Hear what?"
"That Danny asked Mary to move in with him last night."
"That's great, Mare!" Delinda said as she got out of her chair and gave Mary a hug. "Let's go get some coffee and you can tell me about everything. I want to know every last detail down to what color shirt Danny was wearing."
"Okay, I will. But first you have to promise me that you'll help me move out of my house Saturday and into his."
"Done. Sam are you going to help Mary?"
Sam who was distracted turned back to face Delinda. "Uh, yeah."
"Alright now Mary, your end of the bargain."
"Okay, when he answered the door he pulled me into this amazing kiss and he had some music playing in the background. It was so romantic…"
Sam didn't hear the rest of Mary's story. She was too distracted. She looked out into the casino, where she saw gamblers who had pulled all-nighters and some whales that were busy tasting he finest wine at nine o'clock in the morning. But what really shocked her was Dana Myers. She must have just woken up because she had no make-up on and was dressed in a very conservative outfit that showed no cleavage what so ever. Something was wrong. Dana's hair wasn't even styled, it was just lying on her shoulders all matted.
Sam walked over to Dana, leaving her friends who hadn't realized yet that she had left. "Is there anything I can do for you, Dana?"
"Not at the moment." Dana continued to walk, and Sam followed.
"If you don't mind me asking, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Dana spotted Danny through the corner of her eye. Dana put her hand up to her forehead and pretended to lose her balance. And Mary said she couldn't act.
Sam caught her halfway, and Danny soon came over to help her. "What's wrong?" he said helping Dana stand up straight.
"I don't know. Maybe you should take her to her room."
"Alright." Danny grabbed Dana's arm and led her to the elevators, where they waited for one to come.
Samantha walked back to Cup A Joes' where Mary was finished telling her story. "Hey, Sam. Where'd you run off to?" Mary asked when she entered the coffee shop.
"Uh, I had to take care of a client."
"Well, you missed out on how romantic Danny was last night. I'm sure Mary could tell it again," Delinda said to Sam.
"Don't worry about it. I'm not into the whole lovey-dovey thing."
"Fine, I won't tell you then. Have you seen Danny, I need to talk to him."
"Um, no I haven't," she said knowing Mary wouldn't like it if she heard he was with Dana.
"Alright, well I better get back to work," Mary said gathering her papers from the table.
"Oh yeah me too," said Nessa who started to get up also.
Sam's cell phone rang and she scurried off to aid one of her clients.
Delinda still sat there, holding the file she had taken from Sam earlier that morning. She opened it once more and skimmed through the notes that had been taken on the case.
x-x-x
Dana sat on the floor of the elevator. She looked up at Danny occasionally, who was playing with his cell phone. It was taking forever to get to her suite but she was grateful that the long trip was with Danny.
"You still feel sick?" he asked putting away his cell phone.
"A little bit." She gazed at the buttons on the side of the elevator. "So, are you and Mary back together?"
"Yeah," the handsome man replied.
"Damnit," she cursed quietly so Danny wouldn't hear her. "Maybe we could double date?"
"With who?" he asked not thrilled about the idea.
"You and Mary could go on a double date with me and my boyfriend…Johnny."
"You have a boyfriend?"
"Why is that such a shock?" she asked insulted.
"Because the other day you kissed me and invited me up to your room."
"Oh, yeah. Well, our relationship's 'open'. By the way you're a really great kisser."
Danny almost blushed. "I'll talk to Mary."
"Great! Meet us at 9:30 in Mystique." The elevator got out and the pair got out. "I can take it form here." Dana gave him a quick kiss on his cheek and walked away.
Dana walked down the hallway and entered her room. Once she closed the door, she immediately ran to the phone. She dialed a long distance number and waited impatiently for the receiver to pick up.
"Cortez."
"Johnny, its Dana. You need to hitch a flight to Vegas…fast."
x-x-x
"We got a snatch-and-run. Get someone on it now," Ed yelled at his employees.
Mitch picked up the surveillance phone and called Danny.
"Danny McCoy," the security guard answered as he exited the elevator.
"We got a snatch-and-run, dark haired man heading towards south entrance."
"Got it." Danny ran towards the entrance and spotted the man before he could escape. Danny then motioned to the other security guards to grab the man. Once the man was caught, Danny recognized the man. "Take him to holding."
Danny called Ed straight away. "Yeah?"
"Got the snatcher."
"Great, anything else?"
"Yeah, It's Christopher Douglas."
"That guy we caught a few days ago?"
"Yeah."
"Didn't we banish him from the Montecito?"
"I guess he needed the money real bad."
"Get Mike and straighten this out. I have to go meet with Jillian, so I won't be here the rest of the day."
"Okay. See you tomorrow." Danny closed his phone and headed towards the surveillance room, ignoring every woman in sight that approached him.
x-x-x
"Alright. I'm gonna need three tickets to the Saunder concert."
"You're lucky, you got the last tickets," Mary replied to Sam. "The concert's sold out and this guy ain't even famous outside of his home town."
"Then why are you letting him perform here?"
"He's an old friend of Danny's and I kind of still feel bad about dumping Eric."
"You guys used to date?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm. Interesting. So you feel guilty about ended your relationship, so your gonna let him perform at Mystique?"
"No, I actually think he has a gift for singing…unlike Dana."
"Yeah, maybe I should send then over to the Palms."
"You'd actually want them to go over there? What happened to the Sam I know?"
"You know, he's not really gambling here that much. And Dana's gonna really make us lose a lot of money when we could have had…um, what's his name?"
"Eric Saunders."
"We could have had Eric perform instead of Dana."
"Who are you? Cause I know you're not Samantha Marquez."
With that, Sam's phone rang. "This is Sam."
"Myers is up fifty grand."
"Fifty grand?! I'll be right there, Ness." Sam closed her phone and looked back up at Mary. "Strike that. He's staying."
x-x-x
"You were supposed to stay off Montecito property Chris, for two months, not two days," said Danny who was sitting across from the thief.
"I know. I just need the money, for my son, David."
"Then why not go to another casino, man?" Mike asked.
"Because I like the Montecito's carpet."
Mike looked over at Danny who were both freaked out about what Chris had just said.
Danny's cell phone rang. "Excuse me." He then walked out of the holding room. "Danny McCoy."
"Hey, its me."
"Hey, Mare, what's up?"
"Do you remember Eric Saunders from high school?"
"That perv you used to date?"
"Yeah, and he's not a perv."
"Yeah he is."
"Danny you think everyone I've dated is a perv."
"So? Anyway, what about Eric?"
"Uh, he's here."
"What in Vegas?"
"No, standing right next to me."
"He didn't hear anything I said, did he?"
Mary glanced at Eric who was kissing his girlfriend at the moment. "No, he's a little busy."
"Good. Is that all you wanted to tell me?"
"No. He wants to double date with us tonight."
"Tonight? I kinda got plans. I mean we kinda got plans."
"We do?"
"Yeah, Dana wants to double tonight with us and I told her we could." Danny thinking a night out with Dana was way better than seeing Eric trying to steal Mary back.
"Dana? What are you guys friends now?"
He could tell Mary was getting mad at him right now. "Not exactly. Come on, what could it hurt?"
"A lot of things, Danny."
Not wanting to get on Mary's bad side, he suggested something. "How about we triple date with them, then."
"Fine. Where'd you tell Dana we'd meet her?"
"Mystique, 9:30."
"Okay, I gotta get back to work now. See you later."
"Love ya," Danny said weakly into the phone.
But Mary hung up instead of answering him.
"Something wrong, Mary?" Eric asked as he saw her face.
"No, of course not. Um, Danny and I will see you tonight at nine-thirty, here at Mystique."
"Alright, see you then."
"Bye guys!" she shouted after them before she took a big gulp of her lime-flavored vodka.
x-x-x
"Mary is so pissed at me."
"No wonder, Danny. You invited a girl who almost broke the two of you up, to go on a date with you guys."
"But she invited her ex, who she knows I hate."
"Because he used to date Mary, right?" Mike guessed.
"No. Maybe, I don't know. I just don't like him."
Mike just shook his head. "You need to go see someone for that."
"What?" Danny asked confused.
"That little gift called jealousy."
"It's not my fault."
"And it's not my fault I was claustrophobic. But I was born with it."
"You did see someone about that right? Cause you never know when there's gonna be a power outage."
"Don't try to change the subject. And yes I did see someone."
"I wasn't trying to change the subject, I was just curious."
"Yeah, whatever, Daniel," Mike replied using his full name.
"Do you really want to live to see tomorrow?"
"Depends on what tomorrow brings."
"What if it brings an ass-whooping?"
"Then I'm all for you getting your butt whooped by the 'Mikey Mouse'."
"The Mikey Mouse? What kind of name is that?"
"It's not a name. It's a pseudonym."
"A what?"
"A pseudonym. You know like a penname?" Danny kept a confused look on his face. "You gotta read the dictionary, brother. It'll get you far in life."
"No, actually having a date once in a while will get you far in life."
"That's cold, man. That's cold." Danny was the only one out of the two who broke out in laughter.
x-x-x
an: feedback would be appreciated!
ccabello: thanks!!!!
miss invisible: told you who Johnny was in this chapter, just for you! Mary will probably move into danny's place, let's say in the fifth chapter, maybe the next one I don't know yet. thanks!!!
California Beauty: thank you so much!!!
marydanny4eva: hopefully I helped you out while your trying to figure out who Johnny is, Nikki. thanks a bunches!