Chapter 2: Don't Come Back Without Her

Walking through the casino, Danny heard his phone ring. He answered, "Danny McCoy."

"Danny, I need to see you in my office," said the familiar voice. Danny automatically knew it was Ed. "Yeah, okay, I'll be up in a few minutes, just let me finish…"

"NOW!" yelled Ed. "Okay, okay, I'm on my way!" Danny knew if there was something big, and when Ed was serious. This was one of those times.

He shuffled past all of the visitors, gamblers, and drunks, and up into the surveillance room. He was stopped by Mike saying, "Hey man, what's the rush?" "Ed needs me in his office now. It sounded urgent."

Scooting past Mike, he finally got to Ed's office. "Took you long enough," Ed said in his usual pestered tone. "Sorry Ed, I…"

"Never mind. Down to the point. Sam left."

"Wait, what? What do you mean she left?"

"She said that she couldn't work here if Eric was going to be here. What I didn't get the chance to tell her is that if she truly felt that way, we'd rather lose him than her. She left before I got to say it." Ed looked down at his desk when he said this to Danny, but he usually had no problem getting an inch away from your face. By this, you could truly tell he was upset with himself for not running after Sam to tell her.

Danny was upset at this too. It was hard for him to admit to himself a while ago that he liked the beautiful Samantha Jane Marquez, but once he got past that, she was all he ever thought about. And now the thought of his long time secret love being gone… What would he do?

"I want you to find her Danny, I don't care how, but find her. And bring her back. Don't come back without Sam."

Danny willingly agreed. But before he left, he had to ask, "Uh, Ed?"

"What, Danny?" Ed asked, losing his patience. "Who is Eric?"

"The new mechanic!"

"No, I mean who is he to Sam?" he asked, now extremely curious, wondering why a girl like Sam would be connected to a mechanic.

"I'm sure she'll tell you if and when you find her, Danny. Now get to work!"

With that, Danny got up and went back into the surveillance room to search for information about any possible whereabouts of Sam. Trouble was, he didn't know quite what he was looking for. She could be anywhere. That was one of the things Sam was good at, disappearing.

He ran her name to see if she'd checked into a hotel anywhere in the U.S. Nothing. He ran her credit card to see any recent purchases, nothing since yesterday. He was running out of ideas. So he asked Mike for any suggestions.

"Why don't you see if she owns any properties anywhere?"

Danny was doubtful, but he ran her name through a real estate company, and sure enough, she had a small house right outside of the barren town of Pioche, Nevada. Mike looked at Danny with a face of satisfaction. He had been right… again. He simply said, "How do you like them apples?"

Danny jotted down the address and printed out a map. He didn't want to take his car out in the middle of the desert, it was too risky. His car was nice, a classic, but it was old… and Danny didn't want to take a chance of getting stuck in the middle of the desert, especially since it was summertime, making the hot Nevada temperature at least 110 degrees in the middle of the day. Danny stepped onto the strip and signaled a cab. He was going to find Sam. She had to be there, right?