Chapter 2: What happens in Vegas...

He yawned as he dragged himself to his apartment door and searched for the keys in his pocket.

Another day without any surprises. It had been four years since he started working for the Nolans, and seeing Emma Swan on a daily basis was starting to take its toll on him. Every time he saw her with Killian, he felt like tearing his eyes out. Of all the men in the universe... How come she had chosen him?

He opened the door with a frown, and barely acknowledged his fiancee sitting on the couch. Maybe the fact his ex had associated with such a rotten character only proved that he had never even known her at all...

"What a loss to spend that much time with someone," he muttered, with a vacant look in his eyes after locking the door behind him, "only to find out that she's a stranger..."

"Quoting Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," said Tamara, finally lifting her eyes from the magazine she was reading. "Difficult day at work, I take it?"

He took a moment to study the woman with curly short brown hair and her stylish reading glasses. She was giving him one of those knowing smiles, and he couldn't help but feel relieved to get a break from all the other businesses competing for his attention.

"I bought the grapes you like," she said, passing him a dish as he slumped onto the couch next to her. "And beer."

The magic word.

"I don't know what I would do without you," he responded, letting a hand fall on her leg as he smiled.

"Not much, probably."

"Yeah..."

"How are David and Mary Margaret?"

"I haven't seen them in... weeks. I guess they're still touring Europe."

"It's their thirtieth anniversary. It's fair."

"Yeah..."

"And Emma?"

"She's fine..." he replied, after clearing his throat and trying not to look too bothered. "Still... married. To Killian Jones."

"For four years now," she said, as she chewed a grape. "Didn't think they would last that much, they don't seem... to have much in common."

"That's because they don't have anything in common," he replied, opening a bottle of beer as he spoke. "I just... I don't understand, you know?" he turned to look at his fiancée, his brow furrowed once again. "After what he did to Belle, to me, to my father... to her. How? It's just... I don't get it."

"Some people only see what they want to."

"Yeah..." he whispered, taking a large gulp of his beer in an attempt to clear his mind. Emma was past. They were over. It was not as if he should care about her love life anyway. "I guess..."

He shrugged, drinking more from the bottle. And also, he was engaged.

"You know, I should take a shower," he said, getting to his feet when there was no more beer left. "Long night ahead."

"You gonna work this weekend?"

"I don't know. Why?"

When she shrugged, he searched his mind for what he was missing.

"Oh wait," he said, turning back to look at her. "The dance festival is this weekend, isn't it?"

"Do you think you'll be able to go?"

"I'll find a way."

"Not easy to match the schedules of a dance instructor and a private investigator, is it?" she asked, flinging her arms over his shoulders. "Thanks for trying."

He winked at her, patting her softly on the top of her hands.

That's what friends are for.

Back at the Nolans, Emma Swan was in her balcony, looking deeply entertained with her own thoughts as night fell.

"Mrs. Swan."

Her heart nearly jumped out of her mouth when the voice of their gardener awoke her from her trance.

"Gold," she muttered, hand in chest as if trying to get her heart rate back to normal. "What are you doing here? It's late."

"Oh, I wanted to check on the Nottingham catchfly," he replied, with the beginning of a sneer. "See, it only blooms at night and I didn't want to miss it."

"Whatever those Nottingham things are, I hope you're not planning on adding them to Killian's food."

"Oh that was most unfortunate, wasn't it?" he asked, his sneer now in full display. "I thought he was joking. I had never seen anyone allergic to parsley."

She lowered her head, shaking it slightly at the man's words. It was not as if she knew Neal's father all that well, but his obvious hatred for her husband made him an easy guess whenever strange things happened in their house.

"So you know it was me."

"It's getting hard for me not to fire you," she said. "I'm running out of excuses."

"You won't fire me. Your parents like me."

"I'm not that sure..."

"Worry not," he said, clutching his cane with a cryptic look in his eyes. "I know they do."

She had to chuckle at his confidence.

"You look sad, Mrs. Swan."

"Stop calling me Mrs. Swan. We don't need that kind of formality."

"I think we do. I'm just a servant now."

His voice was void of resignation, though. Despite his choice of words, Gold sounded just as daring and smug as ever.

"What has been bothering you?" he asked.

"Nah... I'm just tired."

"Where is your husband?"

"On a business trip," she answered, her gaze once again lost upon the gardens below them. "In Vegas."

"Vegas? Oh, I see."

"He's coming back home tonight."

"You don't say..."

"Actually..." she squinted to better see the car that had just approached the gates to their property. "I think he just did."

"Good. I feel better knowing you'll have company when I leave. Where is Henry, by the way?"

"In the kitchen, with Granny."

"That boy really likes to eat, doesn't he?" he asked, with a slight frown. "And talk. Reminds me an awful lot of my son."

She managed to keep a straight face even though her heart had skipped a beat at his comment.

"Which only makes me wonder..."

When she raised her eyes to his, she could see that they were burning with an inevitable question.

"Aaaaaaaarrghhh!"

One that he would definitely ask if only an agonizing cry of pain coming from the hall downstairs hadn't interrupted him.

"The... lunatic... GOLD!"

Emma nearly rolled down the stairs as she rushed to reach her husband, who was now sprawled on the porch with a sinister metal trap attached to his leg.

"YOU SON OF A BI-"

"My, oh my, I think you stepped into one of my traps," Gold replied, looking deeply amused at the man's pain. "I think the yard is infested with rats... But since I didn't know exactly how big they were, I went for the most sophisticated contraptions."

Indeed, that was a sophisticated trap - one that was making Killian Jones wail in pain as half of his leg got crushed by metallic tentacles.

"GET IT OUT!" he snarled, as Emma crouched next to him.

"I'm sorry, but I don't work overtime," Mr. Gold replied, baring his teeth as he spoke. "Besides... I'm not sure I know how that thing is supposed to work. When it snapped closed for the first time, I took three days to get it open again," he added, walking past the door without a wrinkle of concern on his aged face. "But good luck, anyway."

It was way past eleven when he finally got to the pub where he was supposed to meet his informant.

"Leroy."

"Cassidy."

The two men sat by the counter and ordered their drinks in a far corner of the dimly-lit bar.

"So?"

"You ready?"

"I was born ready. Hit me."

"This is hot stuff," said Leroy. "You'd better make a good bid."

Neal let out a sigh as he pulled out five 100-dollar bills out of his wallet.

"That won't do, sister."

"Jesus, you're really gonna rip me off? After all these years?"

"I have six brothers to feed."

With a snort, Neal added five more bills to the ones on the counter.

"Now that's better."

"Okay, now show me what you got. This better be good."

"Ha... Don't worry," the shorter man raised an eyebrow with a devilish smirk on his lips. "Trust me, this is so much better than good."

He touched the screen of his iPad, and before Neal had time to ask what exactly he was going to watch, the lewd sound of a woman moaning as if there was no tomorrow made several heads turn to look at them.

"If this is porn I could have gotten it for free," he whispered.

"Oh, this is porn. But keep watching, and you'll see why it's worth every penny."

Trying to avoid the multitude of eyes that were on him, especially now that male groans had joined the choir of unholy human sounds, he frowned at the realization he knew who that man was.

"What the-"

"We have been tracking this contact Mr. Killian Jones has in Vegas for ages. Most elusive person ever. Never got caught on camera. Hundreds of fake ids. No relatives, at least, none alive. None that we knew of, at least."

In the meantime, Neal's eyes went even wider when the two wannabe porn stars, one of them being beloved Emma's husband, Killian Jones, engaged in even more heated moves as they rolled from the bed to the floor.

"Holy crap!"

"Yeah! Pretty wild, isn't it?"

"The cheating pig!"

"To think that mouth is heading back home to kiss your ex, huh?"

Neal nearly threw up in his mouth.

"When did this happen?"

"Yesterday, at the MGM. Keep watching."

"And how did you get the footage?"

"We infiltrated someone to spike their drinks a little. They hardly ever let themselves be seen together, so when one of my associates saw them come in, I knew we had to act," Leroy zoomed in so that the woman's face would come into view, but given their position, all they could see was Killian' shoulders. "One hour later and they were sucking face on the gambling floor. Barely made it back to his room in time."

"And then... HD Hidden Cameras."

"Yeah. Keep watching."

Looking at Killian Jones' pale ass was not something that he felt remotely inclined to do, but much to his relief, the man disappeared for a brief moment, allowing his companion's face to be captured with all clarity by one of the lenses.

"There."

Neal felt his jaw had just dropped.

"Hell no!" me muttered, leaning forward to make sure his eyes were not deceiving him. "Are you... Are you kidding me?"

"I kid you not."

"No. No way!"

"Yeah..." Leroy chuckled, shaking his head as he gulped down his vodka. "The woman you just saw getting her... needs met, so to speak, is none other than Regina Mills."