Alex Ross had been enjoying a nice cold beer down in the tavern when he saw the young Texan enter. He knew right off that this was the man that had hired him and knew why he was now standing here in the boarding house – to pick up the "package". Alex frowned, hoping there wouldn’t be any trouble for the young lady he’d been paid to find for this man. Abby - that was her name. Pretty, too. If she wasn’t already involved with that local mechanic, O’Brien, he might even have a go at her himself.

Taking another sip of his beer, he sat back in his chair, wondering if he should take a walk upstairs – just to make sure there wasn’t going to be any trouble. He picked up his beer, walked over to the empty table across the room – making sure he had a clear view of the staircase.

The rain was coming down hard now, and people were starting to come mill about – hoping to find refuge there from the storm. Ross overheard someone say that the roads were starting to flood. – not good. That would mean his "client" would be stuck there all night possibly.

Ross looked up towards the stairs – no sound coming down. No sound is good. No sound means no trouble. Suddenly, the front doors swung open, and in waltzes none other than the boyfriend – that mechanic, O’Brien. Alex tilted the rim of his fedora down over his eyes, attempting not to be seen by the man.

"Ahhh-shit," Ross mumbled to himself, as he realized what was probably about to happen upstairs in Abby’s room. "This can’t be good" he sighed, taking one last sip of his beer, then quietly slid up the stairway – managing to keep clear from O’Brien’s view.

With his back hugging the wall, Ross crept up to the second floor, where he spied O’Brien pounding on Abby’s door. "No answer. Not good. Not good at all."

Just then, O’Brien knocked the door clean off it’s hinges, and stormed into Abby’s room. "Subtle," Alex chuckled to himself, as he crept closer to get a better look at what was happening inside.

Colin was helping Abby off the floor, Campbell, was standing near the bed. "Not good."

So far, other than the broken door, there didn’t seem to be any reason to worry – everyone was managing to keep it cool. Ross hoped things stayed that way – cool. Cool was easy, kept him outta the mix, outta trouble.

Unfortunately, the sound of the door being broken down had awoken some of the other boarding house guests, and a few of them began popping their heads out of their doors to see what all the commotion was. Alex waved them back, whispering that everything was okay and to go back inside. Everyone was quick to do so, except one – Arthur walked up quietly behind Ross, cleared his throat.

"What’s happened here? Is Miss Campbell alright?" he asked, nervously, peering around Ross in the hopes to get a better look at what had happened in the room.

"Everything’s fine, no worries," Ross told him, hoping he’d head on back to his room.

Arthur, however, couldn’t help but overhear Colin’s voice coming from the open doorway, and started to walk towards the room. Ross stuck out his arm, grabbed Arthur by the shirt and pulled him back against the wall, out of sight.

"That’s my boss – Colin – in there!" Arthur said, urgently trying to get out of Ross’ grip.

"And I’m quite sure he’ll be okay," Ross told him, only releasing his grip on the younger man once he was certain he wasn’t going to go running into the room. "What’s your name, anyway?"

"Arthur. Arthur Baskin." Arthur told him, attempting to stand up taller and sticking out his chin.

"Arthur, nice to meet you. I’m Alex Ross. Now, how ‘bout you and me let these three work things out on their own, give them some privacy? C’mon, I’ll buy you a beer."

Ross grinned, motioned towards the stairway. Arthur nodded, then reluctantly followed him down to the tavern.

TBC...