Given a Second Chance

“Man that was close. I don’t want anyone to know why we are really here, unless it comes down to that. The owner of this Inn and her two daughters live here. So I want to make sure the place is kept secure at all times.” He sighed. “Our so called friends out there are getting too close.”
“Well, you’re right about that. They are close. Closer than you think.”
“What?” he nearly thundered, while turning to look back at the open doorway. Lowering his voice, he growled through clenched teeth, “Where?”
Sitting down first, Ted leaned forward to keep from being overheard. “Well, according to our source, they have informed me that Tony and his sidekick left Chicago sometime last night.”
“Okay…so where the hell are they now?” 
“You’re not going to like this, Alex.”
“Damn it, Ted…” he glared, seeing the look in his friend’s eyes, “where?”
Reaching across the table, Ted took his old partner’s arm.
“Ted…?” Alex growled.
In a hushed-like voice, he answered, as he braced himself for the reaction that was surely to follow. “Like I said, Alex, they’re close. Very close. In fact.” He stopped. “They’re…here.”
Having no more than gotten the words out, Alex slammed his fist down on the table, before getting up to grab his poor, defenseless coffee cup. “Damn it to hell…!” he thundered, while hurling the cup out across the driveway, busting it up against a tree on the far side. “We’re not ready for this!” he continued with doubled up fists.
“Yeah, well, that’s not all.”
Turning back to see his face, he asked, “What…now…?”
Filling him in on the rest of the news, the two sat talking for a while longer.
Nearly two hours had passed, when the two walked back in to find Jessi standing at the front desk, talking to her friends. Interrupting her to introduce his old partner, Alex cleared his throat, “Ladies,” he said, turning to Jessi, “this is Ted Jones, my old partner, and friend, I had mentioned earlier.”
“Mr. Jones!” Jessi exchanged nods with the man, before turning back to Alex.
“I’ll be up getting him settled in if you need me.”
“All right!”
Turning to head up the stairs, Alex stopped. “You did put him in Room Four, didn’t you?”
“Yes, as you requested earlier.” But then, sensing a little tension in his behavior, she asked, “Is everything all right?”
“Sure! Everything’s just fine!” he returned, while trying hard not to show any reason for alarm. “If you will excuse us!” Stopping once again, he turned back sheepishly, “Oh, and Jessi?”
“Yes?”
“It seems I owe you a new coffee cup.”
“O...kay...!” she replied slowly, wondering what that was about. Then it hit her, when noticing the expression on his face, as he turned to look back at her, before going on up to their rooms, this worried her.
After the two had started back up the stairs, Ashley left to go back over to the Boutique, while Jessi headed for her office. However, just as she was about to go in, two other men walked in, just then.
“May I help you?” Lisa asked.
“We need a room,” one of the men spoke up, gruffly.
Upon hearing him, Jessi’s hand froze just as she was about to open the door. “Th…that voice!” she cried. “What is it about that voice?”
At that precise moment, looking up at the top of the stairs, she noticed the angry expression on Alex’s face, when he turned back to see the two men standing there. Quickly taking a step back away from the stairs to avoid detection, the look became even more intense.
“Okay, that was odd! What is it about these two men that would catch his attention? Yet, even I sense something vaguely familiar about the man’s voice. But what?” she wondered. “Oh, my God!” she cried, while hurrying into her office, before closing the door behind her. “Oh, Craig what am I going to do?” she asked quietly, while leaning her back against the door.
At that moment, no matter what Doreen had told her, nothing could prepare her for what was about to come.
As she stood by helplessly, Craig’s voice called back, startling her at first, “J e s s i…”
“W…what?”     
“You must get Alex!”
“But why?” she asked, while continuing to keep her voice down, though it didn’t seem to matter if she talked silently in thought, or openly, Craig seemed to hear her either way. But then what he said made sense. “Well of course, he’s a cop!”
“He’s more than that,” he started to say, when she opened the door a little to call Lisa in.
“Yes?” she asked, leaving the two newcomers at the desk to go into the office, when Jessi closed the door behind her.
“Lisa, I don’t have time to explain,” she spoke quietly. “So will you, please, take our new guests out on the front porch for some coffee? Tell them…” She stopped to think. “Tell them I need a few minutes to check on their room first. I’ll let you know when you can send them up.”
“All right!” she nodded, and turned back to the door to leave, but then stopped to look back. “Are you all right?”
“I will be soon. And Lisa…!”
“Yes…?”
“Please…don’t mention our other guests to them.”