The Bodyguard's Duty ✅

Chapter 7 - Signature Red

The last time Thomas had seen Ethan was in his office last night. Although he didn't expect Ethan to tell him every single detail leading to tonight, he assumed Ethan would have at least showed up to work this morning - given how he had a big upcoming project soon.

Thomas stayed in the Shelton building all day in case Ethan did his late walk of shame. However nobody in the building ever got to witness it since he never showed up.

Ethan had been radio silent on social media, and Thomas found out recently the COO blocked his number. When he tried to call Javier about Ethan's whereabouts, Javier didn't have any information either.

As Thomas was still in his office during clocking out hours, Kristen happened to pass by and saw the bodyguard frowning in the faint light.

Checking in on him, Kristen entered the room as she readjusted the purse on her shoulder. "Is something wrong?"

Thomas turned towards the voice, and told Kristen how he wasn't sure where Ethan was. "I've not seen him all day, and it's kind of my job to know his whereabouts."

Kristen was unaware that she was the only one who knew about Ethan's crisis last night. He had called her earlier this very morning and explained why he wanted to get away for the day.

But the day was now over, and Ethan still hasn't tried to reach out again for some reason. Kristen could only assume that Ethan was just being his careless self, and burying his head in the sands.

Kristen walked over to Ethan's desk so that she could grab a pen and paper. "These are the addresses to some of Ethan's favourite bars." After several were jotted down, Kristen passed the sheet of paper to Thomas. "My brother is most likely in one of these places - given everything that happened last night."

Thomas was still reading the addresses when he asked Kristen, "What happened last night?"

Kristen hesitated to speak any more since she was caught between a rock and a hard place. Ethan had made her promise to keep it a secret, but Kristen didn't want her little brother's safety to be at risk.

"Ethan didn't stay at home last night because he thought intruders broke into his home."

Thomas processed the fact that Kristen was being serious, and so several different mindsets were playing out in his mind.

'If Ethan genuinely did believe someone broke into his house, then surely now would be the time for him to rely on a me and other people for help.'
'But if Ethan is making it up an excuse to get out of work, then Ethan is a sick, lazy bastard that lacks any morals.'

"Thanks for the addresses, I'm going to go find him." Thomas had decided as he quickly left the office.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Thomas kept on driving all the way across town as he tried to find Ethan in the several bars Kristen had gave him.

It took even longer for Thomas to search the streets because he was new to the city. So Thomas was now at his fourth address - after a couple of hours of searching on his own.

Being a part of a rich and powerful family, Thomas was surprised to learn this was the type of place Ethan enjoys.

Signature Red was an extremely dimly lit bar at a rather high end city. With the outdated decor matching the awful music and cigarette smoke that wafted through the bar, Thomas was in shock that the guy who spends hundreds of dollars on beauty products would enjoy this shanty bar.

By some miraculous discovery, Thomas found Ethan sloppily making out with some woman in the corner booth. They were both clearly drunk as the passion between them two caused the several glass bottles to be knocked over and smashed.