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.

Thomas interrupted the pair by blocking the very little light that was hanging over them. With the shadow disturbing them, Ethan pulled his lips away as he looked up to see Thomas.

"What do you want?" A cold Ethan asked.

"I know about last night," Thomas hinted. "Let's get going before something happens."

Ethan showed Thomas he was in no mood to leave by resting his arm on the backrest of the chair. The woman with a pineapple tattooed on her muffin top snuggled besides Ethan, as she dragged her long nails underneath his chin.

After another round of beer was served to his table, Ethan took a large drink as he then mixed in a shot to drown himself in the ambience.

"Why don't you join us?!" A loud and cheerful Ethan laughed. He slid one of the untouched beers across the table so that it would land in front of the bodyguard.

Thomas declined the drink as he felt like one of them needed to stay sharp in a rundown area like Signature Red.

Ethan pushed the woman away from him as he loudly groaned whilst also rolling his head forward. "Are you ever fun? I'm mean, clearly not if your only outfits are the suits you brought over. Don't you have fun stuff you want to do?"

As Ethan was staring down the man in front of him, Ethan's eyes landed on a pair of men that Ethan recognised from a couple of nights ago. Ethan never did learn their names, but Ethan knew they were the same people that worked for Mr Checkstone.

The man with the buzz cut smiled widely at Ethan as he strutted over to his table. Smoothly taking a swig from the bottle on the table, "Isn't it our old friend from The Golden Goose?"

The man next to him nudged his friend's arm as he smiled too. This was the first time they faced Ethan since the casino, and they were ridiculed with embarrassment for not catching Ethan a couple of nights ago.

When they both inched towards an unexpressive Ethan, Thomas immediately stepped between them and forced some distance between the three of them.

Thomas' chest was naturally puffed out as he stood like a Greek statue in front of everyone. With his physical frame outclassing the other men, Thomas pushed them back several steps. "Is there a problem here?"

Thomas' eyes were like lasers that honed in on the 2 men approaching Ethan. Thomas cracked his knuckles as he then loosened his other limbs, clearly intimidating Mr Checkstone's men.

With neither of them daring to face Thomas, Mr Checkstone's men avoided Thomas and Ethan by fleeing the area.

"I could have handled them!" Ethan yelled once they left.

With the way Ethan was unknowingly slurring his speech, Thomas knew Ethan wouldn't be able to fight his way out of a paper bag.

Thomas took the drink away from Ethan's lips so that he couldn't drink himself even more stupid. This was met with Ethan's frustration as he lashed out at Thomas for continuously ruining his days and nights.

"Is your life so pathetic that you have to focus on other people's lives rather than your own?"

Thomas didn't answer the loaded question as he spun it around on the drunken demon that was in the form of a COO. "Why are you so angry at me all the time?"

"Because you're doing everything that makes me hate you!"

Even though Thomas has only known Ethan for a very little amount of time, those kind of words still hurt him slightly. But Thomas never let it show as he swallowed his tongue.

Ethan took this opportunity to elaborate why he detested Thomas' presence. "Why was some stranger, with the personality type of a buff German Shepard, flown over to emasculate me?"

Ethan threw one of the glass bottles that were on the table towards Thomas' feet. Even though the woman besides Ethan flinched, Thomas remained unfazed.

"Go explore this beautiful city!" Ethan aggressively suggested. "Go call your dad and tell him the chimpanzees at the zoo weren't as big as you! Go call your mom and tell her that you're planning on having kids soon!"

Ethan stood up from his seat and accidentally knocked everything off the table with his legs. With several people listening in on Ethan's outburst, no one stepped in as they watched the show end.

"Just fuck off!"

~~~~~~~~~~

Ethan wasn't sure how long it had been since Thomas silently stormed out of the bar. There was no violence in return, no retaliation of any kind - just nothing.

Ethan finally felt like he had a victory against the bodyguard, and he was savouring it with booze and women at Signature Red.

The people at the bar started to thin out as last call was announced. Ethan continued to finish his drink with Tracy as they were the last people to eventually leave the bar.

During this cold and dark night, the pair of them began to walk to Tracy's place for a private after party - with just the two of them.

"You said your roommate isn't home?" Ethan checked, as they walked under a street lamp and across the road.

"She's going through a rough break up so she's probably looking for a rebound," Tracy confirmed. "Although... if she is home... then I wouldn't want her to sleep alone in her very cold bed..."

Ethan slowly turned his head to Tracy as he became very intrigued about what he believed he just heard. With Tracy's slow and suggestive nod, Ethan mouthed a very surprised expression.

"My home is just round the corner." Tracy pointed out as they stepped into a small alleyway.

It was very dark in the cramped area space, and it was just a short distance between the entry and the exit of the alleyway.

So neither of them could have expected a person to follow them from behind, and gain Ethan's attention by grabbing his shoulder.

When Ethan turned around, he felt himself get roughly grabbed as he was thrown over a man's shoulders. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

Ethan wasn't able to fight his way out as the man's strength was too superior compared to his intoxicated mind and body. Ethan had no idea what awaits him that night as he was forcefully taken away in the dark.

==========