Unfold

Chapter Thirty-Two (32)

Shawn told himself not to worry when Chloe said Jean hadn't returned home yet. However, when her phone was off when he tried calling, when hours passed and he hadn't heard from her, he felt the anxiety slowly rising.

If it hadn't been Carmello's, he wouldn't have worried. He had only been there once, but he could feel the darkness surrounding the place with his short visit. He had offered to go with her, and when she said no, he felt like he needed to insist. For some reason he didn't. Why didn't he push it more?

He had reminded himself that she had been going to and from this place for months without his knowledge. Whether she needed to or not, she did know how to take care of herself.

Not able to ignore the feeling within him, he decided just to drive by the club to see if she somehow was still there. When he saw her car sitting in the lot, he did not feel the relief he expected. Unless she had lied about when she left, that meant she had been here for hours now.

His first thought was they had somehow convinced her to take her job back. What if he walked back in and saw her like he did that one night? He didn't know if he could handle seeing those men putting their hands on her again.

No, he trusted her. She wouldn't put him through that again.

When he didn't see her outside, he knew he needed to go in. When he walked through the door, he remembered exactly where he had seen Jean standing the first time he was here. He had been praying that she wouldn't actually be there. Now he was more concerned that she wasn't.

It didn't take long for a girl wearing very minimal clothing and heavy makeup to walk up to Shawn as he peered across the room.

"Hey," she said, putting her hand on his chest and cocking her head to the side playfully. "What can I do for you?"

Shawn was too distracted. He grabbed her hand and held it in his as he continued to urgently look around the room. "Have you seen Jean?" He said, turning to desperately look in her eyes. "Jeanette Arthur?"

The girl was obviously thrown off by his tenderness, and stumbled for a second over her words.

"She doesn't work here anymore," she said, but then her eyes narrowed as she processed what he said. "Wait, are you her boyfriend? The guy who punched Jerry?"

So that's what he was known for? He looked up to see Brooke standing by the bar.

"Yeah," Shawn said, starting to walk away. "If you see him, tell him I'm sorry."

The girl stood bewildered as Shawn walked as fast as he could across the club.

"Brooke!" He yelled over the music. She turned and looked at him, her eyes widening when she saw him.

"Shawn," she said, looking around. "You know you're banned from here, what are you doing?"

Actually he didn't know that, but there wasn't time to think about that.

"Is Jean here?"

She rolled her eyes a bit before turning back to pour a drink. "Don't worry, she just stopped in to get her paycheck. No need to punch anyone."

Had everyone forget that this Jerry punched him first? He was too anxious to deal with her comments right now.

"When was that?" Shawn asked.

"I don't know, hours ago."

"Then why is her car still in the parking lot?"

Brooke stopped what she was doing and looked to Shawn with wide eyes. "What?"