Outmatched

When I opened my mouth to object, he held up a hand. “There’s more. The fight is worth a lot of money.”

Although I was relieved that Rhys wasn’t lingering over what I’d inadvertently revealed about my feelings for him, I was concerned about what fighting would do to him emotionally. “I asked before and I’ll ask again—is the gym really worth the toll this will take on you? Or am I missing something here? Rhys … what am I missing?”

Rhys’s expression hardened, and he looked away. “It’s nothing, Tink.”

“It’s not nothing. It’s most definitely something. I know you and I are … new … but before the kissing and the very hot touching started … well, Rhys, I’m your friend. Talk to me.”

His lips twitched. “Hot touching, huh?”

I struggled not to smile. “Don’t change the subject.”

He stared at me for a long moment and then sighed, deep and heavy. “I’m going to lose the gym if I don’t start making payments to the bank. I have a guy interested in buying it, and it’s looking more and more likely I’m going to have to sell.”

My stomach dropped. I knew how much the gym meant to him. “Rhys …”

“Before my dad died, he told me the gym was in trouble and that he was behind on his payments for the gym, and that he’d also mishandled my finances. He’d gambled … almost everything was gone.”

Oh my God. All his earnings. Every hit he’d taken in the ring … all for nothing in the end.

I felt a little off-kilter and stumbled toward the nearest armchair. “Oh God, Rhys.”

“I’ve been hiding it from Dean.”

I frowned. “But he’s managing the accounts now, I thought?”

He snorted. “I fucked with him, gave him a shit ton of paperwork to go through, and kept the real accounts—digital accounts—to myself.” Rhys slumped forward, resting his head in his hands as he stared at his feet. “When I started making real money boxing, Mom got sick with cancer. I didn’t want my parents to have that debt, so I paid all her medical bills.”

My heart ached. “Rhys …”

“Dad was renting the building for the gym. I bought it for him. Paid Dean’s tuition. But I also left my dad to handle my finances, and I found out too late it was a mistake. He made a lot of bad investments, gambled … what I had left went to paying Dad’s funeral costs when he died, and I paid off a chunk of the debt to the bank by selling my condo. But now we’re a few months behind on the mortgage …”

Nerves fluttered in my stomach. All this time he’d had this hellish pressure on his shoulders. No wonder he’d jumped at the chance to make friends with someone as powerful as Fairchild.

“Does Fairchild know any of this?”

“Not that I’m aware of but I wouldn’t put it past him to have done a background check into my finances.”

“Manipulative cur. You can’t let him persuade you to do this. Seriously… I hope that man gets eaten by sand snakes.”

Rhys frowned but there was laughter in his words. “Wait a second … is that what you muttered when we first met?”

Uh-oh.

“Maybe. You did accost me just as my boss was arriving so I may or may not have wished for a door to another dimension to open, in which you’d fall through into a world of terrifying sand snakes.”

“Like Beetlejuice?”

I flashed him a quick grin, amazed he could amuse me when I was so goddamn angry at Fairchild. “Yes. But back to the point …

There was a moment of silence between us while I gathered my thoughts on this new information. Finally, I said, “You need to tell Dean.”

“No.” Rhys sat back on the bed, his countenance granite. “No fucking way.”

“I know you’ve been protecting him a long time … but, Rhys, he deserves to know the truth. He’s a grown man now, and keeping this from him, fobbing him off with fake accounting, isn’t protecting him. It’s making him a chump.” I ignored his blistering glare and continued. “Your brother is very smart. Confide in him. Take the pressure off your shoulders. Then maybe the two of you can come up with a plan.”

“I have a plan. I’m going to fight.”

I stood, anger at Fairchild ripping through me. “You are not fighting for that man.” I pointed toward the bedroom door. “He doesn’t get that from you, Rhys. If you fight for him, you know that will mess with your head in more ways than one. Please … before you do anything, please promise that you’ll talk to Dean. And I’m here. I can help … you know I am a problem solver. It’s kind of what I do.”

When he didn’t say anything, I whispered, “Please, Rhys. Trust in Dean. In me. Don’t do this alone anymore.”