How could he possibly find anything amusing right now after three hours of interrogative warfare that had clearly worked?
I studied him. We’d only just decided to explore what was between us, so pushing him to confide in me was a big risk. Yet, I knew there had to be more going on if he would agree to fight, despite his deep-seated aversion to it.
For his sake, I had to be brave. I couldn’t be selfish just because I was afraid he’d turn away from me.
“Okay … I don’t know what he said to you in the three very long hours he held you captive”—Rhys raised an eyebrow at my word choice but I pushed on—“but what is going on? Something has to be going on beyond the financial problems of the gym to make you even contemplate this fight. Did Fairchild threaten you?”
“No, but it was implied that your contract would be made permanent if I fight for him.”
I felt my fury boil down deep inside. “I can find another job. He is not manipulating you into this fight.”
He looked momentarily stunned.
Realizing what it said about my feelings—that I’d walk away from a job I loved to save Rhys from Fairchild—I blushed.
Rhys studied me intently, his expression warming by the second. “That means a damn lot to me, Parker. But we started this thing together because of how much your job means to you. I don’t want to see you lose it because of this.”
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.