The Playboy's Misfortune

40: Indebted

"All along I believed I would find you
Time has brought your heart to me
I have loved you for a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more"

~-~-~

A week had passed since Jim's death.

A week of silence between everyone.

The boys didn't contact me after the funeral and I thought of leaving them alone. Stuart returned to college, Mrs.Wilson left flowers and her condolences, and Lara cried. His death affected a lot of people in one way or another.

Yet, there weren't too many at his funeral. He might have been a douche in his younger years, but he had been a kind man while dying. A few of Jim's neighbors were the only ones I didn't recognize at the funeral.

The sun was shining brightly that day, and the skies were clear but Lucy cried a lot during the ceremony. It seemed like even she had realized her grandpa's death.

I checked my watch, it was nearly 10 p.m. After days of hesitating, I had to return to the gym at least today. Chelsea understood when I texted her. She had been weirdly quiet as well, but I preferred it for the time being.

I parked my car nearby and walked into the gym. To my surprise, Chase and Chuck were inside. They were startled to see me.

"What are you boys doing?" I raised a brow.

Chuck immediately attempted to hide something behind his back. "Uh... Nothing...? Why are you here, Mr.Xander..." He didn't sound too pleased to see me.

"Chase, what is your brother hiding?" I turned to the bulky fellow.

"Uh... Um..." He gulped, looking even more nervous.

I glared at them both and stepped towards Chuck, "Show it to me."

"No wait! It's nothing! Go run your company or something, get away from me!" He snapped and pushed me by my shoulders.

Something wasn't right. Chuck wasn't being himself.

After shooting him another glare, I clenched my fist and punched him. Chase gasped. "If you try protecting him, I'll kick both your asses," I warned him.

While yelping out in pain, Chuck dropped the notepad that he had been hiding. I picked it up and found a list of all the equipment that Jim preserved. A few had a tickmark nearby.

"What is this?" I frowned at the boys. They didn't reply again.

I glanced around the gym and found cardboard boxes in the corner. On close inspection, they contained the equipment that had tickmarks.

"Somebody better tell me whatever the fuck is going on." I barked at the boys.

"It was Jay's idea!" Chuck confessed.

"You gave up so easily!" Chase gasped.

I took a deep breath to keep my patience in check and walked over to the boxing ring before pulling myself up to sit by the edge.

"What was Jay's idea?"

The brothers glanced at each other. Chase took a deep breath, "He wants to sell everything and he told us not to tell you-"

"Especially not to tell you," Chuck mumbled.

"His reason?"

"We don't know... He... He's become sort of shut off now, you know. He begged us to help him with these things..."

"But what about work? Don't you have places to be instead of helping that fool?" I raised a brow.

"They fired us, because of him." Chase glared at his brother.