2. Taine

‘Fuck yeah!' Taine hollered, the tequila slipping down his throat as he signaled to the barman for another shot. ‘And one for my men here too.'

Taine happily welcomed the cheers and nods of appreciation from his new friends at the beachside bar. Taine might not have been in town long, but he was already making his presence felt at the Sandy Cove bars and beachside drinking spots.

At thirty-nine years old and with his fighting career a long way in the rearview mirror, Taine was now living from day to day and having as much fun as possible. Deep down Taine knew that a fulfilled life wouldn't come through copious amounts of booze, but that wasn't going to stop him.

‘They fucking cheated you out of your career, Taine,' one of his new friends said, sinking a shot. ‘You're no drugs cheat. We all know it that test result was bullshit.'

‘Thank you, my guy,' Taine said, taking his fresh shot and downing it in one. ‘But that's in the past. New Taine Crash is all about having fun, not smashing people to pieces for money.'

Taine chuckled to himself.

The reality was that trouble had followed Taine all through his career and was showing no sign of slowing down in his enforced retirement. As Taine drifted from town to town and state to state, he would always find himself in some kind of altercation at one point or another.

Maybe it was the fact that he was a known face and drew the wrong kind of attention from local tough guys looking to make a name for themselves.

Or perhaps it was the fact that the old warrior spirit was still burning just beneath the surface. Taine had never been able to walk away from a fight going all the way back to his youth. And even now, Taine could never back down in a confrontation, no matter what the odds against him were or the likely outcome of getting into a brawl.

Since failing a drugs test right before his world championship fight, Taine had racked up numerous legal suits, allegations, and even three separate jail terms.

And all the while, Taine knew that he wasn't a drugs cheat.

Taine had never taken a performance enhancing drug in his life, and he knew full well that his coaching team hadn't surreptitiously given him anything either. The reality of the situation was that Taine knew full well that the rival promoter in his championship title fight had set the whole thing up, knowing that Taine was too fast, strong, and skillful and would defeat his fighter with relative ease.

The truth burned away at Taine.

And the best solution for numbing that pain was booze, boys, and living like there was no tomorrow. With this in mind, Taine ran his hand over his closely cropped blonde hair and motioned toward the bartender.

‘Okay, you all have a good evening,' Taine said, a glint in his eyes as he contemplated hitting a club and finding a young man to party with until the early hours. ‘And have another round on me too.'

With that, Taine got up from his barstool and placed a few notes down on the bar.

But while most of the other guys at the bar seemed more than happy with his generosity, it seemed like Taine's offer wasn't universally appreciated.

‘Hey, asshole, think you're too good for us?' the man said, a wild look in his eyes as he stood up from his table and made a direct line toward Taine. ‘You were always a punk. And now you're nothing but a broke punk.'

Taine clenched his jaw.

Suddenly the atmosphere turned a whole heap darker and it became clear that this angry guy wanted trouble.

‘Walk away,' Taine growled, his fighting brain kicking into gear and a quick assessment revealing that the drunken man was alone and would barely pose any threat. ‘Walk away while you can.'

‘Fuck you!' the man said, lunging forward and taking a swing at Taine, missing him completely.

‘No, I'm good,' Taine laughed, grabbing the attacker and firmly placing him back down on a nearby seat. ‘Breathe. This doesn't need to end with you leaving in an ambulance.'

To the sound of much laughter from Taine's friends at the bar, Taine ruffled the drunk man's hair and gave him a playful jab to the shoulder.

‘Have a good evening,' Taine said, walking away and feeling happy that he didn't have to resort to violence.

As he walked off the beach and onto the quiet road behind it, Taine shook his head. That man had no idea how close he came to getting his ass kicked. Taine was many things, but he wasn't a bully. Sure, he had been in enough brawls to last several lifetimes, but Taine had never been the kind of man to beat up on someone so clearly inferior to him. It just wasn't his way.

‘Okay, so which way is the club?' Taine wondered out loud, the dimly lit street not providing too many clues.

Taine had been single for too long.

There had been countless clubs, boys, peachy asses, and rock-hard dicks over the years. But not since the very beginning of his fighting career had Taine had a boy to call his own.

What happened between Taine and his former boy was a case of right Little, wrong time. Taine needed to devote every second of his life to his training, and even having the cutest and most adorable boy waiting for him wasn't enough to persuade Taine to open his life up to anything other than his quest to be a champion.

But with his career in the dust, there wasn't the easy out of not having enough time to spare to care for a boy. And Taine would often find his mind wandering to what it would be like to have someone to nurture and cherish day in, day out.

Being a Daddy to a sweet, sassy Little was something that did appeal to Taine. But with his life being so chaotic he still had his reservations about committing to anything. Taine had a heart of gold, and the idea of allowing a boy to fall for him only to disappoint the boy further down the line was something that gave him pause for thought.

The last thing that Taine wanted was for a repeat of the heartache that came toward the end of his last relationship.

I ride solo.

It's always been the way. Well, nearly always.

And, hey, if I had a boy I couldn't party like I do either…

Taine continued to walk and could hear the sound of the club coming from a few streets away and then up a narrow track toward the clifftop. The club had a reputation for being one of the wildest, kinkiest, and all-out scandalous places around. As far as Taine was concerned, having been in town for over a month, the club was well overdue a visit.

With the sound of the club drawing nearer, Taine found the path that led away from the street and up toward the clifftop. Determined not to let himself spiral into too many more depressive thoughts, Taine reached inside his pocket and took out a miniature bottle of vodka.

‘One for the road,' Taine said. ‘Or… dust track.'

Taine chuckled and opened up the bottle, ready to drink it down. But before he had a chance to taste the vodka on his lips, Taine felt the weight of someone jumping up onto his back. And before Taine was able to do anything, he was fielding punches and kicks from two more men on either side of him.

‘What the fuck?' Taine roared, taking a jab to the right side of his face and a kick to the midsection too.

Taine felt his fight or flight instincts kick in.

He may have been long retired from the professional fighting world, but Taine's muscle memory was more than ready to kick in. Taine dropped down into a squat position and then thrusted himself upward and backward, crushing the man on his back as they landed back down onto the dirt track.

Taine flipped himself back onto his feet and immediately landed a huge right-cross onto the chin of one of the attackers. The man stumbled backward and landed on the ground, his head bouncing off the dirt like a ragdoll.

‘You too, huh?' Taine snarled, jumping forward and landing a solid elbow across the nose of the second attacker, the flash of blood spurting from the man's nose confirming a hard, brutal break.

The three attackers were down, but evidently not out.

And with his anger set to maximum, Taine was in no mood to let them off the hook either. As they circled and then charged him, Taine dispatched them with ease. Each blow was followed up by another and soon enough Taine was landing on each of the men with ease.

‘Just fucking give up and run,' Taine hollered. ‘This doesn't have to be your last night on earth.'

But the men were going nowhere.

And Taine's eyes were now drawn to the knife in one of the men's hands.

Suddenly, this situation was potentially way more than just a late night street brawl. This had the very real potential to be something else altogether.

Taine knew that it could well boil down to a case of kill or be killed.

And while in his opinion he might not have had much to live for, Taine was never going to give up and lose his life for scumbags like the men he was up against in that moment.

The ensuing brawl was fast, brutal, and full-on.

Taine took down the men and broke two arms, a knee, a nose, and a jawbone. With the knife-wielding attacker the only one left standing, Taine ducked and jived past the serrated blade and put the man in a choke hold, quickly sending him to sleep as the pair of them rolled on the ground.

‘Oh fuck…' Taine said, regaining his breath as he stood up.

It wasn't clear whether the attacker was alive or dead. And with the sound of police sirens growing ever nearer, Taine had no time to find out either.

Taine took one look up toward the club in the distance, and then glanced back down toward the ocean as the waves lapped against the shore.

‘Sandy Cove, it's been good knowing ‘ya', Taine said. ‘Location, five stars. The people? Not so much.'

With that, Taine turned and fled into the darkness.

Taine Crash was once an up and coming fighter with the world truly at his feet. But his life was a whole lot different now, that was for sure. And with the police potentially on his tail, things didn't look like they were going to get any easier any time soon.

As he weaved in and out through the undergrowth, Taine knew that he needed help. And when it came to a matter this serious, there was probably only one man in his cell phone contacts for the job…

‘Danilo motherfucking Doni,' Taine said, his breathing hard as he continued to run for his life. ‘It's time you and me have a little catch up…'