The story was always the same.

Women came to The Underground to chase some kind of fucked up adrenaline rush, and when they got in too deep, they cried foul. A one nighter with a cashed-up fighter probably sounded like a hot porno to them, but the reality was far different.

The Underground was not a nice place. It was the cesspool of the cesspool. The warehouse where dreams came to die. Literally.

I glanced over my shoulder, but the woman who’d called herself Ali had disappeared. Good. She tasted sweet, so it was best she hightailed it before Mountain came sniffing around again. She was too delicate for a man like him…if you could call the guy a man. He was more like an animal than anything resembling a human being.

“You savin’ damsels in distress again?”

Lifting my head, I spotted Goblin leaning against the wall watching me. He was the toughest son of a bitch I ever saw. With five Championships under his belt, a woman to keep him warm at night, and the adoration of this shithole, he was the richest man in the world in my eyes. Sometimes I didn’t know why I came back to this joint, but him? His Irish ass was crazy.

“You know me,” I shot back. “Always a sucker.”

He didn’t say anything else, he just let me pass.

Unlike most of the fighters at The Underground, I came, I fought, and that was it. Most of the guys went all in. The fights, the booze…dipping their cocks into a different woman every night. Everyone was here for their own reasons—anonymity, money, fame, deadbeats with nowhere else to go, and the list went on—and I wasn’t immune.

In here, I was Blade. Tough, handsome, a crowd pleaser, a right bastard with a trail of adoring women lined up out the door.

Out there, I was Liam Maguire. Troublemaker, undisciplined, petty child thief, not to mention uneducated.

No guesses to which life I preferred.

“Hey, babe.” A hand grasped my wrist and tugged me into the shadows.

A female body rubbed against the length of mine, and I smiled. “Hey, Faye.”

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty, who was the best bartender in the world, palmed my cock through my jeans. “You going home?”

“Yeah.” I tensed as she squeezed.

“Want some company?” She fluttered her eyelashes and licked her lips, her wet tongue conjuring images of it laving my cock like a melting ice-cream cone on a hot summer’s day.

Thinking about the fight and the encounter with Mountain, I shook my head. “Nah. Not tonight.”

Faye pouted and removed her hand. “Aww,” she complained, “I’m all wet.”

I smoothed her hair away from her face. “You’re fun and all, Faye, but we’re casual. You know that. There are plenty of other guys who would get down on their knees and lick you up and not even ask you to suck their cocks.” Grasping her shoulders, I turned her around. “All you have to do is lick your lips suggestively at one of them.”

She laughed and leaned back, pressing a kiss against my cheek. “Works every time… Well, almost.”

Slapping her on the ass, I walked backward, flashing her a wink.

“Asshole,” she threw at me before walking away.

Faye was good value. She was intelligent, beautiful, had legs for days, and an adventurous streak that never got boring, but she wasn’t a forever kind of woman. Bohemian was probably the best word to describe her. Every now and then, we hooked up and had some fun, but that was it. She was the ultimate fuck buddy. Things never got complicated, and she never asked for more. Every man’s wet dream.

Outside, the air was clear, the stench of alcohol, blood, and sweat back where it belonged in the warehouse.

Sitting in my car, I zoned out, my mind going back to Ali. At first, I thought she was like every other woman who came here looking for a little walk on the wild side, but the more I thought about it, the more it became hazy. Shaking my head, I cursed. It didn’t matter. If she knew what was good for her, she would stay far away from this place. At least I’d doubled her money. There was that.

Movement along the street drew my attention, and I stilled as I saw none other than Ali walking down the street. The collar of her biker jacket was flipped up, her shoulders hunched, and her plait curved around her neck. The very tip of her hair sat between her breasts, drawing my gaze. She was a scared little thing…then again, I wasn’t sure scared was the right word.

She’d looked like she was trying to appear confident, but fear radiated off her the moment Mountain grabbed her. She was out of her depth like a rabbit in a room full of ravenous wolves. It was like she didn’t know how to act around people. Like she’d perfected the art of hiding, and now she was attempting to be seen. If that even made sense.

Watching as she stopped by a blue car a few spots down and across from mine, I waited until she’d unlocked the door and slipped inside. She sat there for a long time before she lowered her head and rested it on the steering wheel.

I wondered if I should get out and go see if she was okay, but things had already become a little creepy, so I left her alone. After a few minutes, she moved, and the car came to life, the headlights flicking on.

Leaning back in my seat as they flashed through my windscreen, I watched her drive off. She was safe, and she would never know she’d had someone in her corner, waiting to spring into action in case she was in trouble.

Whatever had forced her to come to a shithole like this I hoped she worked it out.

As for me…I went home to bed and woke up the next day ready to do it all again. Cracked knuckles and all. The circle of fucking life.