When the engine stops, so does my breathing. Every muscle in my body is tense as I sit in the silence of the heated car, but even though the heat surrounds me, chills take over every part of me. It takes forever before I work up the courage to get out of the vehicle.

    My feet feel like there are weights attached to them, trying to keep me from getting to my destination. A harsh sting pierces me every time I take a step forward. Even though I pray for a way out, nothing can stop what's coming, and I'm all too aware of it.

    Since I parked my car a couple blocks away from my destination, I have a little longer to gather myself before I am faced with the powerful realization that my life is over. It's a constant battle not to turn around and run, but I remind myself that it wouldn't just be me I'm pushing into the deep end. Everyone I love would pay the price for my selfishness. I can't be selfish anymore.

    Any possible choice I could make besides giving into Dax would be to risk the safety of my friends. Dread boils up inside me - a mixture of my loss of control and the knowledge I have failed.

    Taking deep breaths, I try and calm down, but my hands don't stop shaking and my legs still feel like my own personal cinder blocks. For a few more moments, my blood boils like lava, trying to destroy me from the inside out, but then before the fire in my veins reaches my head, a surge of bravery cools my senses.

    With one deep breath, all the heat leaves through my nose, the air displaying right in front of my eyes in the cold Fall air. I become one with the cold and hide every ounce of fear so far deep inside me, I almost trick myself that it isn't there. Even though burying my emotions has always been easy for me, now it's a challenge, but to Griffins, a challenge is like our own source of adrenaline. Forgetting fear is just step one in the handbook to getting what you want, and what I want is to get through this, but to also bring Dax down.

    Andrew is right, he will take and take and take until there is nothing left of me. What I need to do is take everything from him, and make him the one who is fearing for his life. But how do I make a guy without any fear fearful? There is nothing that Dax cares about except for expanding his territory and he'd give up his own family in order to do so. Everyone around him is just a pawn to play his game.

    What I need is a King to oppose him.

    Ignoring the drumming in the back of my mind - the fear so desperately trying to break out and control me - I enter the building that matches the address written on the paper in my hand. Taking the reins is a battle, but I stay true to my own deception.

    An elevator is at the end of the hall, and I go straight to it, the weight in my feet no longer an issue. I push forward and the jab loft button with a bold finger right after I enter the doors of the lift. My mind is in a numb state. Every possible emotion that should be clouding my brain has no effect - it's a clean slate, and it's just what I need to take Dax on.

    The ding of the elevator chills my bones, but it doesn't reach my brain, which is still running on the adrenaline.

    As the doors open, I look straight into Eddie's eyes. The look on his face accompanied with the gun pointed right at my head almost makes the wall built around my emotions crumble then and there, but I keep my head up. Panic is a bigger enemy than they are right now.

    Eddie's sardonic smirk is there for a second before it disappears. "Empty your pockets of everything."

The gun is still aimed right between my eyes, so I immediately do as he says. My hand fishes around in my pockets and pulls out my phone from the front one, my wallet from the back, and I remove my lanyard from my neck for good measure. A familiar looking guy, not much older than I am, holds a small box up in front of me to put my stuff into.

I breathe easier when Eddie puts the safety of the revolver back on and drops the weapon. Still, his guard is up like I am about to pull some sort of stunt.

"Search him," Eddie says, and without hesitation, hands are patting me down.

"He's clean," the one who was searching me says.

Dax appears into view from around the corner, an unlit cigarette hanging from the left side of his mouth. "Glad you could make it."

A crooked smirk appears on his smug face. He knows he has won this round, because here I am. Under his control, again.

Immediately he starts to evaluate me and my surroundings. An aggravated breath exhales from his nose as his eyes turn to slits, a piercing glare my way. "Where's the money, Austin?"

Folding my arms across my chest, it's my turn to look smug. "In my car."

"You left twenty grand just lying around in your car?" Eddie looks at me like I'm insane.

Dax ignores him and deepens his frown. "I know you don't trust me, but that hardly matters. That money, it belongs to me, and I know you don't want a repeat of last time you refused to give me what's mine."

I swallow the lump in my throat, remembering that night more clearly than any other.  

"But it doesn't matter," he says, "We can just pick it up on the way."

"On the way? Where are we going?" I wasn't aware we were going to go on some sort of venture, but Dax has always had a way of throwing me off guard.
    "The Brawl." Is all he says before bumping shoulders with me on the way into the elevator. He turns around and stares at me with a challenging look, like he's trying to figure out how this new Austin compared to the younger version he knew.

Dax nods over to the familiar face who held the box with my possessions. He takes out my keys, handing the box over to someone else. Once he's standing next to Dax, I see the resemblance immediately. I had seen him once before, years ago. He's had a growth spurt since then, outgrowing his older brother in height. Although Braxton Caine is a lot scrawnier, he makes up for it in brains and tactic.

I follow into the elevator after receiving a nudge from Eddie, who is on my heels. Only a couple others enter the elevator, making us a group of seven. Iker Perez is the only extra in here that I recognize from a couple years ago. He hasn't changed at all besides hair down to his shoulders and a bit of facial hair. The other two must be new recruits. Dax likes having more people around him - more white people, to be specific.

The jingling of keys keeps throwing me off balance as Braxton obnoxiously throws them up in the air and then catches them, throwing side glances at Dax as he does so. A derisive smirk appearing on his lips when he notices his brother's jaw clench.

Iker is the only one who acts, swiping the keys away from Braxton in mid air.

After the doors of the elevator open, we go straight to my car. Dax sends Iker and one of the other guys back to the loft with the money. The rest of us pile into Eddie's SUV. The drive is not that long, but the silence surrounding us after Dax orders Eddie to turn off the radio makes it seem that way.

We pull up in front of this warehouse that has probably seen better days. There are a few broken windows, but most are still in tact. The exterior is decorated with an obscene amount of graffiti, one design showing up more than any other - the current identification for the club: 'The Brawl'.

It suddenly dawns on me that I've heard of this place before. Bradley Stuart lives in this city only a couple blocks away from Sins, his parent's club. Since he's started working there on the weekends, he's been overhearing a lot more dirt on the city. Only last week, he'd been talking about a secret fight club that's been going on right under the cop's noses.

A lot of things in this city seems to go almost unnoticed by the cops, which makes me wonder if strings are being pulled one way or another.

I follow closely behind Dax. There's no comfort in the fact that being around him in a place like this is my safest bet. We all enter the club, and the whole establishment looks a lot different than I had pictured. Dax clearly spent a lot of time tidying up the place, making it perfect for his extracurricular activities.

My first look at The Brawl confirms the rumors that were spread through the vine at Sins to be true. There is a fight club downtown, and now I'm stuck in the middle of it with a group of people who never made it past their delinquent stage of maturing.

When I'm led deeper into the warehouse, I spot two guys on an elevated platform. The brunette is in his mid thirties while the blonde can't be older than twenty-five. The younger of the two is heavier set than the thirty year old muscle-wise, but his form is terrible and it doesn't look like he has much experience with fighting. His footing is all wrong, and I keep myself from laughing at how bad it is.

A small table is set up before we can reach the audience that's formed around the fighters. The crowd of people is small, suggesting this isn't the main event of today. It's not even five in the afternoon yet, so there's plenty of time for something to go wrong.

The older guy at the table is accompanied by a younger one. As one takes money from the next person in line, the other jots something down on some sort notepad. They must not only be paying for admission, but betting on the fights as well.

Dax walks right by the table and the rest of us follow. People make room for us once we reach the crowd and we make our way to the front. At least there are some perks to hanging with this group again, I think bitterly to myself.

When the bell rings twice, I realize that we've missed the first round. It's now that I notice the slight bruising on both of their faces. Blood drips from the crooked nose of the younger one - it probably won't heal to look the same as it did before.

I zone out the crowd and forget for a second that Dax and his crew are practically surrounding me, and concentrate only on the brawl before me.

They circle around the ring a couple times before the younger one strikes first. His punch is ruled by too much emotion, and from jousting with Andrew, I knew nothing good could come of that. My father always told me not to fight angry, because then you'll either hurt someone you love, or you'll lose against someone who wants to hurt you.

From watching how the fight is going so far, he was right.

The thirty year old takes the younger one's rage and turns it against him, ducking before the blow could hit it's mark. The blonde stumbles forward and lets out a growl of frustration. He is getting more angry, and more unstable.

He turns and gets a couple hits to the brunette's stomach, but is overpowered when his shin is kicked. His leg buckles underneath him. A kick is sent to the young one's jaw. The sound of boot connecting to bone makes me cringe, and makes me wonder how that could even be allowed. Apparently everything is fair game when it comes to winning around here, even fighting dirty.

For a second, I think the blonde would be smart and stay down, but he gets back up. His pride goes before everything else. The older one looks impressed with his endurance, but also seems annoyed that he didn't just give up already. He wastes no time in sending a kick his way, but the younger one unexpectedly grabs the foot in mid-air and throws the brunette to the ground. A groan escaped him when his lean body made contact with the platform.

The blonde now has the upper hand, sending a kick to the older one's back, making his face distort into a pained expression. Knowing how badly that hurts, I'm glad I'm not him at the moment. When he tries to get back up, his challenger's foot shoves him down again between his shoulder blades. He rolls over onto his back, clenching his teeth, readying himself for the next strike.

It comes down on him sooner than expected, but he catches the fist with his left hand and his right connects with his attacker's jaw - the same place he had kicked him earlier. This results in an angry grunt from the blonde, his eyes now hold a savage spark that chills my bones when I see it.

No doubt people I've hurt in the past have experienced that look from me. The realization that I'm not much different from the people gathered here terrifies me.

Sharp and precise jabs hit the older ones ribs as the blonde's rage loses all means of control. This move doesn't require any thinking or experience, just complete and utter bronze. The chances of the older one coming out strong are wearing thin. With every strike he tries pushing away his opponent who now straddles him in an attempt to hold him down, but it doesn't work.

The strikes now shift to the face, blood dripping everywhere. The broken nose matches the one he gave his rival earlier. Blow after blow is aimed at his face, causing blood mixed with sweat to drip onto the floor.

Eventually all the fight in him has left his body, and my blood runs cold when I realize he's not moving anymore.

Only a still figure lies underneath the victor.

Blondie jumps to his feet, smiling proudly to himself. Blood is running from his mouth, but spits what remains at the loser. Shaking away the aching in his knuckles, he lets out a chuckle followed by a low hoot of victory.

Even though the crowd surrounding him is small, the cheers are surprisingly loud. I refuse to participate in the heinous ovation. Fighting without a cause is something I consider pointless, not to mention shameful.

The sharp sting is jarring when Eddie pats me on the back. His arm wraps around my shoulders as he smiles widely at me. For the first time I notice he has dimples, but it doesn't make him look any less menacing. "Welcome to 'The Brawl', kid."

***

Finally, I'm getting back into the groove of updating! It took me a while, but here I am. To give me credit, all last month I was on vacation, so I didn't have a moment to sit back and write. But now, I am back, and the long awaited chapter was finally posted!

I really hope you liked it, because fight scenes are pretty hard to write and I spent a lot of time on it. Please tell me what you think of the characters so far, and the two new ones who were just introduced this chapter - Braxton Caine (Dax's brother) and Iker Perez.

As always, don't forget to leave a comment if you have any observations or questions, and please hit that little star in the corner if you think the chapter was deserving. I promise I won't make you guys wait two months again for the second part of this to come out!

Til next time,

TheWriterD