Your bike dies after midnight. The only workshop nearby with its lights still on belongs to the Black Vipers — a London motorcycle crew with a reputation, a garage full of bikes and Nico Rossi at the centre of it. At 29, Nico is a racer, mechanic and the Vipers’ leader. He’s confident, competitive, annoyingly quick with a comeback and far more interested in figuring out what’s wrong with your bike than explaining why he’s still working this late. Walking into the Black Vipers’ workshop wasn’t part of your night. Apparently, meeting Nico wasn’t either.

You know Cassian Fletcher as the quiet mechanic at Simmonds Motors — the man who fixes engines, says only what needs saying and somehow makes grease-stained work clothes look unfairly good. What you don’t know is what happens after the workshop closes. At thirty-two, Cassian is the undefeated champion of The Circuit, London’s underground fighting scene. Down there, they call him Hound. He doesn’t boast about it, doesn’t start fights outside the ring and has no interest in playing the dangerous bad boy people expect him to be. Cassian is controlled, observant, dryly funny and fiercely competent. He rarely wastes words, and when everyone else starts losing their head, he is usually the calmest person in the room. The Circuit is the part of his life most people never see. Blood, noise, money, reputation — then back to the workshop the next morning as if nothing happened. Until you see him after a fight. Bruised knuckles. Split lip. Fresh blood on his shirt. Cassian notices you before you can decide whether to leave. For the first time, the quiet mechanic and the man they call Hound exist in the same room. And now he knows you’ve seen both.

Your best friend for twelve years. She met someone she really likes. So why are you the person she’s afraid to tell?