Haunted Eyes

By Jodie Sloan

Michael is a cage fighter who was one of the best, until something happened in the ring that made him walk away from everything he loved. His relationship with his ex wife is strained and he has to go through her in order to see his son Jeremy. He begins to fall into a bottle and gambling just to get a semblance of the same fix that he got when he was in the cage with other fighters. Michael wanted to get back into action, but every time he even begins to think about it, his thoughts go back to that one night five years ago.

Dara is a young woman of 25 years old, who has been living with a tragedy that has haunted her life and her decisions. She finds herself drawn to competing inside the octagon, but everybody that she talks to tells her that she needs to have a trainer that can give her that edge. Her research brings her to Michael, but she doesn’t think it would be right for her to just show up on his doorstep. Eventually, they do work together and soon are letting the passion that they have for the ring spill into the bedroom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Yap Kee Chong
• Release date: Jan 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311698285

Jodie Sloan

Jodie Sloan is an aspiring writer and loves to write anything in relation to the romance genre. Check out news of her new book releases here!

Book preview

Haunted Eyes

Tap Out MMA Romance Series

Book 1

By: Jodie Sloan

Yap Kee Chong

8345 NW 66 ST #B7885

Miami, FL 33166

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2015

All Rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any way or form or by any means whether electronic or mechanical, this means that you cannot record or photocopy any material ideas or tips that are provided in this book.

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Part 2 – Living Vicariously

Part 3 – The Past Comes Back

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Check Out My Other Books

Wolf In Disguise: Once Bitten

Wolf In Disguise: Never Forgotten

Wolf In Disguise: The Past Bites

Forbidden Passion

Second Chance

Closure

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

About The Author

CHAPTER 1

A young man sits in a dark bar all alone nursing one beer and sitting on a stool that has seen many an alcoholic drive their worries away with one bottle after the other. He looks at his reflection in the mirror and sees a man that has gone down a road that has too many demons to speak of. He looks at the tattoo on his arm and sees a life that has passed him by. His fingers grip the glass, then shakily brings it up to his mouth and lets a cool liquid flow freely into his mouth and over his lips and tongue.

Michael, I am starting to get worried about you, because you are always in here every night and you stay until the crack of dawn. You can’t drink your problems away and we both know that that night was not your fault. It’s the nature of the business and you’re going to have to get over the fact that it happened. For five years and I’ve watched you go from one addiction to another. Jack was Michael’s best friend and personal trainer back in the day, but now he was retired and had this bar called tap out.

I don’t need your sermon and all I require is for you to serve me, Jack. This is none of your business, but I do admire the fact that you were able to pick up the pieces of your life after that night. I don’t know how you did it and I feel like I’m drowning. He once again could see his reflection in the mirror across from him and it looked like he had aged 15 years. I just can’t get that night out of my mind and I feel like I could’ve done something about it. I just keep going over and over it again.

He was a 40 year old man, but he had premature graying around the temples and huge shoulders that looked like they were going to bust out of his leather jacket any second. Even the lighting in this place made him look disheveled and it was so dark inside this bar, so much so that you didn’t see the sunshine streaming through the stained glass windows. It had been five years since he had been in the octagon competing, but he took solace in the fact that he had continued his extreme regiment. Drinking, gambling and working out to excess was his way of trying to capture that same feeling that he got inside the ring.

I’ve tried to make you see, but maybe you have to hit rock bottom before you do anything about it. I think that you should talk to somebody, but you won’t even consider sitting down with a therapist or a psychiatrist. I don’t know what to do and all I can do is be there for you and hope that you don’t self destruct. Jack was old at 65, still quite handsome for his age and very charming to the point that he could have almost any woman that walked into the bar at night. It was primarily the reason why he had bought the place and it was turning out to be the golden goose.

Michael was his partner and it was the only source of income that he was getting these days, but wasn’t nearly enough to keep up with his gambling habit. I told you that I just need time. Michael felt that the world had stopped on a dime and he wasn’t able to push past to the other side. He ran his hand through his slightly greased black and gray hair, laying down a $20.00 bill on the counter, where he could feel the stickiness of many a drink that had been placed in this very spot.

There was the smell of tobacco in the air, along with pool chalk, but it was like he was home. It’s been five years, Michael, so just how much time do you need?

This question hung over Michael’s head like a Damocles sword about to come down and sever his reason to live. He had thought about suicide, but every time that he picked up the bottle of pills, he would find the will to keep going.

He casually made the long walk towards the front of the bar. He opened the door with the sun almost blinding him and he had to shield his face with his hands, just so that he could walk on unsteady legs back to his apartment. It had become painfully obvious that he couldn’t drive anymore, because most