Jax broke the finger before Grub had time to react, roughly jerking his wrist to the right and snapping the bone at the knuckle in one move. It sounded like a cue-ball being hit hard and was followed by a guttural cry.

‘Ahhhhh! Fuuuuuck!’

Jax blanched as Grub pulled back, freeing his hand from Jax’s grip, and he saw the broken finger hanging at a sickening, unnatural angle from the man’s hand.

Jax stumbled back, his history of violence flashing through his mind. He told himself he’d had no choice. He recalled the image of this man holding prisoner 59999 in a headlock. He saw the tiles spray-painted with blood. Jax gritted his teeth and found his nerve.

Grub went up before he went down, the perfectly timed knee to the ribs hitting him like a car crash and lifting him off the ground. Jax waited for him to scream, but he didn’t. Couldn’t. His lung had been punctured by a broken rib and he sounded like an untied balloon gushing air. It was time to deliver the knockout blow. Jax clenched his balled fist, summoned his strength.

Then everything went dark.

A PINPRICK of light appeared. Jax blinked and his vision returned.

Legs limp, his jaw screaming with pain, he looked at the big man called Bluey and suddenly realised what had happened. He’d been blindsided, hit with a sledgehammer to the face and momentarily knocked out. He was lucky to still be on his feet.

Bluey looked at him with something akin to interest as Jax made two fists and pulled them to his face. Without warning, Jax surged forward and struck first. It was his only chance.

The left jab hit Bluey in the jaw. Jax had thought about going for his abdomen, but he knew the man was too big for a strike there to have any effect. He threw another, just as quick and accurate as the first, a double left to the head. Bluey was momentarily stunned. Jax might not have had the power but he had the speed. He considered moving in and attacking what might be Bluey’s only weak spot – his balls – but changed his mind when he realised it would negate his only advantage, his reach. Jax had to stay on the outside.

Yet he had to strike now, had to land something big enough to cripple his opponent while he was stunned. So he went in for the kill. Dropping his right hand to his side, he leaned back and loaded up. And then he swung, throwing the hardest right he had.