Free Bullet Proof: A MacKenzie Family Novella (The MacKenzie Family) by Avery Flynn Page A

those three girls at St. B's wouldn't have killed themselves. Guilt sliced and diced her insides, leaving her with an all too familiar shredded mess that had driven her six months ago to the decision to change her life, to stop being the woman who wouldn't fight for people who couldn't fight for themselves.
    After how Taz had grown up and the way his boxing manager, Freddie, had helped him, she couldn't understand why he was so reluctant to take the same stand.
    She bent her arm and propped her head up on her hand to get a better look at him before popping the question. "What happened to make you stop rooting for the underdog?"
    He didn't bother to open his eyes, but the arm curled around her tensed. "Who said I ever did?"
    "You can't lie to me." She tugged on his chest hair just hard enough to let him know she wasn't going to let this go, smirking when his eyes snapped open. "I know you did."
    Annoyance flickered across his face, chased by something darker before he closed his eyes again, shutting her out. "Don't think you know everything about me."
    "Then tell me." It wasn't that she wanted to know, it was that she had to know.
    She couldn't lie to herself. There was more brewing between her and Taz than a one-night stand. No one had primed them to have such a strong reaction to each other when they'd been dosed with Genie's Wish. Those feelings were already there below the surface, trying to break free. Well, it was all out there in the universe now. She kissed the spot on his chest where she'd yanked on his hair and waited for the silence to get to him. Judging by the fast beat of his heart and the pent-up energy wafting off of him, it wouldn't be long.
    A few seconds later he heaved out a sigh. "I learned from experience that sticking your neck out for strangers ends badly."
    "Didn't Freddie stick his neck out for you and your brothers?" she asked.
    Pain pinched his handsome features, giving him a haunted look. "He's why I can't."
     
    * * * *
     
    Energy fizzed and popped underneath Taz's skin, just like it had in the moments before he stepped into the ring, sending adrenaline flooding through him. The fight or flight response he'd developed during a rough childhood and honed to a steel point as a boxer went into action, eating away the last vestiges of his post-orgasm calm.
    Bianca laid her cheek against his chest, her long hair tickling him, but he wouldn't flick it away. Even the uncomfortable felt good with her.
    "You know I won't stop pestering you about it until you tell me," she said.
    And she wouldn't. Not because she was nosey or gossipy, but because she wanted to help. She wanted to help him. It was a strange feeling to have someone care. His brothers did, but the testosterone code meant no touchy-feely, philosophical chats about feelings. But with Bianca? It seemed as natural as holding her naked body next to his and never letting go.
    And because of that, he did the one thing he never did—he started to talk about the night he killed the man who'd been more of a father to him than his own had ever been.
    "I had a shot at the championship belt. I was Vegas's odds-on favorite to win, but no one believed I would win more than me. I was young, cocky, and full of myself." The money, the fame, the trophy wife...they'd all been his for the taking. And he'd taken and taken and taken. "Freddie kept on me about being careful, not fucking things up at the last minute. That's what a good trainer does—he builds you up and then keeps you from screwing yourself over because your ego gets out of control."
    He'd fought in the light heavyweight division, but his ego would have clocked in above the heavyweight limit. In a way, it had helped him get to the top of the bare knuckles world of professional boxing. Fighters can't get in the ring thinking they're going to lose. Without that I'm-the-best edge, fighters were just newborn kittens strolling into a dogfight.
    "The night before the title belt main event in Vegas, I was