Page 153 of River Wild

But I also knew that she was trying to stop that motherfucker from taking anything else away from her than he already had.

Carrie still has problems sometimes with her lungs. It hurts her on cold days, and her breaths falter a little. But, thankfully, we don’t have many cold days in Texas.

She’s struggled with nightmares and flashbacks from what happened that night.

They’re happening less often these days, but the bad memories are still there, affecting her. As are the scars he left on her chest. If I could take it all away, I would. But I can’t. All I can do is love her and protect her and make sure nothing bad ever happens to her again.

It fucking kills me that I wasn’t there when she needed me most.

I have a lot of if onlys from that night. I have tortured myself with thoughts of what I should have done.

But I know that having Carrie with me, alive and healthy, is the only thing that matters now.

And, knowing that, I knew I had to let go of my past, too, once and for all.

So, the day she woke from the coma, I closed the door on it.

I didn’t want to be a victim any more.

I wanted to be a survivor.

And, to do that, I needed to heal. I had to crush the demons that I allowed to still haunt me.

I don’t enforce anymore. To move forward, I needed to stop doing that.

I didn’t realize at the time that it was hurting me more than helping me.

I had to pull back for my mental well-being. And for my family.

I need to be healthy for the sake of Carrie and Hope.

And there will always be men and women out there willing to help in the way that I did.

That doesn’t mean I’ve stopped helping with The Avengers of Injustice. I do, but I’m more in the background. I help with the paperwork side of things. Marcus and I have developed a website with a detailed listing of sex offenders around the country, even right down to the “minor” sex offenders, showing their mug shots, listing their locations and offenses. You can search by zip code, making it easier to know when there is a sex offender in your area.

And, if someone decides to take the law into their own hands against those sick fuckers, using the information that I provide, who am I to stop that?

“Want to go into town and get some frozen yogurt, Hope?”

Hope starts happily clapping her hands together, grinning at her mom, showing those cute two front teeth of hers.

“Ugh, frozen yogurt?” I complain, getting to my feet.

I take Hope from Carrie and then offer her my hand and pull her up. I walk over to the stroller and strap Hope in.

I turn back to Carrie, who is smiling at me. I know that smile well. I’ve traced it with my tongue a thousand times.

She moves close to me, aligning her body with me. We fit together so fucking perfectly. We always have.

She puts her hand on my chest and pats it. “Yes, frozen yogurt. And, if you’re a good boy and stop complaining,” she lifts up on her tiptoes and whispers into my ear, “I might let you eat it off me in bed tonight.”

My dick throbs in my pants.

“Won’t it have melted by then?” I tease, my eyes staring down at her as I imagine a hundred scenarios of me and Red in bed with a tub of frozen yogurt … hours of fun to be had.

“We’ll take extra to go. And maybe you’ll get lucky, and I’ll lick it off of you, too.”

Jesus fuck. This woman.