Page 205 of I’m The Worst

Grabbing his wrist, I twist hard and duck under the line of the gun in one motion. The weapon goes off with a deafening crack into the ceiling as I slam Gage into the lockers and wrench the pistol out of his hand. He grunts, trying to throw me off, but I’ve already got his arm pinned behind his back and the barrel of his own gun shoved under his jaw.

He spits blood on my boots. “Go to hell.”

“You’re starting to make a bad fucking habit out of pissing me off.” I press the barrel harder against his skin. “So unless you’ve got a death wish, you’re gonna explain why you just tried to shoot me in the head.”

He clenches his jaw so hard it looks like it might crack. “You know fucking why.”

I stare down at the side of his face, watching the hate roll off him in waves. His breathing is still too fast. He’s got no control.

“You raped her,” he seethes. “How could you do that to her?”

My eyes briefly drift to the Russian file still on the bench. AJ must have told him about the stage…about the night I found her. My thumb slides against the trigger guard.

I exhale slowly. “I did what I had to do.”

“You admit it?”

“If I hadn’t done it, she wouldn’t have made it out alive.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?!”

I frown. “Russia.”

“What does Russia have to do with anything?”

“The stage.”

His expression changes. “What stage?”

“Kid…what the fuck are you talking about?”

“You broke into her fucking house.” His voice cracks. “You dragged her into the kitchen and raped her while she screamed for you to stop. You sick fuck.”

Everything inside me goes cold. Her house?

“She loved you.” His breathing turns ragged. “She fucking loved you, and you raped her wearing that goddamn wolf mask and⁠—”

I slam him into the lockers with enough strength to dent the metal. “Wh⁠—”

“She’s in fucking pieces because of you!” he shouts, struggling against my hold. “I found her bleeding on the kitchen floor. She was barely conscious, and she still wouldn’t say your name because she was too fucking ashamed⁠—”

My grip slips. “I don’t… I didn’t⁠—”

“What, you gonna pretend you don’t remember now? Pretend you didn’t beat the shit out of her dog too?”

The room tilts. I shove off him but keep the pistol trained on his chest.

He wipes blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. “The neighbor’s house caught you on camera. You were wearing that same fucked-up wolf mask from the Hunt.”

Yanking his phone out of his pocket with shaking fingers, he shoves it at me.

Security footage fills the screen—grainy, black and white, time-stamped. A figure in dark clothes moves across AJ’s front yard and up onto the porch. Wearing a wolf mask. My wolf mask…that Graves shoved in my locker before I left Chicago…

Every drop of blood leaves my body, my knees weakening.

My thumb freezes against the screen. Her face in the hallway crashes into me. The pure look of terror…like I was her worst fucking nightmare.

She was raped…and she thinks it was me.