Page 157 of To All the Guys I Killed Before

“…is not worth living,” he responds immediately.

It’s the first test. I passed, but I’ve got more to clear.

“The fuck are you doing here?” He plants his feet in the doorway, despite the frigid air pouring into the house. “How’d you get my address?”

“The forum. And I’m here with a warning that couldn’t wait. You’re in danger.”

He crosses his arms over his chest, the movement not hiding his shiver as another gust of wind hits us both. “My life is danger,” he says with a jut of his chin.

“Don’t I know it.” My expression is serious despite being forced to watch Timms attempt to puff out his chest. “But there’s a female coming here tonight to try to kill you.”

He blinks. Then he tosses his head back, and he laughs and laughs and laughs.

“You’re saying some bitch thinks she can take me out?”

“Trust me, brother, I feel the same.” I loathe the companionable warmth in my voice, especially knowing that Rue can hear it. “But she’s the one who killed Navarro and Whitfield.”

Timms’s laughter cuts off. “You’d better come in.”

Once we’re in his living room, I wait until he gestures toward the armchair before sitting. Timms takes the couch, stretching his arms across the back, the gun in his right hand. He’s making a show of being at ease, but his eyes rove around the room, never staying in one spot long.

“Let’s start with who you are, hmm?”

Nobody special. Just the man who killed your stepbrother five feet from where we’re sitting.

“I’m Joe Hall,” I say a little too eagerly. “We’ve never interacted on the forum, but I knew I had to come here so you’d be prepared.”

He taps the gun on the couch back. “What’s your forum handle?”

Felicity prepared me for this. “DrinkingBitchTears69,” I say with a smirk. Joe is so proud of his clever username. “Been a member for three years now.”

Timms regards me coldly as he pulls his phone out of his shorts pocket and thumbs it open. After a long sixty seconds, which I spend remembering how I sat in this same armchair while Rue-as-Morticia straddled me and almost made me lose my mind, he lifts his narrowed gaze back to me.

“What’s your take on that new documentary we’ve been discussing all week?”

“Shit, hang on,” Felicity whispers in my ear.

I raise my brows, needing to fill the time. Joe is surprised Timms would question a loyal forum member. Joe might even be a little wounded. “What, you want a book report?”

“Yeah. You could say that.” Timms smacks the couch harder with the gun.

“There’s no new documentary and no discussion.” Felicity’s calm murmur hits at just the right time. “He might mean the one about the manosphere that came out this spring. The forum hated it, but it’s mostly died down now.”

I trust that she’s right.

“You mean that streaming one from earlier this year? It’s exploitative trash,” I say in my best disgusted tone. “Total hatchet job. That cuck never once tried to engage with our actual ideals.”

Timms’s face still registers suspicion, so I give a small sigh. Joe may not like it, but he’s willing to do what’s necessary to earn his idol’s trust. “If you want to know what we’ve been talking about this week, it’s the misandrist courts that take kids away from their fathers over the holidays.”

“Shit, Sigmund.” Quinn whispers my code name. “Why are you going off script?”

We all hold our breath: me, the three people sitting at the folding table in Rue’s empty, echoey living room, and Rue herself, I’m sure. But knowing what the forum’s not talking about isn’t enough; I need to provide what they are talking about. Given the time of year, it’s my best guess, and it either gets me shot in the face or a shot of whiskey.

“Piece-of-shit activist judges,” Timms grumbles, shoving the gun back into his pocket.

We all exhale. That’s the second test cleared.

“So you’re here to save my life.” His eyes flick to my hair, which isn’t quite Dr. Mohr levels of smashed down but is flat enough that Rue moaned in disappointment when she saw it. “Tell me, Joe, how’d you come to know about this female’s plan?”