'Stupid. Fucking. Asshole', he told himself. Then he visibly flinched at her description. It was the summary he feared would serve as his epitaph, and he had been right.
"Look, I..."
Derek closed his eyes and rubbed his face. "I'm the one who sent that e-mail. I'm assuming that's why you're here? I wanted to help. I wanted to..."
His words stalled. He wanted to sink into the ground. It had been a while since he had been faced with someone who knew just exactly how worthless he was. And the fact that it was Annie, the friendly woman with the killer grin who had stopped to talk to him when everyone else ignored him, made it that much worse.
"Someone hurt me, and this same someone has hurt a lot of other people, and I want it to stop. I want to help you."