Like a family.
That thought sends a bolt of disbelief shooting through me. It's shocking, but it somehow still feels right. As I turn that word over and over in my mind – family – I still can't get used to the idea that I'm a family man now. Sort of. I mean, they're not officially my family, but given the way we spend our time together, it sure feels like it. It's a strange sensation, but not in a bad way. Not at all.
Being with Alexis and Aurora feels right. It feels like being home.
My head is still in the clouds as I slip my key into the lock and open the door. It's only when I feel a sudden weight crashing into me from behind, and feel something sharp poke me in the arm, that I snap back to reality.
The force of the blow from behind knocks me inward and I stumble into the foyer of my condo. I roll over quickly and scramble to my feet as a man wearing a black ski mask steps inside and closes the door behind him. The dim lighting glints off the long blade in his hand.
My upper arm is stinging, so I quickly strip off my coat and take a look. There's a spot of blood on my shirt – the fucker stabbed me. Not badly, I don't think he got more than the tip of the blade through the thick material of my coat, but he stabbed me all the same.
The man is facing me, and although I can only see his eyes through the cut-out holes in the mask, I know exactly who it is.
“Are you fucking kidding me, Brad?” I sneer.
“I warned you,” he growls. “I warned you a bunch of times.”
“So, this is your big plan for revenge?” I ask. “You're going to murder me to keep me away from her?”
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” he says.
“The flaw in your plan, though, is that even if you do succeed in killing me – big ‘if’, by the way – Alexis still isn't going to want you, Brad,” I say. “As they say, she's just not that into you.”
“Yeah, well, we'll see about that,” he snaps. “When you're fucking dead, she's going to need somebody to help comfort her.”
“Yeah, and I'm sure you'll be the first person she turns to.”
I shouldn't be taunting an armed man, I know this. But, it's also really hard to take Brad seriously as an assailant. If he'd wanted to kill me, he should have put that pig sticker through my ribs from behind in the hallway when had the chance. Instead, he gave me a half-hearted kind of poke in the arm – which tells me that he's not only not thought this all the way through but is too scared to actually do it.
“Let's not kid ourselves, Brad,” I say. “You're not going to kill me.”
“The hell I'm not.”
I laugh softly. “I can see your hand shaking from here, man.”
“So, what?” he sneers. “Doesn't mean I can't still kill you.”
I shrug. “True. But I think if you were going to kill me, you would have given it a better shot when you had the advantage out in the hallway.”
“I'm warming up to it.”
I laugh again, which seems to irritate him. As I think about it, I realize that maybe taunting him isn't such a bad idea. Brad is irrational, and clearly off his rocker. He's liable to be sloppy and make a mistake when he finally does work up the nerve to try and kill me. And because I used to do some martial arts when I was a kid and am still in good shape, I should be able to take advantage of his mistakes.
We remain in our standoff – I've moved back from him and am standing near the stairs that lead down into the living room area. Brad is still standing in front of the door, clutching his knife. Given that I know who he is, he finally peels his mask off and drops it to the floor at his feet. He looks at me with the rawest, most visceral hatred I've ever seen in a person's eyes.
“You do realize you're not good for her, don't you?” Brad asks.
“How do you figure that?”
“I know your type, Duncan,” he sneers. “You'll eventually get bored with her. You'll get tired of playing a family man. And when you do, you're going to drop her like all the rest and leave her a shattered mess.”
“Yeah, you really have me pegged there, Brad.”
“I know I do.”
“Except for the fact that everything you just said is one hundred percent wrong,” I say and laugh. “I mean, you couldn't have been more wrong if you tried.”
“Shut up,” he growls. “Stop laughing at me.”
“Stop being a fucking idiot and maybe I'll consider it.”
He takes a menacing step forward and I consider my options – of which there aren't many. I don't think I'll be able to get to the door before he's on me, and I refuse to go hide in my bedroom behind a locked door. There is no way in hell I'm going to back down from a piece of garbage like Brad. Which means I'm going to have to fight.
“I'm the one who's good for her, you know,” Brad continues. “I'm the one who's devoted. Loyal. I'll be true to her and will never hurt her. I'll never dump her just because I'm bored and ready to move on to the next beautiful woman.”
“Is that so?”
He nods. “Yeah, that's so,” he says. “And what's more, even though Aurora is your child, I'll raise her like my own. I'll love her even though I hate you, and –”
Brad's words hit me like a brick to the head and I suddenly feel the room spinning around me. Surely, I couldn't have heard him right. I had to have misunderstood what he said. Right?
“Wait – what did you just say?” I ask.
“I told you that I'd raise Aurora like my own, despite my hatred for you,” he sneers. “Unlike you, I know what it means –”
“Shut up,” I cut him off. “Did you say that Aurora is my child?”
He cocks his head at me, an expression of irritation on his face. “Are you really going to stand there pretending that you didn't know?”
In addition to being lightheaded, I feel like I was just kicked in the gut and I feel my breath leaving my lungs in a whoosh. I double over, hands on my knees, and try to catch my breath while I try getting my head to stop spinning as hard. I keep an eye on Brad, though, just in case he decides he has an advantage and wants to exploit it.
Instead of moving, he just looks at me, a curious expression on his face.
“You really didn't know?” he asks.
“How in the fuck would I know? I was in Syria when she got pregnant,” I snap.
“Actually, she got pregnant before you left for Syria,” he says, smiling wide as if he's enjoying holding this piece of information – information he has that I don't – over my head.
“How the fuck do you know Aurora is my daughter?” I snap.
“Because I'm smart and I figured it out,” he replies smoothly. “And when I confronted her about it, she didn't say I was wrong.”
I rock back on my heels as I stand up straight again. I'm still trying to piece it all together and am stunned with shock and disbelief – not disbelief that I have a daughter I never knew about, but that Alexis would intentionally keep it from me all this time. I can't believe she'd do this.
“You're wrong. She would have told me,” I tell him.
“She was afraid to tell you, idiot,” Brad snaps back. “She was afraid you'd hire some fancy-ass lawyer to take Aurora away from her.”
“I wouldn't do that,” I protest.
“She apparently thinks you're enough of a prick that you would,” he mocks. “And I have to agree with her.”
“Fuck you, Brad,” I say, my voice colder than ice.
Why would Alexis think I'd do something like that? What kind of a monster does she take me for? How can she just assume the worst about me? There are a million questions firing through my mind all at once. Honestly, I don't even know where to go about getting answers for them – not without talking to Alexis directly.
“Doesn't matter,” Brad says. “None of this matters, because I’m going to remove you from the equation.”
I feel off-kilter, like I'm on unsteady footing. I'm distracted, and my head is in a thousand other places. I should be focusing on the man with the knife who's already vowed to kill me, but I can't keep my mind off of Alexis – or Aurora. My daughter, apparently.
I'm only aware that Brad is in motion when I see the blur of movement from the corner of my eye. When I turn, he's already bringing the knife forward, slicing in a deadly arc. I jump back, but it's not quick enough, and the blade slices straight through my shirt and across my belly. It opens up a wound that starts pouring blood, turning my shirt a dark shade of crimson.
I ball up my fist and lunge forward as he twists his body on the follow through with his knife. I'm aiming for his face but clip the side of his head instead. The blow is strong though and sends Brad staggering a few feet away from me where he falls to his knees, clutching his head in his hands. I press my advantage and close the distance between us again. He takes another cut with his blade and it slices through my slacks, opening another wound on my leg. I feel the blood pouring down my leg, leaving a sticky, wet trail.
Using my other leg, I deliver a strong kick to the side of his head. Brad staggers forward and falls to his knees. He's swaying as he sits there, as if he's on the verge of passing out. Rushing forward once more, I know I need to end this. As I close in, he delivers a vicious jab with his knife – point first. If I'd been in the way, he would have stuck it straight into my gut. Thankfully, I was expecting it and was able to move to the side in time to avoid being stuck.
Before he can pull his arm back again, I grab Brad's hair and pull his head back. Mustering all the force I can, I deliver a wicked shot to his face. The sound of my fist meeting his flesh cracks like a gunshot and snaps his head backward. I let go of his hair and let his momentum carry him down.
Brad is out cold before he hits the ground.