Rise [Bruno Mars]

Chapter two

His gaze roved over me. “I've met him before.”

“It'll be like you never met him before, trust me.”

“I'm going to be spending a week with the bastard. Might as well scrutinize this new him before we go.”

I'd been holding the glass while he poured the wine and nearly dropped it. “You're going?”

“I'm going, Adrian,” he said, voice and gaze heavy with promise. “You're right. I don't want to go without a fight.” His mouth quirked. “And I don't want that fight to be with you.”

“Oh thank God,” I breathed, surging with immense relief. He was going. He was going. What made this sudden change of mind? The slap? The AI being cleared mostly from his blood cleared his head, too? I pushed the questions aside. It didn't matter. This was the Bruno I knew. Hope buried itself in him again, and at this moment, it was the strongest thing we had. “So that was your plan? Ask me to marry you, throw me out if I didn't, and you'd thought I would agree because I'd never leave you?”

He shrugged, taking a swig from the bottle. “I was desperate.”

“Nice try.” A smirk found its way on my mouth. “Also nice try with the whole holding me until the AI took over you thing. You go unconscious before it does any real damage.”

Bruno scratched his head. “Yeah, that would have been helpful knowing before.”

I smiled wryly.

“But Adrian,” he began seriously. “This is my life and it's not your responsibility. I don't want you to carry it on your shoulders and if this whole thing fails, don't blame yourself.”

I wanted to tell him that this whole thing wouldn't fail, and that I already blamed myself for not keeping Josephine away from him. But he was right. His life wasn't my responsibility, no matter how many lengths I would reach to keep him alive. “Sounds fair,” I said, and wondered if he could hear my pain. I could.

“And,” Bruno continued, reaching to touch his hand to my cheek. “I can't stand the thought of you being alone with him. If he tries anything with you, I swear to God, Dri.” He dropped his hand, which curled into a fist.

I palmed his fist reassuringly. “It's all right, Bruno. He won't.” My thoughts flashed to earlier, when Joseph somehow took us both to Grim. How we stood, cocooned in moonlight, and it was me, who wanted to try something with him. Who craved for the power that could ignite only if we were united. No, not me. That person wasn't me. It couldn't have been. I took a swallow of the bitter wine, trying not to think about it.

Bruno's head dropped back. He released a slow breath, fingers uncurling underneath mine. He looked so weary. I moved until I was directly beside him, sitting back on my calves. “We have to be a team. You and I.”

“Mhm,” he hummed, head lifting. He took a strand of my hair in between his fingers. “I already like you. I don't mind.”

“That includes Joseph.”

He made a face, trailing a finger down my neck. “There's always that one member that everyone fucking hates.”

I don't hate him was my impulse response. I left it unsaid, deciding it was better to. Bruno listed his head, watching me. “Why'd you come back to me?” he asked, voice low and husky. “Hm? If you were still about to leave me, why'd you come back?”

I searched for words. “A feeling I had. I don't know. I just felt like you needed me.”

“Huh.” He picked up my necklace, staring at the pendant. His thumb glided over the stone.

“You know why I can't marry you?”

Bruno heaved a heavy sigh. “Listen, you money hungry woman. I will get you a ring—”

“It would have meant accepting that you were going to die, you idiot. And I can't do that. I won't. Until there's no more options. Until we can no longer try to fight it.”

“I admire your faith, your hope.” He leaned in, pressing his mouth against my cheek. He rested his forehead against the side of my head, even breaths puffing warmly on my skin, and smelling of bitter grape. “I know I haven't been myself lately, Adrian, but I love you. That will never change. All right? It won't. No matter what.”

I turned my head so our foreheads touched, and I could look into his hooded eyes. His fingers ghosted up my arms, around my shoulders, to my neck, lovingly, lingeringly. As though he wanted to keep the memory of what my skin feels like hidden in the tips of his callused fingers. I caressed his jawline, faint with hair. His eyes fluttered shut. An itch in my fingers. To draw him, the soft curves of his face, the dark hair that curled towards heaven. “I'll be with you every step of the way as long as you want me to. I love you, too,” I ended softly, but the words themselves were not soft. How could they be, when our love was all piercing knives and bleeding and harsh healing, over and over and over again? But it was something I wouldn't mind going through over and over again, I decided, as long as it was with him.

“Thank you,” he breathed, with a hint of relief. “For staying. For loving me.”

I tugged at a curl. “Just doing my job, kid.”

The corners of his mouth lifted. “You allowed yourself to love and be loved. That's an amazing thing to do.”

“And one of the scariest.”

“I do bite.” His eyelids cracked open, a soft groan leaving his throat. “I'm so tired, baby.”

I thought about these past three days, dark days. Bruno had packed a bag and left to somewhere. Three whole days without any messages or calls. All I knew was that he participated in another illegal fight during that time, but what else? Where did he sleep? Did he even sleep at all? The answer was held in the shadows of his eyes. “Rest.”

Bruno sat back—more like collapsed—pulling me along with him. “We can leave in a little bit to see the son of a bitch.”

I frowned, nerves exploding in my stomach. “It's late. We can see him tomorrow. You should get some sleep.”

“I won't be able to until I talk to the flying fuck.”

“He has a name.”

“Don't we all?”

I giggled softly, my fingers trailing his chest. “Oh and by the way, on my wedding day, my hair and makeup will be flawless.”

I let out a breath of exasperation. “Joseph has my car because his is crap on wheels, and he's at my apartment to be closer to us.”

“Right.” Bruno frowned deeply. These past days he never noticed I no longer had my car, or even, he didn't realize that I took his. It just showed how lost he'd been. “Because that's what we want, psychopaths close to us.”

“A team, remember?”

“You want me to like him.” His brows furrowed. He was sitting unusually in the passenger's seat. Instead of leaning more towards the window, he leaned towards me. “Why, do you?”

“I don't need you to like him.” My fingers tapped out a random tune on the steering wheel. “Just tolerate him, okay?”

“No can do, sweetheart.” He breathed out a light sigh. “I can barely stomach the thought of him.”

“Well, you have to start somewhere.”

The nerves in my stomach tripled when we made it to our destination. I grabbed Bruno's arm. “Don't be too mean.”

“I can't be nice?”

“You're not going to be.”

“You know me all too well.” He gave the door three solid knocks. I bit down on my lip hard enough to draw blood as the seconds ticked by. Bruno's pose was calm, back straight, arms hanging loosely at his sides. My shoe tapping against the ground seemed to echo the hallway. Bruno shot me a single raised brow, then checked the watch on his wrist, more in a mocking manner. The moment stretched on. 

“Maybe he's not here. . .” The turning of the lock made my sentence trail.