Page 48 of Close Your Eyes

But this feeling is slowly killing me. I want to be with Ledger, not Bane. However, I know it’s not sustainable.

Would Ledger grow tired of me?

And then what?

Not to mention what would happen to my father if I left Bane? I shudder at the thought.

“Cold?” Ledger asks me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder, pulling out his phone from his pocket. “No news is good news, I guess,” he says, obviously talking about what went down at Club Greed.

Is this my life now?

Forever a target? I have to trust Bane to keep me safe. To employ people who can keep me safe. At least I hope he can. One good thing about tonight was having Ledger there.

I wouldn’t feel safe anywhere but here with him.

I lean against Ledger, my body growing tired. I yawn. “I guess,” I murmur.

Ledger squeezes me closer to him, positioning his body to make me more comfortable. “Go ahead and close your eyes, baby,” he says so softly I barely hear him. However, hearing him call me baby sends shivers racing up and down my spine.

Within minutes I’m sleeping, dreaming of a wedding to a ghost. A figure who wants to harm me. As I walk down the aisle a sense of dread washes over me.

Ledger’s there, trying to say something, but I can’t hear him. All I hear is the sinister laugh of the man waiting for me by the dais.

I wake with a jolt, and it’s dark.

I’m disoriented, trying my best to figure out where I am.

“You’re safe,” Ledger’s voice says from not too far away.

I sit up, noticing I’m wrapped in a blanket. “What time is it?” I ask, my eyes trying to get adjusted to the low light.

There’s a small candle sitting on top of the coffee table, and Ledger sits in a chair across from the couch I’m on.

“It’s late,” Ledger says, setting down the notebook he was just writing on. Or was he drawing?

“Are you drawing me?” I ask him, thinking about the scene from Titanic where Jack drew a picture of Rose.

“Do you want me to be?” he asks, his voice thick with heat.

“What were you drawing?” I ask him, wanting to see whatever he was creating while I was sleeping soundly across from him.

He flips the notebook over, showing me his artwork, but I can barely see it.

I reach out my hand. He stands and places the notebook in my hand before returning to his chair. I bring it close to me, my eyes focusing on what’s on the paper. It is me, and it causes my pulse to spike. “You drew me?”

“I was just messing around. It’s silly.” He tries to take the notebook back from my hands, but I pull it closer to my chest. He stands from his chair, crossing the small space between us. He holds out his hand.

I blink up at him. “I love it,” I breathe out, looking at the picture once more.

“Like I said, I was just messing around.” He resumes his seat back in the chair across from me.

“Has Bane called?”

Ledger’s expression tightens, a subtle tension pulling at the corners of his mouth at the mere mention of Bane. “No, not yet,” he responds, the words weighted with concern.

Restlessly, I shift on the couch, my fingers twisting in anxious knots. “I wonder what’s going on. Should you try calling him? I just hope everything’s alright.”

Ledger’s hand moves with purpose, retrieving his phone from his pocket. As he unlocks the screen, a subtle glow illuminates his face in the dim room, casting shadows that dance across his features, highlighting the furrow in his brow and the intensity in his eyes. “Dev, how’s everything going?” he says into the phone.