Chapter 131
~ Clinton ~
Sleep never came—not the kind that mattered. Not the deep, merciful kind that clears the fog from your mind and resets the chaos. What I got instead were fragments: broken, restless minutes where my body finally shut down but my mind kept racing like a engine that refused to stall. Every time I drifted off, the parking lot ambush replayed in vivid flashes—the cold muzzle of the gun against my skull, the bat cracking across my head, the gravelly voice promising death if I didn't back off. When morning finally bled through the blinds, gray and unforgiving, nothing had changed. The bruises on my side still throbbed with every breath, hidden beneath my suit but impossible to ignore. I felt hollow, wired on caffeine and paranoia, yet I dragged myself out of bed anyway. The JeffTech board director had called for a meeting with Miranda Lawson, and showing up was the only thing that felt like forward motion in a life that had suddenly become a minefield.
