Councilman Delaney lay rigid on his bed, clad in dark blue nightwear patterned with faint crescent moons. The king-sized mattress beneath him felt anything but comforting. The yellow sheets were pulled up high, nearly covering his face, leaving only his wide, frantic eyes exposed as they darted from one corner of the room to another.
Beneath the duvet, his trembling hands clutched a handgun, fingers tight around the grip, knuckles pale with tension. The room itself was vast, spacious enough to inspire calm under normal circumstances, yet now it felt suffocating, as though the walls had drawn closer without warning.
"Calm down... you have a dozen men stationed at the door. There is no way someone can sneak in here. That lawyer was messing with me, and tomorrow I will make that clear to him," Delaney muttered under his breath, his voice wavering, lacking the authority he usually carried so effortlessly.
"Clear who?"
The voice came from the shadows.
