Page 29 of Duty Compromised

“I can’t go any faster,” she said finally. “I’m already at maximum capacity.”

“I know.”

“But I can work smarter. Maybe bring in Darcy for the integration phase, delegate some of the testing protocols…” She was talking more to herself than to me now, lost in problem-solving mode.

Without thinking, I reached across the table and covered her hand with mine. She startled but didn’t pull away.

“Whatever you need,” I said. “Resources, equipment, coffee, someone to remind you to eat—just ask.”

She stared at our hands, and I became acutely aware of how small hers was under mine, how cold her fingers were despite the warm room.

“Why do you care?” she asked softly.

“Because thousands of lives depend on you succeeding. Because you’re killing yourself trying to save them. Because…” I paused, not sure how to articulate the protective instinct she triggered in me. “Because someone should.”

She looked up then, and something shifted in her expression. For a moment, the walls came down completely, and I saw her—not the prickly programmer, not the isolated genius, just Charlotte. Brilliant, exhausted, lonely Charlotte who’d been carrying this weight alone for so long she’d forgotten what it felt like to share it.

The moment stretched between us, heavy with something I wasn’t ready to name. Our hands were still touching, her fingers curling slightly against my palm.

Then she blinked, reality crashing back. She pulled her hand away, started packing up her lunch with quick efficiency.

“I need to get back to work,” she said, not meeting my eyes.

“Charlotte—”

“Thank you. For lunch. For…being honest.” She closed her laptop, clutched it against her chest like armor. “I’ll figure it out. I always do.”

I didn’t doubt it for a second. The question was whether she’d kill herself in the process.

Chapter 9

Charlotte

I needed to get out of here.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard, refusing to cooperate with even basic syntax. The semicolon belonged at the end of the line, not floating in the middle like digital debris. Three hours since lunch with Ty, and my productivity had flatlined.

Well, not entirely flatlined. I’d successfully catalogued every variation of his smile from memory, analyzed the exact angle of his head when he listened, and completely forgotten what function I was supposed to be debugging.

Perfect. Literally the lives of thousands were in my hands, and I was suffering from my first schoolgirl crush that was causing my focus to disappear just as I needed it most.

“Charlotte, did you get a chance to review my module testing results?”

Marcus materialized at the side of my cubicle, tablet clutched like a shield. I blinked at him, my brain still stuck on Ty’s brown eyes.

“The what?”

“The module results. You said you’d review them before integration?”

“Right. Yes. The test results…” I shuffled through the papers on my desk, knowing full well I hadn’t even opened that file. Marcus’s work was solid, but reviewing it meant another hour I didn’t have. “I’ll have those to you by end of day.”

If I could clone myself.

He walked away, shaking his head, and I pressed my palms against my eyes until stars burst behind the lids. This was exactly the problem. Every five minutes, someone needed something.

“Charlotte. Question.”

I gritted my teeth and wondered if I changed my name if that would help me to get more done. If people didn’t know my new name, they couldn’t keep stopping me to ask stuff.