Page 5 of Take It Offline

Propping his elbow on the table, he taps once, twice, completely unbothered. “How do you want to handle this?”

I bite back a scoff. Of course he would expect me to do all the actual work.

“Well, considering I’ve only had sixty seconds to process it,” I say, not bothering to hide my frustration—with anyone else, I would be on my best behavior, but Charlie hasn’t earned my best, “the current procedure is too prescriptive. It sits above every IM standard, so it shouldn’t read like a work instruction. Instead, I’d strip it back. Outline what kind of information is the most valuable, how to identify it, and the critical requirements for managing it. All other details can be captured in the technical procedures.” Which will also need to be updated, but one thing at a time. “I’ll also make it system agnostic so that it’s future-proof.” Especially since everyone here hates the system already.

His response? A smirk.Unbelievable.“Am I supposed to just sit around and look pretty while you do all the work?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” I challenge.

He rocks back in his chair, hands on his thighs. “Stellar team ethic you’ve got there.”

The frustration coursing through me is very quickly turning into rage. This is all a game to him. “Like yours is any better.”

Any semblance of the loose, cocky man he was when I entered is slipping away now. His eyes go hard, and I swear a vein in his forehead pulses. “If you don’t want me here?—”

“I don’t.”

I don’t want him getting in the way of what I’ve worked for. I don’t want him anywhere near me.

We’re at an impasse. If this was a simple matter of skill, I’m confident I could beat him. But Charlie’s got the ear of somebig players here at Helix, and I’m smart enough to know that popularity counts.

Rather than backing down, he sits forward, jaw rigid, and says, “Then you better take it up with Roberts. I’m a part of this, whether you like me or not. So why don’t you say what it is you want to say before we start?”

“Fine. If you really want to have this conversation, then let’s have it.”

CHAPTER 3

SORRY I WON (AND I’LL DO IT AGAIN)

CHARLIE

Iknow two things about Emma Conway.

One, she’s Digital’s superstar.

Rumor is, Roberts wouldn’t even have his job under the CIO without the goodwill he received from an e-signature project she pulled off five years ago.

Two, she comes from money. Not billionaire big, but the designer threads and that icy attitude make it clear she thinks she’s above everyone else.

Cosplaying as a civilian is a hell of a way to get your kicks, but I’m not going to give her a gold star for getting her hands a little dirty. Some of us had to climb our way out of that dirt just to be in the same room with her.

She eyes me down. “That moment was mine, and you stole it. I worked my ass off for over a year. Designed the workflows, tested every aspect, wrote every piece of training material for it. Did you know that? Every word of every work instruction, every training video, every tip and trick was me.”

I didn’t, but it doesn’t change anything.

“Yeah, and then you zipped it together and handed it off to the rest of us to roll the damn thing out.”

Everything about her is severe, from the cut of her trousers to the murder in her eyes.

It’s infuriating how beautiful she is.

“I didn’t have a choice,” she says, crossing her arms over her white blazer. “I couldn’t exactly meet with all four thousand employees and hold their hands while they complained a button was in the wrong place.”

God forbid she do the real work. Instead, I was out there, grinding my ass, hand-holding engineers. “No, of course not. That’s a job for us lesser humans.”

Her glare intensifies. Guess she’s not used to being called out on her shit. Well, tough.

“I’m not saying you didn’t have to do your share of work,” she starts.

---