Page 55 of Close to the Edge

“How much time?” Chance snapped.

I bit my lip. “A week. Ten days, tops.”

Silence greeted me.

Walter Green rose and left the room without saying a word. The other SDM executives also left.

Chance Donovan’s gray eyes lanced me. The rest of him looked as harmless as a middle-aged CEO with a wife and three kids could look. But from the moment we met, I’d glimpsed a layer of menace in his eyes that pushed all my self-preservation buttons. “This is disappointing, Lily,” he rasped.

I forced myself not to waver. “Who’s Walter Green?”

“He’s the guy who decides whether SDM sinks or swims. Delivering this algorithm, correctly and on time, and earning the freedom you claim to so badly crave, feeds directly into that. Is that clear enough?” he said.

“Yes,” I murmured.

“Good. Now, what’s this I hear about a new consultant?” he asked.

I struggled not to tense up as I trotted out the line Caleb and I practiced. “He’s from LA. He’s helping me with preliminary info on a possible gaming app my team is working on.”

Suspicion flickered through his eyes. “Why don’t I know about this? And why is he staying at your house?”

Why wasn’t I surprised he knew Caleb was staying with me? “Because this is stillpreliminary. And because I don’t need your permission to have a houseguest.”

His eyes narrowed and he didn’t speak for a long time. “Remember what’s riding on this project, Lily,” he warned, then left without further comment.

I buried my face in my hands.

A minute later Caleb arrived, swiveling my chair to face him before tugging my hands down. He’d been listening on my laptop so I didn’t need to repeat what had happened. His solid presence took away some of my apprehension.

“Apart from my regret that I wasn’t here to punch that asshole in the face, the problem is only a minor bump in the road, right?”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

He frowned, crouching down in front of me. “Meaning?”

“The mistake looks...sophisticated. I triple-checked everything yesterday. I could’ve missed it—”

“You think you were hacked?” he asked.

The icy hand on my nape wouldn’t let go. “I don’t think so but it’s possible...” I stopped as another thought occurred to me.

“What?”

“I added a last-minute tweaked version this morning from the team.”

“Which team?”

“Sanjeet’s team. But—”

His fingers brushed my lips, halting my words. “You want to think the best of everyone. I don’t want to take that away from you, but you have to accept sooner or later than not everyone is decent.”

My heart lurched. “I know, but I trust them.”

“Give them the benefit of the doubt if you want. Let me worry about who’s at fault here. Okay?”

Chest tight, my gaze settled on my laptop. “What’s their end goal, Caleb?”

“The stalking is most likely to keep you off balance while they try to get their hands on what you’re working on.”

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