The Sweet Spot

The glass of water trembled in Elena's hand, condensation slick against her palm. She'd been playing padel with Marcus for three months—every Tuesday and Thursday evening at the club where they'd first locked eyes across the net. His backhand was lethal. His laugh, infectious.

Now she watched from the sidelines as his phone lit up on the bench where he'd left it. An incoming message. Something about "target secured" and "uploading the files now."

Her stomach turned over. Not just the message. The timing. The way he'd pursued her so aggressively from the start—Elena, senior analyst at Nebula Corp, working on the merger that would revolutionize quantum encryption. Marcus, the charming venture capitalist with an endless appetite for industry gossip.

He'd asked about her work constantly. Probing, interested, hanging on her every detail about the proprietary algorithms. She'd found it flattering. How many men actually listened?

The tennis cable fence vibrated as someone slammed a ball against it. Elena's fingers hovered over his iPhone, then pulled back. If she unlocked it—knew his passcode, 1452, his childhood street—she'd have confirmation. But some truths, once spoken, couldn't be unheard.

"Elena? You okay?" Marcus called from the court, wiping sweat from his forehead with his wristband. "You're up."

She met his gaze across the distance. The man she'd fallen for. The man who'd been sleeping in her bed, eating breakfast at her table, gathering intelligence for God knew who.

"Fine," she called back, her voice steady. "Just finishing my water."

She set the glass down carefully on the concrete. At dinner tomorrow, she'd feed him misinformation about the merger—a rival company's supposed involvement, a fabricated security breach. Let him earn his paycheck. And when his clients made their move based on her lies, she'd be watching.

Game point wasn't his. It was hers.

"Ready when you are," she said, picking up her racquet and walking onto the court where everything looked exactly the same, except now she understood the rules completely.