Avery hadn't expected Angelo to bend first. He was stubborn and he had already given her such a hard time about Christian ever since they started dating that for a while there she had truly believed he wasn't going to come to her wedding.

Then he had to go and apologize to her in a way she knew she would find funny. It was impossible to stay mad at him because he knew all of her weaknesses. Curse him!

Coming up with a lie to placate her fiancé on the spot was the truly difficult part about this. She decided to use a more elaborate version of the excuse she had given Vanessa when she was debating about moving in.

Thankfully, he seemed to buy it. Sometimes she seriously questioned Christian's thought processes when it came to reaching conclusions or believing excuses. She was lucky he was so dense though. Otherwise he would have figured her out when she saved his life.

He questioned the stupidity of Angelo's supposed reason but not what Avery was saying. He really did believe in her, didn't he?

The thought hurt. Here he was thinking she was a good person when he actually disliked her. At least part of her. A part of her he could never accept. So what if he loved the rest of her when he hated Nox?

Avery wouldn't say Nox was the

"real her

" or anything like that. Most of what Christian saw was the

"real her.

" Talkative, artistic, a weird sense of humor. But Nox was undeniably a part of her. The part that wanted the world to be a fair place and burned with rage for her father, Horatio, and all of the other lives that had been ruined by Nolan Hunsacher.

The version of her that Christian knew was who she had been before losing them, to an extent. But she could never fully be that person again. Things had changed.

As much as she wanted to live peacefully she knew she wouldn't be able to rest easy knowing she had abandoned people who needed her. She had to see this through. She wanted to see this through too. She just didn't want to lose the man she loved in the process.

Her emotions about the whole thing were a tangled web. She didn't resent her role as Nox 100% even if it hadn't been what she wanted. The main problem was that it conflicted with her love life.

Avery wanted to finish this. She simply didn't want to put the rest of her life on hold and lose the happiness she had managed to find since her world fell apart in order to do it.

She didn't care what Angelo thought. Christian—bless his heart—was too dense to figure out her secret. If he hadn't done it by now he never would. Staying careful like she had been should be sufficient. Especially since Leah was onboard now and their plans had accelerated.

With any luck this would all be done in the next year or two then she would never have to worry again. Her father and Horatio would be avenged, the country would be back in the hands of the people, and she would be able to start a family with the man she loved.

Avery tried to focus on that part of the equation rather than what might go wrong in the coming weeks as the wedding planning continued. The problem was that it wasn't the only planning happening.

Angelo and the rest of their network had been working tirelessly and had finally come up with a plan. She hadn't seen him since the day he apologized because he had been too busy but he had checked in with her over text periodically.

Normally, he didn't go AWOL for so long. Even Vanessa noticed it was weird that she didn't see him for a while.

Sometimes she wondered what was going on with those two. Ever since Angelo kind of admitted he liked her Avery had been watching their interactions. She could see it from his side (his gruff style of caring for people was obvious when you looked for it) but not from Vanessa's.

She was still lost in a sea of bad first dates or good first dates that ended up ghosting her afterward. She had asked Avery more than once to hook her up with one of Christian's friends but Christian didn't really have them. Otherwise, she would in a heartbeat. Even if her other best friend did like her.

She wanted both of them to be happy but she wouldn't support Angelo over Vanessa despite knowing him longer. She knew better than anyone what he was like. If he wasn't willing to make an effort he didn't deserve someone as wonderful as Vanessa.

Avery knew he didn't have the time or energy to spare. He had been pouring his heart and soul into being the man behind the curtain for their operation. There was no room for anything else.

Vanessa deserved to be a priority not an afterthought. Unless Angelo was able to do that she wouldn't support it.

She doubted that would be happening any time soon considering how invested he was in the latest mission to take down Hunsacher. She went to meet with him in person under the premise of having wedding planning to do so Christian wouldn't be suspicious. Supposedly, she was meeting with Angelo's tías right now to go over catering options. That would be harder to disprove than meeting with Vanessa, who Christian saw regularly and might ask about.

This meeting was about setting everything up. It was easier to go over in person than via phone so she found herself sprawled across Angelo's couch listening to him go on about the plan.

Angelo noticed her bored expression and scowled at her.

"Can you at least pretend to listen to me? This is really important, Güera!

"

"I am listening,

" Avery insisted.

"Who said I can't be comfortable and listen at the same time?

"

"Oh, yeah? Then what did I just say?

"

"You just said that the mercenaries will handle the kidnappings done from the scientists' homes but I'll have to handle it if any of them are at the lab. That shouldn't be an issue since we're striking in the middle of the night but you want me to be prepared in case of an emergency because we can't mess this one up.

"

Angelo's scowl deepened. He knew he was wrong but didn't want to admit it.

"Whatever. You also realize the window for all of this is extremely tight? You have to hit all three laboratories in a single night or Nolan Hunsacher will put protective measures in place for the others.

"

Avery rolled her eyes. He had already said that multiple times. She knew exactly how tight her windows of opportunity were. Made more difficult by the fact that the laboratories were all in different states.

Massachusetts, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Thankfully, one of their people was a pilot and could get her there without any official manifests having the name Avery West on it.

It would take less than two hours to fly from Boston to Philadelphia and less than three to get her from there to Jacksonville. Still, things would be tight. All of the destruction needed to happen after most people would be in bed. With any luck Hunsacher wouldn't find out about it until morning.

If he did they had a backup plan to get the mercenaries to help with destruction too. They would be in the area since at least half of the scientists they were going after lived near those labs.

The power of money was truly astounding. The people Leah had hired were trained in infiltration. Their help would be indispensable if it came down to it. Either way they wouldn't be able to pull off the kidnappings without them.

"You've told me this six times. I know the plan backward and forward. I'm not new to missions like this,

" Avery reminded him.

"Yeah, but this one is more important than the others! A lot is left to chance like the travel time issue. Oh, why doesn't teleportation exist? That would be so convenient!

" Angelo lamented.

She examined him more closely. He looked like he was unraveling. The dark circles under his eyes were at an all-time high. Had he even been getting any sleep lately or had he been skipping out to work on the plan?

"Angelo. It will be fine. You've accounted for every possible detail. Why don't you take a nap? You seriously need one.

"

"A nap? What am I, three?

"

"You're never too old for naps. Especially with how little sleep you've clearly been getting. Take it easy. We'll get this over and done with in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday as planned and then we'll have some breathing room for a while before we make our next move. Okay?

"

Angelo sighed heavily before flopping down onto the couch next to her.

"Okay. We just can't screw this up.

"

"And we won't! How could we with so many brilliant minds working together to make it happen? Everything is going to be fine. We'll get this over with and then the next thing we'll have to worry about is helping the tías in the kitchen on Thanksgiving.

"

"…you're actually coming to our Thanksgiving?

"

Avery frowned at him.

"Why wouldn't I? Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without tamales or chile con queso and I'm not about to get that at the Slaters'.

"

Angelo narrowed his eyes at her.

"And your fiancé is okay with that?

"

"Yeah. We already talked about it. Thanksgiving with my family, Christmas Eve with his, Christmas Day with mine, New Year's Eve with his. Then we're set until Easter when it comes to holidays.

"

"Look at you planning ahead! I didn't think you had it in you.

"

"Shut up,

" Avery said as she mock shoved him.

"Holidays are important. Of course I planned ahead.

"