Avery wasn't an idea person. She left that to Angelo and his network of Hunsacher spies. Most of the people working high enough up at the company to be useful to them were very smart. Scientists, engineers, and the like.

That wasn't her thing. She was the muscle all because her dad happened to leave the nanotech to her.

She could provide Leah and her children a place to stay but until the plan was complete there wasn't much else she could do. She did what she was told and put her trust in the people who were better at coming up with plans than she was. That was how this venture had always worked.

It was rather maddening, really. A lot of the time it made her feel helpless. Being told where to go and what to do without knowing what the outcome would be was frustrating, especially since there didn't seem to be a real end in sight.

That would change with Leah on board, wouldn't it? She was a valuable ally. Exactly how valuable would remain to be seen but if Angelo was putting in this much effort for her he had to have high hopes. He never did anything without a reason. He was too logical to be swayed by emotions.

Avery wanted to believe that this would be a good thing. That it would all end much sooner than expected so she could live happily ever after with Christian like she so desperately wanted.

He had been talking about the future more often since she moved in with him and she wanted it so badly it hurt. But she couldn't commit knowing that she still needed to save the world. It was so hard being a woman in love when she had a mission to complete!

Angelo wanted her to keep her eyes on the prize but that had become progressively more difficult the longer she spent being mostly normal. Going out once a month instead of once a week had sort of pushed that part of her life to the back burner while her more dormant social life took the front seat for the first time in years.

She knew better than anyone that she had things holding her back but she wanted to move forward so badly! To actually live instead of simply survive another day in a state of constant alertness.

How wonderful would it be to retire like Christian had and focus on things that mattered to her before her world had been turned upside down? She could hardly remember who that girl had been but he was helping her with that.

Love. Happiness. A peaceful life. All things she thought she would have when she was younger.

Her dad becoming Nox had been stressful but she knew it was important to him. He seemed indestructible as the suit to her; even though they had safeguards in place she never would have imagined having to use them.

Her dad had been healthy. Young too. He was only in his forties when he was killed. He still had a whole lot of life left to live and Nolan Hunsacher took that from him and Horatio.

Avery had to put her dreams on hold indefinitely. Angelo became much harder and closed himself off as he threw his heart and soul into the business of revenge. Why? Why did it have to be up to them? She knew the broken world wouldn't fix itself on its own but why did they have to be the ones to give everything up in order to make it happen?

They used to be normal people. She had been a simple cake artist working at a grocery store bakery. He had been a grad student. Both of them were so young and thought the world lay at their feet.

She wished things were still that easy. That she hadn't seen how desperately the world needed her and her dad's tech. It would be irresponsible to walk away but responsibility had never exactly been her strong suit.

Lately Avery had been wondering why her dad passed on his tech to her of all people. He trusted her because she was his daughter but was that really enough? It was such an enormous burden she had to bear and she was growing weary of it.

She wanted to be happy. Her dad would have wanted her to be happy too, wouldn't he?

He hadn't expected this to happen. Her taking over for him was supposed to be nothing more than a failsafe. She was sure he wouldn't have wanted her to throw away a chance at real happiness for the mission but at the same time she knew how much changing the world mattered to him.

Questions like these were pointless. She would never get to ask him. All they did was make her head hurt.

She shouldn't be thinking about stuff like this right now while she was in the middle of a conversation. Though Angelo had pretty much taken over it at this point so it didn't matter that she wasn't talking.

Avery was tired. She wanted to go home and rest if she wasn't needed further here.

"Do you need me for anything else?" she asked.

Angelo looked at her in surprise. "You barely got here though."

"That doesn't answer my question, Angelo. You know I'm not a plans person. Tell me what to do, as always. I have errands to run."

"We were going to come up with a rotating schedule to bring by food and supplies. I can text you about it once I work things out with Jorge. I set up top-notch internet security in your apartment ages ago but I'm going to encrypt all of Leah's communications just to be safe. She can help us plan things without having to leave the apartment until we can get her somewhere safe."

"Sounds good. Text me when you need me to come by with food and I will. I assume you're going to be too busy to double with us anytime soon and that you'll contact me once you need me to do something," Avery said dryly.

Angelo may like Vanessa but he would never put anybody above the mission. That was one of the main differences between the two of them.

She knew the mission was important but was losing heart. She wanted it to be over and done with so she could live her life. If Leah Hunsacher could help them pull that off that would be great.

Having this taken care of meant she would be able to move forward the way she wanted to. She didn't want to pin all of her hopes on this but it was difficult not to considering how much she wanted this to be over.

Avery had been radicalized by seeing how much of the world was hurting because of the selfish actions of the few but it was hard to keep that fire burning when she would rather experience some sweet peace with the man she loved. She wanted to make a difference and she wanted to help people but not at the expense of her own future.

It had all become so twisted. How had she let things get this far?

Angelo eyed her shrewdly, possibly guessing what she was thinking, but didn't call her out on it. "Alright. Suit yourself. I'll text you later."

Avery thanked Leah for her cooperation and promised she would be safe there before saying her goodbyes and heading out. She didn't want to deal with this. She didn't want to deal with any of this!

Hiding three people from one of the most powerful men on earth would not be easy. They would have to follow Angelo's instructions to the letter. She only hoped that Leah Hunsacher was up to the task. Keeping anything secret when kids were involved was a major gamble.

At least all of her streaming services were logged in on the TV. That and her dad's stash of board and card games ought to keep them busy enough for a little while even if they couldn't go outside. Maybe she could bring them some toys later too.

Leah's kids were nine-year-old twins. What did nine-year-olds like? She could only think of what Angelo's little cousins were into. He and Jorge were a lot older than the rest of their generation because there was a huge age gap between their parents and the rest of the tías. It certainly made family reunions interesting. The next oldest after Angelo was only seventeen and he refused to get a minor involved in what they were up to.

Avery continued wondering throughout her errands and her rather pointless attempts to relax afterward. She had too much on her mind.

"Do you know what nine-year-olds like?" she asked Christian the moment he walked through the door at the end of the day.

He glanced at her in surprise. "Uh…no? I don't have any nieces or nephews."

"Right, I knew that. I want to do something nice for these kids I know that are having a hard time but I'm drawing a blank. The only thing I can think of that kids that age like are LEGOs but not all of them do. They're a girl and a boy and I have no idea what their interests are so I wanted to get something generic."

"You could get a board game or something."