Avery quickly surveyed the room and saw that her work was just about done. All that was left now was one final torching of the place. There weren’t any windows in this room to make her escape out of. Unfortunately, she was going to have to blow it up. Based on the security measures she had seen in place already the blast should be mostly contained by the walls of this room but there were some security guards in the doorway and hall that could get hurt in the process.

“Can you do me a solid?” Avery asked as she pulled out and began arming the small but powerful bomb she had brought with her. “Get the security guards in the hallway out of here. I’m about to blow this room up.”

“Are you completely crazy?!” Mercury gasped as he tried to shake off being thrown across the room again.

“It won’t affect the structural integrity of the building, don’t worry. This room is practically a bunker. It will contain the blast.”

He bit his lip, clearly trying to decide whether or not he should risk attempting to take the bomb from her and accidentally setting it off. He cursed before flying out of the room to go save them.

“Don’t forget the guys I locked up in the closets! There are two of them but I can’t remember which ones so be sure to check all of them,” Avery called after him.

No longer having to worry about blowing up her crush she launched the bomb behind her as she stood in the doorway, careful to be sure it landed exactly in the center of the room so it would get everything. The second it landed she ran for her life.

The building shook slightly but as predicted the room took the force of the blast and nothing else. Whatever Hunsacher had on there must have been extremely important to them to have that degree of protection. Even if the skyscraper fell that bunker would have been intact so they would have been able to recover the data if not the computer itself.

That was impossible now. Suckers.

Riding high on her success, Avery laughed in exhilaration as she leapt from building to building on her way home. She did it. She actually did it!

As soon as she was safely back in her apartment she giddily texted Angelo. ‘Mission accomplished’ with a peace sign emoji.

He called her rather than texting her back and his voice was eager. “You destroyed the whole thing?”

“Every last bit of it. It will take them ages to get back what they lost! Am I amazing or am I amazing? Because I managed to get in and out of there in less than an hour and nobody got seriously hurt.”

She could practically hear him rolling his eyes but at least he did admit it. “You’re amazing. Great job, Güera! This will seriously set them back and give us more time to come up with a plan to take them down permanently. We couldn’t have done it without you.”

Avery immediately sobered. No. They couldn’t have done it without her dad. He created the suit for the sole purpose of taking Hunsacher down and they were now closer than ever because of it.

“We couldn’t have done it without my dad,” she said quietly.

Angelo’s voice grew wistful. “Tio Levi was an unsung genius. But he wanted to take down Hunsacher more than anything and we’re going to be able to do that with his tech. He would be proud of you.”

“Thanks, Angelo.”

“I mean it. It might take a while to figure out our next plan of attack…aside from medicine deliveries like usual you should be able to take a break for a while. Don’t be too upset about not seeing your big fat crush for a while.”

And just like that the moment was broken. He had a way of making anything less serious.

Avery snorted. That wouldn’t be a problem anyway since she would be seeing him on Monday. She might have actually be upset about this if she hadn’t figured out that his secret identity had feelings for hers.

“Not an issue. I take it you and the other brains of the operation need to come up with the plan? Since I’m merely the muscle.”

“I wouldn’t say ‘merely’ but you and I both know you don’t think things through very well especially when emotions are involved,” Angelo said gently (at least gently for him since almost everything that came out of his mouth was brash).

He wasn’t wrong. If she didn’t have a problem with that she wouldn’t be trying to date her archnemesis knowingly. She wasn’t offended by his statement.

“Do what you must. I’ll enjoy a bit of time off in the meantime,” Avery replied. “Is there anything else you need me for or can I go watch TV now? I was stressed about it all day and now I’m dead beat.”

“By all means, watch TV. But since you didn’t end up staying out too late on this one…are you going to do anything with Vanessa tomorrow?” Angelo asked.

That caught her attention. “Why do you ask?”

“I was wondering if I could come along if you are.”

“Angelo Cruz, are you interested in my best friend?!” she cried in disbelief.

His tone was offended. “Hey, I thought I was your best friend!”

“Answer the question.”

“I wouldn’t say ‘interested’ per se—at least not to the extent you’re interested in the goody-two-shoes—but she is cool. I don’t have any plans tomorrow so I may as well hang out with my best friend who apparently doesn’t consider me her best friend.”

Avery rolled her eyes at his dramatics. “Angelo, we’re family. That automatically puts you on the level of best friend. She’s my nonfamily best friend.”

“Whatever. Can I tag along or not?” Angelo huffed.

“I’ll ask.”

“Thank you. Text me when she gets back to you.”

He hung up without saying goodbye, which was normal for him, and she sighed. Time to text Vanessa she supposed. It would be nice to do something while she had energy for once. That didn’t happen often because she was usually exhausted on Sundays.

She hit up her friend asking if she wanted to do anything the next day but before she put her phone down she hesitated. Should she try nailing down her plans with Christian right now too?

Avery had no idea if he was still out fighting crime; he might not be able to answer his phone. She shot him a text before she forgot figuring he could get to it whenever he saw it.

Seeing him tonight wasn’t as fun as it usually was. Probably because she was so stressed about accomplishing the mission properly. That was done now though so she could focus on spending time with him as Avery instead of Nox.

Wasn’t it about time she did something for herself? She had been trying to carry out her father’s work ever since she lost him and it had been taxing both physically and emotionally.

She tried to stay lighthearted and let any negative emotions continue to drive her forward in her plans to expose Hunsacher and make it crumble to dust. Most of the time it worked but she still had bad days.

Why shouldn’t she have some fun? Since he was as busy on weekends as she was there was little chance of her secret being exposed. Especially since she was the only person alive who could operate the watch. Her father programmed her fingerprint, voice print, and retinal scan into the suit as a failsafe in case anything happened to him. Neither of them had expected that to happen so soon.

Avery got the watch from the coroner when she identified the body and it hadn’t left her wrist since aside from sleeping, swimming, and showering. He left this mission to her and she wouldn’t let him down…but she shouldn’t let herself down either.

She was twenty-six. Other people her age had social lives that consisted of more than a coworker and a childhood friend. Her being a villain shouldn’t preclude her from having a little fun.

A villain and a hero would never work out long-term but considering someone as wonderful as Christian was still single he most likely hadn’t dated anyone because of his secondary occupation keeping him busy. He probably wouldn’t want anything serious anyway. She would be fine!