Christian supposed he had hung the perpetrator upside down for too long but he was angry! At the guy but also at himself after finding out he had been stalking Avery for a while. He had been at the bakery every day and hadn’t noticed. Would hanging a criminal upside down really be considered funny though?

She had laughed once or twice but it was vaguely hysterical, like she was in shock. It was a lot different than her usual laugh.

Whatever crush she may or may not have had on Mercury boiled down to hero worship. That was all it could be based on one chance encounter. She liked Christian because they had actually interacted.

This was fine. He was fine.

“Christian?” Avery prompted. “You okay there?”

Right. He hadn’t responded to what she said. “Sorry, lost in thought. I guess it’s still a bit hard to believe that someone as amazing as you likes me.”

“If either of us is amazing it’s definitely you. But I’m too tired to debate with you right now so just hold me for a while.”

That was a request Christian wasn’t about to refuse. He kissed her hair and gently rubbed her arm. He was able to put the issue of her past crush on Mercury on the back burner because the other bit of information he needed to process came to mind.

Angelo seemed to know something he didn’t about why Avery couldn’t commit long-term. She had mentioned she was fine with living in the moment and wasn’t good girlfriend material anyway when they established their relationship but he sort of thought she was saying that for his benefit.

Why exactly were her goals so incompatible with a long-term relationship? Did she want to become a traveling cake artist or something? She loved New York!

This wouldn’t be an issue at all if he didn’t retire any time soon. But if he did…he didn’t want to do it for any reason other than to be with her properly. How was he supposed to do that if she truly couldn’t commit long-term?

Christian took a deep breath and reminded himself that short-term and living in the moment was what he specifically asked for. There was no use worrying about that now. In this moment he was holding the woman he loved in his arms. That was what mattered. Right?

===

Avery knew Angelo must have said something weird to Christian because of how out of it he was for the rest of the night but her friend refused to own up to it. When he wanted to keep his mouth shut no force on earth could drag it out of him. She was rather annoyed but there was nothing she could do.

Her boyfriend went back to normal the next day so whatever it was couldn’t have been too bad. She did her best to put it behind her. Worrying about something no one would ever tell her the truth about was pointless.

She had other things to worry about. Like Angelo’s plan for what to do next. All he told her was that he would most likely send her across the country to execute a mission at a Hunsacher factory in California. She said she would do whatever but that he would have to spring for the plane ticket and give her enough warning that she could get time off from work.

The real problem with this plan would be coming up with a viable excuse for being out of town that both Vanessa and Christian wouldn’t see through. Marianne was one thing—she didn’t know enough about Avery’s personal life to care what she wanted time off for—but the people she was close to were another.

They knew she didn’t have any family left so saying she was visiting relatives was out. Who went across the country by themselves for absolutely no reason? Most people took vacations with friends, family, or significant others.

If she said she went with Angelo they would expect pictures she wouldn’t be able to get. Honestly, it might be better to do this without getting time off work at all. She could pretend to be busy for a weekend and leave right after work on a Saturday. The idea had merit.

In the meantime all she could do was wait. She watched what felt like every single cake/cupcake/cookie decoration video on the internet, did the most intricate nail art design she could think of, and even went shopping with Nancy Slater in a single weekend since she had nothing to do with Christian busy and no current missions in New York.

That had been surprisingly fun. She had been needing some new fall clothes for the upcoming season. She would only be able to get away with wearing shorts and t-shirts for so much longer.

Nancy didn’t have a daughter and Avery didn’t have a mother so it sort of balanced out. Her dad had never been terribly interested in when she needed to go clothes shopping but was supportive anyway and had her do a mock fashion show trying on all the clothes she bought for the new school year once she was done so he could take pictures.

Being surrounded by men all her childhood she developed her fashion sense with the help of friends from school when she was younger and magazines and websites once she was older. Her fashion Pinterest board was divided neatly into sections such as dresses, shoes, accessories, and outfits.

Nancy seemed to like her style and offered valid commentary as she was trying things on. Normally she only got that sort of input from Vanessa.

When she finally heard back from Angelo about the plan she was horrified. The factory she was supposed to hit was a sweatshop manned by refugees who fled from a war-torn country. What a case of out of the frying pan into the fire!

His plan involved getting everyone out of the scanty accommodations Hunsacher provided in exchange for their labor and away to a refugee camp being run by an actual humanitarian organization in another state. They needed Avery to get in and sneak everyone out quietly to the other members of their anti-Hunsacher band and then destroy everything without getting hurt.

Unfortunately, there was no direct flight to the airport in the part of California she needed to go to. Including the layover she was going to be in transit for about nine hours after getting off an eight-hour shift.

With any luck she would be able to sleep on the plane. She wasn’t looking forward to this at all.

Avery wasn’t going to be able to see Christian before she left either. He was always so busy on weekends that she usually didn’t see him from Friday morning (he usually stayed over Thursday nights) until Monday night after work unless she happened to be working the counter when he came into Carmine’s.

She was sure to get the most out of her time with him before he left, though he didn’t know she was going anywhere. Hopefully no one would but Angelo.

They talked, cuddled, played games, and made love as usual. She couldn’t help but wonder how long this was going to last. Helping people and causing minor annoyances to Hunsacher was one thing but actually taking them down was another since they basically owned the legal system. She could easily be stuck doing this for the rest of her life and Christian would realize something was up eventually.

Right now Avery could get away with it because he was always busy on the weekends with his hero stuff. If he ever quit she would be in trouble. And he very well might one of these days; he wasn’t getting any younger.

If that time came and he wanted to settle down with her…would she be able to make herself say no? The risk of getting caught when married was incredibly high.

Her heart twisted at the thought. She would love to marry him if her huge, terrible secret wasn’t hanging over her head. But it was. If he ever found out she was Nox she was toast. Not only would he turn her in to the authorities, he would dump her. She honestly wasn’t sure which would hurt more.

“You feeling alright? You’ve been clinging to me in your sleep more than usual,” Christian pointed out with a yawn first thing Friday morning.

Avery knew he was merely pointing out a fact rather than being bothered because he had said more than once that he thought her sleep clinging was cute. She hadn’t realized it got worse when she was stressed though.

“Just tired, I guess. I have a long couple of days ahead of me.”

The worst part was that she wouldn’t even get to rest before having to go back to work. The raid was planned for Sunday night and she flew back home early Monday morning. She might have time for a short nap before Christian came over after work like usual but she also might not. It depended on whether or not there were any travel delays.

She had never been to California before and it was totally lame she was going to the middle of nowhere with nothing fun to do in order to trash a factory. She hoped the high of saving people in need made up for how miserable the whole experience would be.

“Hang in there,” he said sympathetically before rolling over slightly to plant a sweet kiss on her lips.

Avery sighed and allowed herself to soak up his affection until her snoozed alarm went off again. They both hauled themselves out of bed and got ready to go before heading to the subway station together since they started work at about the same time.

They chatted on the train the way they always did on mornings like this and Christian caressed her cheek and kissed her goodbye before heading to the elevator. Just like that he was gone and she wouldn’t see him again until Monday provided her mission was successful. She really hoped it was. She wanted it to be over with already.