I Fell For My Nemesis

Avery had an idea of why Angelo was pushing himself so hard right now. It was a combination of being driven by his rage the closer they got to the finish line and wanting to get it taken care of before her baby was born.

She had tried telling him to slow down and take care of himself more than once but he didn't listen. He had to be getting closer to his breaking point. She was worried about him but there was nothing she could do to get him to take it easy when he could almost taste victory. He was stubborn like that.

Vanessa sighed. "Figures. The one man who actually cares about me in some sort of meaningful capacity has to be stupidly noble about it. But enough about me. You agreed that men are ridiculous. What did Christian do?"

"He's being overprotective," Avery grumbled..

"Why?"

"You can't tell anybody, okay? We're going to make the official announcement soon. I'm pregnant and he thinks I can't do ANYTHING because of it."

Vanessa's mood flipped like a switch and she squealed and bounced up and down. "Aves! That's amazing! Not the overprotective part but the part about you guys having a baby. Are you excited?"

"Honestly, I'm nervous more than anything. I know almost nothing about being a mom," Avery confessed.

"Oh, honey, don't worry about that! You're going to be fantastic. Hardly anyone knows what they're doing in the beginning. My sister felt the same way and she's doing fine."

If only that was all she had to worry about. She was concerned about getting this baby born safely, fixing things with her husband after she monumentally screwed up, and saving the world. She had an awful lot on her plate.

"I certainly hope so," Avery replied tiredly.

Vanessa could tell that her attempt at a pep talk hadn't worked and changed tacks. "I'm sure Christian will come around eventually. He's just looking out for you even if he is going about it the wrong way."

"I know but that doesn't make it any less frustrating."

"Hang in there. You won't be pregnant forever."

Like that made her feel any better! Sure, being pregnant wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world, but once it was over she was going to have to deal with being a parent.  More likely than not it would be while still juggling her Nox duties.

Avery didn't want that. She didn't want to leave her child without a parent the way both of hers had left her at different times in different ways.

She was indestructible in the suit but her dad hadn't been wearing it when he died. The car accident had been too sudden. He had been driving and hadn't had time to activate the nanobots.

If Hunsacher dug deeply enough he would find her. It was only a matter of time before that happened now that he had connected some of the dots. That would put her and everyone she cared about in danger. How was she supposed to cope with that?

"That's true," Avery agreed rather than going into why that was even more worrisome.

She changed the subject to something more lighthearted and tried to focus on that during the rest of the time she spent with her friend. She didn't want to think about anything else since she had come here in order to be distracted.

They both seemed a bit more lighthearted by the time she left. There was nothing like laughing about stupid things to get your mind off of what was bothering you.

Avery went home and was surprised to find her husband waiting with flowers. He held them out to her nervously. "I'm sorry for giving you a hard time. I'm still trying to adjust to all of this. I know you're incredibly capable and can kick my butt any day of the week but I can't help but worry."

She cracked a smile. It was hard to stay mad at him when he phrased it like that. "As long as you know it. Thanks for the flowers."

Christian had gotten her purple roses. Her favorite. She didn't know what it was but in addition to being her favorite color they smelled a lot better than most roses did. Maybe she was biased.

He seemed relieved. "I'm glad you like them. Did you have fun with Vanessa?"

"I did. We painted our nails. See?"

Avery held them up and wiggled her fingers to show them off. She didn't want to mention her current desire to strangle Angelo. Just because she understood his reasoning didn't make it any less frustrating to watch.

Two of her favorite people were having a hard time (partially because of each other) and it was highly tempting to shake him and tell him to go for what he wanted for once. She knew he would never do it though. It would only result in another argument that neither of them had energy for.

She couldn't say anything now…but as soon as this was all behind them she was going to have to try and talk some sense into him.  Whenever that may be.

What was she going to do once her stomach started to show? Hunsacher thought she was a man. If he learned otherwise he might be able to track her down more easily. Christian had been able to guess who she was as soon as he found out she was a woman.

"Very nice," Christian said approvingly. "So what do you want to do for the rest of the day?"

Avery kind of wanted to take it easy but the choice was taken from her before the words were even out of her mouth. Angelo was calling. She held up her phone and shot him an apologetic look before answering.

"What is it, Angelo?"

With how hard he had been working himself lately there was no way he would call unless it had something to do with the mission. He had never been one to waste time on pleasantries anyway.

"Christian was right!" he replied excitedly. "Someone did connect the dots. I've been monitoring warrant requests and one was just put in for Nolan Hunsacher's known homes and offices! I'm not sure how deeply they're going to be able to look into his files and finances for a case of insurance fraud but at the very least they should find something."

"What does this mean for us?"

"If they do find something they'll be able to arrest him and no amount of money will be able to get him out of jail if it goes to the right judge. I know this is a long shot but the warrant was through Alexander Pritchett. Does Christian know of him? Is he trustworthy? I mean, he did grant the warrant against such a big shot in the first place."

Avery turned to her husband, hardly daring to get her hopes up. "Do you know of a Judge Alexander Pritchett?"

Christian's eyes widened. "That's the one I was telling you about. Who's friends with my boss. If all of this goes through him I don't think Hunsacher will be able to buy him off."

"Did you hear that?" she asked Angelo eagerly.

"Yes! Güera, we might actually be able to pull this off. I think we need to do one more mission once the warrant has been enacted. One that will lure him there personally. If the police catch him supposedly in the act that will be the final nail in his coffin."

Avery frowned, her enthusiasm fading. "Isn't that leaving an awful lot to chance? We'd have to hold him there somehow and manipulate things just right in order to frame him. Then we'd have to hightail it out of there without anyone seeing. If we screw things up even a tiny bit we won't be able to pin this on him and it will be back to square one."

"Won't it seem too much like a setup that way?" Christian added. "If he already knows the police are onto him why would he risk doing it again?"

"What do you suggest then, Mr. Lawyer?" Angelo asked in annoyance.

"I think we should watch and see what happens with the police first. They should be able to arrest him without further interference from us. Then we can focus on the next part of the plan."

"We need an exposé," Avery added. "Putting Hunsacher in jail won't be enough. We need to take down his entire empire."

A thoughtful expression crossed Christian's face. "Not necessarily. Angelo, you're already working on taking down those working most closely with Hunsacher, aren't you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"With them out of the way, all we really need to do is get Leah involved. She's still married to him so with him in jail she'll be in charge of his assets. If you find out exactly what all of the holdings are she can be the one to break them up."

Avery blinked at him. "That seems too easy! They're in the middle of a divorce. Will she really be able to do that?"

"I've seen cases where widows in the middle of a divorce still get all of their husbands' assets. It might be a bit more complicated in this case but it should work," Christian said with a shrug.