Orion’s POV:
The auction was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.
And even though every nerve in my body screamed at me to storm that place and rip it apart until I had her back in my arms, I knew we couldn’t act on impulse. Not now. It would be suicide—for me, for her, and for the children.
We had to stick to the plan. Alexei’s plan. As much as I hated relying on someone else to dictate how I saved my wife, it was the smartest route. The one with the highest chance of survival.
Still, the tension sat like lead in my gut as I stared at the surveillance footage Alexei had managed to hack into. My jaw clenched tightly as the screen displayed the tiny figures of two children curled up on a thin mattress in a dim, empty room. They were huddled together in a way that made my chest ache—Stella’s sma
