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“Then what is it?” I press, not pulling away from his hold. “If it's about Luca, I deserve to know. He's my brother.”

Something shifts in Alex's expression—a flash of guilt quickly replaced by resolution. He releases my wrists with a sigh.

“You're right,” he admits finally. “We found something, but I didn't want to tell you until I was sure it was viable.”

My heart leaps into my throat. “What? What did you find?”

Alex hesitates, then moves to his desk and taps a key. One of his monitors flickers to life, displaying what looks like an email. He gestures for me to come closer.

“Talon found this last night. It came to the email account I created for him for the auction.”

The subject line makes my blood run cold: "Exclusive Private Auction: Invitation Only." As I read further, my legs nearly give out beneath me.

“Oh my God. This could be Luca.”

“It could be,” Alex remarks. “But, if we join that auction without any protections in place, the connection could lead The Collector right to us. To you.”

“And that's why you've been locked in here,” I breathe, the pieces finally clicking into place. “You're trying to make sure we can safely join the auction without exposing ourselves.”

Alex nods, relief washing over his face now that the truth is out. “I didn't want to get your hopes up until I knew for sure we could do this safely. These people, they're sophisticated. Their digital security is unlike anything I've seen before.”

“Do Oz or Z know about this?”

“No,” he answers plainly. “Talon brought it to me in the middle of the night.” His cheeks flush at the statement. “Everyone else was occupied, and I needed to verify that this is real.”

“And it is?”

Alex nods his head. “From everything I can tell, it’s legitimate. The email address they used was only used for your auction details, and the auction previews…are, well, pretty straightforward.”

My fingers trace the screen, as if somehow, I could reach through it and pull my brother to safety. "When is this happening?"

“In three days. Well, less than that now.”

Less than three days. The timeline makes my chest tighten with anxiety. "Can you hack their security by then?"

Alex’s expression hardens with determination. “I’m close. Very close. Just need to finish building a few more layers of protection.” He gestures to the code scrolling across another monitor. “I’ve been working on a digital tunnel that will conceal our real IP address and location, bouncing our signal through dozens of servers around the world. They’ll never be able to trace it back to us.”

I study the complex lines of code, understanding none of it but trusting completely in Alex's expertise. "And once we're in the auction, what's the plan? We can't exactly outbid everyone."

“That's where it gets complicated,” Alex admits, dropping into his desk chair. He rubs his face, exhaustion evident in every line of his body. “We need to identify who's running the auction, track their payment processing system, and if possible, pinpoint where they're holding the 'merchandise.'" The word drips with disgust as it leaves his lips.

“And you think you can do all that while the auction is happening?"

“In theory, yes.”

I pace the small space between his bed and desk, mind racing. “So what's the holdup? Why not tell everyone now and start planning?”

Alex hesitates, his fingers drumming on the desk. “There's a chance that this is a trap. That auction listing could be bait.”

“For me? For all The Collector knows, I am enslaved to my new owner. What evidence have we given him to think otherwise?” I retort.

“Natasha,” Alex sighs. Hearing her name brings back a flash of memories from her brief stint in Alex’s medical playroom in the basement. How I watched him work to extract information from her by any means necessary to protect me. To find information on my son. “If she communicated to anyone that she was meeting Talon to talk about your reproductive rights, it could be a trap. It’s a risk I am not taking.”

My stomach clenches at the mention of Natasha. Alex is right. There are too many variables, too many ways this could go wrong. But it's Luca. My brother. I can't ignore even the smallest chance of finding him.

“I understand the risk,” I say softly. “But we have to try.”

Alex's shoulders slump slightly, whether from relief or exhaustion, I can't tell. “I know. That's why I haven't stopped working.”