James sat on his bed, his face in his hands. The past week had been useless. He had found nothing and doubted that he ever would.
He regretted just leaving Snaps there after telling her he loved her, too afraid that she wouldn't share his feelings. How foolish that worry seemed now.
Loud knocking on the door to his hotel room door. James pulled himself to his feet and opened the door without thinking. There stood Lex, looking impatient, among other emotions. He was alone, no Snaps and no Kate.
"Where are Snaps and Kate?" James asked, no, demanded.
"I'll explain on the way. We have to get back to the south, now." Lex said quickly.
"Where are they?!"
"In danger. We have to hurry."
"Explain now." James said, failing to keep his temper in check.
"Fine." Lex snapped. "I work for Ali Shehab. He made sure I was assigned to be your guide when you, Kate, and Snaps arrived here. My mission was to keep you three from finding anything out, but we underestimated you all. So I was told to bring 005 and 006 in and Ali said he would send 007 off to the north. I had no choice. I never –"
But James had heard enough, he punched Lex square in the jaw. Lex stumbled back a couple of steps and his lip began to bleed. That had gone better than he had hoped…
They stared at each other a moment, James with hate and anger, Lex with apology and pleading.
"If they're d –" James began.
"They're not. Ali won't kill them." Lex broke in. 'No, the men are having too much fun beating them.' He added bitterly in his mind. He was slightly proud, neither Kate nor Snaps had cried during all of this. There strength amazed him.
"If you're wrong –"
"I'm not." Lex assured him.
Without another word, James pushed past him and led the way downstairs. When they reached Lex's car, James said, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you when this is over."
"I don't have one." Lex said. "But for now, I just want Kate to be safe. That's my reason."