“It’s possible they had it because Desmond gave it to them so they could communicate. They were partners, after all. So now that he’s dead, Romeo can use it for his own purposes. Or it might be the Ezzatis. We don’t know.” Meg shrugged.

“James?” I said. “Anything to add? Any other helpful information you might know?”

He only shook his head. “Not at the moment. No.”

“Hey.” Brent appeared at the door.

“I just wanted to go find you,” I said. “We know where our enemy will strike next and we have to be ready. Gather the men, but be careful and don’t let anyone see you. We don’t want our enemy to change their plans or run away too soon. If you can, capture at least one of them so we can question him.”

“How do you know this?” Brent crossed his arms, eyeing us all suspiciously. “Did Meg find it? Or was it him?” He spat out the word.

“James helped us decode the message,” Meg said. “I checked and it looks legit.”

“Are we seriously going to believe any shit he spews?” Brent’s nostrils flared. “He could be leading us straight into a trap. What if the message has a double meaning?”

“Yeah, because everyone somehow planned this and knew what I would do.” I was getting really tired of Brent and his behavior that had started to change right after I brought James here. “Just do as I say, okay? If it turns out to be nothing or a trap, I’m sure you can deal with that.”

He opened his mouth, and I thought he was going to object, but he only dipped his head and headed for the door.

“You should go,” Meg said to James. “I don’t need you here anymore.”

He got to his feet and headed toward me.

“Let me know if anything comes up,” I said to Meg. “Anything. We need to be careful, and we need to catch our thieves.”

“Yeah, sure.”

I strolled out of the room, James trailing after me. My phone beeped, and I quickly checked it. An alert was flashing on the screen. Someone had triggered an alarm in one of the upper rooms. The guards were probably on their way, but I pulled out my gun—which I always carried with me almost everywhere, because one never knew where the danger would come from—and started toward the elevator, then punched in the code to open it.

“You stay here,” I said to James when I realized he was coming after me, but before the elevator door could close, he placed his hand on it and walked inside. “I told you to stay.”

“Yeah, I know. I heard you the first time.” His lips turned upward. “You might need backup.”