“How’d it go?” Mel asked Shayma when she walked into the hotel suite a few minutes later. She was still wearing her fuzzy pink robe and her matching bunny slippers were soundless on the thick padded carpet as she followed Shayma into her bedroom. “You’re wearing Murphy’s Navy jacket, so you must’ve seen him, right?”

“Oh, I saw him. Right before the security guards called the police on me and tried to throw me out.” She slipped Murphy’s jacket off her shoulders, missing its heat immediately and resisting the urge to hold the material to her face and inhale his scent one last time. “I told him everything. Laid my feelings bare to him.”

“And what did he say?”

Shayma blinked hard against the tears stinging her eyes and slipped off her stiletto sandals before removing her jewelry. “He said I deserved better. He said he’d been honest with me from the start about what was between us. He said I don’t love him, I love some fantasy of him I’ve created.” She gave an angry sniffle and swiped the back of her hand across her damp cheek as she pulled her suitcase out of her closet and started shoving her belongings inside. “Trouble is, he’s right. About all of it.”

“Sweetie, I—”

“No.” Shayma held up a hand to halt Mel’s protest. “He’s right. He is. He doesn’t deserve me. I do deserve better than being with a man who can never love me back. And yes, I did have a fantasy of him. I loved the man I saw deep inside him, the man he was capable of being if he would’ve let down his walls and trusted me.” After cramming her things inside the luggage, she shrugged out of her gown and laid it atop the other clothing in her bag before buckling it shut. Then she tugged on a pair of jeans and her Santa sweatshirt. “I need to go.”

“Go where?” Mel frowned, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. “It’s nearly ten o’clock at night.”

“The airport. I’ll see if I can book a red-eye back to Al Dar Nasrani. If not, I’ll wait there until morning.” She shook her head and took a deep breath. “Anything’s better than staying here. It’s too painful. I’m sorry.”

“No. Don’t be sorry.” Mel stood and hugged her tight. “It’s me who should be sorry. After everything that’s happened, I should’ve been a better friend to you tonight. I shouldn’t have let you go to that party alone. I should’ve been there to protect you, to negotiate for you and Murphy.”

“It’s too late for negotiations, I’m afraid.” Shayma leaned back and gave her a watery smile. “At least he said he got some information from the senator and the other guys were there like they planned, pretending to be the senator’s aides, so hopefully they got some good intel too. Considering how the rest of this mess turned out, I just pray he finds his sister safe and sound and gets her home again in time for the holidays.”

With that, she let Mel go and grabbed the handle of her rolling suitcase. From the outer room of the suite, Shayma heard the guys arrive, their voices hushed as they discussed Aileen’s case and the senator’s connection to it all. Summoning her last ounce of dignity, she squared her shoulders and headed straight for the closet to grab her coat.

“Where are you going?” Daveed asked, looking up at her from his seat on the sofa.

“Home.” Shayma didn’t look at Murphy at all. That would hurt too bad. Instead, she focused on the door ahead. The door that would lead her away from all this turmoil and temptation. The door that would take her away from Murphy and toward her new life. Alone.

Her chest hurt from holding her breath, but she was relieved her voice sounded relatively normal, at least to her own ears. “Goodbye.”

“Sweetie, wait—” Mel called, but she was already out the door.

No stopping now. If she stopped, she might run back into that suite and force Murphy to confront his feelings for her. Feelings her feminine intuition told her he had, but he didn’t want to acknowledge. He was a man who was emotionally unavailable to her and she refused to get herself back into another situation like that again. She’d been through it with Daveed. No more.

She walked up to the concierge desk in the lobby downstairs and forced a smile. “I need a taxi to JFK, please.”

* * *

“Jesus, man. You really have no game, do you?” Heath asked, giving Murphy an exasperated stare. “Did I or did I not warn you not to get involved with her like that?”

“If you hurt her, I will gut you,” Daveed growled from the armchair across from them.

“No one’s hurting anyone, dammit.” Murphy took off his hat and tossed it on the sofa cushion beside him then ran a hand through his hair. “It was an affair between two consenting adults and it’s none of your business.”

“Shayma is my friend,” Mel said, chiming in as she perched on the arm of the chair beside Daveed, his hand resting possessively on her hip. “That makes it my business.”

Jaw clenched, Murphy scowled down at the coffee table before them and the tiny computer card Heath had tossed there. “The only business I care about right now is finding my sister. I’m praying you guys found out something while you were undercover as Lawrence’s aides tonight?”

Daveed exhaled slowly, then pulled Mel into his lap. “We’ve confirmed he’s definitely working on some kind of deal with EnKor. He received numerous phone calls from them through the evening, specifically from Frank Kent.”

“And now that I cloned his phone, we should have access to all those calls. If he tries to contact anyone from here on out with that cell, we’ll know who, when, where, and why.”

“When I was close to the senator, near the dance floor, I heard him tell you guys that he was working on a deal with EnKor and he didn’t want any competition. Any idea what that deal was?”

“No,” Daveed said. “It’s odd too, since I’ve had some of my Energy Department contacts looking through the EnKor files for patents, registrations, etc. Seems there’s no record of them even existing two years ago.”

“How is that possible?” Murphy frowned. “According to their website, they’ve got all sorts of utility patents pending for their clean energy designs and have millions of testimonials to their service and products. Patents take time to file and it can take years to build a customer base of thousands, let alone millions.”

“Sounds like EnKor might be embellishing the truth a bit.” Heath sat back and crossed his arms over his immaculate tailored black suit. “Speaking of embellishing the truth, what exactly were your intentions toward Shayma? She agreed to keep an eye on you for me and I don’t like to see my friends hurt.”

Keep an eye on him? Like Murphy was some kind of freak that needed tending.

He slumped back against the sofa and glared at his friend. At least Heath had finally shaved off that godawful beard that made him look nearly homeless. No wonder Murphy hadn’t recognized him in the shadows. Then again, he’d been a bit distracted too, by Shayma.

Ugh. Just the thought of her made the center of his chest burn once more, right over where his heart thumped hard. Each time he closed his eyes, the hurt he’d seen in her beautiful eyes at the Ritz blended with the regal set of her shoulders here in the suite before she’d walked out of his life forever, and made him want to drop to his knees and beg her forgiveness, beg her to take him back and teach him to trust again.

But it was too late now. She was gone and they’d both have to deal with the consequences. He needed to learn how to go on without her, no matter how bleak things would be alone. He’d find Aileen, then he’d re-up for the SEALs and head back overseas on the first mission they offered him. Maybe being under constant threat of death would help ease the pain of his eviscerated heart.

“What are you going to do?” Heath asked, watching him with a narrowed gaze.

“About?” Murphy asked, being deliberately obtuse. He just wasn’t in the mood to talk about things yet. All of it was too raw, too confused, too real.

“About the fucking Elf on the Shelf,” Heath snapped, his irritated expression morphing into full-blown anger. “What the hell do you think I’m talking about? You make a decision about the military yet?”

Murphy scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m signing on for another tour.”

“Seriously?” Daveed shook his head. “Why? What about your sister? What about the rest of your life?”

“What about it?” Agitated, Murphy pushed to his feet and paced the room. “I’m not like you guys, okay? I don’t have anything else. The SEALs are it for me. If I call the recruitment office now, I won’t have to report until mid-January. That will give me time to find Aileen and get her back home safe. The rest of it doesn’t matter anymore. Like I said, the SEALs are my life. That’s it.”

“And whose fault is that, huh?” Heath asked. “You are the most—”

“Stubborn? Pigheaded? Stupid?” Murphy gave a mirthless chuckle. “Believe me, I’ve heard it all. And it’s right. I am way too stubborn for my own good. Rebellious too. And don’t forget independent. I’ve had to be. It’s how I survived. Aileen too.” He squeezed his eyes shut, seeing Shayma’s gorgeous smile, felt her gentle touch, and his soul shattered all over again. “I’ve lived like this for so long, I don’t know how to turn it off anymore. That’s why I’m alone. Why I’ll stay alone for the rest of my life.”

“Is that really what you want?” Mel rose from Daveed’s lap and came over to him, blocking his path. “To die alone and lonely in some foreign land?”

Hell no, it wasn’t. But after the way he’d behaved with Shayma, it was all he deserved. He shrugged in answer to Mel’s question. “It’s my decision.”

“And it’s an awful one.” Mel straightened and gave him a stern look. “Shayma loves you. She wants to make a future with you. You have a choice, no matter how blind you seem to be to that fact.” She poked him in the chest with her index finger for emphasis. “Now, if you really want to get what you deserve, mister, you’ll pull your head out of your ass and hightail it over to JFK airport before that wonderful woman gets on a plane and goes back to Al Dar Nasrani, where her parents will probably foist her off on some other wealthy sheik at the first chance they get. The way I see it, you two are perfect for each other. She’s smart and funny and puts up with all your moody crap. You’re a better person when you’re with her and you’d be nuts not to hold on to Shayma for dear life and thank your lucky stars every day that she wants to be with you.”

Well, shit. Murphy hadn’t exactly thought about it like that. He’d been so wrapped up in his own problems and concerns that he hadn’t really thought about what life would be like for Shayma when she got back to her home. She’d told him arranged marriages weren’t uncommon where she was from and her parents had already matched her off once to Daveed. Now that she was headed back to Al Dar Nasrani again in disgrace—at least according to her parents—they’d be eager to foist her off on some unsuspecting wealthy man, preferably one who could bring substantial real estate holdings or political connection to the table. Her country might be more modern than most, and Christian, but that didn’t mean they still didn’t resort to the old Arabic ways when it suited them.

He hazarded a glance over at Daveed for confirmation.

“I don’t know what they have planned for her once she gets back to Al Dar Nasrani. My communications with my own family are still strained after the ending of our agreement.” Daveed shrugged. “She’s a strong woman though. My country is quite liberal regarding women’s rights. Others? Not so much. It would depend on whom she was engaged to and where she’d live. Regardless, she would be under her husband’s rule. It’s their way.”

Fuck. In Murphy’s opinion, their way sucked.

Murphy still believed that Shayma could do so much better than him. He’d try to open up to her more, try to let her inside, but it would be a slow process. Might take months, years even, for him to totally allow her to know all of him—every sordid nook and cranny of his past. But he did love her too, and if he was going to try with anyone, it would be her. He’d have to stay here, in New York, try to make a new life for himself outside the military too, but for her, for a chance at forever for them, he’d do his best. Maybe Heath or Daveed could pull some strings for him with their government contacts and get him in with a private security firm. Maybe he could stay with Aileen until he got a place of his own to share with Shayma.

Maybe…

His pulse kicked up again as a fresh wave of adrenaline flooded his system. Not from danger or fear this time, but from anticipation. Anticipation of a life with the woman he was head over heels for.

He rushed over to where his Navy jacket still laid on the bed in Shayma’s room and slipped it on. A hint of her spicy perfume filled him with warmth and want as he walked back out to put on his hat and button up. “JFK you said?”

Mel nodded, a smile twitching the corner of her lips. “Go get her, Ensign.”

Murphy headed to the door with a curt nod. “Yes, ma’am.”