CHAPTER 14
HELENA
◆
The first alarm began while I was still holding the photograph.
Not a fire alarm. A soft electronic pulse repeated through the hotel speakers, followed by a woman’s recorded voice asking guests to remain in place for “temporary security verification.”
Gabriel took the photograph from my hand and tore it in half.
“What are you doing?”
“Removing the image from the next person who enters.”
“It’s evidence.”
“I photographed both sides.”
“Of course you did.”
Tomás moved to the hall. “Court security has sealed the elevators.”
Gabriel’s gaze snapped to him. “How do you know?”
“My staff received the alert.”
“Show me your phone.”
“This is not the moment for your jealousy.”
“It is not jealousy.”
“It is absolutely jealousy,” I said, “but he’s also suspicious.”
Gabriel gave me a look.
“What? We agreed on honesty.”
A heavy knock struck the door.
“Federal Constitutional Tribunal security. Open for verification.”
Gabriel locked the dead bolt, then pulled the room-service cart against the door.
Tomás stared. “You plan to barricade a hotel room from federal officers?”
“They are not federal officers,” Gabriel said. “Their boots were audible before the identification. Court tactical teams use soft soles in hotels.”
“You can identify government branches by footwear?” I asked.
“I have unhealthy hobbies.”
The knock came again. Harder.
Gabriel opened the maintenance panel beside the minibar and removed a universal service key.
Tomás blinked. “Why do you have that?”
“I own the company that installed the locks.”
I crossed my arms. “Built the hand, again.”
His expression tightened. “Yes.”
The fact that he no longer defended himself made my anger less useful.
He unlocked the connecting utility room and motioned us through. Pipes and ventilation ducts filled the narrow space. The alarm pulsed overhead.
The main door crashed inward behind us.
We descended a maintenance ladder to the floor below. Tomás complained about his shoes. Gabriel suggested leaving him in the duct.
“I am a senator,” Tomás whispered.
“So far, that has been the least persuasive thing about you,” Gabriel replied.
We reached a service elevator shaft. The car sat one floor beneath us.
Gabriel opened the emergency hatch and lowered himself onto the roof.
“Come,” he said to me.
Tomás caught my wrist. “My protection team is in the north garage. We should go up.”
Gabriel’s eyes fixed on his hand.
I removed Tomás’s fingers one by one. “Do not turn me into a rope between you.”
His face changed. “I’m trying to help.”
“Then let me choose.”
I climbed down to Gabriel.
He steadied me by the hips. For one brief second, we stood pressed together on the dark elevator roof, his mouth level with mine.
“Good choice,” he murmured.
“Do not make me regret it.”
Tomás descended behind us with less grace.
We entered the empty elevator car through the hatch. Gabriel opened the inspection panel and brought the car to the sub-basement. The movement was slow enough that every second sharpened the awareness between us.
Tomás watched Gabriel’s hand at my waist.
“You know she had a life before yesterday,” he said.
Gabriel’s thumb moved once against my side. “I know every published piece of it.”
“That is not healthy.”
“No.”
I looked up at him.
He did not pretend otherwise.
The elevator stopped. The doors opened into a laundry corridor where Mara waited beside a cart of folded sheets.
“Please tell me the senator is decorative,” she said.
“He is a complication,” Gabriel replied.
Tomás looked offended. “My team can get us through the garage.”
“Your team’s route was compromised six minutes ago,” Mara said. “Three unmarked vehicles are waiting at the north exit.”
His surprise looked real.
Or well practiced.
Mara pushed the laundry cart toward us. “Inês is safe. Agent Nobre has her. We recovered the ledger page from a secondary hiding place sewn into her coat lining.”
Relief moved through me. “What does it show?”
“Meridian received one portfolio at 23:59:59. Banco Capital purchased it at 00:00:07. Eight seconds.”
“No risk review,” I said.
“No human review,” Gabriel corrected.
Mara handed him a room key. “West annex. Suite 904. Cameras blind for eleven minutes. Tomás’s staff can collect him from the service ramp.”
“I am staying with Helena,” Tomás said.
“No,” Gabriel and I said together.
Tomás looked between us and gave a humorless laugh. “Fast alliance.”
“Temporary,” I said.
Gabriel’s hand tightened at my waist.
Tomás noticed.
“Of course,” he said.
At the service ramp, he leaned close to me while his car approached.
“Be careful,” he said. “Salles confuses devotion with surveillance.”
“So far, you are the one wearing a transmitter from Vale’s university.”
Pain flashed in his eyes. “You think I led them here?”
“I think I do not know yet.”
“Lena—”
“Do not ask for the originals.”
His jaw tightened.
Then the campaign car arrived, and he left.
Gabriel and I crossed the west annex separately, met inside Suite 904, and locked the door behind us.
I tested it once.
Gabriel opened it again without comment, checked the hall, and left it resting against the latch.
The gesture reached deeper than any apology.
I turned on him. “You pointed a gun at Tomás.”
“He had a court credential hidden in his ring.”
“He may have told the truth.”
“He touched you after I told him not to.”
“There. That part.”
His face went hard. “I am trying.”
“To do what? Become civilized?”
“To remember that your choices matter more than my urge to remove every threat.”
“Tomás is not a threat because he touched my arm.”
“He wants you.”
The blunt words filled the room.
“You cannot know that.”
“I know men.”
“You are not all men.”
“No.” Gabriel stepped closer. “I am the one who spent the last hour imagining his hand where mine had been.”
Heat stirred low in my body.
“This is a terrible time.”
“I know.”
“We have evidence to review.”
“I know.”
“Vale’s people are searching the hotel.”
“I know.”
His voice dropped with each answer.
I put both hands on his chest. “And you are still jealous.”
“Yes.”
The honesty broke the last useful piece of anger.
I pushed his jacket from his shoulders.
Gabriel caught it before it hit the floor. “What are you doing?”
“Making your terrible timing worse.”
His gaze moved over my face. “Is this because of him?”
“No.” I loosened his tie. “This is because you let me climb down first.”
Understanding changed his expression.
I pulled him by the tie and kissed him.
He backed me into the wall with one hand protecting my head from the impact. His mouth was hot, demanding, the jealousy still alive in the way he held my waist.
“Say his name now,” he murmured against my lips.
“Tomás.”
Gabriel’s eyes went black.
I smiled. “You asked.”
He turned me to face the wall.
The movement sent a bolt of pleasure through me. His mouth found the back of my neck while his hands opened my jacket, then my trousers. The suite door remained slightly open across the room, the visible slice of hall grounding me in the choice.
“Tell me what you want,” he said.
“You jealous.”
“I am.”
“Honest.”
“Always, now.”
“Then touch me.”
His hand slid beneath my panties.
I was already wet. The first firm stroke over my clit made my knees weaken. Gabriel pressed his body against mine, one arm around my waist, the hard length of him against my lower back.
“You danced with him while looking at me,” he said.
“I needed you watching.”
“You had me.”
“I know.”
His fingers entered me from behind, slow and deep. I spread my legs, forehead against the cool wall. Every thrust of his hand dragged pleasure through me while his mouth moved over my shoulder.
“Who do you want?” he asked.
The question held no doubt. It was vanity and hunger and the need to hear what my body had already answered.
“You.”
“Again.”
“You, Gabriel.”
He worked me harder, thumb circling my clit. My orgasm came fast, tearing a cry from me that he caught with his palm over my mouth when footsteps passed in the hall.
The danger sharpened everything.
I turned as soon as I could stand. His control had frayed, but he waited.
I unfastened his trousers, pushed them down, and wrapped my hand around him.
“Protection,” I whispered, nodding toward the bedroom.
He retrieved a condom from the overnight kit Mara had left. “She plans too much.”
“I am grateful for her professionalism.”
“I will never tell her that.”
I laughed, and Gabriel kissed the sound away.
He lifted me. I wrapped my legs around his hips. The wall pressed against my back as he entered me in one slow, powerful stroke.
I bit his shoulder.
His hands gripped beneath my thighs. “Mine.”
The word should have angered me.
Instead, I caught his face and made him look at me. “Only because I choose it.”
“Then choose it.”
“I do.”
He thrust, deep enough to make the room tilt. I held on as the rhythm built—hard, urgent, our mouths meeting between broken breaths. Each movement pinned me without trapping me.
I could see the open door. I could feel the key against my chest. I could stop.
I did not want to.
“Harder,” I whispered.
Gabriel obeyed with a groan.
The second climax rolled through me slower and stronger. My body tightened around him. He buried his face against my throat and came with my name rough in his mouth.
Afterward, he carried me to the bed, but he did not lie down until he checked the hall and reset the silent alarm.
“You are impossible,” I said.
“You were naked near an open door.”
“You opened it.”
“For your breathing, not public access.”
I smiled into the pillow.
He returned with water and my clothes. Then he sat beside me, one hand moving over my bare back.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“No regret?”
“Only about the coffee.”
His laugh was quiet and real.
Mara’s secure tablet chimed on the desk.
A video call request flashed from an attorney room inside the Central Justice Complex.
DARIO VELASCO—COURT SUPERVISION.
Gabriel accepted.
Dario appeared beneath harsh fluorescent light, one cheek bruised, a guard visible behind the glass.
“Romantic timing?” he asked, looking at my bare shoulder.
Gabriel reached for the screen.
I caught his wrist. “Do not break the witness.”
Dario smiled. “He is very pretty when threatened.”
“What do you have?” I asked.
His amusement vanished.
“Proof the mirror credits came from the court,” he said. “And seven days before Aurora turns your country into a locked account.”