Holding Smoke by Steph Post

Author:Steph Post [Pinter, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Polis Books

10

She was so goddamn beautiful. It was hard to look away, though Judah needed to have his eyes everywhere else. On Trent, leaning over the back of one of the oxblood chesterfields clustered in the center of the sunken lounge, right hand twirling the stem of an empty martini glass, the left massaging the neck of a brunette as he bent down, whispering in her ear. On Robert and Sophia, neither of whom had yet noticed they had uninvited guests in their midst. Robert was holding court under the crystal chandelier in the middle of the ballroom, surrounded by cronies in identical black tie, distinguishable only by their double and triple chins and the octaves of their braying laughs. Sophia was harder to track, flitting in an endless loop from the pockets of guests scattered around linen-draped drink tables, to the lounge to chide Trent, back across the ballroom’s vast marble floor with a stop to admonish Robert, down the softly lit hall off the foyer to check on the kitchen, and out the open glass doors to the terrace, canopied by twinkling party lights. Judah’s eyes should have been on Shelia, frumpy and uncomfortable in the caterer’s uniform Dinah had procured for her, the black skirt too long and the starched white shirt too big, pouching out in the back. And on Dinah, also in uniform, prowling through the guests with a tray of canapes on her arm, keeping tabs on everyone and everything as she waited for the right moment to give the signal and set the plan into motion.

Judah should have been watching them all—noting how many drinks Trent had already guzzled, when Sophia paused in her circuit to fiddle with her intricately pinned hair, which rent-a-cops were sneaking shots and which were taking their job seriously—but his gaze kept going back to Ramey. She was standing next to him in the haven of an alcove they’d staked out in the ballroom, close to the terrace, but with lines of sight to the front entryway, the kitchen hallway, and the sweeping imperial staircase. With a glass of red wine balanced in one hand, her fingers twitching for a cigarette, Ramey was focused, combing through the sea of guests for potential problems and threats. Following her lead, Judah forced himself to look away and find Shelia, on the other side of the ballroom, waiting patiently for a man with his bow tie already loose to ostentatiously finish the last of his beer before gallantly placing the empty bottle on her outstretched tray. Shelia did not look impressed. Judah found Dinah, trudging in from the terrace carrying a plastic tub of dirty plates, and then cut his eyes again to Ramey.

As she shifted slightly, Judah caught the hint of her left hipbone, traced out against the sleek midnight blue dress pulled taut across her lower back and belly. He wanted nothing more in the world than to reach out and touch her hip, just there, right above the threadwork of scars curving around the dip in her side, the scars that were meant for the cup of his hand.

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