A Rose in smoke Thanos Kalamidas A Rose in smoke She was silk in a city built on brick and blood. Thanos Kalamidas Ovi ebooks are available in Ovi/Ovi eBookshelves pages and they are for free. If somebody tries to sell you an Ovi book please contact us immediately. For details, contact: ovimagazine@yahoo.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the writer or the above publisher of this book An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C A Rose in smoke A Rose in smoke Thanos Kalamidas Thanos Kalamidas An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C A Rose in smoke T hey say love’s just a trick of the light, a reflec- tion caught in the bottom of a whiskey glass, blurred by smoke, and gone before your fin- gers find the warmth. But the first time I saw her, love wasn’t a trick. It was a bullet aimed right between the ribs. She walked into The Hollow Moon Lounge like she owned it, heels clicking, lips painted the color of sin, and a fur coat that could drown a poor man’s soul. The band stopped mid-riff. Cigarettes froze halfway to lips. Even the ice in my bourbon paused before melting. That’s how Delphine Moreau made an en- trance. She was silk in a city built on brick and blood. And me? I’m Vincent “Vince” Grady. Private inves- tigator. Ex-boxer. A face for radio and a past I never bother explaining. I’d been hired to find her. Instead, I fell in love. Thanos Kalamidas * * * * * She slid onto the barstool next to me without look- ing. “You’ve been following me for three nights, Mr. Grady,” she said. “Are you going to keep pretending, or buy me a drink before I call the cops?” That voice. Velvet and gunpowder. I didn’t flinch. “Depends. You the kind of girl who likes her bourbon neat or poisoned?” She turned those impossible eyes toward me, steel blue, like a sky that forgot how to be soft. “I like my bourbon clean and my men messy,” she replied, cool as rain on a summer grave. I waved the bartender over. “Two bourbons. Neat. And if she dies, it wasn’t me.” She laughed. Low. Dangerous. “You’re not like the men my father keeps introducing me to.” “No,” I said, tipping my glass. “I’m worse.” * * * * * Delphine was high society, perfume and politics. Daughter of Julian Moreau, the city’s kingmaker with hands in every dark corner. Me? I was raised A Rose in smoke in alleys and foster homes. My father died in prison; my mother died drunk. I don’t wear silk unless it’s bloodstained. We should’ve ended there. Two people with no business breathing the same air. But fate doesn’t care about class. It cares about combustion. And we were dynamite. * * * * * Two nights later, she came to my office above the pawn shop on Halberd Street. It was raining, because of course it was. “You were hired by my father, weren’t you?” she asked, stepping inside without knocking. “He sent you to dig dirt on me. To keep me from running.” “I was hired,” I admitted. “But I stopped working the moment I realized I wanted to kiss you more than report you.” She closed the distance between us, the room sud- denly too small, the air too thick. “You still want to kiss me?” she asked. Thanos Kalamidas I didn’t answer. I just did. Her lips were soft chaos, like kissing revolution in a red dress. * * * * * For weeks, we burned. We met in back alleys and jazz joints. In motels where the sheets smelled like ash and bad decisions. We danced in shadows and made love with the curtains drawn. We talked about escape. Cuba. Paris. Anywhere but here. But this city doesn’t forgive lovers like us. And Ju- lian Moreau wasn’t about to lose his daughter to a mutt in a trench coat. The threats started with whispers. Then came the bruises on my ribs. The tail on my car. A dead rat nailed to my door. Classic stuff. Delphine stayed fierce. “We’ll run,” she said, one night as we lay tangled in sheets and secrets. “Just say yes.” “I’d follow you into hell,” I whispered into her hair. “But I’m not sure we’re not already there.” A Rose in smoke * * * * * The night we tried to leave, the city showed its teeth. I was packing my .38 when Delphine walked in, pale as moonlight. Her eyes were wide, too wide. “He knows,” she said. “He knows everything.” She was trembling, which scared me more than any gun. “Come on,” I said. “We’ll go now. No goodbyes.” We made it to the train station. We made it as far as the platform. Then the bullet found her. * * * * * I held her in my arms as sirens wailed in the dis- tance, her blood seeping through my shirt. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, the rain hiding my tears. “I should’ve seen it coming.” She smiled, just a flicker. Thanos Kalamidas “You were always more than just some detective,” she murmured. “You were the only truth I ever touched.” And then she was gone. * * * * * Now, I sit in The Hollow Moon Lounge most nights, nursing bourbon and memory. They never caught the shooter. But I did. A week later, Julian Moreau disappeared. Some say he ran to Argentina. Others say the East River’s got his bones. Me? I don’t care. Delphine’s gone, and no revenge can fill the hole she left behind. But I wear her ring on a chain around my neck. Silver. Tarnished. Just like me. They say love’s just a trick of the light. A Rose in smoke But I know better. Love’s a bullet. And I’m still bleeding. THE END Thanos Kalamidas A Rose in smoke Thanos Kalamidas Ovi eBook Publishing 2025 Ovi magazine Design: Thanos A Rose in smoke Ovi ebooks are available in Ovi/Ovi eBookshelves pages and they are for free. If somebody tries to sell you an Ovi book please contact us immediately. For details, contact: ovimagazine@yahoo.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the writer or the above publisher of this book An Ovi eBooks Publication 2025 Ovi eBookPublications - All material is copyright of the Ovi eBooks Publications & the writer C Thanos Kalamidas Thanos Kalamidas A Rose in smoke She was silk in a city built on brick and blood. Thanos Kalamidas , a multipublished writer, cartoonist and illustrator; born and grew up in a picturesque neighbourhood on the moun- tainside of Hymettus in Athens, Greece. Then his life took him to Berlin, Germany and to London, UK for studies. After a brief stay in Yorkshire he moved his life to Paris, France while working in Tokyo, Japan and in Cape Town, South Africa. In the last 25 years he became a permanent Scandinavian resident and recently, in his glorious sixth de- cade, he moved to a scenic village in the Växjö area.