Varun gave him the skinny on their way up from the parking area. ‘Guy’s a creative director at an ad agency. Mega dickhead, but he gets a lot of business from our company so he throws these legendary parties to keep us happy. Single malts, food catered from the Hilton, international models, all of that shit.’

It sounded like a good definition of hell to Eram. All he wanted to do was play a little poker. He was even wearing his lucky grey hoodie. Varun, on the other hand, was dressed to party in a polka ZOD! club shirt and a trilby hat that he’d put on once they were in Eram’s car.

Eram was beginning to have a bad feeling about this. He wondered how Gehna would feel about him bringing her recently-released-from-hospital brother to a place with liquor, and probably drugs, on tap. ‘Promise that you won’t get trashed tonight?’

Varun grinned at him. With his hat tilted at a jaunty angle over his eyes, his face was all nose and teeth. ‘It’s yours, isn’t it?’

‘What’s mine?’

‘The baby. You knocked up my little sister, didn’t you?’

‘Wha . . . No, man, what the hell are you talking about? She was already pregnant the first time I met her.’

Varun hung an arm around Eram’s shoulders. ‘Hey, I believe you. But once that kid comes out looking like Casper with curly hair, the world will know the truth.’

Casper? By the time he remembered that they were meant to be talking about Varun’s promise to behave himself, they were inside the villa. He lost Varun almost immediately.

The party seemed like a dark, seething organism to Eram. It was a sweltering night and there were too many bodies. Bodies leaned against walls and sprawled out on couches. Bodies moved to the low and menacing beat of jungle trance. He pushed his way through the dancing crowd on the lower level, uncomfortable with the press of strange bodies against his. Cigarette tips glowed and arced through the air like demonic fireflies. A hand caressed the back of his jeans and was gone before he could identify who it belonged to. Somebody else handed him a drink that he sipped slowly as he explored all the rooms in the back.

More bodies. No poker. I’m going to kill Varun if he doesn’t do the job himself.

Upstairs, there were more rooms. In one, a kid who couldn’t have been over ten was staring with glazed eyes at an enormous TV all by himself. In another, two girls and a guy were making out on the bed. The guy lifted his head to smile at Eram. ‘Come in if you’re coming in, my brother,’ he said. ‘Or else fuck off.’

Eram escaped to the wraparound deck. The only other person out there was a woman standing by the rail, looking out at the sea with the wind tugging at her hair. Eram finished his drink and took a deep breath, filling his lungs with clean air. He was unsettled by this place. It made him feel like he was standing at the edge of a cliff.