Crystal Mac: A prologue novella to Captive Series Book 3 HELL'S HILLTOP (3 page)

A steaming plate of food was balanced in one hand and he pulled up a chair.
The yellow bulb overhead cast a fiery halo over his jet-black hair. “Oh, and we made dinner. Better get it while it’s hot.”

It didn’t take long for the smell of meatloaf and potatoes to reach their two captives. When it did, the noise level increased significantly.

Crystal’s mouth fell open. “Lord, if you love me, please…
please,
feed me some of that.”

“In the commons room.
” Derek held out a hand, indicating the stairs. “Mac will show you the way. And Crystal?” His gaze grew dark. “If you try anything, don’t think the hole in my chest will slow me down. I’ll find you. And I’ll kill you.”

____

So, his name really was Mac. Sure, they'd called him that last night, but she'd figured it was more of a handle considering the man's size. What were the odds his last name was Truck?

Crystal settled over the plate of food and picked up her fork in a fist that meant business. Before the tines got dirty, however, she paused a
nd wondered just for a moment…

What the hell.
If it were poisoned, she’d die with a full stomach.

As she shoveled in tender bites of beef, Mac loomed close by. His presence ushered in a foreign sense of safety that had been notably absent
since she’d been taken from her own family by IGP’s boogeymen. But it was also a reminder he was protecting the people of this house from her.
She
was now the boogeyman, just like Derek and the other ghosts on Nexifen.

She glanced behind her just in time to watch Mac settle down on one of the many other tables in the commons room.

Commons room. What a joke. It was nothing like the cushy gathering hole she remembered at college, more like a boring workplace cafeteria. But, for some reason, Mac added an intriguing quality to an otherwise depressing environment.

What was it about him? He wasn’t really handsome, but he had this intense aura that completely fascinated her. His expressive brow was by far the most characterizing feature he possessed. She’d mostly seen it creased over a guarded look that had the power to burn holes through backbone, but when r
elaxed it softened like butter.

Like when he was around the two women in the house, whom he clearly loved. The pretty brunette
, Danny—who Crystal assumed was Derek’s sister—had delivered a joke about Mac’s shrinking waistline while loading Crystal’s plate with food. The teasing pat to a firm stomach had wrung the cutest baby-faced smile from him she’d ever seen. What the hell? How could a face transform so radically?

So, I get the hazel-eyed master of doom while they get the big softy.

And why the hell did she care? The first time he touched her he nearly knocked her head clean off, but for some reason, she found herself continually resisting the urge to lean into him.

Her fork stopped an inch from her mouth when Derek sat down directly across from her
and laced his fingers together.

“I think the best way to approach this,” he said in a grim manner, “is to start with a few ground rules.”

Of course the others weren’t eating. They weren’t half-starved like she was. Crystal loaded the forkful of green beans into her mouth, spoke through them. “Let me guess. Rule number one.” She swallowed. “Don’t hurt your little friends.”

“And if you do…
”

“You’ll kill me.” Mashed potatoes went in next. “Got it.”

“Rule number two. Full disclosure.”

“Which doesn’t mean shit
if you don’t trust me.”

Derek
narrowed his gaze. “But it’ll keep our alliance this well-oiled machine we all want it to be.”

Which was code for
or I’ll kill you
. She nodded. “Rule number three?”

“Stay away from my son.” The look on his face showed her this was the mother of all rules. “Don’t touch him. Don’t occupy the same room with him. Don’t wave at him from afar. He’s completely off limits to you.”

Crystal rolled her eyes. “Not that I care, but you all should get over it. He’d be dead if it weren’t for me.”

His eyes held hers in a god-awful vice she couldn’t break.

“I know who you are,” he said calmly. “I know what you’re capable of. The only reason you’re alive is because Rena wouldn’t want you dead.”

“And the only reason you’re alive,” she bit back levelly, “is because I pulled you
r half-dead ass out of the woods and gave you two pints of my own blood.” She leaned in further, challenging. “So, tell me, Bennett. What else is it going to take?”

Derek chewed his bottom lip, seemed to consider things for a moment. “IGP headquarters is down
, which means our brethren are hiding out at Lesico’s main facility.”

Lesico
Laboratories was Sophie’s haunt, the scientist behind their wonder drug. She and Rafferty had been partners before Rena killed her. Rafferty supplied the lab rats Sophie needed to improve her drug, and in turn, Rafferty grew his talented league of enforcers. In fact, Sophie had a bit of a sexual fetish for her muscle-bound science experiments; therefore, she spent more time at IGP headquarters than at her own work. Her favorite victim? Well, Crystal was looking at him.

Her
eyes drooped in disbelief. “Let me guess. You want me to pop by.”

“
Blend
in
,” Derek stressed. “Find Lana and question her about the basement chemist who makes our drug.”

“Okay, r
emind me again why Rafferty’s secretary would know anything about our basement chemist. She’s a total Barbie.”

“According to River, the courier who delivers
Nexifen has a thing for her. They talk a lot.”

That’s it? They talk a lot?
“You mean, you want me to ‘blend in’ with over twenty ghosts—who’ve possibly missed me, by the way—so I can gossip with Rafferty’s office bunny?”

Derek’s mouth thinned into a hard line
. “Lana already helped me once. She wasn’t exactly happy with her job position, which was mostly bent over his desk.” He let that sink in for a moment. “Besides, our ghosts should be experiencing withdrawals by now since I have the entire supply of Nexifen. I doubt they even miss you. Once we take control of our basement chemist and his stash, we’ll make sure they never get their hands on another dose again.”

“
While
we
get a steady supply for ourselves until a cure is found.” She searched his face for any signs of deception and found none. “They’ll go crazy. Become walking time bombs until they die.”

“We’ll just have to kill as many as we can
before that happens.”

“That’s quite a load for just the two of us.”

Derek leaned back. “It can wait a few days until I’m well enough to help. Tonight, you just need to find Lana.” He stuck out a hand toward the man behind her. “Mac’s volunteered to assist you on that front.”

Crystal peered o
ver her shoulder, caught Mac hanging on to every exchange. “You mean he’s volunteered to babysit.”

“Happens to be my specialty,” Mac retorted, keeping the scowl.

“You gonna read me bedtime stories, too?”

An image of it flashed through her mind
, bringing a smile to her face. Instead of rising to the bait, Mac looked away with a tilt of disgust to his mouth.

A decision was made. As long as they were within arm’s reach, Crystal would continue to sling bait until Mac Truck became
her
big softy.

“Since we’re on the same side,” Derek continued, commanding her attention, “you can tell me if there was anything useful on your laptop.”

“You mean the one you broke during your escape last night? Nothing was on it except my highest Minesweeper score.” His look called her a liar. She gave a helpless shrug. “They knew I had it. Watched my every move. You wasted your time trying to smuggle it out of there before the explosives went off.”

“You’re already breaking rule number two, Crystal.”

Her answer came without blinking. “I’m telling the truth.”

Derek
folded his arms over the table and fixed her with some kind of voodoo truth stare. Crystal suppressed a shudder. “My father used to look at me that way. Stop it.”

“I think your sister used the equipment I saw in your room to get Sophie’s ID and password.”

Her sound of disgust came as she pushed her empty plate away. “Rena wouldn’t have been able to get those things without my help. Two years in the slammer put her way behind. But I didn’t do it on anything that can be linked to me, so just forget about the laptop and equipment. It’s a dead end.”

Crystal could see his wheels turning, knew he didn’t
want to let it go that easily.

With a sigh of acceptance, Derek slowly folded her hands
in his own. “I want our partnership to work,” he said thickly. “Our end goals are the same: to survive this death sentence that was forced on us both. To grow old with our families.”

Crystal looked at their hands, knew his gesture was more of a threat than one of camaraderie. It compacted the feeling of foreboding when she
considered the fact she had no family left. Sophie had seen to that.

“I think you are extremely misguided where Rena
’s concerned.” Her eyes locked with his. “But I’ll try to help you get your life back.”

He must have sensed her sincerity because his hands gave hers a squeeze. “Yours, too, Crystal. It
is
possible. The only reason you were brought to IGP was to ensure Rena’s cooperation. You may think she abandoned you, but I don’t. And, whether you believe it or not, your sister holds the key to our future. When she comes through for us… you’ll finally get to go home.”

But
there
was
no home. Before the tears could come, she pulled her hands away and stood. So did Mac. “Your faith in Rena is admirable,” she said, “but if I had money to bet, I’d put it all on Ty.”

When Derek scoffed, Crystal
reminded with a stern finger, “Without him you’d be dead, Bennett. No matter what you think, he’s always had our best interests at heart.
He’s
the one thinking straight.
He’s
got the sample everyone is after, and if Rena comes through for us, it’ll only be because Ty comes through first.
Again
.”

A look of suspicion crossed
Derek’s handsome features. “He’s got quite a fan in you.”

Damn straight.
Ty Ferguson was a saint in her book, undeserving of the label he’d been branded by these people. She knew he wasn’t a traitor, and it had nothing to do with his good looks, or the fact he was a fireman and in the business of saving lives. He’d just become another of Rena’s casualties, and in that, Crystal could fully relate.

“You
gonna tell me what happened between the three of you yesterday?” Derek asked without expression.

It was something she wasn’t willing to discuss yet. Maybe never.
“I thought I had a job to do.”

After a moment, he nodded. “When you get back. We’ll talk.”

Mac stood guard by the bathroom and caught Crystal’s reflection in the mirror. Face devoid of black streaky makeup, her pert little nose came into focus, along with full, sculpted lips. Her cheeks firmed when she smiled, completing a look that closely resembled the fairies in his kids’ favorite storybook.

“What’s the
matter, Mr. Truck?” Her bright eyes, which contrasted heavily with the dark brown of her hair, were alight with mischief as she wrung the water from her washcloth. “Still trying to figure me out?”

Mac grunted in response.

“Here, I’ll make it easier for you.” In one fluid motion, she ripped the black hoodie up and over her head, dropped it to the wood floor by her feet. “Better?”

She expected him to look away. The white glow of full breasts loomed in his peripheral vision, but by some miracle he managed to hold her gaze. He reached into the pocket of his jeans, removed his cell phone.