Alarm turned to a profound sense of dread. He remembered the pills scattered beside her head when he’d found her. Never thought to ask if…
“Ah, God, no,” he groaned, his unspoken question answered by the defeat in her eyes. Suddenly, he couldn’t breathe. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Nothing… you could do. It happens fast.”
“Bullshit!” No way was he just going to sit by and watch her deteriorate. “I need to get you to a hospital!”
“No hospitals,” she pleaded, her voice getting weaker. “Just… take me home. I want to go home.”
As his gaze moved over her, his shield of denial was penetrated by a thought of horrifying clarity. Seconds ago, she’d been running with him. Talking as if nothing were wrong. Holding his hand in a firm grip that never wavered. The few short hours he’d known her, IGP’s only female ghost had been through a lifetime of obstacles. But she’d never wavered.
Which meant Crystal had already run out of time.
Afraid he’d miss her last words, Mac sank hopelessly against the open door of the elevator with her cradled close to his chest. Traffic noise rushed above them, signaling that life was moving on while time stood still in their intimate circle. Indeed, no one up there would know Crystal ever existed.
“I’m so sorry.” Emotion clogged his throat, rendering him almost speechless. “I… I don’t know where home is.”
“I’m already there,” she whispered softly. “Just don’t… let me go… until my heart stops beating.”
Excerpt from HELL’S HILLTOP
Ty’s hands cupped her shoulders from behind. Austin and Derek waited. Rena swallowed hard, channeling her inner calm. “You sent her back there too soon,” she said with a tremble in her voice. “What were you thinking?”
The air crackled around them. Derek had the decency to look humble. “I gave her a choice. She wanted to go.”
Of course she wanted to go. You gave her a choice. Rena turned toward the closed bedroom door. Her baby sister was in there. Dead? Dying? All because she did exactly what Rena had begged her to do.
Ty’s hands slipped from her shoulders as she forced one foot in front of the other, reached out, turned the knob.
Dread slowed her entry. The first thing to greet her was the late morning sunshine pouring through gauzy curtains. When the bed came into view, she saw not one, but two people lying on top of the blue floral comforter: Crystal, and a very large bald man who followed Rena's every move with guarded eyes.
Upon closer look, Crystal’s unusually light eyes were somewhat open, her slight form still as if in death. Pale, dry lips parted. Hands slackened and lightly curled. She wore tasteful makeup, not the horrid black mask that marked her a different person than the one she used to be. Even her prim blue dress looked more like what she would have worn before IGP sank their claws into her. In a way, it made things worse, because Rena wasn’t looking at Crystal the ghost. She was looking at Elsa, the short, four-eyed pain in the ass she’d grown up with.
Emotion clogged Rena's throat. Tears welled to the surface. When she knelt down and curled her hand around Crystal’s cold one, her chest heaved with a sob.
“She isn’t gone yet.”
Startled, Rena wiped her eyes, but couldn’t manage to shift her focus to the man who'd spoken. “She isn’t moving.”
He rose up from behind Crystal, found her eyes open and gently closed them with his fingers. “Her heart is still beating. She may even be able to hear you.”
The more he spoke, Rena realized she knew him from another lifetime ago…one of Austin’s crew from the salvage yard. He'd changed in appearance quite a bit since then, which was another startling reminder that three years had passed since then. The protective nature of his embrace and the brief flash of anguish she caught beneath that expressive brow of his suggested he, too, cared for her sister a great deal. It also communicated the gravity of Crystal's situation in a way nothing else had.
Rena stared at him in puzzlement. “Mac, is it?”
With a hand wedged beneath his jaw, he nodded over Crystal’s shoulder.
“Were you with her?”
His mouth opened to answer, but the words wouldn’t come out at first. “Not close enough,” he said finally in a voice that wavered. “She was poisoned by the same drug she used to kill the other ghosts. They forced her to take it. I couldn’t get to her in time.”
It sounded as if he blamed himself, which prompted the questions to swarm through Rena's head. Who did this? Why couldn't she escape when she'd demonstrated such masterful skills the other day? Perhaps she didn't fight for her life. Could it be that she chose to end the person she’d become? Rena wiped the moisture from her cheeks and managed to ask, “How long does she have?”
“I don't know,” Mac whispered hoarsely
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Novels by J. A. Dennam
TRUTH AND HUMILITY - Captive series book 1
BETWEEN FAITH AND FEAR – Captive series book 2
FLESH OF ANGELS – Flesh series book 1
FLESH OF THE FATHER – Flesh series book 2
Connect with J. A. Dennam
www.JADennam.com
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Twitter: @JADennam
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As any author knows, research can take your story in directions you never saw coming. As long as it’s on a path that sounds plausible, I’m game. On that note, I’d like to thank Debie Pasich, who offered the most valuable input for this small portion of Hell’s Hilltop. Stay tuned, Debie, I’ll be bugging you a lot more for future projects.
As always, my husband, Steve, has been an invaluable source. My jack of all trades. I love you, babe!
To all those who make me look good, and the list is long. Starting with my wonderful critique partners, Sherry (kickass critique partner) Sirna and Emily (literary sex pusher) Hemmer. Mary Monnin, the swing vote who gave Crystal and Mac their own cover. My editors, especially Callie Rice and Sue Rice. And, to my valued beta reader, Kathy Jones: your honesty allows me to blame you for every tear my readers shed. Thank you for that.
Most importantly, I would like to thank my fans. You are the reason and my justification for feeding this obsessive-compulsion of mine. For that, I am eternally grateful.
Crystal Mac: A prologue novella to Captive Series Book 3 HELL'S HILLTOP Page 10
