Crystal Mac: A prologue novella to Captive Series Book 3 HELL'S HILLTOP by J. A. Dennam

couch-bed and looked through the peephole. An impatient Brazilian waited with coffee. He groaned, put his forehead to the door.
    “Are you going to stand there, or open up?”
    How the hell did she know?
    “Come on, Mac, you stomp around like a giant, open the door.” The subtle beauty of their neighbor’s accent was killed by sheer volume. Luciana was an attractive woman, yet everything about her was an exaggeration, from the shaggy mocha hair to the nine-hundred-number mentality.
    Praying that Crystal remain out of sight, he turned the knob. The aroma of wet leaves from an early morning storm hit him before the smell of 100% aravaca beans.
    “Luciana,” he greeted, squinting from the light over the walkway. “It’s a little early.”
    Which wouldn’t stop her when she wanted something. Since Mac had moved in, the woman preferred his services to that of the building’s super, and she always bribed him with gas station coffee. She’d offered more, but he was pretty sure the suspension cuffs in her room weren’t for hanging wet laundry.
    The cleavage above Luciana’s low-cut blouse jumped with a gasp. “Your face!”
    A brief moment of panic hit, and Mac brought a hand up to feel what kind of hideous malformation he’d woken up with. When the absence of facial hair became apparent, his shoulders relaxed. “Oh, yeah. That.”
    “Your beautiful mustache, it’s gone!” Bracelets rattled as she shoved one of the paper cups into his hand. “What happened?”
    He wasn’t about to explain that, so he held up the coffee. “Did you need something?”
    The woman bli nked away her shellshock. “Uh… yeah, I was wondering if you could… look at my garbage disposal, it’s, uh… making a funny noise.”
    He handed the coffee back. “Not this morning. You’ll need to call the super.”
    She took in his bare chest with open appreciation and ignored the coffee. “Did I get you out of bed?”
    Impatience made him snap. “I had a late night.”
    Luciana’s dark eyes narrowed beneath pencil-thin eyebrows. “I heard a lot of commotion going on up here last night,” she said, attempting to peer over his shoulder.
    Alas, her true motive behind the visit became apparent. Mac drew the coffee back in and edged the door closed a little more. “Sorry if we kept you up, but it’s not a good time.”
    Her jeweled sandal wedged in the door before it could close. “I thought you said you and Mel were just friends.”
    Oh , boy. “That’s right.”
    “There was hanky-panky going on, I could hear you two.”
    “It’s none of your—”
    “I told you, if you ever need to party, you could come to me.”
    “Goodbye, Luciana.”
    But she still wouldn’t get her damned foot out of the door. Instead she leaned close and whispered, “You’ll regret sleeping with your roommate, Mac, I’m telling you. Tonight. I’ll be home, you just come down. I’ll take real good—”
    The woman’s hushed chatter came to an abrupt halt when a pair of small hands wrapped around his middle from behind. While dread hardened his expression, Luciana took a few steps back and gaped as a scantily clad Crystal placed herself under his arm.
    “Don’t worry, Red Light, I have him covered.”
    Crystal’s bold reference to hookers put Luciana’s back up. The woman tapped pink nails against her hip in distaste. “I dint’ know you were into boys, Boo.”
    Mac opened his mouth to reply, but Crystal beat him to it with deadpan calm. “That’s cute, coming from the one who had to pay for tits.”
    She whipped the T -shirt over her head just as she left the doorway, giving Luciana a brief glimpse of her feminine assets. The patch on her shoulder also stood out, but Mac wasn’t looking at that as she sauntered to his bed and sprawled over it like the main dish on a buffet table.
    “Oh, I get it,” Luciana purred behind him. “She has a boo-boo and needed you to kiss it for her.”
    “I got it in a knife fight,” Crystal replied then