Loretta had waved all of that away. “No, no, none of that will work. He’s already planning on going after you and Ash, isn’t he? What else?”

Dorothy had frowned, thinking. “I’d say he needed new muscle after losing me and Roman, but . . .”

Her voice had trailed off, her eyes lighting up. “Oh,” she’d said. “I . . . I think I have an idea. A good one.”

Ash frowned, not following. “Do you care to share with the rest of the group?”

“It’s something my mother said that made me think of it. . . . Men like Mac, they tend to not have a lot of personal relationships,” Dorothy added carefully. “It’s how my mother and I managed to make so much money so easily. Powerful men are so used to everyone around them cowering in fear that they have no idea when they’re being played. It makes them easy marks.”

“So you’re going to . . . what exactly?” Ash asked Dorothy. He took a sip of his tea, thinking, and when the idea occurred to him he nearly choked it back up. “Seduce him?”

Loretta and Dorothy exchanged a look, grinning.

“Not me,” said Dorothy.

37

Dorothy

Dorothy’s eyes were open, but only just.

She watched a pair of black boots make their way through the screaming crowd. The boots stopped a few feet before her and paused. A voice cut above the shouts.

“Eliza! Bennett! A little help with the bodies.”

It was Regan Rose. Dorothy was careful not to breathe too deeply, lest she give herself away, as someone slipped their hands beneath her armpits and hauled her up off the ground.

“She looked a lot smaller before she was dead,” Bennett grumbled.

“You think she looked smaller?” Eliza grunted. From the labored sound of her voice, Dorothy guessed she was busy hauling Ash.

“Enough,” Regan said, and there was a sudden, sharp sound of a clap. “Take them into the back where we won’t have to look at them.”

Dorothy held her breath to keep her chest from ballooning. She didn’t dare open her eyes any more than they already were, and so she couldn’t see Ash being dragged around behind her, but she could hear the sound of his boots thudding over the ground, and so she knew he was right behind her.

Good, good, she thought.

The sounds of shouting and arguing faded as they were dragged into a back room, far from the other Cirkus Freaks. Eliza dropped Dorothy onto the ground, which hurt, and she heard another thump, which had to mean that Ash had been dropped beside her.

“Let’s go, I want to see what’s going on back there,” said Bennett.

“Yeah,” said Eliza, and there was a shuffling sound of footsteps and the two of them were gone.

Ash and Dorothy were alone with Regan.

“You can open your eyes now,” Regan said. “They’ve gone.”