“Eliza,” Dorothy said, slowly lifting her hands to show that she was unarmed and therefore not a threat to her. “You don’t have to do this. You could pretend that you never saw me.”

The corner of Eliza’s mouth twitched. “And why on earth would I do that, little Fox?”

Dorothy opened her mouth but found that she couldn’t come up with an answer. She had no money, no power, nothing to bribe the other girl with.

Eliza, smirking, seemed to realize this at the exact same moment that Dorothy did. She turned and called, over her shoulder, “Mac! Seems we’ve had an old friend drop in on us.”

Dorothy felt a muscle in her jaw tighten as Mac Murphy turned, his eyes lighting with glee at the sight of her. She checked to make sure that the stolen EM was well hidden in her cloak. It was. Thank goodness for small mercies.

Mac took his time making his way to the back of the garage. He’d been shot in the leg not long ago—by Chandra, Dorothy knew now—and, though he no longer needed to use crutches to get around, he still walked with a bit of a limp, his knee not quite bending the way it was supposed to.

He used that disability to his advantage, taking his time and walking slowly across the garage, making her wait. The Cirkus Freaks who’d been distracted by the time machine now turned their attention to Dorothy, curious, she was sure, to see what terrible things Mac had planned for her.

She forced herself to hold her chin high, to keep her shoulders back. Whatever he wanted from her, she would face it head-on.

“Quinn,” Mac said, grinning delightedly. “I figured you’d be halfway to the Center by now.”

It was a cruel jab. Mac had allies working the borders that separated the Center states from the Western Territories, but he had to know that Dorothy didn’t have such resources. Without a time machine, she was trapped here.

She refused to give him the satisfaction of pointing this out. “And miss seeing your smiling face,” she said, through a tight smile of her own. “Not likely.”

Mac laughed, a deep rumble in his belly that almost seemed genuine. “I should have killed you days ago,” he said when he’d finished, wiping a tear from his cheek with his thumb. “But I have to admit, I would’ve missed these moments together.”

The Cirkus Freaks were gathering in a loose circle around them, blocking the doors, making sure there wasn’t a way for her to escape. She felt a nerve near her eye twitch as she marked the few exits, all of which had been blocked. Blast.

Mac pulled a gun from his waistband and let it dangle, lazily, from one hand. Dorothy knew he meant it as a threat, and so she refused to look at it.