Dorothy hoped she might manage to sneak back outside and to her time machine. But, almost as soon as she stepped into the main hall, she heard voices.

“This the woman you were telling me about?”

Dorothy froze, her skin creeping. That was Mac.

She hid behind a bit of moldy wallpaper and ducked her head around to see what was going on.

A group of Cirkus Freaks had gathered a few feet away, near the very door that she’d been planning to slip through. One of them was Eliza, Dorothy saw, her nose wrinkling. They weren’t looking her way, and so she breathed a little easier. They must not have heard her on the stairs. A small bit of luck.

“It is,” Eliza said, her shark’s smile glinting in the dim light. “Mac, meet Regan Rose.”

Dorothy hadn’t noticed the woman in black standing among them until she took a step forward, separating herself from the crowd. She looked exactly as she did in Dorothy’s present timeline: small frame, black cloak, and mask and gloves. Studying her, Dorothy felt a little ripple of hysteria move through her body.

She forced herself to stay quiet as she listened.

“Charmed,” Mac Murphy was saying, his voice gruff. He didn’t let even a hint of a smile invade his face as he took one of Regan’s small, gloved hands into his own meaty one. “Tell me why I haven’t heard of you before now.”

He seemed to be trying his best to intimidate her, but Regan was poised and calm behind her black mask. “A woman in my line of work does best to keep her reputation under wraps,” she said in a low, husky voice.

Mac considered her for a long moment. He sniffed. “And you know what we’re looking for?”

Regan inclined her head in a slight nod. “I’ve heard that Quinn Fox will soon be out of employ. It seems you’ll need a replacement.”

Mac raised his eyebrows, pausing to exam her more closely. “You tell her that?” he asked Eliza.

Eliza shook her head.

Mac said, to Regan now, “All right, love, where are you getting your information?”

“You can hardly expect me to answer that,” said Regan.

Mac’s nostrils twitched.

In her hiding place, Dorothy bristled. So this was what he’d been doing while she and Roman were messing about in the past. She’d known for a while that Mac had been working against them, but it felt like another thing entirely to witness it, to hear evidence of his treachery and her gang’s disloyalty with her own ears. It made her want to scream.

Mac rubbed his chin as he studied Regan, his lips twisting: almost a smile. “And would you be interested in an arrangement like that?”

“That would depend. What are your plans for after?”