Riley talked a little more about the cuffs and their fantastic strength, but Chevie zoned him out. What she needed was a moment or two of quiet time so her mind could settle down a bit after the Tasering Waldo had surprised her with.

I wasn’t expecting that. And how was it possible that Felix Smart had put out a Be On the Lookout for me on the network when he never made it back from the past?

Unless he did come back and holds me responsible for all the mayhem?

It didn’t sound likely or plausible.

Orange was with the hazmat team. He knows I didn’t kill them.

Riley was saying something. His tone was insistent, urgent even.

Chevie blinked the stars from her vision. “What? What is it, kid?”

“Your nose is bleeding, miss. Snort it up and hawk the lot out in one go. That’s the best thing for it.”

Snort it up and hawk it out.

Chevie did as she was told, spitting a ball of blood into the sink, and was surprised to find that the bleeding stopped immediately, though the snorting did make her head hurt a little more.

“Did Waldo shock you?”

“He did,” said Riley. “That electric pistol of his had me dancing the dotard’s jig on the floor. I woke just before you.”

“We need to get out of here, kid. You opened your cuffs back in Bedford Square. You got any more magic tricks down your sock?”

Riley glared at his own tethered wrists as though he could free them with mind power. “Not one, miss. How do you open a set of bracelets that don’t have no locks?”

You don’t was the answer to that question.

Chevie followed the logic of her train of thought, ignoring the waves of pain.

“Okay. We’re secured but safe. Waldo has the wrong end of the stick, but the cavalry are on the way, and we can clear things up when they get here. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. So long as we’re in this room, we stay alive.”

Riley frowned. “So this being trussed up like market fowl is a good thing?”

“In a way, yes.”

“No offense, miss, but maybe you being a female has clouded your judgment. If we dangle here for much longer, Garrick will slit our throats and watch us bleed. He won’t even need to mop up after me, for heaven’s sake, seeing as I am already in the tub.”

Chevie glanced sharply at the boy, surprised that he would make a joke, even a gruesome one, at such a time, but then she saw the fear in the boy’s eyes.

The poor guy lives with terror on a daily basis, she realized.