Time for Love Read Free

dead woman.”
    “Look at the date of the article.”
    Her gaze traveled to the upper corner of the page. “Eighteen ei…” her voice trailed off as she stared uncomprehendingly at the year. Couldn’t be .
    “Eighteen hundred eighteen. Almost two hundred years in the past. But two months from today.”
    A laugh bubbled up, and she crushed the page in her hand. “You’re insane. What the hell is all this about?” She jumped up and shook the crumpled page in front of her. “I came here because I thought you might know something about my sister’s disappearance, and you’re playing games?”
    Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she struggled for control. He was lucky he sat behind a desk. If he were any closer, she’d use that knife-hand strike on him she’d been perfecting in her karate class.
    “Calm down, Miss Turner. I’m not playing games. Honest.”
    Alex sat back down and concentrated on smoothing out the wrinkled paper across her lap. On the off chance he actually knew something real about her sister, she had to see this through. She just hoped she could do it without punching him.
    “Thank you.” His chair creaked as he leaned back, apparently settling in to explain as he launched into a long winded and increasingly fantastical tale. “About thirty years ago, Griffin International was conducting an experiment when something went horribly wrong.”
    “What was the experiment?”
    “That’s neither here nor there. Suffice it to say, things did not go as planned. An explosion destroyed some very valuable equipment and killed several of our employees.”
    Alex raised her eyebrows. His tone of voice gave her the impression he cared more for the equipment loss than the people who died. Her impression of the man sank lower and lower the longer she was in his presence.
    “We sent teams to investigate and discovered these...” He circled his hands in the air before his face. “…swirling vortexes in place of our equipment. That was amazing enough, but we also found several bodies that didn’t belong.”
    “What do you mean they didn’t belong?”
    “They weren’t the bodies of our people. Not only that, but they were dressed strangely as well. During our investigations, we discovered the vortexes were portals into the past.”
    “Time portals?” She couldn’t help glancing behind her at the door. Five steps and she’d be out of here.
    Something kept her in her seat. She couldn’t shake the feeling Sawyer was serious. He actually believed the crap spewing out of his mouth. He was crazy all right. But did he know anything about Charlotte? That question kept her from running out the door.
    “Yes. I know it’s difficult to accept, but Griffin International discovered time travel. It’s amazing actually. We’ve opened up an entirely new division of the company to handle it and have been able to charge an exorbitant fee for its use. We naturally have to be discreet in the clients we approach, yet it’s been immensely profitable.”
    Alex held up a hand to keep him from going on about the benefits to his company. “Assuming this is real and you’re not off your rocker, what does all this have to do with Charlotte?”
    “Ah, yes.” He sighed. “As I mentioned earlier, Miss Evans is one of our clients. She was using a portal outside London to research the ancestors I mentioned earlier. She had just returned from a trip when a cave-in forced her back through the portal and trapped her in the past. We are working as quickly as possible to clear the portal, but it’s been slow going and according to this article…” He pointed at the page spread open on Alex’s lap. “…we’re running out of time.”
    “How did you find this article? And what makes you think it’s about Charlotte?”
    “Immediately following the accident, I had a team of our in-house researchers scour the period newspapers for evidence of Miss Evans. They flagged this article based on the