Time's Divide (The Chronos Files Book 3) Read Free

gives me a tight little smile. “Things change, Kate. That may well be the only un changing fact in the universe—everything changes.”

    Twenty minutes later, I’m once again in Max’s car with Trey, headed back to Katherine’s house. I’m holding a password-secured and encrypted tablet that I was cautioned to operate only when I’m under a CHRONOS field. Which is totally not a problem, since I’m never outside of a CHRONOS field.
    I’m supposed to meet Julia again on Friday morning at a location Max entered into my key. Julia assured me there’s more than enough content on this tablet to keep me busy until then.
    She also assured me—several times, in fact—that Mom will be fine and that it would be a very, very bad idea for me to go to London. And before I left the office, I promised her that I would wait to contact Mom.
    That promise was, of course, a complete and total lie.
    My only goal by that point was to get as much information from Julia as possible and then get the hell out of there. I don’t believe what she told me about Kiernan, and that makes me question everything else she said.
    I can’t really talk about anything substantive in front of this Max guy, so I just give Trey a noncommittal nonanswer when he asks how the meeting went and lean my head against his shoulder for the ride back to Bethesda. I apparently drift off, because it seems like only seconds pass before I feel Trey gently shaking my arm.
    Max stops at the spot where he picked us up. We’re halfway back to the hedge when he rolls down his window. “Hey, Kate. You left this in the backseat.”
    He’s holding a book. It looks like a CHRONOS diary.
    “Sorry,” I say. “Must belong to someone else.”
    “No. It’s yours .” His eyes lock onto mine, and then he looks over his shoulder at a dark blue van parked near the curb. “Here,” he insists, pushing the book toward me. “Would you just take it?”
    I do, and he peels off.
    “What was that all about?” Trey asks.
    “Not sure.” I look over at the van, which is usually parked on the street in front of Katherine’s. The van Kiernan says he hired to watch the house so he could funnel false information on our activities to Prudence.
    Assuming he was telling you the truth.
    The voice I hear is Julia’s. I hate that she’s planted that seed of doubt in my head.
    If I’m totally honest with myself, however, what Julia told me simply nurtured a seed that was already planted. The doubt has been in my mind since I saw Prudence with Kiernan in his cabin. It grew when he lied to me about Simon being in Georgia.
    But Kiernan explained all that. I believed him.
    I really, really want to keep believing.
    I give the van one last glare and follow Trey. We scale the fence into Katherine’s backyard, and the most trustworthy of our home security systems—Daphne—sounds the alarm a moment later.
    Katherine and Connor are in the kitchen. One look at Katherine’s face tells me she shouldn’t have waited up. I wish Connor had slipped some of her sleeping medication into her tea. She looks drained. I doubt she’s had any more sleep than I have the past few days, but since I’m five decades younger and not terminally ill, I handle exhaustion a little better.
    We move into the living room, and I try to calculate how much I can say when I’m certain we’re being monitored. If not by Julia’s people, then by Prudence’s. Or Saul’s. Or whoever the hell Kiernan is working for.
    Connor starts asking questions before I’ve figured out what to say, so I make a little kill gesture with my forefinger. I glance around the room before looking back at him. He raises his eyebrows, then gives me a faint nod and slumps back into the couch.
    I opt for the same lie I told Julia. There’s nothing they can do to help me if I run into trouble and nothing they can do to stop me from going, so . . .
    “I’ve decided to wait on London. It’s too risky right now. Julia assured me that Mom will