Commitment Read Online Free PDF Page A

congressman,” he said dryly.
    “Guess I won’t expect you to pay for the wedding,” she quipped. Admiral Brackett chuckled. “So…then, what is it, Daddy? No dinner. No stories. What is it that you called me here for?
    He smiled and took a seat on the edge of his tall, wooden desk. “Seems your friends misplaced something that youtook for them,” he said. Claire Brackett’s expression became tauter, but she did not respond. “Oh, what?” her father asked. “You give me credit for knowing your relationship with Dimitri, but you think your efforts with Agent Anderson would somehow escape my notice?” He nodded with a sarcastic smile. His daughter remained silent, but he could see the stiffening of her posture. It would be difficult for most people to read Claire Brackett, but for her father she remained largely an open book. It was the Achilles Heel that Claire still refused to acknowledge. He rose from his makeshift seat and paced the room slowly as he continued. “I wonder how Dimitri will feel when he realizes that his nuclear material is missing.” He let his statement lie for a moment and then turned to face his daughter. “Do you think he will blame you?” Claire remained stoic. “No. Of course not. You simply liberated it from Carecom, and that was months ago…and right out from under Agent Toles, I might add. Now,
that
is something.” His compliment was caustic at best, and he saw the almost imperceptible twitch of his daughter’s eyelid. “Well, knowing Dmitri and his uncle, my bet is that he
will
blame you. You and Agent Anderson…and, if I were a betting man, that very nice man who charged you with such an enormously difficult task.”
    “Is there a point to this?” Claire finally asked.
    “You are my daughter, Claire. Contrary to your beliefs I would prefer you stay alive.”
    “I’m sure,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
    The admiral studied his daughter from across the room. “I would suggest you find it, but I’m certain Agent Toles and Agent Krause are already on that.” He watched as the young woman’s pupils dilated.
    “So your point in this meeting was to bait me with Alex Toles?”
    “No. Not at all.”
    Claire Brackett stood indignantly. “Well, thank you for the enlightening chat. You always were focused on my education,” she offered smugly.
    “Education is the best investment anyone can make in themselves, Claire…. Particularly in your line of work.”
    She smirked and moved toward him, slowly leaning in and kissing his cheek. Softly she whispered in his ear. “Nice move. I’m not your pawn to play,” she hissed.
    The admiral stood perfectly still and unwavering in expression as he watched his daughter leave the room. He waited several long beats before lifting the receiver of his phone. “Yes…. She just left….Hook, line, and sinker…..I am certain. She’ll contact him any minute….Just be cautious. She may light the way down the path, but don’t expect that path to be clear…… Watch yourself.”

    Alex walked through the door of her mother’s house and collapsed against it momentarily. She set down a small bag in her hand, then her briefcase. She tossed her keys on top of the case and pinched the bridge of her nose. The house was quiet. She suspected her mother had retired early, and she felt herself wading through a mixture of disappointment and relief that she was alone. It had been a long few days. She glanced up the staircase in front of her and gently massaged her temples. The weight of her conversation with Jonathan Krause was size-able. Alex learned early on in her career that when she felt a twinge in her gut she needed to pay close attention. Right now, she felt ill. Everything within her was telling her that Russ Matthews was in trouble. She feared that whatever retaliation Viktor Ivanov and the former Russian contingent of The Collaborative chose to take; it would have a larger purpose on a much grander scale.
    Worse, at least for