Undercover Commitment

by Kathleen Long

• ISBN13: 9780373888405
• ISBN10: 0373888406
• Edition: Large
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-06-10
• Publisher: Harlequin

Excerpts

Body Clock: 6:20Eileen Caldwell sat in the Renaissance bar of the Grand Pittsburgh Hotel and stared at the myriad liquor bottles lined up against the leaded glass mirror. Old money.The place reeked of old money.She glanced around at her fellow Friday night revelers and thought again.The bar and hotel might scream old money, situated as they were along the north side of town, but the establishment's clientele suggested anything but. Brash and beautiful, the crowd was as young as it was plentiful.She leaned across the bar and signaled to Henry, the long-time bartender. "Are you sure he's usually here by now?"Eileen's younger brother, Jack, had asked her to meet him here tonight. Over two hours ago, to be precise.Henry nodded as he slid another glass of club soda in front of her. "By now he'd be well into his second scotch." He gave a shrug and a wink, his dark eyes twinkling. "Maybe he got a better offer."Eileen rolled her eyes at the man she'd once chatted with every Friday night. Back in the days before her older brother Robert had gone missing. Back in the days when she and Jack and Robert had sat here every Friday night without fail, commiserating about work and politics and life in general.Then everything had changed.Eileen had run away after Robert's disappearance. She could admit that now.But she'd finally come back. She'd come home. She'd been hoping the call from Jack had been a sign he'd chosen to forgive her for deserting him, for leaving him alone with the media and the memories.She stole a glance at the empty barstool by her side, the one she kept defending from predatory moves by twenty-something corporate types.Her heart sank.Maybe Jack wasn't going to show after all. Maybe he'd decided she wasn't worth forgiving. Not yet.She drew in a long, slow breath and took a sip of her drink. She wasn't giving up. Recent events had taught her family mattered, and Jack was all the family she had left.She pushed away from the stool, nodded to a nearby group of young women in their best Friday night suits and slid a generous tip toward Henry."Thanks," she called out.Henry reached for the bill, his fingertips brushing against hers. "Welcome home, Eileen."Welcome home.She let the words play through her mind as she made her way through the crowd toward the sidewalk outside. The lights of PNC Park sat dark across the Monongahela River and she stopped suddenly, turning back to study the bar.For a split second, time slipped away. Eileen remembered the bar as it had been when she'd been a regular. Less trendy. More empty than full.The image carried her back to the night five years earlier when she and Jack had waited for Robert for hours, just as she'd waited for Jack tonight.Robert had never shown up. Matter of fact, he'd never shown up anywhere ever again.His deserted car had been found an hour away, parked at the scenic Majestic Overlook.A sudden urge to drive to the very spot threatened to overwhelm her, but she shoved it away.What if Jack had reached out not to welcome her back, but to tell her he was neck-deep in some sort of trouble? A case more dangerous than usual?As employees of the United States Attorney's office and specialized task forces, both he and Robert had been involved in many dangerous cases.What if he hadn't stood her up by choice? What if something had gone horribly wrong?Eileen was letting her imagination get the best of her, and she knew it.Jack had just wrapped up one of the biggest arrests of his career. Successful convictions would shut down a major arm of the Basso crime family.Pride welled inside her, but was edged away instantly by dread. Why couldn't one of her brothers have chosen a safer career? Like her career?She laughed to herself. Both Jack and Robert would have been driven half-mad at the prospect of dealing with the ins and outs of hotel management.A cab cruised