A_Wanted Man - Alana Matthews by Intrigue Romance Read Free Book Online Page A

desperately behind. After all, if she failed any of her courses she wouldn’t get her degree in criminology, and that would screw up the timeline they’d all mapped out.
    The irony in this wasn’t lost on her. Maybe if she’d taken a short break, just an hour or two away from the books, she could have done what Harlan had failed to do and everything would be on track.
    Treacher would be alive.
    And she and Harlan would be…
    Way to wallow in the mud, Callie.
    She shook her head and stared morosely at her half-eaten burger, chastising herself for getting caught up in this nonsense again. She had a new life now. A job she did well in a town where she felt wanted. Friends, people who loved her. Nana Jean.
    She needed to suck it up and get past this day. Bury her feelings for a while and do what the county of Williamson paid her to do. Help Harlan catch his fugitive and Jim Farber’s killer, then say goodbye to the past once and for all.
    She had convinced herself that this was exactly what she was going to do, when her cell phone bleeped and she put it to her ear.
    “Deputy Glass.”
    “Callie?”
    The voice was familiar. “Yes, who is this?”
    “It’s Judith, dear. Judith Patterson. I don’t want you to worry, but we’re on our way to County Memorial and I think you need to meet us there.”
    “What’s wrong?” Callie asked. “What happened?”
    “It’s your Nana Jean,” Judith told her. “She’s had an accident.”
     
     
    C ALLIE GOT TO THE HOSPITAL shortly after Judith and Nana Jean arrived. Judith was guiding Nana through the Emergency Room doorway, Nana keeping a towel clamped to her forehead.
    “I’m all right,” she said, “it’s just a cut. No big deal.”
    Callie took over for Judith. “What happened?”
    “I tripped on that stupid throw rug. Hit my head on the edge of the coffee table. I don’t know why Judith insisted I come here.”
    But when Callie caught Judith’s gaze, she could see from her look that there was more to it than that.
    A few minutes later a nurse brought a wheelchair and rolled Nana into the exam room and Judith turned to Callie.
    “I saw the whole thing,” she said. “She didn’t trip. She had one of her dizzy spells and fell.”
    Callie nodded. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
    “There was a lot of blood, too. Thank God Henry and I were there to drive her to the hospital.”
    Callie glanced out the large bay windows toward the parking lot and saw the plumber lock his van before heading toward the Emergency Room.
    Had Nana invited Judith and him back to the house for dinner?
    Did she not listen to Callie at all ?
    “It’s getting to the point where I don’t feel comfortable leaving her alone,” she said to Judith. “I’m gonna have to find some kind of solution. Hire a caregiver or something.”
    “Well, don’t say that too loud. You’re grandmother’s as stubborn as they come and she won’t take kindly to some stranger in the house.”
    Henry the plumber was getting closer by the moment. Callie had no idea if he was in on this matchmaking scheme, but she wasn’t interested in yet another awkward moment. She’d had enough of those for one day.
    “Well, she’ll just have to get used to it,” she told Judith, then started in the direction the nurse had wheeled Nana. “I’d better go check on her.”
    A moment later Callie was standing in a curtained cubicle as the doctor examined the gash on Nana’s forehead.
    “We’ll put a butterfly bandage on it, but you won’t need any stitches.”
    “I told Judith it was a just a scratch.”
    The doctor opened a drawer in a nearby cart. “Well, it’s a bit more than that Ms. Glass. She was smart to bring you here. Head wounds tend to bleed a lot and you could have lost a significant amount of blood.”
    Nana frowned. “Oh, for goodness sake, you’d think it was the first time I ever cut myself.”
    “Judith had a right to be concerned,” Callie said. “Did you tell the doctor about the dizzy