Free A_Wanted Man - Alana Matthews by Intrigue Romance Page B

enough of her grandfather’s “attention,” then that would surely be a motive to pick up a gun and shoot the old man.
    But what about Gloria? Was she complicit in her father’s crimes? Is that why she’d reacted so violently? If so, then it was no wonder that she’d been shot as well.
    Callie’s gut churned. The thought that she shared DNA with these people made her want to throw up.
    She and Harlan were back in her SUV, headed to the ranch to pick up Harlan’s cruiser, his question still hanging in the air.
    “Well?” he said.
    “You’re a reasonably intelligent man,” she told him. “I think you can figure it out.”
    He shook his head in disgust. “I was hoping I was wrong. Makes me feel a little guilty for pushing her buttons like that.”
    “Imagine how I feel.”
    He turned to her now, those blue eyes of his studying her as she gripped the wheel. “Gloria isn’t the only one keeping secrets, is she?”
    “It isn’t exactly a secret. It’s just not something I talk about.”
    “Are you ready to talk about it now ?”
    She shrugged. “There isn’t much to tell. My mother and Gloria’s brother were an item in high school, and she and Gloria were best friends. Until she got pregnant, that is.”
    “And that was your mother’s fault, right?”
    “Gloria thought so, and never forgave her for it. She looks at me and all she sees is the reason her brother is dead.”
    “Why? What happened to him?”
    “Jonah made him enlist in the army when they found out my mom was pregnant and he got killed in a truck accident. Which is a shame, because Nana Jean says he was the only decent Pritchard this side of Sheridan. Didn’t have that air of entitlement the rest of them do. It would’ve been nice to have gotten to know the man.”
    Callie had never really missed her parents because she’d grown up without them, but she did sometimes let the “what ifs” occupy her mind.
    She looked at Harlan and couldn’t be sure, but thought he might be upset by these revelations.
    “Is something wrong?”
    He shook his head. “It’s just that I can’t believe we were together for nearly two and a half years and you never said a word to me about any of this.”
    “It didn’t really affect us, and I didn’t want to burden you with my family drama.”
    “That’s just it,” he said. “It wouldn’t have been a burden. I was in love with you, Callie. I wanted to know everything there was to know about you.”
    She looked at him again—at those blue eyes still fixed on her—and she remembered that beneath his hard exterior he had always had a soft heart. Gentle. Empathetic.
    He’d been a kind lover, too. Aggressive but never rough, and always attentive to her needs, physically and emotionally. So of course he would want to know everything about her.
    That was who Harlan was .
    Remembering this, Callie felt her heart kick up. She had been in love, too. The kind of love that made her anxious to wake up every morning. To see him. Touch him. Feel the embrace of those eyes. Those lips.
    Those hands.
    She missed that feeling. Missed the comfort of it. The excitement.
    But after Treacher had been killed, all of that had stopped. Grief had consumed her, made her impossible to be around. The circumstances surrounding his death had made her cruel and judgmental and inconsolable. She hadn’t wanted Harlan anywhere near her.
    Who would have thought that the loss of a close friend could do that to her? To them? Yet it had. And in the process she’d not only lost someone she’d thought of as a brother, but also the man she loved.
    Two for the price of one.
    Returning her attention to the road, she wondered why she still felt so angry at Harlan.
    Did he really deserve her scorn?
    Wasn’t it time to forgive and forget?
    Her feelings for him hadn’t vanished—anyone paying close attention knew that. Otherwise she’d be indifferent to him, unwilling to waste any mental bandwidth thinking about him. And it was becoming