Page 40 of Criminally Yours

Heat coiled in his belly when she scowled at him. He needed to get out of here before he did something stupid.

“My. Way.” He turned on his heel. “Jeff, with me.”

But Jeff nudged Millie for strokes.

Strike grunted, digging his fingers into his palms, and walked away.

CHAPTER 17

Millie

After a breakfast that Strike didn’t join, Millie checked her phone, but the only emails were from her clients and family. Her clients were mostly grateful she’d organised new counsellors for them due to her “family situation.” Only her mum and Dexter had her number.

Her mum sent over photos of her parents sunning themselves on the cruise and a message asking why she was using a new number, as if she hadn’t already explained it.

She fiddled with the fidget tool Strike hadn’t requested back and replied.

Millie: Just an issue with my phone. Nothing to worry about.

She recalled the speed of his fingers when he played with it. She’d read books where soldiers deactivated guns in less than a minute. He’d be able to do that.

She glanced at the doorway, expecting him to appear, but he wasn’t there.

Her fingers tapped on the phone’s app store.She didn’t want to download the app she used to sext random men, but the chat with Strike left her on edge. She’d never tell him he was the one man she’d slept with. He’d pity her, or worse.

Besides, he wasn’t a man at the end of an app she could ignore when it got too intense.

Millie tidied the clothes and books from Liss into a new rucksack as she waited for Strike. She wanted to stop feeling powerless, but the app wouldn’t be enough.

She checked her laptop, wondering if she should contact anyone else from her Hugo list.

Her phone vibrated with a call.

“Why have you got a new number?” Dexter asked as soon as she answered.

“Ignoring pleasantries as usual.” Millie sat on her bed. “No ‘hello, beautiful sister. How are you?’”

Dexter grumbled. “Hey, little sister, why are you always so difficult? Mum messaged me. She’s concerned about you.”

“What’s new?” One minute her mum told her she wasn’t living her life, the next she worried because Millie was doing as asked.

Dexter huffed. She hated that sound. It made her feel incompetent. “She cares about you. You know what she’s like.”

“You don’t need to check up on me because she told you to. I have a flat, a job I’m good at, and I function bloody well considering my family thinks I can’t change my number without the full force of the army getting involved,” she snapped. Her head dropped, and she fiddled with Strike’s fidget tool. “I lost my phone and needed a temporary replacement.”

A shadow appeared in her doorway. Strike met her stare.

Sorry, he mouthed.

Millie beckoned him in, and he sat beside her as Dexter lectured. If anyone understood her family’s behaviour, it wasStrike, although he must pity her because her family still treated her like she was a child.

“We all worry about you. You went to that singles evening and then changed your number. It’s out of character,” Dexter replied.

“It’s a coincidence. I forget how predictable I am.”

Strike reached for the tool, running the twisty plastic between his fingers. He pushed up the sleeves of his Henley, revealing the little hairs covering his defined forearms.

Fighting with him earlier had given her a buzz. He wanted to protect her, but he still snapped at her. As she imagined how much fun he’d be to wrestle, her face heated.