Page 19 of Criminally Yours

Her bright pink nails caught his eye as the sun rose above the hills in the distance. She smelt of berries and vanilla, of the summer they spent camping and the two perfect weeks they’d dated until he ran away.

Longing and familiarity were dangerous. If he allowed temptation to take hold, he’d open himself to the darkness. Besides, he’d no capacity for love anymore. It was destroyed by the things he’d done.

Trust and friendship came at a price.

For ten years, he’d thought about Millie. He knew more about her than she realised. When she’d panicked that Luke might see her apps, he suspected one of her worries was about her romance book account. She wasn’t entirely anonymous on there. He’d found it.

Now she was next to him, he’d do everything to protect her. But it couldn’t go further.

He gritted his teeth. The need for control threaded through his veins, pushing his heart rate, testing his breathing.

What if she was hiding something, or someone, on her phone? The idea that someone else got to touch her, spend time with her, and hear her talk about her life made him want to swing the car into park and demand she tell him everything so he could end those men.

He took a deep breath, and her fragrance surrounded him. He wound down the window, desperate to rid himself of the memories roaring back, breathing in the early spring morning. The scent of fir filled his lungs. The memory of telling her his feelings under a starry sky when he was nearly nineteen waslike a beast crashing through the walls he’d built to protect himself.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.

He glanced at her, sucking in a breath so sharp it hurt his chest.

“Yes. Fucking perfect,” he replied, his voice hitching as he spoke about her.

Tingles tickled the back of his neck as she turned, nearly catching him staring. He glanced at where a golden glow covered an emerald green landscape. Birds called to each other as gravel crunched under the tyres of his four-by-four. The world was bathed in the beauty of dawn.

“London has nothing on this place.” The lightness in her voice swirled around his heart.

The pull to know her, to ask her a billion questions while holding her close, had returned, but even though he followed her social media account and heard rumours from his parents about what she was up to, she was a stranger.

His heart was with teenage Millie.

He returned to looking at her. Her eyelashes fluttered, highlighting her beautiful brown eyes.

“Sleep okay?” Strike asked. He wanted to know why she hadn’t trained in general medicine. That had been her plan until the morning after they’d slept together. It was why he’d left.

“I guess.”

He stared at her until she spoke again. He needed her chatter.

“Will I get access to a phone? People will be suspicious if I’m absent.”

“Your parents and brother?”

Her shoulders tightened. “I have other people.”

“You can’t tell people where you are. You can’t postphotos on your social media… if you have social media. I presume you do because everyone does.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Do you?”

“Not really.” He pulled on the back of his neck while mumbling, “But everyone else does.”

He focused on the blues, pinks, and yellows covering the sky like layers of different coloured silks. It reminded him of Millie the morning after they’d lost their virginity to each other. That had been the best day of his life until everything had gone to shit. She’d looked like a goddess, with a golden aura that lit up everything around her, as she’d rested her head on his chest, her long blond hair with magenta streaks soft against his skin.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sensed her unease. He would die before he let her face danger again.

She pressed her palms into her legs before reaching into her pocket, pulling out a twisty fidget tool.

His lips quirked as she twisted the brightly coloured plastic tool into various shapes. “Stop staring at me. I’m not used to being awake without working or without a phone or book in my hands.”

“I have something similar.” He brushed her thigh as he reached for the glove box. It was an accident, but a sudden urge to stretch his hand around it and claim her stabbed him in the chest.