Page 43 of Criminally Yours

He froze.

If he’d known this, he would’ve talked to her and not let slip to her mum when he’d bumped into her that day that Millie was considering ditching medicine. If he could revisit that day with his adult confidence and ability to be less impulsive, it would’ve been so different.

“How did your parents take it when you said you wanted to change your subject?”

Millie shrugged as she walked away. “Mum and I argued a lot.” Strike forced himself to walk at her pace. “They said it was a whim. After we learned you’d left, they waited for me to change my mind. Mum suspected you’d put the idea in my head. When I got to university, I was scared I’d made a mistake. But I volunteered with the student helpline and knew.”

“All those times listening to me when we were growing up were great practice for you.” His laugh was hollow. The secret of why he’d left was like a furball clogging his throat. There was also the mystery of the letter. In the chaos of Randolph’s call the day before, she must have forgotten he’d mentioned it.

Millie rubbed his forehead like he’d rubbed hers. He pressed himself against the morsel of sweetness she offered. “You’re not the robot they say you are. Your distress is obvious. What are you thinking?”

He took her hand from his forehead and held it in his as they walked. “Let’s focus on a plan to get you home.”

“I’m listening.” She squeezed his hand, although herhuff carried on the breeze swirling around them. She was so soft. He needed that to dull his hard edges.

He cleared his throat. “You, me, and Cam will drive to the police station and meet Casey.”

“Cam is coming because?”

“It helps to have two people covering all bases. It means we can keep you safe.”

Strike sensed her staring at him, but he kept his focus forward.

“So we’ll go to the police station, and I’ll give my statement, and then this will all be over.”

“Yep. Happy with everything?”

She scratched her neck with her other hand.

“We can change the plan if you want, Mixie. Whatever works for you.”

She stuttered, “No, it’s great. I can get home, and we’ll never see each other again. Perfect.”

“Exactly,” he replied, his head dropping as all the joy from the past few days dispersed to be replaced by the darkness that always ate at him.

The dogs ran to the edge of the field to roll in the mud. Liss would kill him, but she deserved payback.

“And what does normal life look like for you?”

“Working until I drop and getting annoyed with Liss and Bear.” He shrugged.And scrolling your social media once a month.

“You’ve not got women to get back to?”

He shook his head as Jeff screeched in pain. The sound wrenched through him. Millie ran before he could stop her or assess the situation.

“Stop!” But she fixated on the dogs. Desperation to join her tore at him, but he did a visual assessment, like he should’ve done as they spoke, before he took off behind her, catching her quickly. “When did youget so fast?”

“I kept up with those drills you made me do when I was a teenager. You loved telling me what to do even then,” she panted as they reached the dogs.

Roy whined, and Jeff squealed every time he lowered his paw.

Millie knelt, covering her leggings in mud as she studied Jeff’s paw. He tried to pull away.

“Let me,” Strike said, joining her. Jeff licked and nibbled at his hand as Strike investigated the source of the pain.

Millie held Roy close as she stared. Strike’s need to comfort and protect the whole group was like a lump of rock stuck in his chest.

“He’s got a thorn in there. I need to get him back so I can remove it with tweezers.” He’d experienced so much pain and death in combat, but having this dog, the one who always sat with him when he visited, squealing and hurt left him shaking.