“You still owe me,” she says.
I turn. “What?”
“You owe me a link to that sword-fighting class. You probably also owe me a lift to it. The least you can do, really, since I saved your ass.”
“You saved my ass about as much as I solved your case, which is, I believe, about fifty-fifty of each. We’re taking turns driving to class.”
She gives me her personal email address, and we talk for another minute, and as I walk away, I think back to that moment in the park with Kim, when I thought she was someone I could talk to, someone I could relate to. I may have actually found that, just not in the place I expected.
I walk out to find Paul waiting. He says nothing, just takes my hand, fingers interlocking with mine, and leads me to the parking lot, where the officers let us bring our car earlier.
“How are you doing?” he asks when we reach the car.
“I’m glad it worked out but…” I shake my head and climb in the passenger side.
When he’s in, I say, “I’m sorry. Yes, it all worked out, but I could have gotten you killed. I was in over my head. Way over my head.”
He manages a smile. “Seems like you were swimming just fine. You didn’t drag me in, Bree. We both underestimated the situation, but neither of us went in with our eyes closed. I’m a lawyer. I knew I was getting involved in something potentially dangerous, and I chose to do so.”
I nod and say nothing, just turn to stare out the window.
He backs the car out. “I’m fine. Charlie’s fine. You’re fine. And so is Brandon.”
I nod again.
He drives from the lot. A couple of minutes pass, and then he starts to say something, but I’m already speaking, saying, “Does this change anything?”
His fingers tighten on the wheel.
“I don’t mean with us,” I say. “You stuck by me, and you can’t imagine how much I appreciated that, but I know it doesn’t mean things have changed. I’m talking about Charlie. You knew what I was … and now you’ve seen what I can be. What I’m capable of. Does that change anything with her? With the custody? I know that after what’s happened, you might not think I’m the most responsible parent, but I swear, I would never have done any of this with her around.”
He nods. That’s all he does. He nods, and my heart hammers.
“Paul—”
“We’ll discuss that later.” He makes a sharp right. “First, I want to show you something.”
As we ride in silence, I can barely breathe. When I asked if this changed his opinion of me as a mother, I was hoping he’d say of course not, that he’d acknowledge that I’d looked after Charlotte first, that he’d say he knows I’m a good mother. Instead, he’s made that sharp—angry?—turn and ended the conversation.
He takes us to a new subdivision on the edge of Oxford. It’s one I’ve never seen before. He drives onto a street of duplexes, a few inhabited, some still under construction. He pulls into the drive of a finished one with darkened windows. Then he gets out.
When I don’t follow, he waves for me. I carefully climb from the car.
“What do you think?” he says.
It takes me a moment to realize he’s talking about the duplex.
“It’s … nice?” I say. “Is this…? Do you mean as a possible place for me?”
He nods. I just keep looking from him to the duplex. Is this his way of saying he still wants to support me? Or is he changing the subject, distracting me from talk of custody?
“I … I’m not sure I could afford it,” I say. “I have the down payment, but I should wait until I have a new job. I’ll get a full-time one. I should—since I don’t have Charlie to look after.”
“Do you want Charlie to look after?”
My heart leaps, but I keep my expression neutral.
“In an ideal world, Bree, what would you want?” he says. “No pressure. No judgment. Full-time job? Full-time parent? Part-time both? Go back to school?”
“I…”
“Perfect world. Just tell me.”
“I loved being home full-time but…”
“No judgment.”
I take a deep breath. “In a perfect world, I’d stay home with Charlie and go back to school part-time. I’d let her go to daycare a couple of days a week because I think it’s been good for her.”
“Then that’s what you’ll do.”
I nod. “Okay, I’ll find a better apartment—”
“I’d like you to live here, Aubrey. The left-hand unit has a nice sunroom you can use as a study. The right-hand one is better for me—the office has a lousy view, which will keep me from getting distracted.”
I turn to look at him.
“This is for us,” he says. He steps toward me. “You’re concerned that I don’t want you parenting our daughter anymore. This is my answer. I found it yesterday, and I haven’t changed my mind. I would like to change the custody arrangement. To this.” He nods at the duplex. “Extreme co-parenting. If you’d be interested.”
Tears prickle my eyelids. “I would absolutely be interested.”
He shoves his hands into his pockets. “I’d love to just ask you to move back into the house, so we can try again, but even if you want to try again—”
“I do.”
“Then I think we need to get to know each other first. Start over, and let me meet the real Aubrey.” He looks up at the house. “Which will be a lot easier like this.”
He smiles. “Yes, I guess you do. And if it works…” He shrugs. “The neighborhood is a work in progress. It’s a good investment. Easy to sell if we want closer quarters. I just don’t want to rush. I’m sorry. I know that’s not the most romantic solution—”
I throw my arms around his neck. “It’s the perfect solution. Thank you.”
He kisses me, a long and passionate kiss. When he pulls back, he says, “Will you come with me to get Charlie?”
“That depends. Think we can find a hotel along the way?”
His brows arch.
I grin. “Well, you did say you want to get to know me again. Not to rush or anything…”
“That doesn’t sound like rushing at all. Perfectly logical.” He puts his arm around my waist and leads me back to the car. “I’ll tell my mother to expect us first thing in the morning.”
Also by Kelley Armstrong
Rockton
Watcher in the Woods
This Fallen Prey
A Darkness Absolute
City of the Lost
Cainsville
Rituals
Betrayals
Visions
Omens
Deceptions
Age of Legends
Forest of Ruin
Empire of Night
Sea of Shadows
The Blackwell Pages (cowritten with Melissa Mar)
Thor’s Serpents
Odin’s Ravens
Loki’s Wolves
Otherworld
Thirteen
Spell Bound
Waking the Witch
Frostbitten
Living with the Dead
Personal Demon
No Humans Involved
Broken
Haunted
Industrial Magic
Dime Store Magic
Stolen
Bitten
Darkest Powers & Darkness Rising
The Rising
The Gathering
The Reckoning
The Awakening
The Summoning
Nadia Stafford
Wild Justice
Made to Be Broken
Exit Strategy
Stand-alone novels
Aftermath
Missing
The Masked Truth
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
KELLEY ARMSTRONG graduated with a degree in psychology and then studied computer programming. Now she is a full-time writer and parent.
She lives with her husband and three children in rural Ontario, Canada. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Also by Kelley Armstrong
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
WHEREVER SHE GOES. Copyright © 2019 by KLA Fricke Inc. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Armstrong, Kelley, author.
Title: Wherever she goes / Kelley Armstrong.
Description: First edition.|New York: Minotaur Books, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019002288|ISBN 9781250181350 (hardcover)|ISBN 9781250181367 (ebook)
Subjects:|GSAFD: Suspense fiction.
Classification: LCC PR9199.4.A8777 W47 2019|DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019002288
eISBN 9781250181367
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First Edition: June 2019