Page 67 of Any Kind of Life

Had Juliet completely lost her mind in that moment? Yes, she believed she had. Thankfully, Paige hadn’t walked out on her after their ridiculous conversation, and now they were on the same page again. A page Juliet always wanted to be on. There wasn’t a single scenario where Juliet would want to live her life alone, not now that she had the most incredible woman by her side.

Paige was right. She couldn’t leave.

As she lowered her glass of water back down to the table, there was a gentle knock on the door.

“Come in.”

Hannah popped her head into the room as the door opened, smiling as tears streamed down her cheeks. “You don’t know how good it is to hear your voice again.”

Juliet snorted as Hannah closed the door. “You won’t be saying that soon. Not once I’m back on my feet.”

Hannah hesitated as she approached the bed, but then she leaned down and hugged Juliet. “How are you feeling?”

“Fucking terrible, to be honest.” Juliet rested back against the mass of pillows Paige had fixed behind her an hour ago and sighed. “But hey, I’m alive.”

“When Paige texted me last night and asked me not to come in to visit, I thought something had happened. A complication or something.” Hannah sat down in the seat next to Juliet’s bed and shook her head. “But you’re awake, and you have some colour in your cheeks now. That’s a good sign.”

Paige had texted Hannah last night after Juliet had asked her to. While she was looking forward to seeing friends again, she felt it was important to be alone with Paige. Last night just didn’t feel like the right time for visitors. Even Henry hadn’t come back once Juliet had texted him. “I needed some time last night. With coming around from the sedation and then realising what had happened, I wasn’t much company.”

“You don’t have to explain. Caz and I both understand.” Hannah squeezed Juliet’s hand. “Caz sends her love. She’ll be in to visit with me next time.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

The sooner Juliet was back at home, the better. But she also understood that recovering from something so major was going to take time. She wasn’t rushing anything. The bar would still be there when she was ready to face it all again. If she was ever ready to face it again.

“Hey, um…is everything okay with Paige?”

Juliet’s brows drew together. “Of course. She left about forty minutes ago to shower. Why?”

“When she called me yesterday to say you were awake, she sounded terrible. She was talking about leaving and asking if we would still be friends. I don’t know what was going on, but she wouldn’t give me much information.”

“Ah. That was my fault.” Juliet lowered her eyes to her hand in her lap. Hannah still held onto the other one. “When I woke up, I told her it would be for the best if she left Liverpool.”

“W-why?”

“For her safety and my sanity.” Juliet knew it was time to let their friends in on what was going on.

“I don’t understand. What does that even mean?”

“The attack was targeted, Hannah.”

Juliet watched a range of emotions cross Hannah’s face, but the one that settled was confusion. Understandable.

“Do you remember Ron Delehedy? One of the last cases I worked?”

Hannah screwed her face up. “You mean that slimy fat bastard who probably hasn’t seen his dick in thirty years?”

Juliet smiled. “Yes. That’s the one.”

“What about him?” Hannah crossed her legs, clearly ready to hear all the information.

“It was him. Well, he sent someone to attack me.” Juliet rested her head back and looked up at the ceiling. “Before I retired, someone stopped me in the street. A guy with face tattoos and a southern accent. He handed me an envelope and told me that one day it would be over for me.” Thinking back on that, Juliet was glad Henry was around. He’d probably held all of this back to a point. “I opened the envelope, and there was a picture of me outside court, with a black cross through my face.”

“Oh, my God!” Hannah gasped. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“The less people knew, the better. If someone was after me, I didn’t want to drag anyone else into it. And while they didn’t know who I worked with, everyone else was safe.”

“Is this why you suddenly decided on early retirement?”