Any Kind of Life (Hush Liverpool #4)

Chapter 16

Paige practically jogged through the city, desperate to see Juliet. So what if she’d told Paige to stay at home? She needed to be here. She just knew the bar was going to look out of this world amazing. Anything Juliet put her hand to often ended up that way, anyway. And if Paige could get Cara out of the place soon enough, she would be christening the new furnishings very soon.

She reached the road The Hideout was on, taking her keys from her jacket pocket. Maybe they could have the first cocktails in the new bar; maybe they’d just end up back at the apartment in record timing. Paige didn’t know, and today she didn’t care. So long as every minute from this point on was with Juliet, she would work a double shift if it was required.

Paige unlocked the main heavy bolted lock, then twisted another key in the smaller, automatic one. “Babe, I’m here!” Wanting to enjoy the moment, Paige took the stairs slowly. She could smell the fresh paint, the odour mixed in with ground coffee beans. Huh . A coffee was something Paige would certainly enjoy right about now.

Or an espresso martini , she grinned.

“Babe? Can I come in? Did you want to do some grand unveiling?”

Nothing.

Well, that was an anti-climax!

“Fine. Don’t hand me champagne as I walk through the door.” Paige reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes closed as she turned and took a couple of steps into the bar. She wanted to open them, but she also wanted to build the anticipation. “Last chance, Juliet!”

Still nothing.

Paige opened her eyes, her world slowing around her. Juliet was lying on the floor. “Babe?” She rushed to her side and dropped to her knees, landing in a pool of blood as she did so. “Oh, shit. No, no, no .” Shaking, she took off her jacket and her shirt and pressed them to the wound on the right side of Juliet’s stomach. “Babe, I need you to wake up for me. Please, please wake up.” She reached for Juliet’s phone, throwing it against the wall when she realised it was dead, the screen destroyed.

Okay, calm down and think . Paige kept pressure on the wound, fishing for her phone in her jeans pocket. She called Henry’s number, sobbing when it connected.

“Hey, Paige. How’s it going? You back in Liverpool now?”

“Where the fuck are you? Get to the bar NOW!”

“Paige, calm down. What’s going on?”

“It’s Juliet.” Paige sobbed harder, holding her phone between her ear and her shoulder. “Someone got to her. I have to go. I need to call an ambulance.”

She ended the call and dialled 999.

When the operator asked which service she required, they connected her to the ambulance. “Ambulance. Is the patient breathing?”

“I… Yes, I think so.” Paige checked for a pulse. It was faint, but it was there. She was sure it was. “S-she has a pulse…barely. I think s-she’s been stabbed. In her stomach.” Paige held back the urge to vomit at those words. “Address is The Hideout. It’s a hidden bar on Fowler Lane in the city centre. Tell the crew to look for the old green Victorian lamp above the door.”

“We have a crew on its way to you. I just need to take some details. It won’t delay their arrival, don’t worry.”

Paige put her phone on loudspeaker and lowered it to a nearby chair. Then she lifted Juliet’s upper body into her lap. Making sure she held the pressure, she cradled Juliet, kissing her nose. “Babe, please.”

“May I take your name?” The operator asked.

“Paige. It’s my partner. I’ve just come to the bar, and she’s on the floor bleeding out. Juliet Saunders. Fifty. No health problems that I’m aware of.”

“Okay, Paige. That’s great. Do you have pressure on the wound?”

“Yes.” Paige stroked Juliet’s face, a tear landing on her cheek. “Babe, you have to wake up because we have so many plans to make. Please, Juliet.”

“Are you safe, Paige? Do you believe the attacker is still in the vicinity?”

“They better not be. Because if I fucking find them, you’ll have to send a private ambulance for their body!”

“Paige, it’s important that you keep calm right now, love.”

The main door slammed shut, startling Paige. She heard heavy footsteps, so she protected Juliet with her body, hoping they’d go for Paige rather than take another shot at Juliet. If Juliet didn’t pull through this, Paige was as good as dead anyway.

“Paige, it’s Henry. What’s going on?”

Paige sobbed against Juliet’s forehead, rocking them back and forth on the floor. “Where the fuck were you, Henry? You’re supposed to protect her!”

“I…she told me to take a few hours off. She said she would be here most of the day, and she was with Cara. I only left a couple of hours ago.” Henry lifted Paige’s phone and took over on the call. “Yes, I can let you into the building. Yes, that’s the correct street.”

Paige zoned out of anything going on around her, kissing Juliet’s eyelids. Maybe if she held her tighter, she would wake up. Maybe if she felt Paige’s warmth, her heartbeat, it would give her some kind of reason to hang on.

“B-baby.”

Paige lifted her head and stared at Juliet.

Had she imagined that, or had Juliet spoken?

“Juliet, open your eyes for me.” Paige stroked her face again, willing Juliet to just feel her touch and know she was safe. “Come on, babe. Let me see those eyes.”

Juliet’s lips parted, her eyes slowly opening.

Paige knew just how serious this was, but she still grinned when she saw those dark eyes. “Hi. It’s about time you woke up.”

“I’m cold. And I can’t feel my legs.”

Paige clenched her jaw to keep her from crying. She couldn’t show Juliet how scared she was. It wouldn’t help any of this. “Henry, give me your coat. And your sweater.”

Henry stripped off and covered Juliet up. Paige looked up at him; he had tears in his eyes, too. “Hey, Jules.”

“W-what are you d-doing here? Told you t-to go home.” Juliet shook in Paige’s arms, her teeth chattering.

“You know me, Jules. Can’t sit around for too long.”

“H-H.” She managed barely a smile. “Y-you look after her, o-okay? E-every minute of t-the day, y-you look after her f-for me.”

“I’ll look after you both .” Henry crouched down beside Paige, taking Juliet’s hand. “The paramedics are two minutes away. You just keep talking to Paige, and we’ll have you at the hospital in no time.”

Juliet’s eyelids fluttered closed again, panicking Paige. “Babe!”

“Mm?”

Paige brought her lips to Juliet’s ear. “I need you to live, okay? I need you to come home to me. To our bed. I just want to hold you and know that you’ll be okay.”

“D-do the world tour, P-Paige.”

Paige scrunched her eyes shut, a painful lump lodged in her throat. “I can’t. I’ll be busy with you.”

“P-please. Do it.” She reached out and gripped Paige’s arm. Juliet looked Paige square in the eye, tears slipping down her face. “Baby, I-I think I’m dying.”

“You’re not. I won’t let you.” Paige kept rocking Juliet in her lap, stroking her hair. “Can you open your eyes for me for just one minute? Please ?”

Juliet did so, only just managing Paige’s request.

“You’re so beautiful.” She gently leaned down and kissed Juliet. “And I need to ask you something really important before we go to the hospital and you start to recover.” Because Juliet would. She had to. This couldn’t be the end for them. Their life was only just beginning together.

“T-the apartment is y-yours,” Juliet said, her body no longer shaking. It was just…limp in Paige’s arms. “I-I changed my w-will a few months ago. E-everything i-is y-yours.”

“No, babe. No, that’s not what I want to ask.” Paige smiled down at Juliet, those beautiful eyes barely able to remain open. “Marry me, Juliet.”

Juliet managed a smile. “I’d marry you over a-and over if I had the chance.”

“Just the once will be enough. Please, marry me.”

Juliet offered a single nod. “K-kay.”

“Excuse me, love. We’ll take it from here.” A paramedic placed a hand on Paige’s shoulder, dropping his heavy green reflective bag to the floor. “We’re going to need some room to work on her and stabilise her before we get her onto the ambulance.”

Paige frowned as they manoeuvred Juliet out of her lap. She couldn’t leave her. She…needed to be with her. Juliet had only woken up because Paige was holding her. What if she thought Paige had left her on her own? “I need to be with her.”

“And you will be. Just as soon as we’ve done what we need to do here.” Another paramedic took Paige’s hand and crouched in front of her. “Why don’t you get yourself a glass of water and clean yourself up. She’s in safe hands with us.”

Paige looked up at the paramedic, who had kind green eyes. “Please don’t let her die. S-she…she can’t. Please.”

The paramedic nodded and smiled, turning her back to give her full attention to Juliet. Paige crawled away, her entire lower half covered in blood, and propped herself up against the bottom of the bar. Henry sat in the opposite corner with his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking.

“Henry!”

Henry looked up, his eyes bloodshot. “Yeah?”

“Come and keep me company over here.” Paige stared at Juliet’s seemingly lifeless body laid out on the floor, her bottom lip trembling. How the hell had it come to this? Henry sat beside her and took her hand. “She said yes.”

“Yes to what?”

“I asked her to marry me…and she said yes.”

Henry squeezed her hand. “Of course she said yes. You’re the love of her life, Paige.”

“Who did this, H? Who could be so heartless and hurt someone like this?”

Henry exhaled a slow breath. “I don’t know. But they’re going to wish they were dead when I get my hands on them.”

“I need to make some calls. To the girls and that. And I need to delay the reopening of this place. Juliet is my only priority for the foreseeable. She may not even want to be here anymore once she’s recovered. I couldn’t blame her.”

“You just focus on Juliet and leave the rest to me. I’ll start checking the CCTV footage when you leave for the hospital. I’ll lock up and make sure the place is secure.”

In this moment, Paige would be happy if he burnt this bar to the ground. Would she always see Juliet lying there when she came down the stairs? Would that image ever leave her? Right now, it didn’t seem like a possibility. “Do you think Cara is okay? We should check the office and stuff. She could be hurt somewhere.”

“I’ll go and check. You stay here with your fiancée.”

Paige’s pulse quickened at that. Juliet was her fiancée. “Hey, H?”

He looked down at her as he got to his feet, his jeans bloodstained. “Yeah?”

“Thanks for being here. It means a lot.”

“Anything for you two.”

Paige rested her head back against the bar, bringing her hands up in front of her. Juliet’s blood covered them, and now that stench of metallic was lingering in the air. Or maybe that smell was coming from Paige herself. She had enough blood covering her to warrant that. And then the sheer volume of said blood had Paige fearing the worst. It surely wasn’t possible to lose so much of it… and survive. “You got here in time,” she murmured. “Just focus on that.”

“Paige?”

She swallowed when the paramedic approached her. “I-is she dead?”

“No, love. Would you like to travel in the ambulance with her?”

“Yes. Please.” Paige got to her feet, and the paramedic handed her a green fleece. She hadn’t even realised she was sitting in her bra and jeans. “Oh, thank you.”

“We don’t want people tripping over themselves at the hospital if you walk in like that.” She smiled and then took Paige by the elbow. “Come on. Let’s get her the care she needs.”