Page 83 of The Hideout

Paige sipped her whiskey. “That’ll teach me to assume.”

“Oh, no. You have every right to feel whatever you feel.” Juliet placed a hand on Paige’s knee, stroking her thumb against the denim. “Henry found out about it. He went crazy when he found out that Marcus had been beating his sister up. To protect Keira, Henry took on a job working for Marcus. Drug runs across Europe and county lines here in the UK. He knew the mistake he was making, those kinds of people are always being watched by the authorities, but he felt as though he could see Keira more often. Working for Marcus meant seeing her in the flesh rather than talking on the phone.”

“He sounds like a great brother.”

“Someone managed to get word to him that the police were planning to raid Marcus’ place in Spain and a few known properties here. He called me and gave me the heads up. Told me he didn’t plan to deny any of it, so long as Marcus got put away for a long time.”

“Did you even want to defend him? I know you have a job to do, but defending a drug dealer?”

“I understood why he’d done it. And yes, I’d told him how stupid he’d been, but he couldn’t see past being there for Keira.”

“Fair enough. I get that, I suppose.”

“While Henry and Marcus were awaiting trial, Henry asked me if I’d check in with Keira. He wanted to be sure she was okay and was planning to leave the house she lived at with her husband. Henry gave me the address, and I took the afternoon off to visit. It was out in Cheshire.”

Paige noted how the atmosphere in the room changed. Juliet swallowed, knocked back her whiskey, and exhaled a breath. “As I was approaching the private road, a 4x4 came speeding out at the junction. Something felt off, but I was on edge already because of the location I was going to. The last thing I wanted was to be sitting having coffee with Keira if the police turned up.”

Paige listened as Juliet’s voice changed. How it trembled.

“The front door was open when I got there. I knocked, but it was deathly silent around the place. So I went looking, and I’m glad I did. I found Keira on the kitchen floor with multiple stab wounds. Most turned out to be superficial, but one was bleeding a lot. Thick red blood. They’d tried to cut her throat but got spooked when the alarm system malfunctioned and started to go off. I found that out later.”

“Fucking hell. W-why would someone do that?” Paige’s blood ran cold at the thought of Juliet being faced with something so horrific. “What did you do?”

“Applied pressure to her neck with my blouse until the ambulance arrived. I’ll never forget that look in her eyes. The fear.” Juliet brushed a hand across her cheek, glancing briefly at Paige. “It was the very same look you had in your eyes when I found you at the hotel.”

Paige chewed her lip. She may have been shocked and terrified when she realised Juliet was there, but she wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to come through that door. Juliet was her safety. “I’m sorry.”

“Keira survived because I arrived when I did. Marcus is still inside now. And Henry did his ten years. He’s been out for another ten but always kept in touch and insisted I call him if I ever needed anything.”

“So, Henry looks out for you because you saved his sister’s life.” Paige nodded slowly, understanding fully how Henry would want to be around for Juliet. “Did they find out who attacked Keira?”

“Rival drug gang. They saw that Marcus had been weakened and wanted to prove a point that they could get to his wife.”

“That’s…I don’t even know what to say.”

“I know that I may have done the wrong thing by sending Henry to James, but I didn’t know what else to do, Paige. I’ve spent my career defending and protecting people. Granted, it hasn’t been the right people, but still. It’s just in my instincts to fix things. Knowing I couldn’t do anything to help you, knowing I’d failed to protect you…I didn’t know what else to do.” Juliet lowered her glass to the table with a shaking hand, sighing. “I know that sending Henry has completely fucked any chance of there being an us, I’ve inadvertently managed to be perceived as a violent person by doing so, but I don’t regret it. If it means you can move on with your life and not look over your shoulder every minute of the day, then I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I just…I saved Keira, a woman I didn’t know very well at all, but I failed you. I lost you. The woman I love.”

“Juliet.”

“No. I need you to listen to me.” Juliet took Paige’s hand and held it tight. “You deserve to be happy, Paige. What he did to you, how he’s treated you in the past, nobody deserves that. And maybe you asked me not to go with you because you knew I couldn’t protect you, I don’t know, but that’s something I have to live with. Seeing you this way, the pain you’ve been in, I couldn’t not try to at least get you the divorce. I’m hopeless when it comes to anything else that you want or need, so I had to get you what I knew could change your life. And believe me, it will. You can go anywhere and do anything you want. You can be you. That makes me happier than anything else.” Juliet dragged a hand through her hair, a slight smile on her lips. “Well, almost. But we are where we are…and you’re going to be okay. You’re going to be amazing. That’s the only thing that matters to me.”

“Thank you,” Paige said, barely above a whisper. “I can’t believe you did that for me.”

“I’ve come to realise that I’d do just about anything for you. And I’ll keep to my promise of helping you leave. I’d never go back on that. So, where’s it going to be? Spain or the Netherlands?”

Paige studied Juliet’s dark eyes. The tears that sat on her eyelids. The pain behind that smile she wore.

“I’ll cover your flight; you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Juliet…”

Juliet swallowed, that soft hand stroking Paige’s skin so delicately. “Yes?”

“I don’t want to be in Spain or the Netherlands.”

“Well, there’s no immediate rush to decide. I’m not exactly going to kick you out of here.”

“I want to be here. With you.”

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