"Harry!" The shout of fear and panic echoed throughout the house.

Harry froze, registering Dempsey's distress and trying to decide if she had time enough to pull on her clothes, or if she should just grab her nightgown and remain undressed underneath. She was still wet from her attempts to freshen up at the bathroom sink, rather than face a full blown freezing cold shower.

Sounds of panic stricken crashing through the downstairs rooms soon followed and she decided upon the nightgown, opening the bathroom door just as Dempsey was thundering up the stairs.

"Dempsey, what on earth…"

He ignored her, storming through the upstairs rooms as she followed him, demanding answers. At least he wasn't being followed by a gang of Mafia!

Finally, after checking every room in the house, he came to a halt on the upstairs landing.

"Are you going to tell me what is going on? And what's more, where the bloody hell did you get that from?" she said, eyeing the gun in his hand with suspicion. The look of distress on his face made her prickle with anxiety.

"Someone broke in here last night. They cut the power," he informed her, holding a hand to his head as he glanced about himself nervously.

"What? Are you sure?" she asked.

"Of course I'm sure!" he yelled back, beginning to pace as he tried to gather his thoughts.

She watched his restless movements. "Calm down Dempsey. If someone had meant to harm us, don't you think they'd have done it last night?" she pointed out, before a thought hit her, causing her to jump into action, turn abruptly and bolt down the stairs.

This did nothing to calm Dempsey's already tumultuous mind. He raced after her.

Harry was certain before she even reached the kitchen that her evening bag, which she had left on the kitchen table, would not be there.

"Damn it!" she cursed. "My bag is gone."

"Would you like to tell me next time before you go runnin' off like that?" Dempsey reprimanded her, seemingly not as concerned about the bag as she was.

"Did you hear what I said? Someone took my bag… with the discs in it," she stressed.

This made him hesitate for a moment, but still he didn't seem overly troubled about the bag. "Aint nothing incriminatin' enough on them anyway. Listen, it aint safe here now; they know where you live," he said, moving towards the kitchen window and taking a quick glance out before lowering the blind.

She threw her hands up in the air, frustrated with herself for not having taken the evidence upstairs with her the night before. "Well, it's obviously Jackson," she concluded. "That must have been why she was at the Club; she wanted the discs."

"Who cares!" Dempsey snapped suddenly, swinging around and announcing adamantly. "You aint stayin' here until Tony's found. You gotta find somewhere else to stay."

She laughed. "Don't be ridiculous."

Dempsey's instincts had told him already that she might react with resistance, and this made him all the more frustrated and determined.

He strode towards her, grabbing both of her arms in an attempt at forcing her to hear what he was saying. She felt the hard metal of the gun in his hand against the back of her arm. "Do you understand what I said? Have ya any concept of what this means? The mafia know you are here; you aint safe!"

"Dempsey," she began in a soft and overly reasonable voice, "it's like I said; it was Jackson. And besides, we were sitting targets last night; if they had wanted to harm us, they would have done it then."

He growled, shaking her slightly as if this would instil some common sense into her.

"It don't matter if it was Jackson last night or not. Fact is, Jackson is working for Tony, so if Jackson knows where you live now, so does Tony!"

She shook her head with a frown. "It doesn't make sense; Tony wants you dead, right? So they had the perfect opportunity to take the evidence and finish you off last night," she pointed out.

Dempsey's face became distorted with barely concealed rage. "What? What the hell ya talkin' about? Who cares what happened last night or why. Who knows? All I know is it aint safe here now!" He took a deep breath to calm himself and let go of her arms to begin pacing again, trying to order his thoughts. "So, where ya gonna stay?" Already he was running through her options in his head. "You could stay with me at the guest house," he suggested. That was his preferred choice as he would be able to keep an eye on her best there. One look at her face however suggested that she wasn't impressed. Okay, maybe that wasn't such a practical idea; not the most comfortable place to stay for any length of time. Well, as long as she moved out somewhere, he didn't mind. "Or go stay with someone for a while… anyone."

"Dempsey," she began calmly but adamantly, "I'm not moving out of here."

He turned on her and pointed with a firm finger. "Yes you damn well are!"

She laughed. "No I'm not. This is my home and I'm staying here, where I live Dempsey. Now," she went on, in an annoyingly calm way… Dempsey was chewing on his temper. "I'm going upstairs to finish getting changed, sort out an electrician and then I'm going to see Richie and bring back your car. I'll pick up Eddie to drive it and give you a lift back to the guest house on the way," she announced, heading towards the hallway. "Do you think you could try and stay out of trouble until I get back?" She stopped at the kitchen door and turned to an infuriated looking Dempsey. "And you can put that thing away," she said, gesturing to his gun. "You really shouldn't have it at all, considering your present predicament. It doesn't do much to prove your innocence," she said before disappearing behind the door.

Yeah right, ever heard of protection ya dumb broad!

If she thought he was leaving it at that, she was out of her mind. These were the Borelli's they were dealing with. She hadn't got a clue as far as they were concerned, not a damn clue!

Harry strolled through the hallway, trying to figure out what had overcome Dempsey.

Good grief, talk about overreacting. Nothing had happened last night and nothing was going to happen… not in her house. Anyway, it had to have been Jackson and she was harmless enough.

She paused then suddenly, not entirely sure why, but her senses felt uneasy. This was crazy. She had to stop being ridiculous and letting Dempsey's paranoia get to her.

Without even glancing behind her, she continued towards the stairs.

Right, she had to get dressed and get over to Richie's quickly in case he decided to leave the house. She wasn't much looking forward to that visit, but it had to be done.

The figure that had been awaiting her then came out of the shadows and fast approached.

Everything happened so fast then that she really had no time to think. She was being held so firmly against the iron wall of a male body that she felt almost paralysed, and, with the hand clamped over her mouth, no sound could escape her lips. Then she was being dragged backwards.

ANOTHER CHAPTER LATER TONIGHT FOLKS