Chapter 1
HM Prison, Low Newton, located in the village of Brasside, County Durham is an all female maximum security establishment.
Myra Giradino's cool gaze levelled on the face opposite her in the prison's visiting room. She pressed her fingers to her lips, then placed them on the transparent partition separating her from Bobby Tortini, her young, ex lover.
Myra was 45 years old, Bobby just 26. He'd be her age when they finally opened the gates to let her out. She sighed as memories of their passionate lovemaking flashed in her mind.
"How are you Bobby?" she asked, her husky voice turning him on as it never failed to do.
"Missin' you baby," he replied, covering her fingers with his on the tough perspex between them. "I miss ya like hell."
"Yeah, I know." she replied. "I miss you too, but there's nothin' we can do about it."
"I know that!" he replied, irritably, "but I can get justice. I want justice on those two cops who put ya in here!"
Bobby Tortini, for all his young years, was a killer and a ruthless one at that. His life had been nothing but crime-filled, running with the gangs on the Lower East Side of New York since he was 9 years old, eventually being recruited by the Giradino Mafia crime family as a hitman, based in Queens.
When Raphael Giradino had finally been indicted as a drugs baron he'd been banged up for 20 years. It wasn't long before Myra, Raphael's wife, had taken Bobby as her lover. And, so long as the job got done, he didn't care who he murdered, be it a punk kid, old grandma, young mother - what the hell.
"You got some muscle over here with you, Bobby?" asked Myra.
"Yeah, Gino and Mikey're with me."
"Good." replied Myra,"'cos you're gonna need 'em. Those two cops, Dempsey and "little Miss Twinkletoes" Makepeace make quite a team. They put me in this goddamn place. I always thought I was untouchable. So did Coltrane. But those two sonsofbitch's proved us both wrong. They must pay Bobby."
"They'll pay, baby, they'll pay!" he said, eyes blazing.
Lieutenant James Dempsey and Sergeant Harry Makepeace were crime busting partners and invaluable team members of SI-10, a clandestine Government department spanning both MI5 and MI6 and run by Chief Superintendent Gordon Spikings, an irascible character who didn't suffer fools gladly. Dempsey often (and usually deliberately) rubbed him up the wrong way!
Unbeknown to him and the rest of SI-10, Dempsey and Harry were now lovers. Their relationship, although rocky at the outset, gradually developed through a combination of mutual respect and a sixth sense that was unique to them. They were tuned into each other, a wave length invisible to anyone else but one that inevitably and inextricably drew them into a strong, devoted connection and eventually turned into a deep love for one another.
Dempsey was dark and handsome with soft brown eyes, jet black wavy hair and a lithe, trim physique, Harry an abject beauty who often took his breath away. He drowned in her ocean blue eyes and loved stroking her natural blonde hair, cut into a bob and which circled her lovely face. She was slim, fit and naturally tanned. Their desire for each other was fathomless.
And, to cap it all, Harry was, in fact, Lady Harriet, a high born heiress to her hugely wealthy father, Lord "Freddy" Winfield, owner of Winfield Hall in Buckinghamshire and a Belgravia mansion. A retired high ranking officer in the British Secret Service, Freddy, despite his daughters initial disparaging description of Dempsey when they were first paired up by Spikings, liked him enormously when they met and this had gone some way to melting the icy attitude Harry felt toward her new, brash Yank partner.
Over time, this eventually turned into a deep love and respect for each other.
It was a beautiful, clear sunny morning in early May when they stirred and woke up, still cuddled up together from the night before. Dempsey gently disentangled himself from her, slid out of bed and strolled over to the large gabled window, drawing the curtains back and flooding the bedroom with bright sunlight.
"Hey, nice day princess." he said to the dishevelled, but beautiful head that peeped over the covers, her blue eyes narrowing to shield them from the brightness.
"Mmmm, so it is," she agreed, "come here and kiss me good morning."
Needing no further inducement, he did as he was told, a wide grin on his handsome face as he lowered his lips to hers.
"What time is it?" she asked, as he raised his head to look at her.
"7.30." he replied."Hell, you're beautiful!"
"Ah, good, time for a bit of breakfast then?" she replied, her eyes smiling as she mischievously ignored him.
"Sure honey. Spikings isn't expecting us till 10.30." he said, then raising an eyebrow. "Ya really wanna have breakfast right now?"
"Are you never satisfied Dempsey!" she answered, her eyes shining with laughter.
"Never!" he said, "not with you."
"Hmmmm. Well there isn't time for that." she said, gently pushing him away.
Dear God! she wanted to drag him back into bed there and then, but they had work to do.
"Minx!" he said, reading her mind. "Ha, I'll get you in the end!"
"You've already had me, you insatiable monster!" she chuckled. "Now move! Breakfast calls, then shower, etcetera, etcetera."
When they walked into SI-10, they'd hardly had time to sit at their desks when a familiar roar from Spiking's bounced around the office walls.
"Is that the Lone Ranger and Tonto? In here NOW!" he shouted.
They peered round his office door as they walked in, trying to suppress grins at Spikings' description of them whilst attempting to gauge what might be coming next. Something was up, that was for sure.
"Sit down, both of you." he ordered.
Never one to do as he was told, Dempsey remained standing then leaned nonchalantly against the wall, hands in his pockets.
Harry sat down.
"What's up sir?" she asked, not sure she wanted to hear his answer.
Spikings was looking grave.
"I've had an intelligence report from Low Newton where Myra Giradino is locked up."
"Yeah? So?" asked Dempsey.
"I'm about to tell you Lieutenant if you'd allow me!" said Spikings, glaring at him. "She's had a visit from one Bobby Tortini. You heard of him Dempsey?"
"Yeah, I hearda him. He's a killer. Hitman for Giradino's mob. The NYPD've after him for a long time. But he's a very clever cookie, despite his age!"
"Well," said Spikings," there's probably only one reason he's over here. To get you two."
Dempsey recalled the parting shots Myra Giradino had given him when being bundled into a police car, following the capture of her and Coltrane, his erstwhile and corrupt superior, a couple of months earlier.
"My family are very powerful, Dempsey," she warned, "and they'll come after you. One day, and you'll never know when, but one day, they'll get you for today!"
