She leaned her head back over the top of the chair and looked at him. "Thank you for the vote of confidence," she said wryly.

He continued to scowl. She stuck her tongue out at him, then licked her lips suggestively, just to see him purple.

She returned her attention to her boss, looking at him again and sitting forward in her chair. "So how am I doing? Convinced that I'm not big, mean, and nasty yet?"

He shook his head slowly. "I must agree with Mr. Tenino. You are a fool. You placed yourself back into our hands after managing to escape. You will not get another chance."

She sighed, then shrugged. "You guys are really into that bondage thing, aren't you. Not getting enough fun at home with the little wife?" She liked the shade of red that her boss's face turned. "This really isn't going to convince you that I'm not a threat," she continued, then rolled herself out of the chair. Dropping onto her left hand, she somersaulted down, then kicked up after the man to left fired the weapon he had been aiming at her head. She had heard him playing with the safety as she and her boss had talked, and knew that he was the first to take out if she wanted to keep anyone from being hurt. Anyone like her, mainly, but someone that stressed isn't thinking clearly. He obviously hadn't realized that, with his line of fire, any bullet that went through her or past her would hit his boss. She managed to get a good whack on his head, not knocking him out but dazing him enough for her to turn her attention to the next threat.

After careening into him, she bounced off his body and launched herself at the man who had been behind her and to her right. She had almost managed to get to her feet by the time she hit him, and they both went down. A quick hand to his wrist and a couple pinched nerves, and he dropped his gun into her waiting grasp. She elbowed him in the gut, then aimed a quick uppercut to the chin. His eyes rolled back in his head as he passed out cold. She rolled clear, keeping his body between her and Mark, then scrambled to her feet and quickly assessed the men who had been guarding her boss.

The left-hand one had stepped around the desk and was aiming for her head. The right-hand one had moved to cover her boss, but her rapid movements were confusing him. She ran a couple steps to the desk, dashing enough to help her jump the three and a half feet onto the carved wooden surface. She kicked the bodyguard across the chin as she passed him by, a swift side kick as she drew her leg up to run across the desktop. He flew back into the wall and slumped to the ground, unconscious. The other guard got off a shot, but it went wild as his hands were shaking too much for his aim to be any good. She could hear the bullet whistle past and was glad that he was too rattled to aim, as getting punctured was never a fun experience. Before he had a chance for another shot, she got close enough to him to club him with the gun on the temple, and he, too slept.

From the desk she jumped back to the man she had first kicked, finishing the job with a swift blow to the back of his head as he tried to rise from his hands and knees. She spun around his falling body, using it as cover until she had a chance to rush Mark. She tossed the liberated gun at his head, making him flinch as he avoided the throw. That quickly, she was at his side, relieving him of his weapon, then pushing him to the back of the room. She tested the weight of his weapon then put it in the waistband of her jeans. Glancing back at her boss, she saw that he had a gun leveled at her.

"That would be a better deterrent if it were loaded," she said mildly.

"What makes you say that it isn't?" he replied, a slight tremor in his voice the only betrayal of his fear.

"Because I know it isn't. Look, can we please just sit and talk like civilized people? Without the threats?" she asked plaintively, then spun and threw a punch into Mark's gut as he rushed her. He fell to the ground, the arms that had been outstretched to grab her instead clenched around himself as he tried to breathe. She looked down at him sadly, shaking her head. "Sorry about that," she said before returning her attention to her boss.

He had set the gun back down on the desk and regarded her calmly. She returned to her chair and sat down.

"Now, where were we?"

"I was threatening you."

"Oh, yes, that's right," she agreed easily. "So what's your next step?"

He looked at her, puzzled. "Aren't you going to dictate terms now? You have me at your mercy."

She smiled and laughed. "I don't have you at my anything. This is all your show; I'm just letting you know what you can and cannot get away with. And imprisonment and torture? That's a big no."

"But you just killed all my guards. Aren't you going to make some threat, some bid for me to leave you and yours alone so that this won't happen again?"

"I don't like making threats, and I think that you're smart enough to learn from the object lesson. What I want to know, is where do we go from here? Do I get to keep my job? Or do you want to start a war with people who aren't interested in fighting?"

"Are those my only options?" he asked.