Kira grunted. If she moved, Ian was going to kill her, there was no doubt in her mind—if Sorrell or one of his men didn't do it for him.

"Some fucking Homeland Security agent you are," Tehya griped.

"Homeland isn't my boss." Contract agent, she told herself. There was a difference.

"You're an agent of someone's," the other girl argued, ducking instinctively as more pings hit the steel around them. "We're dead here. Is that what we want?"

Unfortunately, Tehya was right.

"Ian's going to rip me a new one," Kira said.

"Sucks to be you," Teyha agreed. "Do we go?"

Bullets rained around them, and Kira swore one of those pings nearly ripped through the steel into her kidney.

Kira bit her lip in indecision. Sitting here like a sacrificial lamb didn't seem like the best idea in the world, that was for damned sure.

"Sorrell's going to try to move through the house and circle back here. He'll suspect we stayed in place." Kira flinched as more bullets ripped into the room. "We'll hit the foyer and make our way to the back of the house."

Damn, she wished she had one of those handy receivers the rest of the teams were wearing. At least she would be able to contact Daniel. He would be looking for her exclusively, she knew that. All she had to do was find him. One thing was for damned sure, he would never expect her to stay put.

More bullets pinged into the steel.

"Fuck, let's go. Stay at my back and keep up, and for God's sake, if you see Sorrell, then we fucking run."

Crouching, Kira eased from under the desk, staying low before checking the darkness for any movement. Tehya followed behind her. Kira's night vision was a little better now, giving her a measure of confidence as she looked back at Tehya and gave her a quick hand signal to hold in place until she secured the path to the door.

Crouching by the side of the desk she waited, knowing that once she moved past it she would be undefended until she reached the foyer.

She pulled her shoes off, slid the daggers free, gripped the small blocks that doubled as the bottom of the shoes' heels between her fingers, and moved forward.

As she cleared the desk, something hit her in the side, the gun went flying from her hand, and the breath whoosed out of her lungs as she landed on the floor.

A fist rammed into her side again before she could gather herself, before she could evade it, then hard hands circled her neck, cutting off her air.

She caught the glitter of enraged eyes and Kenneth's shadowed expression before she rammed the daggers into his side and bucked against his hold.

"Bitch!" he snarled, but his grip loosened, just enough, the pressure of his knees on her arms shifted as she bucked, and the next second a gunshot filled the air before he was kicked off her.

Tehya gripped Kira's arm, jerking her from the floor and back to the desk as gunfire filled the room again.

Kira shook her head, staring at Kenneth's fallen form in shock for long seconds.

"Here." Teyha shoved the gun that had been knocked from her back into her hands. "Are you okay?"

"Fuck! Didn't see that coming." Kira was still trying to breathe, to process the quickness of the attack and the death.

"Let's get the hell out of here," Tehya hissed. "Those bastards out there know we're in here."

She was right. They had to get out of here now.

Staying low, Kira covered the short distance to the doorway first, weapon held ready, scanning the darkness quickly before sliding to the side of the wall and covering the other girl's route.

As Tehya slid in beside her, bullets cut through the room, almost as though someone knew they were there, knew where to strike hardest.

She could hear men screaming outside, shouted orders and foreign curses. The front door was still wide open, leaving them defenseless.

Moving quickly, Kira pulled Tehya after her, dragging her beneath the staircase and peering out wearily toward the open door before motioning Tehya to the back hallway that led to the servants' stairs on one side and the kitchen on the other.