Brenda cringed. "If you ever do that to me, I will kill you."

Kat draped an arm over Brenda's shoulders and gave her an affectionate hug. "You can yell at her all you want to, hon, but I can't let you kill her."

Brenda laughed at Kat's comment, not knowing that Kat spoke from her heart. She was Cassandra's covert bodyguard and had been with her for five years now. A record. Most of Cassandra's bodyguards had a job expectancy of about eight months.

They either ended up dead or quitting the minute they caught a look at exactly who and what was after her. To their way of thinking, not even the exorbitant amount of money her father paid them to keep her alive was worth the risk.

But not Kat. She had more tenacity and chutzpah than anyone Cassandra had ever met. Not to mention the fact that Kat was the only woman Cassandra had ever known who was actually taller than her. At six feet four, and stunningly beautiful, Kat made quite an entrance everywhere she went. Her blond hair hung just past her shoulders and she had eyes so green they didn't look real.

"You know," Brenda said to Cassandra as she watched Tom and Michelle talking and laughing. "I would give anything to have your confidence. Do you ever doubt yourself?"

Cassandra answered truthfully. "All the time."

"You never show it."

That's because, unlike her companions, there was more than just a slim chance Cassandra might only have another eight months left to live. She couldn't afford to be scared or timid of life. Her motto was to grab everything by both hands, and run with it.

Then again, she'd been running all her life. Running from those who would kill her if they had a chance.

But most of all, she'd been running from her destiny, hoping that somehow, some way, she could avert the inevitable.

Even though she'd traveled the world since she was six years old, she was no closer to discovering the truth about her heritage than her mother had been before her.