"I'm going to be fine, Liam. I promise." I patted my bodyguard on the shoulder. "You should loosen up a bit."

He shook his head and sighed. "I don't understand why your father doesn't want me inside the house tonight."

"You're a great bodyguard. My dad probably just has some guests over and he probably wants them to think that his family is down-to-earth or something."

"With a house like this?"

I glanced at our mansion. Okay fine. So maybe my dad wasn't going for mundane and down-to-earth.

"I have a bad feeling." He ran a hand through his black hair.

I turned to the mahogany doors and turned my key in the lock. "Don't worry too much. You'll grow old faster if you do."

Liam meant well, but sometimes he was suffocating in his protectiveness.

Truth was I knew what my father was up to. My mom told me last week. He was about to arrange my marriage to some stranger. At first I refused – I wanted my true love, you know. But then my mom told me the catch.

If I didn't marry said person, my grandfather would cut out our family from his will. We'd get zilch, and the charities would have a field day. Not that I didn't like charities, but I'd rather I didn't go penniless.

Why my grandfather made a condition like that I don't know. I could only pray that my fiance-to-be was a good person, at the very least someone who could be my friend. Someone who I wouldn't feel like strangling. I mean, hey, I had to live with him until death do us part. Might as well be someone I liked.

But Liam didn't need to know what was going on tonight. He'd just worry even more and say something about crimes of passion. Like I said, well-meaning, but suffocating. He needed to go to Hawaii or a cruise and just chill out, drink some alcohol and maybe get a girlfriend. He was only twenty-seven. Only nine years older and so stressed already. Tsk tsk.

"Take a break, Li. I'll call you at eight. If I don't call, you can be sure something happened. Then you can bust into the house with your gun out, maybe even save me." I joked.

"Cass, it's not funny. Someone tried to kill you this morning."

"So the garbage dump made a sound. That doesn't mean that a bullet hit it, and that the bullet was meant for me." I glared at him. He was a good seven inches taller than me. I felt so short around him.

"I checked it, and it was a bullet. If you hadn't ducked to pick up the penny you found on the ground…Thank God you did."

"Every penny counts. My grandma told me that. And you're being paranoid. Now go away. I need to prepare for dinner. I want to look extra nice." Today was one of the days he got on my nerves with his paranoia. Sometimes it was a good thing, but not today.

With a sigh Liam got inside his black SUV and drove away.

I slipped inside the house. As always, the marble floor was spotless. I took off my shoes which were muddy from the rain and walked to my room barefoot. Time to take a hot bath and dress up to meet my mystery fiancé.

Thirty minutes later, I walked down the staircase and saw my parents talking with who I assumed were the guests.

They were a family of four. The mother and her two children were blond, while the father was a brunette. The siblings looked alike – angular features and a tall, lean frame. The younger one, a boy just a bit older than me, glanced in my direction. I recognized him from the street where I picked up the penny. Liam had told me to steer clear of him.

I didn't understand why, though. He seemed nice enough.

Looked like he recognized me too because for split second he looked shocked. His parents saw me and smiled. The siblings followed suit.

"Cassandra, meet the Sinclairs. This is Thomas and his wife Rachelle, their daughter Celia and their son Skyler." My father held out his arm to me.

So I was getting married to Skyler, huh. He was good-looking, I supposed, with a charming million-megawatt smile. A very pretty boy even by my standards.

Now that he looked good enough to present to my friends, the question was could I get along with him for the rest of my life, or at least, until we got a divorce?

I hoped so.

My cellphone rang and I excused myself to answer it. My father gave me a stern look and I gave him a helpless one as I checked the caller ID. Liam. I frowned and walked to the den to be alone. Didn't I already tell him to relax?

"Liam, I told you I'm going to be fine."

"No, you listen to me, Cass. Your guests are the Sinclairs."

"So? Look, you want the truth? Fine, I'll tell you the truth. I'm getting engaged to Skyler Sinclair. It's a stupid stipulation in my grandfather's will. If I don't go through with this, my family is broke. So please stop being paranoid for a few moments. Don't let me blow this and ruin my life. If Skyler doesn't agree to marry me, my father would skin me alive and sell me to cannibals for a profit."

A pause. "That's not possible."

"What's not possible?"

"Your engagement."

"Why not?" Did he think I was a little girl who needed protection? I was eighteen now, eighteen! Not seven.

"Because the Sinclairs are a family of assassins. The best assassins money can buy. Rumor goes they're trained from the moment they learn to walk."

I froze. "You must have the wrong family." The Sinclairs were a nice bunch of people from what I've seen. So I've seen them for less than five minutes. Who cares? The first impression is the only impression that counts, right?

"Let me guess their names. Thomas, Rachelle, Skyler and Celia, no? They're well known underground. They never leave a paper trail and neither do they drop a scrap of evidence. Never been caught or even suspected.

"And you know what's worse? I just learned that someone has just given them your picture. If what you said was true and the parents knew about the engagement, then one of the kids took on the assignment. Congratulations Cass, you're going to marry an assassin, and there's a one in two chance that he's the one hired to kill you."

What?