“No.” Mina drew in a breath. “Mama said she wrote and told him that I never wanted to see him again or talk to him, that I hated him.” She looked down at her hands. “I did say it. He left me at her mercy and never looked back. I understood why he didn’t stay. But he threw me to the lions. I couldn’t forgive him for it.” Her face tautened. “She hated me my whole life. I still don’t know why.”

“It’s never wise to look too closely into the past,” Sassy advised. “You’re going to be fabulously wealthy and well-known, and I can say I knew you when you were a skinny kid in third grade!”

Mina laughed. “So you can! I hope you’re right, about that prediction. I don’t really want to be fabulously wealthy, but I’d love it if the book topped the New York Times list, just for the guys. They’ve been so good to me.”

“You and those commandos,” she laughed, shaking her head. “I can’t imagine running through the jungle in camo carrying an automatic rifle.”

“Actually, it’s a .45 auto,” Mina corrected. “Took me forever to learn how to use it, but the guys were persistent. I spent hours and hours on the gun range.”

“You’re lucky you don’t get shot on those missions.”

“I did, but only once, and it healed nicely,” Mina replied with a smile.

Sassy rolled her eyes. “Just remember, you’ll be more famous alive than dead.”

“I’ll tell the guys.” She sighed. “I really would love to see SPECTRE get to the top,” she added. “I dedicated it to my team, you know. Well, just their first names. They still go incognito in a lot of places, so I had to limit what I said about them.”

“They sound like a good bunch of guys.”

“They are. The very best.”

“Okay, there you go,” Sassy said as she finished with the brush. “And don’t you touch your hair when I walk out the door. You leave it down, just like it is.”

Mina made a face. “It looks, well, wanton…doesn’t it?”

“You have beautiful hair. There’s nothing vulgar about it. Or about your very conservative dress. Stop worrying! You’re Cinderella, and tonight is the big ball!”

Mina smiled blandly. “With my luck, the big ball will roll right over my foot and break it.”

Sassy just made a face and left her there.

THE MANSION WHERE the party was being held was ablaze with light. It was in the rich part of Catelow, where the wealthiest citizens lived. A huge, two-story building with a flat face sitting on about two acres of land with lodgepole pines framing it against the distant mountains, it was the sort of house Mina’s characters would have lived in.

She gave the keys of her little VW to the valet, grimacing as she noted the new Jaguar XJL that stopped just behind it. Well, she wasn’t rich. She wasn’t sorry, either. Her little car might look out of place here. But then, so did she.