Killer Instinct (The Naturals, #2)

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

“There’s a forty percent chance this ends with someone getting punched in the face,” she whispered.

I love her so much

“You don’t have to dance. Just brood in beat to the music.”

“Tell me more about wombats,” I said. With the look of a small child awaking to a miracle on Christmas morning, Sloane beamed at me and complied.

Sloane appeared to be constructing some kind of catapult out of pencils and rubber bands.

“Hey,” he said softly. She peered up at him. “I’m not mad at you,” he told her. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

I love their friendship

Sloane had a willowy build and relatively little regard for recommended safety measures. The idea of her wielding a sledgehammer of any kind was terrifying.

A profiler, an emotion reader, and a lie detector went to a party.…

“‘To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.’”

Quite frankly, I thought that tools who lived in tool houses probably shouldn’t throw stones.

Most people built walls to protect themselves. Dean did it to protect everyone else.

“If you can’t keep them from hitting you,” Michael said, “you make them hit you. At least that way, you’re ready. At least that way, it’s not a surprise.”

“It’s considered impolite to talk above seventy-five decibels,” Sloane sniffed. “I believe it’s called shouting.”

Sloane studied me for a moment, the way an archaeologist might look at paintings on the wall of a cave. Given the way her brain worked, she probably would have had better luck reading hieroglyphics.

I love her even more now

Someday, I was fairly certain that Lia would write a book entitled Making an Awkward Situation Worse.

“Okay, I’m calling it,” Michael announced when the quiet got to be too much. “I’m turning on the radio. There will be singing. I would not be opposed to car-dancing. But the next person whose facial expression approaches ‘brood’ is getting punched in the nose. Unless it’s Cassie. If it’s Cassie, I punch Dean in the nose.”

the same solemn stare on his face in each.

Maybe hes the killer

“Touch her again,” Michael told Christopher conversationally, “and Dean will be the one trying to pull me off of you.”

“He drives a truck.”

HAHA

“Such a sweet girl,” she told Dean. “Your father would approve.”

“Keys.” “Spatula,” Michael replied. She narrowed her eyes at him. “We aren’t just saying random nouns?” he asked archly.

Trina Simms was always shrill, deluded, demanding. She’s not so demanding now.

So UNSUB knows her

“I think my father has a partner.”

wHaT!? I was thinking that maybe some of the college students and Christopher partnered up but DEANS DAD AND SOMEONE ON THE OUTSIDE?????

“To a man like Redding, ‘attention to detail’ probably means some pretty explicit descriptions of violence.”

But how does he have a protigee if his letters are screened and interactions are recorded or watched?

to die tomorrow.”

Hes going to go after Agent Sterling

Next time, bring the girl.”

To punish Dean obviously. But will he want to punish Dean more or Sterling? Will he kill Sterling or Cassie?

“If things get too intense, I’ll tell him some statistics about domesticated ferrets.”

two people

Christopher and the college students? Geoffrey, Derek, Clark or Bryce?

Clark.

Did not expect that

“This UNSUB bludgeoned the victim with an iron brand, but followed the rest of Redding’s MO down to the tiniest detail.

CLARK KNEW THE UNSUB!!! HE ASKED "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE" BEFORE HE WAS KNOCKED OUT WHICH MEANS ITS PROBABLY DEREK, GEOFFREY, BRYCE OR HER BOYFRIEND!!!!

you were acquainted with Trina Simms and that she deserved better. Or worse, depending on your perspective.

CHRISTOPHER!?????

Like Christopher Simms was in a meeting with Briggs when someone killed his mother.

Exactly what Ive been saying all along AHAHAH

‘he’s dead’?”

The third UNSUB went after Christopher didnt he

“This case isn’t closed.”

Christopher or maybe...Redding?

that Christopher Simms had met with foul play.

Knew it

“Thank you, but no.

NOO DONT GO ALONE BECAUSE REDDING WANTS YOU DEAD

“No,” a voice said, directly behind me. “You won’t.”

I KNEW IT OH MY GOSH

The guard from the prison. Webber.

NO WAY!! Then he must be the dude that passed information on to the others

This time, you think, we’re doing it my way.

Hes going to let them run loose through the woods and then track them down!! DEAN MICHAEL WHERE ARE YOU GUYS YOU GOTTA FOLLOW THEM!!! LIA TELL ME YOU WERE SITTING ON HE ROOF AND SAW ALL THAT

we’re in an abandoned cabin of some type.

Fogles cabin?

Another snap. Another footstep.

Pleaseeee be someone else

“Briggs.”

Oh thank god

His lips brushed lightly over mine.

BRO BRIGGS IS RIGHT THERE

And then there was one.

???

“When the odds are bad,” she said, removing something from one of them, “you change the rules.”

“because as of tomorrow, the five of you are cleared to consult on active cases.”

YAYYYYYYYYY

They weren’t shutting us out. They were letting us in. Instead of taking away my purpose, they’d given it new life. This was a whole new world.