All In (The Naturals, #3)

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Thinking about my fellow Naturals came with a particular brand of homesickness. I wanted them here—all of them, any of them—so badly that I almost couldn’t breathe.

this is my family yall

“Too young to party, just old enough to participate in federal investigations of serial murder.” Lia let out an elaborate sigh. “Story of my life.”

lia girl you make me laugh

Sloane’s teeth were bared in what was, quite possibly, the largest, fakest smile I’d ever seen. She froze like a deer in headlights. “I’m not practicing smiling,” she said quickly. “Sometimes people’s faces just do this.” That statement was met with silence from every single person on the plane. Sloane hastily changed the subject. “Did you know that New Hampshire has more hamsters per capita than any other state?”

oh this is thee sloan book isn’t it….. my angel little socially awkward girl…. please protect her…..

Home isn’t a place, Cassie. The memory crept up on me. Home is the people who love you most, the people who will always love you, forever and ever, no matter what.

head in my hands

“We shared a room for forty-four percent of the last calendar year,” Sloane said wistfully. “So far this year, we’re at zero.” I turned to look at her. “I missed you, too, Sloane.”

MY GIRLS❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

“He’s my brother,” she blurted out. Then, on the off chance that I might not have understood her meaning, she forced herself to stop sorting, turned, and elaborated. “Half brother. Male sibling. We have a coefficient of relatedness of point-two-five.”

WHAT

“I may have led them to believe Judd was my butler.” That got nothing more than a slight eyebrow raise out of Judd, who poured himself a cup of coffee without responding. “If anyone asks,” Michael called to him, “your name is Alfred.”

IMMPEEING PLEASE

Sloane let out a long breath. “Based on my calculations, now would be an appropriate time for someone to hug me.” Beside her, Dean opened his arms, and Sloane melted into them. “Raise your hand if you didn’t realize Dean was a hugger,” Michael said, raising his own hand. Lia snorted.

THIS IS MY FAMILYYYYYYY

“Based on my calculations…” she started to say, and then she just launched herself at me.

OHHHHH I LOVE THEM DEARLY

“I believe Lia said something about wanting to go shopping?”

YES MY GIRLS ALL TOGETHER HAVING FUN I DREAMED OF DAYS LIKE THIS

But home isn’t a place, Cassie. Home is the people who love you most.” She pulls over to the side of the highway. “Forever and ever,” she murmurs, brushing the hair away from my face. “No matter what.” “No matter what,” I whisper, and she smiles, one of those slow-spreading, mysterious smiles that make me smile, too.

tears in my eyes

“Cassie?” Lia’s voice snapped me back to the present. For once, her voice was gentle.

MY BEST FRIENDS

“You would have what?” Lia cut in protectively. Sloane was our family, more than she would ever be his, and right now, she was vulnerable and raw and bleeding. Lia didn’t trust strangers, and she especially didn’t trust this stranger—who we’d seen fighting with Tory Howard—with Sloane.

#real #family

“She’d like,” Shaw said, his words very precise, “to speak with me. And unless you would like me to let it slip to interested parties that your agent friends have been visiting teenagers in the Renoir Suite, you’ll let Sloane do as she pleases.”

i hope you choke mr shaw.

“Cassie and Lia stay.” Sloane’s voice came out tiny. She cleared her throat and tried again. “You can go,” she told Judd, her chin held high. “But I want Cassie and Lia to stay.”

<3 :(

Dean lunged forward. He hated violence. He avoided it at all costs because he could never be sure that he wouldn’t wake up one day and like it too much. But if anyone laid so much as a finger on Sloane…

like how can you not say family like

“Don’t,” Judd told her sharply. “Don’t you ever apologize for being what you are.”

that’s father.

Her voice broke. Michael caught her and held her still, his arms wrapping around her and pulling her back to his chest. “I’ve got you,” he said.

i love the michael and sloan duo they mean everything to me :(

“That’s it.” Judd’s voice was rough. “You’re done.” He couldn’t order Agent Sterling off this case. That was outside of his purview. But the rest of us weren’t. He was the final word on our involvement in any investigation. “All of you,” he addressed those words to Dean, Sloane, and me. “It’s my decision. It’s my call. And I say we’re done.” “Judd—” Sterling’s voice was calm, but I thought I could hear a note of desperation underneath. “No, Ronnie.” Judd turned his back on her, staring at Sloane’s window, his entire body bow-string tight. “I want Nightshade. Always have. And if there’s a larger group involved in what happened to Scarlett, I damn well want them, too. But I won’t risk a single one of these kids.” The idea of walking away was killing Judd, but he refused to waver. “You’ve got what you need from them,” he told Sterling and Briggs. “You know where the UNSUB is going to strike. You know when. You know how. Hell, you even know why.” I could make out a hint of Judd’s reflection in the window. Enough to see his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. “It’s my call,” Judd said again. “And I say that if you’ve got anything else you need a consult on, you can damn well ship it to Quantico. We’re leaving. Today.”

that’s father like

“Hey.” Dean came up beside me. He wove his hand into mine. Michael took one look at my face and put a hand on my shoulder. He hadn’t touched me—not once—since I’d chosen Dean. “You’re crying.” Sloane stopped short in front of us. “Don’t cry, Cassie.” I’m not. My face was wet, but I didn’t feel like I was crying. I didn’t feel anything. “You’re an ugly crier,” Lia said. She brushed my hair lightly out of my face. “Hideous.” I let out a choked laugh. My mother’s dead. She’s dust, and she’s bones, and the person who took her away from me buried her. He buried her in her best color. He took that away from me, too. I let myself be bundled away. I let myself retreat into Dean and Michael, Lia and Sloane.

tears in my eyes this is my family

Every time I felt myself going under, they pulled me back up.

:( <3

“When I joined the program,” I told Michael, “I didn’t know how to really be with people. I couldn’t…” The words wouldn’t come. “I kept everyone at a distance, and there you were, smashing through every wall. I felt something,” I told Michael. “You made me feel something, and I am grateful for that. Because you were the first, Michael.” There was a long silence. “The first friend,” Michael said finally, “that you ever had.”

oh i’m sick :(

“Michael.” Sloane choked out his name. For several seconds, she just stared at him. Her hands worked their way into fists by her side. “You’re not allowed to go away again,” she told him fiercely. “Michael. You’re not allowed to leave me, too.” Michael hesitated just a moment longer, then he took one step forward and then another, collapsing to the ground beside us. Sloane latched her arms around him and held on for dear life. I could feel the heat from their bodies. I could feel their shoulders racked with sobs. And all I could think, huddled on the floor with them, a mass of grief and anger and loss, was that Beau Donovan thought he’d won. He thought he could take and kill and tear lives apart and that nothing and no one could touch him. You thought wrong.

TEARS IN MY EYES THEY MEAN THE WORLD TO ME!!!!!! SLOAN IM SO SORRY MY ANGEL GIRL!!!!!!

Judd looked at Sloane for several seconds. Then he walked over to her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She won’t stop. She can’t. You know that. His mouth set into a firm line, Judd turned back to Lia. “No,” he grunted. “If Sloane were illegally hacking her father’s casino, I would not want to know.” Then he glanced back at Dean and Michael and me. “But, hypothetically speaking, what can I do to help?”

i’m literally sobbing this is family this is love judd is so father

“Briggs saved my life.” Judd forcibly shifted his eyes away from the man in the picture and turned to look at me. “He saved me, the day he brought me Dean.” Judd’s right hand slowly worked its way out of a fist. He closed his eyes for a moment, then reached for the picture of his daughter’s killer and turned it facedown. You do what you can to make sure your kids are safe. This was Judd, trying to protect me. This was Judd, telling me to let it go.

tears in my eyes

“I told Michael to put on his big-boy pants,” she informed me. “I think the near-death experience might have put a damper on his downward spiral, and besides…” Lia met my gaze. “I told him it was your turn.” There was a beat of silence as I absorbed the full meaning of Lia’s words. She was here for me. Michael was here. Sloane—shattered, grieving Sloane—was here. Briggs saved my life, Judd had said. He saved me, the day he brought me Dean. I wanted Nightshade behind bars. I wanted answers—but when I let myself, I wanted this more. Dean and Lia and Michael and Sloane—home is the people who love you most. Forever and ever. No matter—

i’m so sick this is my family yall like im sobbing my eyes out