The Naturals, #2
Killer Instinct
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Contents
Chapter 23
Overview
Cassie reconciles with Sloane after excluding her from the campus trip, easing team fractures. Michael admits provoking Dean and reveals a past fight, clarifying their tension. When Agent Sterling returns grim-faced, Cassie deduces the FBI located the professor’s cabin—but the UNSUB reached the professor first, escalating the stakes.
Summary
In the basement, Cassie finds Sloane withdrawn and hurt over being left out of the campus trip. Sloane admits feeling sidelined and worries Lia wouldn’t have been alone if she’d gone. Cassie acknowledges the oversight and promises to include Sloane next time, and the two tentatively reconnect.
Cassie then seeks out Michael, who is venting frustration on his car. She probes their status, and Michael jokes but reveals deeper issues: he reads anger because of his father and reacts by provoking it to control the blow. Cassie profiles that Michael bristles around Dean’s tightly contained rage.
Michael recounts a prior incident: after an all-nighter with Lia, Dean confronted them, and Michael pushed him verbally; Dean retaliated with a cutting personal strike, and Michael punched him. Michael says he is trying to step back and let Cassie support Dean, but admits it’s difficult.
Agent Sterling arrives, visibly unhappy. Cassie reinterprets Redding’s earlier “tip” about the professor’s writing cabin as manipulation. She concludes the FBI likely found the cabin—and the professor—but the UNSUB got there first, a move designed to humiliate the Bureau and intensify the mind games.
Who Appears
- CassieNarrator; reconciles with Sloane, profiles Michael, and deduces the UNSUB reached the professor before the FBI.
- MichaelVents anger repairing his car; admits provoking Dean and reveals he once punched him; tries to give Cassie space.
- SloaneFeels excluded and guilty; expresses worry about Lia being alone; accepts Cassie’s promise to include her.
- Agent SterlingReturns from the cabin search visibly displeased, signaling the operation’s troubling outcome.