Free The Naturals, Book 2: Killer Instinct by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

around.”
    Sterling’s expression softened when she looked at Sloane. “This isn’t about what happened this summer. This is about the fact that no one has authorized you to work on
this
case. I need your word the two of you will leave it alone. No modeling it, no profiling it, no hacking.”
    “No hacking,” Sloane agreed. She held out her hand to shake on it, and before Agent Sterling could comment on her selective hearing, she added, “If the entire population of the
town of Quantico shook hands with one another, there would be a total of 157,080 possible handshake combinations.”
    Agent Sterling smiled slightly as she took Sloane’s proffered hand. “No hacking
and
no more simulations.”
    Sloane took her hand back. The dark circles under her eyes made her look younger somehow, fragile—or maybe brittle. “I have to run simulations. It’s what I do.”
    As a profiler, Agent Sterling should have been able to hear what Sloane wasn’t saying—that building this model was the only thing she
could
do for Dean. It was also her way of
working through her own emotions. It was
what she did
.
    “Not on this case,” Agent Sterling repeated. She turned from Sloane to me. “No exceptions. No excuses. This program only works if the rules are followed and enforced.”
Agent Sterling had clearly cast herself in the role of enforcer. “You work on cold cases, and you do so only with the approval of myself and Agent Briggs. If you can’t follow these
simple instructions,
you’re
not just a liability. This whole program is.” Agent Sterling met my eyes, and there was no question in my mind that she’d meant me to hear those
words as a threat. “Am I clear?”
    The only thing clearer was the fact that my earlier impressions of the woman had been right on target. This wasn’t just a job to her. This was personal.

“S he more or less threatened to shut down the entire program.”
    Michael leaned back in his chair. “She’s a profiler. She knows exactly what threats to issue to keep people in line. She’s got your number, Colorado. You’re a team
player, so she didn’t just threaten you. She threatened the rest of us, too.”
    Michael and I were in the living room. Sloane, Lia, and Dean had passed their practice GEDs the day before with flying colors. Neither Michael nor I had actually taken one, but somehow, answer
sheets had been turned in with our names on them. Apparently, Lia had been feeling generous—but not generous enough to ensure that we passed, too. As a result, Michael and I were under strict
orders to study.
    I was better at following orders than Michael was.
    “If you were the one issuing threats,” he said, a wicked grin working its way onto his face, “how would you threaten me?”
    I looked up from my work. I was going over the test Lia had filled out for me, correcting the wrong answers. “You want me to threaten you?”
    “I want to know how you
would
threaten me,” Michael corrected. “Obviously, threatening the program wouldn’t be the way to go. I don’t exactly have the warm
fuzzies for the FBI.”
    I tapped the edge of my pencil against the practice test. Michael’s challenge was a welcome distraction. “I’d start with your Porsche,” I said.
    “If I’m a bad boy, you’ll take away my keys?” Michael wiggled his eyebrows in a way that was both suggestive and ridiculous.
    “No,” I replied without even thinking about it. “If you’re a bad boy, I’ll give your car to Dean.”
    There was a moment of stunned silence, and then Michael put a hand over his heart, like he’d been shot—a gesture that would have been funnier before he’d taken an actual bullet
to the chest.
    “You’re the one who asked,” I said. Michael should have known by now not to throw down the gauntlet unless he wanted me picking it up.
    “The depravity of you, Cassie Hobbes.” He was clearly impressed.
    I shrugged. “You and Dean have some kind of pseudo-sworn-enemy,