The Naturals, Book 2: Killer Instinct

YOU

The president’s lawn was a nice touch. You could have dumped her anywhere. You didn’t have to risk being seen.

“No one saw me.” You murmur the words with a self-satisfied hum. “But they saw her.”

They saw the lines you carved into her body. They saw the noose you slipped around her neck. Just thinking about it, about the way her eyes bulged as the life drained out of her, fragile little arms tensing against the restraints, pale skin dyed with dainty rivulets of red…

Your lips curve into a smile. The moment has passed, but the game—the game is long. Next time, you won’t be so eager. Next time, you’ll have nothing to prove. Next time, you’ll take it slow.

sat this one out

That was one of the key differences between Michael’s ability and mine. Michael read people. I read personalities and behaviors—and I didn’t always need a person present to do it.

Michael crossed to stand in front of me. “I could tell you,” he intoned, “but then I’d have to kill you.”

“Basic human decency?” Briggs suggested dryly.

“It’s all connected. Our families. The things that have happened to us. The things we can do.”

“For once in your life,” she ordered, “just let go.”

I’d never really belonged anywhere before I joined the Naturals program, but for this instant, this moment, this one night, nothing else mattered.

“Maybe,” I said softly, “to do what you and I do, we have to have a little bit of the monster in us.”

“If it had been me in the woods, if I’d been the one to go with Briggs, if I’d been the one you saw at the exact second…”

Would it have been me?