“We can negotiate—”

“Would you give it a rest? It won’t work. Stop being naive.”

She could tell he saw the irritation flicker across her face.

“It’s true, Maisie. I know that you think you can do everything by charming people, but the world doesn’t work like that.”

“It’s gotten me this far. And neither of us has any idea how the world works.”

He frowned. “What?”

“All we know is what’s inside these walls. We’re part of a much bigger world that we knew nothing about.”

“I’m fine with that.”

“Are you?”

“Yes. That world out there…that world belonged to our parents, not us. We’ll never get out of here. Nothing on the other side of the wall matters.”

“Of course it does. What we do matters. How we handle this shipment—this conflict—matters out there. And not just because Lennon can tell them. They know what we do in here. Not only through surveillance. The Spencers communicate with them.”

“I look forward to putting a stop to that when I take over Spencer territory.”

“The solution to our problems is more communication, not less, Declan. As much as I respected Lopez, he was wrong to isolate us like this.”

“That’s one of the few things I agreed with Lopez about, actually.”

Her father had agreed as well. In fact, he may have been the one to push hard to cut off the Q from the rest of the world. We take care of our own, Maisie. He’d always say that, pretending that whatever he wanted was for the best for everyone. There was no negotiation, no changing his mind.

Declan was watching her, clearly waiting for her to keep arguing, but she just leaned back with a sigh. Like her father, there was no use arguing with him.

Maybe she’d liked that about Declan at first, that he reminded her of the father she’d just lost. It was easier to just try to be what they wanted, instead of carving out her own path.

Lennon had been right, when he said that she had gotten here by doing her own thing. By going against Declan, and the path her father would have wanted. She already had the shipment that Declan claimed she couldn’t get. She had the help of Val, and of Queso. Those were two more allies than Declan had ever made.

“Hey, Declan?” Vic said, looking over his shoulder.

“What?”

“We have a tail.”

LENNON

“OH MY GOD, WHY DID I LET YOU DRIVE?”

Queso gripped the armrest like his life depended on it. Lennon had jumped in the van to try to catch the SUV, and Queso had protested, seeing how it was his van and all.

But Lennon refused to let his slow ass drive. Queso had settled for jumping in the passenger’s seat.

He pressed the pedal to the floor. The van roared forward, even riddled with bullet holes. Apparently, they hadn’t hit anything important. “Jesus, this thing goes fast.”

“I hate you,” Queso said.