Her stomach clenched. It was obvious that Declan was responsible for the attack. It had been obvious since Lennon told them what he’d heard.

And she had a terrible feeling that she knew exactly who had shot Lopez.

She took another step toward him, and he turned his attention from the car to her.

She had to admit, she was a little surprised that he’d wanted her protected at the family meeting. Their breakup hadn’t been nasty, but she would have thought he was kind of ambivalent about her.

Apparently not. And she could use that to her advantage.

She put a hand on his left arm and smiled. His lips began to turn up as well.

Then she drew back and hit him in the left shoulder.

He yelled in pain and stumbled back. “Maisie, what the fu—”

She yanked the collar of his shirt down to reveal the bandage on his shoulder. “I shot the guy who tried to kill Lopez. In that shoulder.”

Declan went still. She could see him debating, trying to decide if it would benefit him to lie.

He sighed and twisted his shirt out of her grasp. “I didn’t mean for it to go down like that.”

She gaped at him. “You were executing him in the street!”

“I was trying to get him to listen to reason. He won’t listen—hasn’t listened, for years—and I thought it might finally get through if he had a gun to his face. I didn’t want to hurt him, but sometimes you just have to get shit done.”

Maisie swallowed back the urge to scream at him. Declan wouldn’t listen to her if she got emotional—he barely listened to her as it was.

“What did you want to say to him?” she asked.

“We have to take the whole Q. The north holds all the power, since they get all the shipments from beyond the wall. It was different back when supplies were still dropped by plane, but for the past ten years or so…” He shook his head. “This can’t go on. The north is holding our shipments right now because they can. Because they know we’re weak, and we won’t fight back. There are some people inside the Lopez family who understand that, but there are a lot of other folks in the south who get that.”

“Which folks? Reapers?”

“Some of them, yeah.” He stared at her like he was daring her to challenge him.

“Reapers don’t have loyalty, Declan. If you’re looking to rule the entire Q—or even just the south—they won’t help you do that. They don’t follow leaders.”

“Well.” A smug grin crossed his face. “Some Reapers have started to come around to the idea of a more organized leadership. They’ve been getting screwed by a few guys holding all the power for years.”

“So they might as well get screwed by you instead?”

He laughed like he thought she was joking.

He stepped forward, putting both hands gently on her arms. She resisted the urge to smack him away. Using his feelings to her advantage. She needed to remember that.