“One of my teachers used to say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Trust me, I knew all about it. I called that road mother. No one ever said what the road back was paved with. For me, it began on the twinkling edge of a switchblade knife.” 

When fifteen-year-old Riley Crane figures out her best friend Olivia is being abused at home, she knows just who to turn to: her mother Claire, writer and spokesperson for President Gray’s Parental Morality Law. Under this law, Taskforce Officers remove children from their homes if their parents do not meet certain guidelines, taking them to government-run boarding schools where supervisors rehabilitate them, turning them into productive members of society. Or at least that is how it was supposed to work… 

Now, after a government official threatens to make Riley the law’s latest victim, Riley and Claire must rely on Cain Foley, a gifted killer with a tongue as sharp as the knives he carries, to get them out of America alive. Though he slices through men’s necks as if they are warm butter, Riley can’t seem to keep her cheeks from flushing every time he speaks. But when they stumble upon a deserted boarding school, Riley sees that escaping the country is only part of their problem. Together, Riley and Cain figure out that a killer can save a life, and a mother can damn a nation.