Chapter 6: My Mother Stands Up

"No." That was all she said. One word, in a laundry uniform, in front of two hundred armed men. The courtyard went so quiet I heard it from the gate. Mercer turned around slowly. He was a mountain of a man, one eye milky, tattoos to the jaw. "Say that again, sweetheart." "No." My mother's voice cracked and held. "I'm not sending those girls to you. And I'm not kneeling." I was already climbing. The perimeter fence is nine feet of iron with spikes; I hit it at speed and it tore my palm open...