My Father Sold Me at Eighteen, but the Mafia Lord Was the One in Debt to Me novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Dog Track

Luca's POV

I went to the dog track that night because I did not want to look at the bank's letter again.

The bank's man had said the Ricci operating account was under a legal hold pending review.

A judge who owed Ottavio a favor had signed it.

I had four hundred drivers and stevedores to pay on Friday and no money to do it with.

I did not tell Graciela, because she was asleep with the ledger open on her chest.

I stood in the bedroom doorway at eleven and watched her for a full minute.

Then I took my keys, which she had handed back to me that afternoon with a straight face, and went out to the car.

Anselmo Montalvo had a table at the Tampa Greyhound Track on 4th Street.

A man on the rail told me he had held it every night for twenty years.

I walked in at midnight with no driver.

The room was long and low and loud with televisions, and it smelled of beer, cigarettes and wet dog.

Anselmo sat at the back with a racing form, a sweating glass and a half-eaten plate of fried plantain.

His good navy suit had gone shiny at the elbow.

He saw me coming through the tables, and his whole face lit up.

For a moment I almost felt sorry for him.

"Luca," he said.

"My son."

"Not tonight," I said.

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