Chapter 7: The Door Opens

My father came down the iron stairs one step at a time.

He had never set foot in a place like this, and he walked through it without looking left or right.

Two hundred people parted in front of him.

They knew a man like him by the coat.

"Mr. Ruggiero," he said.

Tancredi came out of the office doorway and stood at the top of the stairs.

"Mr. Montanari."

"I'm told this is your building."

"It's mine."

"I'm told you take money at the door."

"I do."

"And that my daughter fights here for you, masked, under a false name."

"Your daughter fights here for herself," Tancredi said. "I count the money."

My father looked at him for a long time.

He didn't look angry, which was worse.

"You will understand," he said, "that I cannot leave this here."

"Leave what?"

"A place where a girl of my family is hit in the face for the entertainment of strangers."

"She hit nobody in the face tonight," Tancredi said. "She did the other woman's ribs."

Somebody on the benches laughed, and then stopped.

My father did not turn his head.

"By Monday," he said, "there will be a padlock on that door. The city will find the fire exits aren't to code. My men are in the street."

I heard the crowd shift.

Two hundred people who had paid to be here began to look for the way out.

"You can do that," Tancredi said. "It's your city."

"I know."

"Then you'd better ask your daughter if she'll be at your table tomorrow."

I came down the stairs.

I walked straight past Tancredi and stopped one step above my father, so that we were nearly eye to eye.

Keep reading free with an account. Start They Left Me to Die, So I Came Home Undefeated from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.