Chapter 24: Both Names

"No," I said.

Cal's hand tightened on mine over the belt.

"I'm not going to Philadelphia," I said. "I'm going home."

"Say where that is."

"Penn Avenue. Second floor. Over the tire shop."

He pulled me against his chest in front of four thousand people and a row of cameras.

He did not care who saw.

Two weeks later a man on a ladder hung a new sign over the street door.

The city had put the permit back in nine days, with a letter that used the word apology twice.

The county prosecutor had told Cal that his release of claims was worth nothing, and the building was his.

He had said, "Good," and gone back to taping a bag.

I stood on the sidewalk with Bea and looked up.

HOLLENBECK & KELLER BOXING CLUB.

The paint was still wet.

"They spelled it right," Bea said. "I checked the letters myself."

"It's perfect."

"It's missing something." She waved a hand at the sign. "A tire."

I laughed.

She took a folded paper out of her back pocket.

She pressed it flat against my chest.

"Read it."

It was a contract.

A promoter in Pittsburgh had signed it, a woman who had watched every second of Bea's tape from the weigh-in.

Her first professional fight was in March.

The manager's line said Cal Hollenbeck.

"You said you'd never sign with a creep," I said.

"I didn't. She's a woman, and Cal is my manager."

She wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Fixed My Fight, So the Champion Vanished from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.