“Why not? The only chance I have for grandchildren is standing here being stubborn and disrespectful. You need to settle down and start having babies of your own. Then I could—”

A loud banging on the front door interrupted Janet.

“Anyone home?” a man’s voice called from outside. “I need help. Please! I need help.”

Liam seemed eager for the distraction and bounded to the front door in three steps. “I’m not marrying Nora, and that’s the end of it,” he tossed over his shoulder, then yanked the door open.

A wiry man who looked ill and panicked stood on the front stoop. A couple of other men clustered behind him, but Patrick stared at the man in front, who had wiry red hair and the longest nose he’d ever seen.

“Are you Liam Malone?” the redheaded man asked.

“I am. What do you need?”

A knife flashed before plunging straight into Liam’s abdomen. Liam yelled and doubled over, grabbing at the knife before it could plunge again. The other men shoved through the front door, one hefting a sledgehammer above Liam’s head.

Janet screamed, and Patrick vaulted forward to wrench the sledgehammer away, then used it to clobber the invader, who dropped to the ground.

Liam and the redheaded man rolled on the floor. Blood was everywhere, and the knife was raised for another plunge, but Liam held his attacker by the wrist. Before Patrick could help, someone punched him in the head, and he went down.

Pain nearly blinded him, but he’d taken punches before. He sprang up. He couldn’t see straight but unleashed a fierce round of blows at the blurry form of his attacker. Janet’s screams mingled with agonized yells from Liam wrestling for control of the knife.

Patrick slipped on the blood. He couldn’t meet his end in a grubby tenement. Not when his mother still needed him. Fear mingled with panic as he scrambled upright. He focused all his power into his right arm, driving his fist into the nose of the man before him. The man went down and didn’t move.

Liam’s attacker had him pinned to the floor, and Patrick hauled him off and threw him aside, then kicked him in the gut to keep him down. The knife skittered across the floor, and Janet grabbed it.

Two men were down, and the redheaded man looked at them in panic before staggering out the front door and escaping into the night.

There was no time to waste. Liam lay in a pool of blood, and he wasn’t moving anymore.

“Go get help!” Patrick ordered Janet. She ran out into the street, her scream echoing off the row houses. People were already heading their way, and Patrick balled up a handkerchief and pressed it to the gut wound. Liam’s yell of pain was deafening, and soon there were half a dozen people in the room.