American to stop daughter securing flat in US city (9)
I believe the answer is:
cleveland
'us city' is the definition.
(city in Ohio)
'american to stop daughter securing flat' is the wordplay.
'american to stop' becomes 'can' (US term meaning to fire or cancel).
'daughter' becomes 'd'.
'securing' indicates putting letters inside.
'flat' becomes 'level' (synonyms).
'can'+'d'='cand'
'cand' placed around 'level' is 'CLEVELAND'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for cleveland that I've seen before include "past president" , "US city" , "Region of NE England" , "Democrat leader once" , "Large city of Ohio" .)