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second. She ached to step between David Alexander and the saloonkeeper and to shove the older woman’s hands away. She could feel the tension between them. It was so thick she could almost taste it. Tessa ground her teeth in an attempt to control her temper and avoid trouble.
    She waited for long moments until David stepped away from the saloonkeeper. She felt his hand on her arm as he urged her forward. Tessa stared at a point above Myra’s head, willing herself to ignore the woman. But she couldn’t ignore Myra’s triumphant, knowing smile. Tessa knew it meant that Myra had won. And that she wouldn’t get her belongings back.
    Tessa saw her opportunity and took it. She jerked out of David’s grasp, slipped past Myra, and dashed into the Satin Slipper.
    “Stop her!” Myra yelled to the bartender once she realized Tessa’s intent.
    David knew immediately where Tessa was headed. He took off after her, but the barkeep beat him to the stairs. They raced each other to the top with David trailing a step behind the bartender, Liam Kincaid.
    On the landing David collided with one of Myra’s girls coming down the stairs. He stumbled backward, allowing Liam to gain another step on him.
    Tessa grasped the doorknob of her former room, turned it, and flung open the door.
    “Oh, no, you don’t.” Liam gripped her arm above the elbow.
    Tessa whirled around. “Take your filthy hands off me, you rogue!” She swung her free arm at Liam’s head. He ducked just in time.
    “What the hell?” Liam asked, bewildered by Tessa’s reaction.
    “Let go of me.” She spat the words at him. “Don’t touch me!”
    David rounded the corner and grabbed Tessa about the waist. “I’ve got her.” He turned toward Tessa, his face mirroring his fury. “Calm down.”
    Liam let go of Tessa, then stepped back out of the way.
    Tessa nearly shouted again in frustration. “I want my mother’s rosary back! I want my phot—my things!”
    “I know you do,” David told her, “and we’ll get them, but I shouldn’t have let you come here. We’ll get your things back a different way.”
    “They belong to me. She has no right.” Tessa squirmed in David’s arms.
    Myra Brennan stood just below the landing. “I have every right,” she said, “to take my share of your earnings.”
    “I paid my rent.” Tessa glared at the older woman.
    “You had a man in your room,” Myra reminded her. “Last night. I get a share of those earnings, too.”
    “Running a lewd house, Myra?” David asked. “You know that’s illegal.”
    “I just rent the rooms, lawyer man. Who the girls see and what they do is their business. But it’s only fair that I charge for overnight visitors. The hotel does.”
    Tessa felt David Alexander’s body stiffen momentarily in reaction to Myra’s words before he moved away from her. He released his hold on Tessa’s waist, grasping her arm instead. It was the only place he touched her.
    She looked from David to Myra. “I didn’t invite anyone into my room.”
    “He was there,” Myra said with finality. “That’s all that matters.”
    “I don’t go with the men.” Tessa’s gaze darted back to David Alexander. “Myra knows that!” She looked from Myra to Liam. “Both of you know it. Please, tell Mr. Alexander!”
    David gritted his teeth, a muscle ticking in his jaw as he sought to keep a rein on his rising temper. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, pulling Tessa toward him, then leading her back down the stairs. They had drawn a crowd. Just what David had hoped to avoid.
    “What do you mean, ‘It doesn’t matter’?” Tessa demanded. “It matters to me.”
    David’s reply was scathing as he gazed at her. “I can tell.” He indicated the curious spectators avidly eyeing the confrontation. “Satisfied?” he asked. “All you had to do to avoid this was follow my instructions.”
    Tessa’s temper flared under his verbal assault, but she fought back the biting words that were on the tip of her