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realized she’d been a player in. Hooker just held her hand over her mouth, laughing. Emma could feel the heat rising in her face; she wasn’t sure what was so funny, but it was obvious she was the butt of the joke.
    Scary woman abruptly stopped laughing. And when she stopped, the other two immediately mirrored her silence.
    “No, love. I haven’t been able to stop by Nordstrom’s in the longest time. I must make a point to do exactly that, darlin’. I’ll pencil it in with this week’s shopping tour,” the scary woman said in a fake falsetto. “In the meantime, what size they be?” She continued, switching back to her regular voice—rough and gravelly, a heavy smoker’s voice.
    Emma cringed and again wished for Gabby to show up.
    “I think they’re a six,” she reluctantly answered.
    “That’s my size. Let me try ‘em on, little bit,” Scary Voice demanded.
    Emma sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly, realizing she was being challenged. This was no different than grade school. See how far you can push the little kid before she pushed back. This was territory Emma had travelled many times with different bullies. She’d been small all her life, much smaller than all her classmates. Slender, like her sisters, but without their height—even her own sisters had called her munchkin most of her childhood and, unfortunately, still sometimes did, but at least from them it was said with love.
    Emma stretched out her legs and crossed her feet, smoothing the hem of her dress across her thighs and slowly placing one boot delicately over the other, not rushing anything.
    She then erased all emotion off her face, not letting them see her anxiety ratcheting upward, and nonchalantly rolled her eyes up above their heads to stare at a spot of nothingness on the dirty wall above them. She leaned her head back against the wall, inwardly cringing at what she imagined her hair was coming in contact with but willing her body to maintain a relaxed pose before she answered.
    “Not gonna happen. It’s cold in here. I’m not taking off my boots.”
    The cell went silent for a moment while the three looked at each other.
    Scary Woman jumped off the bunk and was over Emma in two steps.
    “Is you telling me no , little bit? I don’t think you understood. I wasn’t axing you... I’s telling you,” she threatened, standing over Emma. “Now, give me ‘dem boots!” she roared.
    Emma held her pose, not moving a muscle. She was uneasy, but not afraid. They wouldn’t have let Scary Woman in the cell before searching her, so she probably didn’t have a weapon, and Emma felt sure she could take her in a fight. She’d been in plenty of those in her wilder days. But what she didn’t want was more trouble from the cops. She just wanted out so she could go home and sleep. But she would do what she had to; she sure as hell wasn’t giving up her brand-new boots. She’d worked long, hard hours and scrimped and saved for them... It wasn’t often she bought something for herself, and she’d be damned if she was going to lose them the first night she wore them.
    Emma didn’t answer. She’d put Scary Woman on ignore and would wait for her next move and take it from there.
    The tension in the cell heightened with each passing second that Scary Woman waited for Emma to answer or give up her boots. Emma could feel the tautness in the air, as if Scary Woman were about to snap. Something had to give or it was going to get ugly. Emma slowly rolled her head toward her, looking her in the eyes, and gave a slow shake of her head side-to-side while maintaining eye contact, hoping the subject would just drop.
    Scary Woman snapped. “You little bitch, you don’t come up in here with yo fancy shit and think you gonna tell me no!” she screamed as she reached down to grab one of Emma’s boots, the air moving to fill Emma’s nose with a rotten smell. Something awful she’d never encountered before was coming off the woman in waves