know you. It’s Holly, isn’t it?”
The woman’s face showed surprise. “That’s right. Who are you?”
“Britney Jenks,” Abbey lied.
“I don’t remember you,” Holly said.
“Oh, I don’t suppose you would. It was at some party last year. Tribeca, maybe. All those lofts look alike. I remember you were there, because you were with your boyfriend, and I knew him from one of my social groups on Prescix. Pete Restak.”
“You have an account on Prescix?”
“Doesn’t everybody?” Abbey said.
“And you remember Peter?”
“Sure. Tech guy, really smart, one of those hacker wizards, right? Dirty-blond hair, man bun.”
“That’s him,” Holly replied.
“Are you two still seeing each other?”
“Why do you want to know? Do you want to ask him out?”
“Me? Oh, no, I’ve got a boyfriend. I just noticed that Pete had dropped out of my Prescix feed. He was always good about helping me when I had computer questions. I’m pretty hopeless about that stuff. I was actually thinking about reconnecting with him, but I realized I had no way to get in touch.”
Holly took a long time to reply. She wrapped a towel around the back of her neck and held on to the ends with her hands. “Well, Peter and I broke up months ago. I dumped his ass.”
“I’m sorry. That’s too bad. This is probably a little awkward, but you wouldn’t still have contact info for him, would you? My laptop seems to have bad juju right now, and I don’t have a few hundred bucks to replace it. I thought maybe Pete could perform an exorcism or something.”
Abbey smiled. Holly didn’t. Her flushed face never moved. “Yeah, I probably have his number. My phone’s in my locker. Come on back, and I’ll get it for you.”
“Thanks, that’s great. I appreciate it.”
Holly led the way. The woman walked quickly, the same way she ran on the treadmill, and Abbey hurried to keep up with her. They pushed through doors on the other side of the studio into the changing room, where stainless steel lockers gleamed on the nearest wall. Two or three other women were inside. Abbey followed Holly along a row of wooden benches to the far end, where Holly opened the combination lock on one of the lockers. Her street clothes were inside, along with a gym bag and purse.
“My phone’s in here,” Holly said.
She dug in her purse, but then with the speed of a cobra, she twisted around and grabbed Abbey by the shoulders and threw her against the lockers. Abbey’s head banged against the steel. Holly pressed her forearm hard into Abbey’s throat, and with her other hand, she brought the tip of a miniature Swiss Army knife up to within an inch of Abbey’s eye. Holly’s face contorted with anger, and her breath was warm and sour.
“Okay, who the hell are you?”
Abbey choked as she tried to get out the words. “I already told you.”
“What you told me was a lie. Anybody who knows Peter Restak knows he doesn’t go by Pete. He’s never Pete. And Peter never had a Prescix account under his own name. No way. He told me if I wanted to stay safe, I should keep my life offline, the way he did. He said Prescix messes with your head.”
“I—I must have made a mistake.”
“A mistake? I don’t think so. Who are you, and what do you want? And how the hell did you get my name?”
“I told you … a party.”
Holly shook her head. “Me and Peter? A loft party? We’d never be caught dead in that scene.”
One of the other women in the locker room shouted from the showers. “Hey, Holl, you okay? You want me to call 911?”
Holly pushed even harder with her forearm against Abbey’s throat. The blade of the tiny knife loomed huge in front of Abbey’s pupil. “What do you think? Should I have her call 911? Because I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be very happy explaining yourself to the cops. You’ve got five seconds to decide. Start talking, or we get the NYPD over here and you can talk to them.”
Abbey tried to nod. “Okay. Okay. I’ll tell you the truth.”
Holly glanced over her shoulder and called to the other woman. “It’s all right, Steph. I’ve got it under control.”
She let Abbey go, then took her by the wrist and shoved her down roughly on the bench. Abbey rubbed her throat and inhaled loudly. Holly folded up the knife and stuffed it back in her purse, and then she sat down next to her. The dank