Chapter 4

"There's no signal in that room, he never got through!"

"She was only screaming that loud to scare you!"

Doubt flickered in the man's eyes, and his steps stopped.

The moment I saw him hesitate, I rushed to the shoe cabinet by the door.

I yanked the drawer open and grabbed the wad of emergency cash I kept inside, maybe two or three thousand dollars.

My hands shook as I pressed it straight into his palms.

"Even if that one-star review docks your pay, this is more than enough to make up for it!"

"I swear, I won't call the police, I won't take this any further!"

The driver looked down at the bills shoved into his hand.

For a moment, the air seemed to freeze.

Out in the hallway came the faint ding of the elevator reaching this floor.

The man's head snapped up, something calculating passing deep in his eyes.

He clenched the money tight and didn't spare the shut bedroom door another glance.

"Don't cause trouble."

He dropped those three cold words, turned on his heel, and strode out the front door.

The instant he stepped out and headed for the elevator.

I threw myself at the door.

"Bang! "

I slammed the heavy security door shut with everything I had.

I twisted the lock, threw all three bolts one after another, then slid the chain across.

When it was done, I leaned back against the cold metal, and my legs finally gave out from under me.

I slid down the door and sank to the floor.

I was alive.

I'd talked the driver into leaving.

He hadn't touched us. I'd pinned the whole thing down with money and lies.

I closed my eyes and let out a long breath, savoring the quiet of having made it through.

"Click."

Just then, Janice's shut bedroom door slowly opened from inside.

She was holding a tablet, and there wasn't a trace on her face of the panic from when she'd been screaming about the police.

If anything, she looked smug.

"Glenda, you really are something."

"You hit me over a delivery guy, and then handed him a few thousand bucks on top of it?"

I didn't even have the strength to be angry. I just looked at her, drained.

"Did you call the police or not?"

Janice rolled her eyes and went over to sit on the couch.

"There's no signal in that room, like you don't already know that!"

The dread I'd been carrying finally settled all the way down.

Then she gave the tablet in her hand a little wave, a vicious smile curling at her lips.

"But I went straight to the platform's customer support just now."

My head snapped up, an awful premonition flooding through me all at once.

"What did you do?"

"I just told support that he not only spilled my food, his attitude was a total disgrace."

Every drop of blood in me froze in that instant. My lips trembled as I asked.

"What… what did they decide?"

"Account suspended for a month, five thousand docked."

Janice arched her eyebrows, positively gloating.

"Mess with me? That's what you get!"

Boom!

My mind went completely blank.

I scrambled up off the floor like a madwoman and jabbed a finger in her face, shrieking.

"Do you have any idea what you just did?"

"Why are you yelling at me! He had it coming!"

Janice yelled right back, not about to give an inch.

And right then.

Out in the dead-silent hallway came a perfectly clear, mechanical woman's voice.

"Your rider account has been suspended by the platform for one month."

The next second, my phone buzzed hard in my pocket.

Stiffly, I looked down. Right on schedule, a glaring pop-up pushed onto the screen.

【Two Women Can't Escape Delivery Driver's Clutches, Die Horribly at Home】