Reborn to Marry the Rival Mafia Boss

Chapter Nine

The security chief repeated the road name while I opened the map on my phone. The southern road ran past a disused weigh station before it joined the service lanes around Spur Nine. Luis would reach the old entrance long before his evening booking if he stayed on it. There was a staffed truck stop two miles beyond the turn, on the right side of the road.

"Tell your car not to pull him over," I told Damian, moving the map so he could see the truck stop. "I can call him. There's somewhere safe for him to wait."

Damian relayed that to his security chief before ending the call. Nadia stood beside the table with her notebook open, watching me dial. Luis picked up after several rings; the steady engine noise came through his cab's hands-free system.

"Sofia? I was about to call you," he answered, and I could hear his indicator ticking. "They've sent the trucks south. There are cones across the main exit."

"Who sent you?" I asked, leaning over the map. "Did you get a message from dispatch?"

"No. A sign at the interchange said commercial diversion, and the other lane was blocked. I haven't gone near Spur Nine." Luis slowed, his engine dropping to a low rumble. "I'm looking for a place to stop before I ring Tessa."

"There's a truck stop ahead on your right. Pull in where other drivers can see you, then call me back from the cab." I kept my voice steady while I traced the service road with my finger. "Don't go past it."

"I can see the sign for it." Luis let the indicator click a few more times. "I'll call when I'm parked."

I ended the call and sent him the stop's address in a text he could read later. Damian told me his security car was following well behind the truck. I showed Nadia the road number, the fuel stop, and the point where a driver continuing south would be forced onto the lanes toward Spur Nine.

"If that diversion is genuine, somebody at the road authority will know," Nadia noted, making a call from her own phone. She asked for the closure desk and gave the interchange number while Damian stood at the window speaking to his security chief again.

My father had cleared B-418 for departure after I flagged the route. Marco had told dispatch to leave the booking alone. Neither fact proved they had placed the cones, but the thought of Luis following a road sign into an empty service lane made my stomach tighten. In my first life, I had accepted a report that called it his unauthorized detour without ever asking what he'd seen from the cab.

Nadia came back to the table. "No commercial diversion was approved there today," she reported, leaving her phone on the notebook. "The closure desk is sending a crew to clear the cones. They want to know who set them up."

"I know which account moved his departure. I can't tell you who put out the cones." I looked at Damian, who had finished his call. "Your people didn't make him turn, did they?"

"No. My car was still north of the interchange when he took the exit." Damian held his phone at his side. "It has a dashboard recording of the road ahead, but the cones may be out of frame. We'll keep the original file."

I wanted to see it, though there was no time to stand over a video while Luis found the stop. My phone rang before I could ask. He was parked in a row of trucks beside the fuel canopy, between a refrigerated trailer and a flatbed with its driver eating lunch on the step.

"I'm stopped. I checked the seal before I got back in. It's still on, and no one's come near the truck," Luis told me. A door shut in the background. "What do you want me to do now?"

"Stay in the cab with the doors locked. Write down what you saw at the interchange and the time you took the turn. Tessa needs the same account, from you." I picked up a pen Nadia had left beside me. "Can you read the seal number from your paperwork without getting out?"

Luis gave it to me. I wrote it in my notebook, then repeated it so he could correct me. He sounded frightened when I mentioned the cones were not authorized by the road authority, but he was angry too.

"I didn't make up a road closure," Luis protested, the rustle of his trip sheet audible over the line. "If someone tries to tell me I took a pleasure drive, I've got the other trucks that turned with me."

"I believe you." I pressed the pen hard against the paper. "Keep their names if you can get them safely, but don't leave the truck to chase anyone down. I'll have dispatch note your location before anyone changes the trip sheet."

"I'm calling Tessa next. She needs to hear this from me," Luis insisted, turning a page. "I'll tell her about the sign."

"Good. Tell her the time you turned too." I waited until he said he'd written it down, then let him call Tessa himself.

Nadia asked her contacts at both gates to flag the B-418 bookings while the conflicting route was investigated. Damian's security chief sent a photograph taken from the public pavement across from the truck stop. The Bellandi markings and trailer number were visible. Luis was still in the cab. Damian showed me the image without asking me to send it anywhere.

I called Tessa. She answered from her car, sounding as if she'd just woken up. I explained where Luis was and what the road authority had confirmed, careful to give her the account he'd told me instead of telling her what to write.

"He called me a minute ago," Tessa replied, her keys rattling as she searched her bag. "I've got his time and the stop in my log. I can hear how shaken he is. Your father might still take him off the load."

"Then he should put the reason in writing. Luis says the seal is intact, and Damian's people can see the truck. Please keep your copy of the warning and his trip sheet." I sat down and stretched my cramped legs beneath the table. "I don't want him sent back out alone while those cones are there."

"Neither do I. I'll call the shift supervisor and find out who can authorize a safe return or a hold at that stop." Tessa paused while a car passed close to hers. "Sofia, there's something else. Rinaldi sent an incident notice to the east terminal. It says B-418 went missing on the southern road."

I looked at the photograph on Damian's phone. The truck was sitting in a busy fuel yard with Luis inside it. "What time was the notice filed?" I asked Tessa, reaching for my pen again.

"Eleven fifty-two. It names the road and says contact was lost with the driver." Tessa read from her own screen. "Luis called you after that, didn't he?"

"He did. He was driving, then he stopped and called both of us." I wrote the time beside the seal number. "Don't change the incident notice. Record that he called you and where he is. Adriana can request the original and its submitter."

"I'm doing that now." Tessa's voice had steadied. "Call me before anyone moves him."

When the call ended, I told Nadia about the notice. She contacted the east terminal, which had received the Rinaldi report, and asked them to retain it with its timestamp. Damian sent his chief to a public spot near the truck stop where he could watch for anyone approaching the trailer. He made no move to take Luis or the cargo.

"They won't like those timestamps," Nadia remarked, setting her notebook beside mine. "The terminal got their notice while the truck was still on the road."

"They can still change their version if nobody keeps the original." I slid my notebook toward her so she could see the times. "Adriana needs the terminal's record too."

Nadia gave me the contact details, and I sent Adriana the two independent locations where the records were held. I could not reach into the Bellandi portal anymore, but Luis's calls, the road authority's answer, and the terminal's received notice could all be checked without it. For the first time since I had woken up, one of the losses I remembered had failed to happen the way my family expected.

Damian's phone rang again. He listened without interrupting, then turned the screen toward us. A port traffic alert had reached his chief: another Bellandi vehicle had been hit on the west quay road. The message gave a truck number I'd never seen on my dispatch roster. The alert said its driver was hurt and the cargo was gone.