Reborn to Marry the Rival Mafia Boss

Chapter Eight

Damian POV

Sofia held the strap of her bag while I waited for an answer. She had come through my front gate in a Bellandi car, used her own name, and warned my security about a shipment her family controlled. I knew the woman who had made me move a truck two years ago. I did not know what had happened in her father's office this morning.

"I want the driver safe," she replied, looking straight at me. "And if you're going to look into the booking, don't tell my father I brought it to you."

Nadia glanced at me from the inner door. My cousin had already called our terminal contact after security passed along the load number. We had confirmation that Spur Nine had a slot reserved for a Bellandi vehicle tonight. That alone didn't tell us why Sofia was here.

"Come in," I told Sofia, stepping back to give her room. "Nadia will stay."

"Good." Sofia passed me without brushing my arm. "I'd rather have another person hear what you offer." Nadia's mouth moved slightly, though she kept walking. She had sat across from enough people who thought they could charm me into overlooking a bad contract. Sofia had not tried to charm either of us.

I led them into a meeting room overlooking the yard. Rain had begun to darken the concrete between the trailers. Sofia took a seat with a view of the door. Nadia sat opposite her and opened a blank notebook. I remained standing until Sofia set her phone on the table, screen up.

"Tell me what you saw," Nadia prompted, resting her pen beside the notebook. "Then tell me why it worries you."

"Yesterday, the driver sheet for B-418 named the east terminal. The Rinaldi desk booking sent the same truck to Spur Nine first." Sofia gave her the two entry numbers and the times she had written down. "The driver reported a call from an unnamed man at the Rinaldi office about changing gates. He asked them to put any change through dispatch."

"Were you there when he got the call?" Nadia asked, leaving the pen where it was.

"I saw the number on his phone and heard him tell my supervisor what the caller said. I didn't hear the call itself." Sofia shifted her attention from Nadia to me. "Tessa can speak for her own dispatch log. I'm not asking you to contact her."

She could have claimed the driver knew who had called him. I liked that she hadn't. Nadia wrote down the distinction before asking her next question.

"What happened with the proxy?" I asked, pulling out the chair beside Nadia. "Vittorio cut off your access as soon as you refused him."

"It gives him my vote for five years. He wouldn't show me the full agreement before asking me to sign." Sofia put one finger against the edge of her phone. "I found a different authorization with my signature on it. I didn't sign that one either. Adriana Costa, my lawyer, was with me when I refused today."

Nadia wrote down the lawyer's name after Sofia gave it. She did not ask to see the documents. We could check a shipping slot without inviting ourselves into a dispute over Bellandi shares, and Sofia plainly knew the difference.

"My gate contact confirmed a reservation under B-418," Nadia told her, watching her face. "Spur Nine, seven forty tonight. It came through a Rinaldi desk account. The gate operator can confirm the slot, not who sat at the keyboard."

Sofia let out a slow breath. She didn't look pleased to be right.

"Was the east terminal booking cancelled?" she asked Nadia, leaning across the table before she seemed to realize she'd moved.

"I haven't checked that one." Nadia took out her phone. "Give me a minute."

I had met Sofia at a joint loading bay two years earlier. Marco Rinaldi had tried to end the argument by reminding everyone of the Bellandi-Rinaldi alliance. Sofia had opened the schedule, shown me the bay assignment, and waited while I read it. I had moved the truck. I remembered wishing she had stayed after the meeting, then dismissing the thought. She was engaged, and her family's alliance with the Rinaldis had made any interest in her useless.

Now a booking from Marco's office could put one of my crews under suspicion if the load disappeared near our route. I watched Sofia rub the strap mark on her palm. Her lawyer had likely told her how this visit would look if her father found out. She'd come anyway.

"If you knew that slot existed, why let me in?" she asked, catching me watching her hand.

"I knew a truck was booked. You brought the other destination and the driver's warning." I looked toward the rain on the yard window, then back at her. "That gives me something to test. It doesn't tell me what you'll do if Marco calls and asks where you are."

"I won't tell him I'm here." She folded her hands in her lap. "He'll ask. He won't get an answer."

Nadia returned her phone to the table. "The east terminal has B-418 on the arrivals list. No cancellation. Both places expect it."

"Then don't assume he'll choose Spur Nine," Sofia warned, turning toward her. "I called him before he left. He knows to call Tessa and me before he turns off the main road, no matter who gives him the order. He checked in at the first staffed fuel point. He hasn't reported another change to Tessa."

"You called him yourself?" I asked, concerned that she might have put a target on him without realizing it.

"I did, and I signed the warning on his trip sheet." She looked at me steadily. "Last time we met, you moved your truck because the schedule was wrong. You didn't punish the driver for parking where somebody sent him. I need to know you'll remember that when this gets worse."

She sounded angrier at the thought of the driver being blamed than at her father's treatment of her. One moved truck two years ago wouldn't earn her trust now. I would have to show her what my people did with the warning.

"My people won't touch your driver," I assured her, keeping my voice level. "I'll have a car meet the route before the Spur Nine exit. They'll watch the road and stay clear of his truck. If he takes the turn, we need a way to reach him without frightening him into a worse decision."

"You go through me first. I'll call him, and Tessa can confirm anything that needs to go on his sheet." Sofia glanced toward Nadia. "I won't give either of you their personal numbers."

Nadia nodded. "Fair. We can agree to that for today."

I took out my phone and sent the truck description and the approved route to my security chief. Sofia supplied the trailer markings without reaching for her notes. He had a vehicle near a junction farther along the highway and could put it on the main road without approaching the driver. I asked him to alert our carriers already along that stretch in case one saw B-418 first.

"We'll deal with this truck first," I told Sofia once he'd acknowledged. "If we stop a loss, we'll have something more than two conflicting bookings. Afterward, you and your lawyer can decide whether to bring me anything else."

"And you won't tell my father?" Sofia asked, pushing her chair back only far enough to stand if she needed to.

"No." I kept my phone on the table. "If someone asks, I learned about a questionable gate booking through my own business. Nadia verified it before you entered this room."

Nadia gave me a brief look. She would hold me to the second part of that answer. The first was close enough to the truth to survive scrutiny, though it left Sofia's warning out.

"All right," Sofia agreed, sitting back. "Let's see where he goes."

My security chief called before I could answer. I put him on speaker with Sofia and Nadia beside me. His car had reached the junction, but one of our carriers had spotted B-418 first. From the fuel stop just north of him, the driver had seen the Bellandi trailer pull onto the southern road, away from the east terminal highway.

Sofia's fingers closed around the edge of the table. "He hasn't called me," she told us after checking her phone. The truck was already off the approved road, and we didn't know who had sent him there.