Chapter 1 - The Driver They Never Respected
A woman gripped the steering wheel and whispered: "Something is wrong."
When Mafia king Dominic Rossi entered the car, he noticed the cracked watch left on the passenger seat by an unknown enemy.
Three words were scratched beneath it: "She saw everything."
Dominic realized the attack was already planned.
Beatrice Clark never expected the night she saved Dominic Rossi’s life to become the moment her entire world changed.
For three years, she had driven powerful men through dangerous streets, listened to conversations she was never supposed to hear, and watched people with expensive suits underestimate her because of one simple reason.
Her appearance.
The men around Dominic Rossi believed strength had only one shape.
Tall.
Muscular.
Fearless.
They never saw it in a woman who sat quietly behind a steering wheel.
They called her "the driver."
They never called her by her name.
Especially Dominic’s two closest men, Marco and Luca.
Every time Beatrice entered the underground garage beneath Rossi’s headquarters, she could feel their eyes following her.
Not with respect.
With amusement.
"Careful, Marco," Luca once joked. "If she gets scared, she might crush the steering wheel."
The two men laughed.
Beatrice pretended she did not hear.
She had learned a long time ago that people revealed more when they thought you were invisible.
Dominic Rossi never joined their jokes.
But he never stopped them either.
The mafia king was a man surrounded by loyalty, fear, and secrets.
He had built an empire where every person around him had a purpose.
And Beatrice?
To him, she was simply the woman who drove him from one dangerous meeting to another.
Until the night everything changed.
November rain covered the city like a dark curtain.
Dominic had just finished a meeting inside an abandoned warehouse near the industrial district.
The meeting was supposed to be simple.
A negotiation.
A warning.
A reminder that nobody crossed Dominic Rossi.
But Beatrice noticed something before anyone else did.
The warehouse windows were too dark.
The fire escape ladder was already lowered.
The street was too empty.
She watched through the windshield as rain flowed down the glass.
Something inside her told her they were not alone.
When Dominic stepped into the vehicle, he immediately noticed her expression.
"You look worried," he said.
Beatrice started the engine.
"Something feels wrong."
Dominic looked toward the warehouse entrance.
His men climbed into the back seat.
Marco laughed softly.
"Beatrice, you always think something is wrong."
Luca smiled.
"Maybe the city is dangerous because you are driving."
Beatrice ignored them.
She watched the rearview mirror.
A black SUV sat at the end of the street.
Its headlights were off.
Dominic noticed her eyes.
"You saw something?"
Before she could answer—
The first bullet exploded through the back window.
Everything changed.
Glass shattered.
Marco shouted.
Luca dropped down.
Dominic turned toward the sound.
But Beatrice was already moving.
Her hands tightened around the steering wheel.
Her foot pressed down.
The vehicle launched forward.
Another bullet hit the side panel.
The city became a blur of rain and lights.
Dominic looked at her.
Not the road.
Her.
Because while everyone else was reacting to danger...
Beatrice had already calculated their escape.
"Turn left," Dominic ordered.
"No."
His eyes narrowed.
"No?"
"That road is blocked."
For the first time, Dominic Rossi listened.
Beatrice turned sharply into a narrow street.
The pursuing vehicle followed.
Marco looked out the window.
"How did she know?"
Nobody answered.
Because nobody knew.
Except Beatrice.
She had noticed the same car earlier that evening.
She had noticed the same man standing near the warehouse.
She had noticed everything.
The car finally escaped into another district.
The gunfire disappeared.
The only sound left was rain against the windows.
Dominic slowly turned toward her.
His expression had changed.
The cold confidence of the mafia king was gone.
Something else replaced it.
Respect.
"You knew."
Beatrice kept her eyes on the road.
"I knew something was wrong."
Dominic looked at the woman everyone ignored.
The woman his men mocked.
The woman who had just saved his life.
For the first time, he wondered who Beatrice Clark really was.
And when they returned to the Rossi estate, Dominic found something hidden inside her old driver file that made him realize she had never been just a driver...
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A name was written beneath her photograph.
A name Dominic Rossi recognized instantly.
