Driver’s Girlfriend Kick Me Out of Car, She Regretted It

After my driver's girlfriend refused to let me in the car, she went out of her mind with regret. I am the principessa of the Stascia family. To investigate the truth behind my father's death, I disguised myself as a big-spending international student, chauffeured to and from school in a luxury car every day. Ever since Damian became my private driver, he'd been taking liberties with my car without permission. I turned a blind eye. Until one rainy night when I was being hunted. I called him to pick me up, but his girlfriend threw me out of the car. "This is my boyfriend's car. Who do you think you are? Get out!" Covered in blood and slumped on the side of the road, I smiled as I dialed a number. "Tell the Family. I know the truth." Later, Damian and his little girlfriend knelt before me, begging for mercy. "If you hadn't kicked me out of the car that night, you wouldn't have exposed yourself this quickly. Any regrets?" Chapter 1 I was an international student at the University of California. My family had money, so I didn't live on campus. I had a mansion not far from school and a driver hired to chauffeur me back and forth every day. That day, the moment I stepped out of the school gates, the conspicuous Rolls-Royce was already parked out front, drawing stares. I opened the car door, only to find a woman sitting in the passenger seat, caked in heavy makeup, her pungent perfume filling my car. I pinched my nose in annoyance. "Damian, what's going on? Who is she?" Damian turned from the driver's seat with an apologetic look and handed me an iced Americano. "Sorry, miss. Tina's got a party to get to, and it's on the way. I'll drop her off real quick. Won't hold you up, I promise." A year ago, I'd hired Damian as my driver because he seemed dependable and handled a car well. I'd always known that Damian secretly used my car on his own time. But he was careful about it, kept it in immaculate condition, so I never said anything. But today, he'd actually let his girlfriend sit in my seat. Tina seemed to be seeing me for the first time. She frowned and jabbed a finger in my direction. "Babe, who is this broke student? Why is she getting in your car? Tell her to leave. I'm gonna be late." I shot Damian a stunned look. Had he never told her this car was mine? Damian darted me a warning glance, signaling me to move to the back seat. "Honey, don't get upset. I know this girl. She just asked me for a ride home today, that's all." Damian drove fast, dropping off his girlfriend first before taking me home. After I got out, he apologized profusely. "I'm sorry, miss. My girlfriend, she's a bit materialistic. She thinks this car is mine. It wasn't easy winning her over, and I didn't want her looking down on me for being poor, so I lied." "Fine. Watch yourself. There won't be a next time." "Yes, miss." Damian then pulled out a movie ticket. "Didn't you mention wanting to see that new romance? I already got the ticket. It's tonight. The chef at home has dinner ready, so you can eat and head out." I took the ticket and smiled at him. The moment the Rolls-Royce disappeared down the road, my smile turned cold. I tore the ticket to shreds, tossed it in the trash, and headed to a bar nearby. I ordered a cocktail and sipped it slowly. Before long, a sharply dressed man walked over and sat down beside me. "Sorry, principessa. I kept you waiting." I nodded. He pulled a manila envelope from inside his jacket and handed it to me. "This is Damian's activity log from last week. Nothing out of the ordinary." I scanned the documents quickly, mentally reviewing how Damian had behaved around me the previous week. Nothing worth noting. I took a sip of my drink and rubbed my temples. "Could we really have the wrong person?" "Impossible, principessa. The Don was confirmed killed by someone from the Black Serpent, and the only Black Serpent assassin who vanished after it happened is Damian." "I've been watching him for so long, but all he does every day is drive me around. He hasn't done anything suspicious or met with any strangers. If this keeps up..." My mind drifted back to that day, when I'd come home thrilled, clutching a freshly signed partnership deal with the European trade council. But when I pushed open the door, I found my father lying in a pool of blood, long dead. A single bullet between his eyes, his body riddled with wounds. My mother had passed when I was young. My father raised me on his own. The Family kept him busy, but he never missed a moment with me. I was devastated. After that, I went into hiding, stepped away from Family business, and posed as a student while secretly investigating my father's murder. But a year had passed, and aside from a vague lead pointing to Damian as the killer, I had almost nothing. My second-in-command could see my frustration. "Lois, don't lose heart. Stay the course, and the truth will come out." Capitano, my second-in-command, had been my father's most loyal man, by his side for decades. He was practically a second father to me. After my father was killed, I'd sworn an oath before the Family elders to uncover the truth, and Capitano had brought a good number of people to help me. I drained my glass and got ready to leave. Capitano's phone buzzed. He checked it, and his face lit up. "Principessa, we've got a new lead. Guess who Damian's girlfriend is. She's an illegitimate daughter of the Milovich family." I stood up from my chair. "Milovich. Our biggest rival family. My father clashed with them plenty of times while he was alive, and they've always been my prime suspects. If we follow this thread, we'll find something for sure." Capitano and I exchanged a look. He understood what I meant and quickly slipped out of the bar. Chapter 2 The next afternoon, I took time off from school and went home. Capitano had confirmed that the Milovich family would be conducting an arms deal at a warehouse on the outskirts this weekend. I planned to sneak in and gather information. I picked up the equipment I needed from the Family's base and brought it back to the mansion. When I pushed through the front door, I found a group of scantily clad women grinding to blasting club music in my spacious living room. I was furious. I stormed in and killed the music. The woman at the center of it all clicked her tongue and turned around. It was Tina, that insufferable face of hers. "You. What are you doing in my house?" Damian saw me come in and rushed over in a panic, stepping in front of me. "Miss, you're back early. Did school let out?" "Explain. Now!" Before he could speak, Tina charged at me and tried to slap me, but Damian blocked her. The other women huddled together, whispering. "So that's how it is, Damian! You've been keeping this little tramp behind my back, haven't you? Why else would she have a key?" I scoffed. "What are you even talking about? It's my house. Of course I have a key." A flicker of doubt crossed Tina's face before it hardened into deeper contempt. "The nerve. This is my boyfriend's house, and some random student just claims it's hers? That's hilarious." Damian's face flushed even redder. He grabbed Tina's purse and started pushing her toward the door. "Honey, can you go first? You've all had your fun. I still have things to handle here." "What's that supposed to mean?" Tina shrieked. "If we leave, what are you going to do with her? Fool around?" "Stop it, baby. Just go. I'll call you later." It took Damian considerable effort to finally usher the group out. I surveyed the trashed house, my expression ice-cold, arms crossed, waiting for an explanation. "I'm sorry, miss. My girlfriend doesn't know any better. She said things she shouldn't have. I apologize. She insisted on bringing her friends over to see the place, and I couldn't say no, so..." "Damian, in the year you've worked for me, have I ever treated you badly? I pay you the highest salary in the business. But you? You've been passing off your employer's belongings as your own. First the car, now the mansion. Do you even want to keep this job?" Damian brought over a clean chair for me to sit on, then served me dessert and a drink. "Please don't be angry, miss. I promise this is the last time. I'll call the cleaning service right away." "That girlfriend of yours is way too materialistic. You'd be better off ending it now." I took a bite of cake, pretending my anger had subsided, and looked at Damian with something like pity. He froze for a second, then chuckled awkwardly. "You're right, miss." "By the way, I'm going out with some classmates this weekend. You can have the days off." "Thank you, miss." The next day at school, I noticed people pointing and whispering about me everywhere I went. Confused, I walked into the classroom. A friend rushed over, looking anxious, and told me to check Facebook. I pulled up my phone and opened the school forum. There was a post accusing me of being a kept woman, and it already had over a thousand likes and shares. It even had a pile of photos. Me in the back seat of the Rolls-Royce. Me talking closely with Damian. The two of us coming and going from the mansion. The post was written convincingly, almost believable. I'd always been a high-profile figure on campus, so now that everyone thought the rich heiress image was fake, they all piled on. The comments section was on fire, tearing me apart for being shameless and corrupting the school's reputation. I scrolled through a few lines, closed it, and headed to the president's office. The president owed my family a favor. He'd personally arranged my enrollment and was the only person here who knew my real identity. I gave him a brief rundown of the situation. He immediately had the post taken down and assured me there would be no more rumors. I took the opportunity to extend my leave and go home for some peace and quiet. The moment I stepped outside the school gates, an unwelcome guest appeared. Tina was standing by the road holding an umbrella. When she saw me come out, she sauntered over with a smug look. "So? Got kicked out of school, didn't you, you little slut." "I knew it was you. Was that really necessary? Going after a student." "Hahaha, that's what you get for trying to steal my man. If I ever see your face around us again, you'll pay for it." Tina drew a finger across her throat, then turned and walked away. I pulled out my phone and called Damian. "I left early with my friends. Take a few extra days off." Then I went to another safe house and texted Capitano to keep a close eye on those two. Chapter 3 The weekend arrived quickly. I woke at seven. The sky outside was overcast, dark as ink-soaked cotton. Capitano had texted at four in the morning. "Principessa, warehouse coordinates locked in. A shipment is coming in this afternoon. The Milovich underboss will be there personally." I changed into a black bodysuit, pulled on a bulletproof vest, tied my hair into a tight ponytail, tucked a modified Glock into my boot, and clipped a flare and a miniature communicator to my belt. Before heading out, I checked the mirror. The person staring back had sharp, hard features, nothing like the girl who rode a Rolls-Royce to school every day. This was the real principessa of the Stascia family. We set up in a tower near the warehouse. At two in the afternoon, three black Hummers rolled in. The first to step out was a bald man with an old scar across his face. Kovac, the Milovich family's underboss. I'd seen his photo in my father's files. He and his men carried six metal crates inside. I steadied my breathing and spoke into the communicator. "Capitano, target confirmed. I'm going in." "Principessa, it's too dangerous. Let our people handle it." "No. They know all of you. My face is the only one that's clean." I put away the binoculars, slid down the tower's fire escape, hugged the shadowed wall of the warehouse, and slipped in through a gap in a ventilation duct. I hid behind a stack of wooden crates and watched Kovac inspecting the shipment, a document in his hand. I quickly snapped a few photos and zoomed in on the document's corner. It bore the Milovich family crest, and beside it, an old-style watermark from the Stascia family's trade council. My father had a partnership with the Milovich family? I edged two steps forward, trying to get a better look. A crate beneath my feet let out a faint creak. Kovac's head snapped up, his gaze sweeping toward me like a hawk's. "Who's there?!" I'd been spotted. Before his men could close in, I twisted sideways and threw myself out through the ventilation opening. The instant I hit the ground, Kovac's roar echoed behind me. "Get her!" Bullets whizzed past my ear. I broke into a sprint, diving into the windbreak along the coast. Branches lashed my face and arms, stinging like fire. I gritted my teeth and kept running. Then a sudden heat flared at my side. I looked down. A bullet had grazed my waist at some point. The wound wasn't deep, but it was bleeding heavily, soaking a large patch of my clothes. I fumbled for my phone. My fingertips were slick with blood, and it took three tries to unlock the fingerprint scanner. Damian was the first name in my contacts. I called him. "Miss?" Damian's voice was confused. "Aren't you with your friends..." "Damian..." I was panting, my voice trembling, half genuine, half performance. "I'm on the coastal highway. Someone's chasing me... Can you come get me? Please?" Silence on the other end. I heard Tina's impatient voice. "Who is it? Bothering you on a weekend again?" Damian lowered his voice. "It's that student..." "Her again?!" Tina's voice exploded. "Damian, are you out of your mind? Taking someone else's call when you're supposed to be spending the weekend with me?" I gripped the phone tighter, my nails digging into my palm. "Damian, please... They're almost here..." Arguing on the other end. Then the line went dead. I hid in the windbreak. The coastal highway stretched empty before me. About ten minutes later, the familiar Rolls-Royce pulled up. I rushed to it and pounded on the rear window. The glass slid down slowly, revealing Tina's heavily made-up face. She took in the sight of me, drenched in blood. First came a look of shock. Then she smiled, a cruel, satisfied smile. "Well, well, if it isn't our little princess. How'd you end up such a mess?" "Open the door, let me in!" Tina slowly pulled a tissue from her purse and wiped imaginary dust off her fingers. "This is my boyfriend's car. What makes you think you can ride in it? Look at you, you're a mess. What if you stain my car? Get lost!" Then she hit the window button. The glass slid shut, inch by inch, sealing me out. I looked at the driver's seat. Damian sat there, hands on the wheel. His lips moved, as if he wanted to say something. But Tina beat him to it. "Damian, if you let her in, I swear I'll break up with you tomorrow." Damian's Adam's apple bobbed. He turned his face away and stopped looking at me. "Miss... call yourself a ride." The words barely left his mouth before he stepped on the gas. The engine roared. The Rolls-Royce's taillights, like two red teardrops, shrank smaller and smaller down the rainy highway until the darkness swallowed them whole. I staggered back two steps, my back hitting a lamppost, and slid down to the ground. Blood seeped from the wound at my side, pooling on the concrete, blurring in the rain like a dark crimson flower slowly blooming. The pursuers were getting closer. I lowered my head, my tangled hair falling across my face, hiding my expression from the world. I reached into my boot, found the miniature flare, and fired it into the sky. Then I laughed, laughed until my shoulders shook. I pressed the communicator. My voice was calm. "Capitano." "We've intercepted the remaining pursuers. The extraction team will be there any moment." "I know. Pull the surveillance footage from the coastal highway and save the clip of that Rolls-Royce." "And one more thing." I paused, wiping the blood and rain from my face with the back of my hand. "Get all the call records from Tina's phone. Focus on numbers from a year ago. She wasn't with Damian yet back then, but the Milovich family would have already been in contact with her." "Understood, principessa. Are you hurt?" "It's nothing." After I boarded the helicopter, I could hear my people cleaning up the scene in the distance. Those two had no idea that while I was clinging to the car window, I'd planted a listening device and a tracker on it. I listened in as Tina took a phone call, then told Damian to hand over the car. She drove it straight to the warehouse I'd just escaped from. I glanced down at the highway below. The rain had eased. The halos of the streetlights illuminated nothing but empty road. The Rolls-Royce was long gone. But soon enough, Damian and Tina would come back. On their knees.