Ambition 2: A Dark Billionaire Romance (Driven) by Lauren Landish

pickles, mayo..... pure heaven. "I know Pressman," I said bluntly, "or at least I did."
    Mark nodded slowly and started on his lunch. "I figured as much. Some of the things you've said, you have more knowledge on the Knave than what a simple former bartender would. How do you know him?"
    I blinked and shook my head, frustrated. "Back in my high school days. Hell, this would have been before you even moved here, I think. I was just thirteen, Scott was fifteen, sixteen maybe? Anyway, he was already into being a player, although back then it was being a player more than what he turned into. All of the guys in our little group thought he was so damn cool. Did you know by the time he graduated high school he'd already slept with half the female teachers including the Vice Principal of the school? And they talk about that shit on TV nowadays like its some sort of scandal. Scott Pressman was a walking scandal, and nobody said a damn thing."
    "I'm not surprised. I never met him except for that one time."
    I laughed, remembering when the news broke about the Knave's 'injury.' "Yeah, I was working the bar back then. Pressman himself came in, pissed off and so fucking depressed he could barely talk straight. I hadn't seen him in at least five years, not since him and I had a falling out, but for some reason he came in that night, already half drunk. I cleared out the bar, I didn't want some Confederation guy talking enough stupid shit to get the place shot up, and he proceeded to dump his whole story in my lap. I was damn near pissing my pants laughing until he put the forty-five on the table. Pressman might not have been a normally violent man you know, but you'd just taken away his dick."
    "So what's the problem?" Mark asked. "I mean, Sophie knows about my history with Anita Han."
    "You and Han?" I asked. "Really? I knew you made the hit, but there was more?"
    Mark nodded. "For about a year I was one of her boys. Never emotional mind you, but she taught me a few things I still use to this day. Sophie was fine when she found out."
    "Anita Han didn't mentally screw Sophie up," I replied, chewing on a fry. "I just didn't know how to talk with Tabby about this. I mean, how do you tell your girlfriend that one of your former buddies was the guy who had turned her inside out and screwed with her heart and head, and oh by the way, he was the last person you were with before me?"
    "Can I ask, how close were you and the Knave?" Mark asked.
    "For a while there, we were part of the same crew," I said. "I mean, we worked game together, and I'll admit we talked a lot of shit about girls together. That continued until Vince got shot."
    "Who was Vince?" Mark asked. "You haven't mentioned before."
    "Vince was my best friend through junior high and high school. We lived in the Hall, and we started running together soon after I got there. He and I were buddies, and when Vince met Scott, we all became part of the same clique. Pressman had the money and the moves, Vince was the athlete, I was the smooth talker to get us out of trouble. There were a few other guys who kind of rotated in and out, we tended to run in a group of four or five most times. The other two, whoever they tended to be, were kind of the groupies."
    "I understand. What happened to Vince?"
    I sighed and ate the rest of my burger. "Vince was always the best athlete of the bunch. That kid could ball like nobody's business. Unfortunately, his grades were terrible, and after high school he was unable to qualify for a decent school. Still, he was able to talk his way through our Confed connections into a local juco that had a team. I did my best to keep Vince shielded, I wanted at least one of us to get out of the life."
    "I can understand that," Mark said. "But I'm guessing others didn't?"
    "No," I replied. "There were a couple of bookies who did action on the local sports, even at the juco level. When Vince started lighting up the scoreboards and getting attention from big name schools,