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

they let things build, until the odds were greatly in their favor. Then they called in their marker."
    "Did they want him to lose?"
    I shook my head. "No, just point shaving. They wanted him to look like shit, basically. Just one game mind you, but it turned out that it was the night that three different D-1 coaches were coming in to look at him. It was Vince's best shot at a top flight program, and he knew it. If he did what the bookies said, he'd lose his shot at a scholarship. If he didn't, he'd be pissing off a whole lot of Confederation bookies."
    "He didn't do what the bookies wanted," Mark said gravely. "I remember the name, actually. It was before my time, but I heard the name."
    I felt tears spring to my eyes. "He went out there, and I swear afterwards he knew what he was doing. He knew he was finished either way, so he was going to show one time how damn good he was. That night, he was Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Lebron James all combined. Vince had forty four points by half time, and got even hotter in the second half. The final buzzer sounded, and he had a hundred and eight points, fifteen rebounds, ten assists, and five steals. It was the damndest thing I'd ever seen. Walking off the court, he flashed me a smile and a thumbs up, tears streaming down his face, utter exhaustion and exhilaration written on his face. It was the last time I'd ever see him conscious."
    "They hit him in the locker room?" Mark asked. I nodded.
    "They waited until the rest of the team had supposedly cleared out, and the coach was out talking to some of the Division I coaches who had come to visit. The first bullet took him into the leg, the second took him low in the spine."
    "So they didn't kill him outright," Mark commented. "Paralyzed?"
    I nodded, "If he'd woken up, yes. But the way he fell, he hit his head on the bench, cracking his skull. The doctors did what they could, but between the gunshot wounds and the hit to the head, he went into a coma. He died four days later."
    Mark sighed and finished his sub. "That's when you started peeling away from the Confederation."
    "And Scott," I said. "He never admitted it, but he was the only other person who knew that Vince wasn't going to go along with the plan. Of course afterwards he denied it, but after that, well, things changed. It took me three years to really drop out of the life, and move on somewhat. That was the catalyst though."
    "I see. I'm guessing with all of this, you never thought of talking about it with Tabby," Mark commented, bringing things back to the initial conundrum, "and now you don't know how to broach the subject."
    "Not after the last screwup I had," I replied. "I just don't know."
    "Well, in any case, good luck with your date tonight. I'd say you need to talk about it tonight with her. Tell her the truth, see what happens. She's stronger than she thinks. That girl’s been through a lot and she keeps bouncing back.”

Chapter 8
Sophie
    I 'd spent most of the afternoon coordinating with Mark's Boston lawyer on the whole situation about Pressman Contractors. The lawyer, a guy nicknamed The Squid , promised me he'd be able to take care of things. Mark had total trust in the man, and he'd apparently done work for him before.
    I was standing in the bathroom, staring at myself in the floor to ceiling mirror as I pondered my reflection. I was gaining weight, that was unavoidable. My biggest concern however was that I'd been gaining weight too fast. My baby bump was becoming a full on pot belly, at least in my eyes.
    I heard the front door close, and knew that Mark had come back from his meeting with Patrick and his shopping. He hadn't told me what he had gone shopping for, so I was surprised when he came in with his hands behind his back. "What do you have there?" I asked, smiling. "Don't tell me you spent money on some trifle or something."
    "Not a trifle at all," Mark replied, coming behind me. He wrapped his arms around me from behind, looking at us in the