Ambition: A Dark Billionaire Romance (Driven Book 1)

My tongue felt thick, and the first thought that came to me was that I'd fucked up, yet again. Blinking, I tested my hands, which were bound behind my back. I was sitting in an office chair, but at least my legs were free. I was in the corner of what looked like an appliance repair shop, my back against the wall. Looking around, I saw five people, four men carrying automatic rifles, one paying attention to the large glass front, the other three focused on the steel door off to my left.

The fifth was one of the most physically striking women I'd ever seen. She looked like every teen's fantasy from the pages of Playboy or the Internet come to life. Still, there was something in her eyes that said despite the beautiful exterior, this was one evil bitch. I figured it was time to do what I could to keep her talking. If anything, it was better than sitting there looking scared shitless.

Smacking my lips to clear my mind, I just let my inner wiseass come out. "Hmm, you're not the Spartans cheerleader I'd expected."

"Very funny, asshole," the woman said. "Know who I am?"

"I'm thinking you all are part of an elaborate international plot, headed by a large headed genius lab mouse, bent on taking over the world."

One of the guys with guns looked like he was about to hit me, but the woman held up her hand. "Don't worry, let Mr. McCaffery talk all the foolishness he wants. He's gets to talk a bunch of crap, then I get to get my revenge. I figure the better condition he's in, the better my reward."

"What the hell are you babbling about, you crazy bitch? I've never seen you before in my life," I said. Part of my mind said I had though, but I couldn't place it. Perhaps it was the tranquilizers they'd shot me up with, I wasn't thinking too clearly yet. "What, did I piss you off at a campaign rally or something?"

"You? Oh, you're more or less an innocent bystander," the woman replied. "I'm more interested in your girlfriend and her protector."

So this was about Tabby. "If you have beef with Tabby, you don't need firearms, I think."

"Oh, but I do," the woman said. "It was her friend the Snowman who took my husband away from me. Well, I guess not took away, but took away the thing that I loved most about him. It certainly wasn't his choice of careers."

I nodded, the face clicking with my brain finally. "Melinda Pressman. I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you, but I don't do that when I'm tied to a chair with four armed men looking like they want to shoot me. Patrick McCaffery, but I guess you already knew that."

"But of course. By the way, I heard from Shawn about your little threat to him. Guess that won't be an issue, so Francine's going to be happy about that. He's too valuable exactly where he is on the council," Melinda said. "Too bad about my husband though. Scott's the only other person who had that video file. Looks like he's going to have to be taken care of too."

"You'd kill your own husband?" I asked, only semi-shocked. She looked like that sort of person.

"Why not? He's useless to me as a man, the only way he can even climax is by having his prostate massaged. He's a pathetic husband, only wanting to spend his free time with his son. Never mind me, the woman who put up with his limp dicked ass. And now, he can't even do a simple job of sitting back and signing the goddamn paperwork," Melinda laughed, sitting back in her chair. "But don't worry. Soon enough you're going to be joining Scott in the limp dicked department. Too bad it won't be the same way it happened to him, though."

"What do you mean?" I said. "You planning on just killing me too?"

Melinda leaned back and laughed. "Oh, hell no. That would be too easy. The Snowman? Oh yes, he's going to die. I'd love to just cut his balls off too, but the fact is he's just too dangerous. You neuter that tiger, and you still have a maneater on your hands. But you, my dear councilman? You're going to have your balls cut off in front of your precious Tabby. Fake haired bitch."

"Oh, like nothing on you is fake," I taunted. "Those tits had to cost what, eight, ten thousand dollars?"

"Motherfucker, these are real, and they're spectacular!" Melinda spat back at me. "But you can probably tell that already. You know, it was pretty hard getting my body back in shape after the baby. It's going to be a few years before I'm totally ready to get back into the game, but when I do, I'm going to be better than Scott ever was."

"What do you mean?" I asked. I knew, but I figured it was better to keep her talking. If she was talking, she wasn't trying to cut off my balls. Also, the four men in the room, despite whatever their jobs were supposed to be, couldn't help but be at least a little distracted by our conversation. I wanted to exploit that, and pushed the conversation in a more intriguing direction. "You're going to go back into the seduction game?"

"Even more than I am now," Melinda replied. "You know that the number one search for porn by straight men is for MILFs? Well, give me a year or two, and I'm going to be the hottest one out there. All those young bank execs and business grads, those boys straight out of their MBAs who are getting in on their Daddy's company.... I'm going to have them eating out of the palm of my hand."