Free The Drazen World: The Lesson (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Milana Raziel Page A

terrorism.
     
    The concierge’s approach drew her out of her reverie of what was to come. Oscar. One of her favorites. That she had favorites in an airport executive lounge said a lot about the state of her life. Between the consuming nature of her work and the constant travel, her social life was non-existent.
     
    Oscar sat lightly beside her. "What can I get for you today, Miss Corradi? I checked the computer and see you'll be with us for a while. That JAL route has always been a problem."
     
    "Coffee, please, Oscar, and every frivolous magazine you've got laying around." She’d had enough tea to float a sailing regatta over the last few months and was heartily sick of it.
     
    "Rough assignment?"
     
    "Just tedious and overly complicated," she said with a tired smile.
     
    "I have just the thing."
     
    And with that, he scurried off, leaving Lena to return to her thoughts. The holidays were fast approaching, which meant her transfer to the European office of UNESCO for a long-term, hopefully temporary, assignment cracking a black market antiquities smuggling ring, wouldn't be far behind.
     
    In no time at all, he returned with a full coffee service, a stack of the latest gossip and fashion magazines, and a luscious, berry-colored cashmere throw. Lena cocooned herself in that decadent bit of luxury and grabbed the LA Weekly off the top. The cover showed a celebration of the Dodgers’ first Championship in twenty years. She wasn't a rabid fan, but Lena had more than a passing familiarity with baseball and baseball players since they had helped put her through college.
     
    "Well, I'll be damned." The first human interest piece inside stopped her in her tracks—it featured D. Beaumont Warren, baseball god, and his over-the-top proposal to a vivacious brunette during the seventh inning stretch in Game 7—complete with a Jumbotron full of poetry. Hollywood couldn't have manufactured a more picture-perfect happy ending.
     
    Pouring through the rest of the celebratory photos, she was confronted with another blast from her past. He looked every bit the devilish, ginger scion she remembered.
     
    Jonathan S. Drazen, III.
    Rich.
    Gifted.
    Commanding in every way.
    Star pitcher.
    Campus lothario.
    Every sorority bitch's most wanted.
    Voted most fuckable in a not-so-secret campus-wide poll.
    The star of every wild college memory she’d never shared.
    Her most secret of someones.
     
    He held a stunning brunette close to his side. Dark and bright—they looked like pagan royalty. The power of their connectedness practically burst from the page. Lena pondered the photo, focusing on the beautiful necklace gracing the brunette's throat, and the love they clearly shared. That Jonathan had found such love gave her bittersweet joy and took her back to a long-ago winter.
     
     
    MISSY
    10 YEARS EARLIER
    PHILADELPHIA, PA
     
    It was my final semester at Penn.
     
    In one short semester, I would be the first person in my family with a college degree. I’d lost my mom to breast cancer when I was twelve, but before she died, she made my dad promise that he would make sure my dream of college came true. Dad didn't see that promise through. He pretty much fell apart when Mom died, and he just didn't understand why I didn't want to get married straight out of high school to someone from the neighborhood, like all nice Italian girls had done for generations. So if I wanted to go to college—much less a college like Penn—getting there was all up to me.
     
    The past three and a half years had been really tight, but thanks to my scholarship and work-study job as a team tutor, I would be able to graduate on time and not starve or freeze to death in the process. Generally, the tutor assigned to the baseball team had it made, thanks to the fact that the team traditionally had the highest cumulative GPA of any marquee sport at the college, but my assignment included making sure Eddie Milpas didn't flunk out of accounting and end up