Page 85 of Savage Bosses

Make Me

SAVAGE BOSSES

Louise Lennox

CHAPTER 1

Pretension

E

mir Kaplan was tired of pretending.

As a child, he pretended to like couscous, the center of his family’s Tunisian cuisine, even though the texture made him queasy.

As an adolescent, he pretended to enjoy soccer, or futbol, as his father and uncles called it, even though the monotony of chasing a ball up and down a field bored him.

As a young man, he attended his father’s alma mater, Princeton, and studied architecture instead of piano performance at the Berklee College of Music.

He dumped the only woman he loved instead of proposing at his father’s behest, even though his father helped him dodge a bullet with that one.

Now at 35, he was single, living in his hometown of Aspen, Colorado, and serving as the Managing Director for his family’s architecture firm Kaplan, Jordan, and Ross, or KJR as it was affectionately called.

He was miserable, and the firm’s latest contract epitomized all the reasons why.

It had all the trappings of altruism but was another way for the company to make an obscene amount of money.

In 2022, after centuries of global divestment, the World Bank committed to pay reparations for Free Black Towns across the globe. What made the campaign so abhorrent to Emir was the World Bank had initially forced the fledgling communities to choose between freedom and much-needed resources because they had the audacity to escape the clutches of the slave trade.

The historic injustice of it all had recently come to light. To make amends, a group of diplomats decided that building libraries in each town was a good first step toward reconciliation.

Kaplan, Jordan, and Ross secured a contract to design each and every one, but Emir couldn’t stomach the hypocrisy.

His college roommate Antonio was from Palenque, Columbia, the world’s first Free Black Town. He had firsthand knowledge of the abject poverty global divestment had wrought on towns such as Palenque, and all the World Bank could muster was a library!

The towns needed infrastructure like roads and electric grids. Even if they built the library, there was no guarantee they could keep the lights on. Plus, Palenque already had a library. It didn’t have a seat at the global table where they could advocate for themselves.

Emir wanted no part of the World Bank's half-assed attempt at contrition, and for once, he was determined to tell his father no. He would not lead the project. He refused to facilitate such a huge display of cultural deafness.

All he had to do now was keep his balls hanging long enough to stand up to the only person on earth that made him feel any fear.

His desk phone rang, and he answered immediately. “Yes, Linda.”

“Sir, Mr. Kaplan, your father is here to see you.”

Shit he was early.

“Thanks, Linda, please send him in.”

Emir rose to his feet just as his father barged into the room. Mr. Kaplan had a tall, well-built frame and an intimidating presence that made most people uneasy. His hard voice made everything sound like a command, which didn’t help that impression. Even though Emir had been around him his whole life, he shook with quiet anxiety whenever his father attacked. Over the years, he did his best to cover his fear by feigning disinterest in anything his father said. That would not work today because he was very much interested in the outcome of their battle.

“So, son, I hear you want to refuse the World Bank contract?” Mr. Kaplan said without any preamble. “It’s not like you to be so insubordinate; what gave you this idea?”

Emir cleared his throat and took a deep breath before responding. “It’s not right for us to have a hand in this kind of cultural exploitation. We should advocate for these communities to have a real voice and vote globally, not take advantage of them for our own gain.”

Mr. Kaplan shook his head with disappointment as he paced the office.

“Don’t lecture me about what we should be doing. I’ve spent the last forty years building this firm from the ground up. This contract puts us in a prime position for even bigger government projects and more clients. Our profits will skyrocket once we enter these international markets.”

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