Shaw (Alpha Geek #6) - Milly Taiden Page 0,5

There would be no time to waste, looking longingly at the passing clouds.

Shaw had a mission.

He had to save his nana.

Chapter Four

Poppy

Dakota had never been a quiet person. That’s why her silence after Poppy had spewed out her problem was concerning. With a shaking hand, Poppy fluffed out her bangs, once again cursing herself for the poor disguise idea.

“You’ve run away from your family because your uncle was forcing you into an arranged marriage,” Dakota repeated the words slowly as if they tasted sour on her tongue.

“Fuck,” Poppy groaned, closing her eyes against reality. “It sounds even worse when someone else says it out loud. I am so fucked, Dakota.”

Her friend shook her head. “No. I mean, you sure picked one hell of an enemy to make. Isn’t your uncle the city’s bad guy?”

Poppy nodded her answer.

“Okay, lady. This is all very confusing, not to mention super weird. Sit down and start from the top.” As she spoke, Dakota pulled out a chair for her.

It wasn’t until Poppy was sitting that she noticed her legs had been shaking like two noodles in the wind. Her knees ached, and her toes were curled tightly into her shoes.

“Any time now.” Dakota gave her a reassuring smile.

“Right. So, remember how my uncle wanted me to get my business degree because he wanted me to join the family business like my three cousins?”

“You mean the three meatheads? Yes, I remember them vividly.”

And how. Carl, Carson, and Curtis were a plague upon the city, just like their father. Actually, they were worse than her Uncle Chuck because they had grown up believing they were invincible. They had shifter bodies, ferocious panthers lying in wait like the hungry predators they were. They were also armed with all of the money they could ever spend. They had visited her at college during her freshman year to make sure she knew that dating someone who hadn’t been vetted by the family was entirely out of the question. Curtis had taken a liking to Dakota immediately, but that had been rectified by a swift kick to the dick.

The idiot had proceeded to key Dakota’s car in revenge. He had even slashed the tires with his sharp panther claws.

While any other person would have walked away from the friendship, Dakota had turned to Poppy and demanded that they go out for tacos and margaritas so that Poppy could explain her messed up family situation. It was exactly the reason why Poppy had decided to come to Dakota for help. It was definitely a bonus that her friend now worked for Nick Milan’s renowned protection agency.

“Last week, Uncle Chuck called a family meeting. Basically, the gist of it was that he wanted each son to take control of a new bordering town or real estate just outside of the city to grow their controlled territory. Thing is, there is a fourth corner that would be left out from Uncle Chuck’s grand plan of expansion. For a second, I thought he was going to order me to put my business degree to good use. But it was so much more than that.”

“I’m guessing dear old psycho uncle still has no idea you dropped out of the business degree to go into nursing.”

Poppy shook her head. “Can you imagine? He would have killed me. No. He was all, Poppy, you’re going to marry Micah Lewis. He’s this fifty-year-old who owns a shitton of land that could be developed, in the next town over.”

“So, he wanted to marry you off and get you to convince your new husband to sign over his property to you?”

Poppy closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. “Not quite. He was going to…you know. Crick.” She made the motion of slicing her neck open. “As soon as the marriage was legal, and I was made the sole benefactor of this guy’s estate.”

Dakota gasped, slamming her hands down onto the desk that separated them. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”

“Nope.”

“This isn’t a mafia movie! It’s real life.”

“Yup. Well, my life is a mafia movie, Dakota.”

“Fuck,” Dakota grunted, leaning back into her chair, dejected.

“Yup,” Poppy agreed. There was nothing else she could think to say.

“So that’s why you’re here?”

“I told my uncle I took his money for college and got a nursing degree instead. He was pissed. I also told him that if he tried to force me to marry a guy who is twenty years older than me, I was going to go to the cops. So, he