𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐬 (𝙱𝚃𝚂 𝙵𝙰𝙼𝙸𝙻𝚈 𝚂𝙴𝚁𝙸𝙴𝚂 #𝟸)

Chapter 16

Tyler's POV

I gave him a one over, a frown creased across my forehead. He was lean, skinny even with scribbles of tattoos drawn on his hand and I could see a little appear beneath the Polo of his shirt. His hair was also in dreads and he had a cigarette hanging lazily on his lips. I wasn't comfortable with him and I could see Joel wasn't either. That made me very curious.

Who is he?

"Joel my man! How far na." He stretched his hand to Joel for a shake, his eyes not leaving Tiana's shell shocked ones and that made me feel so uneasy. Joel hesitantly took his hand and shook it.

"I'm good. You look...really different." He forced a smile.

"What can I say... God has been faithful." King grinned and it took all of me not to scoff. Everyone was quiet, watching their exchange.

"Oh I'm sure he has." I heard Lyla mutter sarcastically beside me. King pulled an extra chair and sat down, his gaze lingering on Tiana.

Stop looking at her!

"Seems like you decided to follow Bamidele here." He said to her, an unsettling smirk playing on his lips

"My dad decided that we should move. I didn't follow anyone here." Tiana said through gritted teeth. I glared at King, angry at the fact that he was making Tiana feel uneasy.

"Yeah... Sure. Whatever makes you sleep at night." King chuckled and looked around the table. "Ohhh where are my manners? My name is..." He started but I cut him off.

"King. I guess we all picked that up." I said with a tone, my face was hard and expressionless. King looked at me. "I'm Tyler." I stretched his hand and king took it. I made sure to tightened my grip.

"Strong grip my man."King smirked and I cocked my head to a side. He looked at all the girls there and felt my blood boil. He was looking at them like they were suya.

He's not even being subtle...

"Let's cut to the chase, bro." Charles spoke for the first time since King showed up. "What can we do for yah?" He asked, looking at King dead in the eyes.

"I can't say hi to long lost friends anymore?" He looked at Tiana, his tongue running across his lips as he took her in. I felt disgusted and I knew for sure everyone else felt the same. "Tiana, you decided to just leave Abuja. You decided to leave when things were getting so good between us." His sinister smirk was really unsettling.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt but we were in the middle of an hangout before you came here so if you don't mind, we would like to continue it that way." Ada grimaced.

"With no additional characters...." Kelvin frowned too. King chuckled.

"Okay, okay. Imma gonna leave." He brought a pen and paper and wrote his number, sliding it over to Tiana's side.

"Gimme a call, will yah? We have a lot of catching up to do." He winked at Tiana, stood up and walked away.

The hell?! What kind of history do they have?

For some minutes the table was as silent as a grave yard. Tiana had her head down and obviously everyone was watching her. I looked at her, taking her hand in mine. It was unusually cold.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked her but she said nothing, just staring into space. I became so concerned and worried about her.

What kind of hold does he have on her?

"Okay, I don't know that King guy but I'm getting a bad vibe from him." Lyla spoke up first. I still focused my attention on Tiana who hasn't said anything still.