“Yeah, I thought the same thing when I heard her on the phone with her sister.” If he was still close to her family or had ever been close to her family, he would have reached out to them, but that wasn’t an option. “I need to figure something out.”
Lucy had finished her jerky by then, and she hopped up on his lap and curled up so he scratched behind her ears. He loved dogs, probably more than people, and he loved people. He’d always wanted a dog, but he’d never had one because he didn’t think it was fair since he was on the road so much. Sure, he had the money to get a dog-sitter or board his dog while he was out of town, but again, he thought that was selfish of him.
“So, what’s up? To what do I owe this spontaneous visit fromoneof my favorite brothers?” She dipped her brush into water,then pressed the brush into a cloth before dipping it into a different color, tapping the wood on the side, causing the excess to fall off before she pressed the brush to the canvas and pulled it down. “I’m assuming it has something to do with the lovely Tiana.”
Niko wasn’t sure how to explain what was going on. He usually had no qualms speaking about his personal life with his sister, but this was Tiana, she was different, special. Then again, he’d never needed any advice with women before, so this was uncharted territory.
“You know that Tiana and I aren’t really together.”
“Right,” she said as if he was trying to sell her oceanfront property in Arizona.
“We’re not,” he reiterated. “You know she only moved in because Brock broke into her cabin.”
“No, I didn’t.” She stopped painting and turned to Niko. “He did what? Did she report it to the police?”
He shook his head. “I think she wants to have as little to do with him as possible. Anyway, you know he put himself on the wait list and showed up at her class this morning so I offered to teach with her.”
She nodded, since she’d taken the hip hop class, she was aware.
“The classes were good. No issues. Then after the last one, she got a text, and she grabbed her bag and rushed out and said she was going to see Pops. I said I would take her, she said she wanted to walk. I told her I’d walk with her and…” He wanted to ask if Frankie knew she didn’t have a car and that she was living in a glorified shack, but he didn’t. It wasn’t his story to tell, so he kept it to himself. “And she got… upset. She said that she didn’t need a babysitter or a bodyguard. She said she needed space. So I backed off. I didn’t message her or ask if she was okay, even though I really wanted to. Then I went to teach my self-defenseclasses at Haven House, and she happened to be there. I didn’t know she was going to be there, but she was. She was teaching a yoga class, and she thought I followed her there. She gotreallyupset.”
“Of course she did,” Frankie said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “But you told her why you were there, right?”
“I tried, but she kept interrupting me. She said that this arrangement was over and that my being there was inappropriate. And then Ramona came in, and I had to go teach. When I was done, she was gone. I just… I don’t know what I did.”
Niko was at a total loss. Women were typically excited to be with him and spend time with him and wanted to be associated with him. Not Tiana.
Frankie bit the inside of her lip and glanced down at the ground. Niko knew that look. She had something to say, but she didn’t want to say it. It was the look she got on her face whenever she was guilty. But why? What could she possibly be guilty about?
“What? What is it? Just say it,” he demanded.
“You’re my brother, and I love you, but Tiana’s my girl.”
“You’ve known herfive minutes,” he argued.
“Yeah, but this is more than just girl-code, she’s been through…a lot.”
The look in his sister’s eyes was clearly protective. He’d only seen that look about her family, Liam, Zion, and basically people she loved like family.
“I’m not going to hurt her.” He didn’t feel like heshouldhave to say it out loud.
“Not intentionally, no.” Frankie went back to painting. “You would never hurt anyone intentionally.”
“What does that mean?”
“She’s not like the other girls youdate.”
“Yeah, I know.” Did Frankie honestly think he thought she was?
“She’s never had…” her words trailed off.
“What?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “It’s none of my business. You should talk to her.”
“I came here to askmysister for advice.” Frankiealwaystook the twins’ side. She wasfiercelyloyal. Even when Niko fucked up, because let’s face it, AJ never did, shealwayshad his back in public, and then she’d tell him what she really thought in private. “Are you seriously not going to tell me what to do? How I fucked up.”
She put the paintbrush down and slowly turned back around on her stool. “How much do you know about her?”
