The Rampage MC #3: Atlas and Joy

Chapter 16 (Joy): An Unspoken Message

"Drench yourself in words unspoken, Live your life with arms wide open, Today is where your book begins." ~Unwritten, Natasha Beddingfield

The next four weeks passed quickly with work and school and studying. Kit continued to work right along with me, and whether he intended it to be this way or not, every time I picked up one of the knives he gave me, I thought about him. About how someone who got so much wrong got this gift very, very right.

I'd just picked up the chef's knife when Chain popped his head into the kitchen where we'd just begun prepping dinner.

"Sweet new bike, brother. Wondered where your Street Glide was when I pulled in today. Beard pointed out your new one. Like the matte black."

"It was time for a change and always liked the Fat Boy, so..."

They chatted a few more minutes about the engine and other bike-related details that went right over my head. Rolling my eyes, I realized I wasn't surprised he'd made a move like this. It was the type of problem-solution response Atlas would make. I wouldn't get on his bike because Brandie had already been on it? Get a new bike. Problem solved.

After Chain ducked out of the kitchen, I debated with myself for a few minutes, then gave in.

"A new bike? Does it have a reinforced bitch seat?"

I heard him put his knife down and walk over to me.

"It just has a regular seat, Joy. I'd like to show it to you after dinner."

"Why?"

He smiled. "It's a surprise."

I figured I knew what this surprise was, and I'd have to tell him that painting my initial on his bike's gas tank -- something the brothers did to give a nod to their old ladies or wives -- wasn't going to make me come running back to him. But I was curious like a cat so I couldn't resist.

"Fine. But, Atlas, just know that whatever this surprise is, it's not going to change anything."

"Don't expect it to, Joy. That's not what this is about."

Dinner and clean up dragged as my mind thought about this surprise. When the last dish had been put away and the floor swept, I adjusted the coffee pot, nudged the fruit basket into place and straightened the towels hanging over the oven handle.

"Ready?" Atlas asked once I had everything perfect. His voice was laced with a ripple of excitement.

I nodded and we walked out of the kitchen together, out the front doors and into the  parking lot. We stopped behind a beast of a bike, matte black just like Chain had mentioned.

"This is my new bike, Joy. New seat that no one's ever been on before. You would be the first and only, if you ever agree to go on a ride with me."

When I opened my mouth to tell him that wouldn't be happening, he forestalled me.

"Before you say anything, just hear me out. I want you to know there's no one else I would have gotten rid of my old bike for except you. That was my first bike. The bike I had a lot of good memories on. Bought it with money I worked a second job for, rebuilt most of it myself over the years. It was the bike I cut my teeth on, basically. And it meant something to me right up until it didn't. I ruined that bike for myself because I let Brandie on the back of it for a stupid reason."

I just looked at him, wondering if he was expecting a response yet. He wasn't.

"The thing is, our bikes aren't just things to the brothers in the Rampage. They're a part of us and they're tied to us like not much else. We'll do anything to keep our bikes in good shape and we have an unreasonable attachment to them some might say. When I let Brandie on it, when I realized how I'd hurt you with that one stupid-ass action, that was it for my bike. It had to go."