The Rampage MC #3: Atlas and Joy

Chapter 23 (Joy): Beautiful

"Let's kiss and make up now." ~ Let's Kiss and Make Up, Shania Twain

For a minute after Kit made his declaration about wanting to share my burdens, I stood there like an idiot, not knowing what to say to that. I knew what I wanted to say but couldn't bring myself to say the words yet.

"I need to talk to Kilian." There. That was one way to avoid what he'd said. "And we'll find a way to pay you back."

"Oh, hell no," Kit said, taking ahold of my arm and turning me back to him. "You're going to step back and let him handle this debt and grow the fuck up. He's not a bad kid, but he can't become an adult if he keeps running to his older sister to solve the problems he caused."

"Kit, you don't understand."

"I understand plenty about cause and effect, Joy. I've been living it out every day since I fucked up with you. You've protected Kilian and shielded him all his life, but that stops now. He's old enough to get in this kind of trouble, so he's old enough to get himself out. If you keep bailing him out, you're setting yourself up for a lifetime of this shit and his problems are going to escalate unless he learns right now that actions have consequences."

I huffed and puffed as I pouted and thought about what Kit had said. And, dammit, he was right. Boy, did I hate that he was right. Men shouldn't be allowed to be right when we're in a cranky mood.

"OK," I conceded very ungraciously. "I guess you're not wrong."

Kit laughed and without thinking, he pulled me into his arms. Oh, I'd missed that strength. And his scent. Holy pheromones, he smelled good. I'd missed the way his arms curled around me and felt protective...until they didn't.

I pushed back. "You'll make him pay it back?"

He cupped my cheek with his hand. "Every cent. He's already paid me back ten thousand. Racing money, but now he's done racing, so the other forty thousand is coming from his second job. He's working like a dog, but he'll remember how much work went into paying back his debt and probably will think things over very carefully at least two or three times when contemplating his choices in the future."

"That would be a really good thing," I admitted. "Sometimes Kil can act without thinking."

"Yeah, I know how that goes and can relate, and I don't even have being young as an excuse," he agreed self-deprecatingly. "He's been talking to me a little every time he drops off a payment, so I'm keeping an eye on him. Checking in."

Kit smiled at me and started to leave, but this time I grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"My little brother means the world to me, Kit, so I really appreciate you stepping up for him. For everything you've done for him." I took a deep breath because the next part was trickier, and I refused to cry. At least until I got up to my room and could flop face down into my pillow. "And the reason you did it, to take something off my shoulders, so I wouldn't worry, that..." 

Dammit. The tears started welling up in my eyes, but I was determined to power through it.

"That meant more to me than you can know. I've never had somebody do something like that for me in my life. Nobody's ever helped me for no reason before."

Now my tears were like water spilling over a dam.

"Oh, Joy," Kit said softly, his hands framing my face as his thumbs tried to wipe them away.

A tiny sob escaped my throat at his tenderness. "So I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for doing that because it hit me hard. Here." I pressed my hand over my heart.