Grey (Storm's Soldiers MC Book 2) by Paige Notaro Page A

let him lead me out towards the clearing side. It opened up onto a vast field with low cut grass and hard packed dirt. We passed a few trailers and a couple villages of small tents and families, out further afield.
    I knew there was really nothing dangerous out here in Georgia that wasn’t man shaped. This wasn’t the rain forest or Africa with its super predators, but still I’d never been out in the country. All this….nothing made me feel a bit antsy.
    Once we were a good distance from the next tent, Vaughn set everything down with a huff. He dropped the jacket and set to work on pitching up a tan canvas tent. Seeing those vast muscles at work eased me a bit.
    “You know what you’re doing?” I asked.
    “Oh yeah, Pop was all into survivalist stuff. We went out into the wild for weeks at a time each year.”
    I looked back at the tents, wondering whether it was the same sort of people we’d just passed. “You guys went here?”
    “No, they’re just normal folk back there,” he said, putting down the last stake with a huff. “Is this your first time camping?”
    “Yeah. We had enough trouble keeping a roof over our head to enjoy a night without it.”
    “You’re gonna like this, I promise.”
    He finished with the tent and I helped unroll the bags. They did look all spongy and warm. He pointed at a pile of wood not far away and said he would be right back.
    I checked my phone and tapped my feet. There was no Wi-Fi here, barely a signal, but I did have a message. I clicked it open.
    Hey, I’m sorry to steal your number from someone, but I had to reach you. I have something to give you. Can we talk, chica?
    There was no name and I didn’t recognize the number, but my blood chilled. Only one person ever called me chica. I shut the phone down and shoved it in my pocket. Maybe some time away from city life wasn’t so bad.
    Vaughn came back with wood and started a heap of it smoking by rubbing some twigs some magic way. I was suitably impressed. The sun swung down fast. By the time the fire got blazing, the moon was already out with the stars blinking in bit by bit.
    Vaughn gathered me to him in front of the tent and we cuddled by the flickering heat.
    “There’s a real simple joy in all this, don’t you think?” his voice rumbled through me.
    Blanketed in him and the fire, glowing in the empty field, I had to admit, it was quite nice. “It’s pretty beautiful.”
    He shook his head and stared out beyond the fire. “I think I may have been born in the wrong era. I was meant to ramble around and discover new lands.”
    “You could be an astronaut,” I said, feeling sort of giggly. “I think they’ll let that leather jacket on under a suit.”
    He shook his head above me. “I’m serious, darlin’. All this conflict we’ve got. It’d be better if we had places we could just keep expanding to. Get away from places we disagree with.”
    It wasn’t clear if he were talking about white nationalism or about leaving it, about abandoning his family or just going somewhere with me. It was too nice a moment to ruin, but I couldn’t help but be a bit feisty.
    “You know, most of the places that explorers found already had people living in them.”
    I thought he’d snap back, but he just nodded thoughtfully into the fire. “I suppose that’s true. It’s too bad they didn’t just fuck each other instead of spending all their energy killing, huh?”
    His face rolled towards me, hard and serious and full of fire and lust. As far as I knew, the killing had mostly been one sided, but the sight of him like that made the truth seem unimportant. I rushed my lips up to his and pushed him toward the open tent.
    “Well,” I said. “Let’s not make that same mistake.”
     

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Vaughn
    Thurge and I squatted in dusty lot of the Iron Crossroads studying Asher’s bike. I had no eye for mechanical work beyond keeping Viper purring, but Thurge had asked for a hand and mine lay unused for the moment. He