Page 28 of Sweet Anarchy

I hear footsteps heading towards the room, and the three of us pause, watching the open doorway. Asher puts his head around the corner, looking. He visibly relaxes when he spots all of us, stepping inside.

"I woke up and everyone was gone," he says in a husky, half-asleep tone. "All I heard was Rylee running around then suddenly she vanished before I could even open my eyes properly."

Rylee gives him a sly smile. "Sorry. You looked peaceful. I know you like your beauty sleep."

Asher returns her smile with his own warm one, his eyes looking at her like she's the best thing he's ever seen. "I only need sleep because you exhaust me."

My face wrinkles as I piece two and two together… or should I say one and two.

"Anyway," I interject, holding up my hand to stop him. "I need to chat to you both."

Seriousness washes over Asher's face as he crosses the room slowly. "Okay then."

I take a small breath, looking at Zayn who gives me a nod to continue.

"I went to our clubhouse last night to speak to our prez. They are obviously going to put some plans in motion due to the recent attack. But, there's some other information that we haven't disclosed yet because it wasn't the right time."

"What information?" Rylee asks quickly, looking at me.

Asher tenses up as well, folding his arms as he watches. I grab Rylee's hand, stroking her soft fingers.

"We haven't fully told you about our background with the club. I know you've been to the clubhouse and met Bill, but there's a history you need to know."

"Okay," she says slowly. "What history?"

I pause, trying to piece the words together when Zayn in his usual typical fashion just blurts it out.

"We're Rebels, pretty girl."

Chapter 9

Rylee

I blink at Zayn, confused. "Rebels? Like… the same club as Chuck and Butch?"

Blake glares at Zayn, obviously annoyed that his brother beat him to the punch. "Yes, kind of."

"What?" I ask. "How does that work?"

"Clubs have different chapters as you already know," Blake starts. "Our chapter is fairly new. Originally, our chapter was a part of the Rebels' area here. But the higher ups had a falling out, and there were a lot of disagreements about locations and where we should be based. We ended up severing ties so to speak and half the club stayed here, and the other broke off to start a new chapter, although we go by a different name now to differentiate our crew since we didn't want to be associated with the Rebels anymore."

I'm even more confused. "But the way you spoke about them, you made it sound like you were all enemies or something."

"More like broken brotherhood," Zayn answers. "Our prez is the cousin of the prez here. They didn't see eye to eye and instead of it turning into some club mutiny, we left. We don't really associate with them anymore, but for all other purposes, we still fall under the same club. Think of it like a franchise, but we called ourselves the Nomads instead."

My face falls. "So, you knew them all along. It makes sense I guess. You knew of each other, and even the Norsemen knew you," I direct to Blake, thinking back to the day he rescued me in the parking lot of Wheels.

Blake nods. "We were only in the Rebels for a short period before they broke up. We followed Bill because he took us under his wing when we joined. A lot of the other members were loyal to Mack, so they stayed. Plus they had families here. We were in the process of running, so it was easier for us to leave."

"Did you know Butch? And Vito?" I ask, unsure how I feel with this new information.

Zayn shakes his head. "Not really. We knew of them, but the club is so big, you rarely cross paths with everyone."

"This explains how you knew so much," I mutter. "But I can't believe Butch never mentioned it."

"It's not his place to do so. There's rules we have to follow," Blake says. "We agreed to be civil with the Brightmore chapter, and the Rebels value privacy and respect."

I nod. "I can understand that. It's a lot to take in though. Does that mean you still know people here?"

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