My Thug Bride Read online

  My Thug Bride

  Katherine Summers

  Copyright © 2020 Katherine Summers

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.

  For any queries, write to: [email protected]

  ISBN-13: 9781234567890

  ISBN-10: 1477123456

  Cover design by: Art Painter

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue (1)

  Epilogue (2)

  Afterword

  Chapter 1

  Henry Hathaway

  March, 2020.

  Anna Fucking Reeves.

  Have you ever looked at someone and just known in your bones that they were not for you? I have. That person for me was Anna. When I first saw her, she was wobbling out of a cheap bar, dressed in a pair of tight ripped jeans and a loose, off-shoulder orange top. I still have trouble trying to forget how she looked that day. It was because not many women around me have the guts that Anna has. Even back then, she was alone at two in the morning, dead drunk, barely able to walk. She stood in an alleyway where I had ended up by chance. I still remember that day.

  I will always remember it.

  I was behind the wheels in my car, watching out against anything and everything that moved. I had had a long day, and there was someone whom I had to meet in private. I am a lawyer and this was during a time when my business wasn’t going so well. The Hathaway & Brown Partners was not what it is now. It took a lot of effort from me and my partner, but we are the most sought after law firm today.

  But those were difficult times. A high profile client had requested us, to our surprise and asked to meet me in a less than ideal situation. A reasonable man would have denied it, of course, a desperate man did not. So there I was, in the dead of the night, parked in a dark and dangerous looking alley.

  And out came the wobbling Anna.

  I had seen a dingy looking bar right at the corner, so I knew this drunk woman had to be coming from there. Half my heart had beaten ferociously. I have seen enough porno to know what could possibly go down here.

  But I was also alert.

  While Anna was fumbling for something in her bag – maybe her phone – I decided I needed to be a little more inconspicuous. You see, from where I was parked, she could see me. And I didn’t want her to. More than that, I didn’t want to see what she was up to.

  I remember praying silently for my client to come sooner.

  While I turned on the ignition and was about to roll back, she wobbled all the more. Her heels must have been killing her and I was right to think she was looking for her phone. She finally pulled it out but not before thumping her chest and turning to the side to puke her guts out.

  I groaned. This was a disaster.

  Should I go out? Did she need help? I didn’t want any trouble at this point.

  I pulled back, but I wanted to keep her in sight. It didn’t look like she was there with a man or doing anything illegal – I decided to watch her in case things went south. After relieving herself, she flopped on her knees and took deep breaths.

  It was then that a shadow moved.

  I don’t remember seeing much. The shock from that day still shakes me.

  I didn’t even see it coming but someone moved behind her. I didn’t see them, I swear I didn’t, but I saw her. This woman – this complete haggard looking mess – stood up on her staggering feet. And before I could breathe, she landed a backward kick. It all happened within a split second because what I saw next was her stepping back to lean against the wall. And before her, a man fell, crouching on his knees.

  His painful groan echoed through the night. She had kicked him right in the crotch.

  I practically pissed my pants. My heartbeat rocketed and I wanted to turn around and drive away, but she kept me hooked. It was like watching a very messy version of Batman live.

  My analogy is wrong, I agree. But that’s what I had thought at that time. I couldn’t even see the battle before me. She was that fast. And just like that, she beat up two more guys who emerged out of nowhere.

  She was sort of cool.

  But I’m a lawyer by profession. My boyish fascination for coolness could not outwit me even then, and very soon I had turned the engines of my car. All of this was against the law, and I was leaving.

  It was then that my phone rang. I saw the number of my client and a swear escaped my lips.

  Fuck you. I remember thinking. Fuck you a thousand times over.

  But I picked up.

  Somebody coughed and then panted into the phone. It was female. “Don’t you dare fucking leave. I will find you and I will kill you if you do.”

  Oh, yes.

  The floor slipped from beneath my feet, and I was met with enraged, fiery green eyes glaring at me from a good distance. She couldn’t see me, but of course with those fighting senses, she knew where I was.

  Yes.

  My secret client turned out to be Anna Fucking Reeves that night.

  Anna Reeves

  I had never been so fucking angry. I mean I’m usually very angry as a person, my dad says I’m a natural rebel. Doesn’t mean it’s always meaningful. Most of it can come from just a simple characteristic of mine: I’m headstrong. And I do what I want.

  A high schooler’s line, but it has been my motto ever since I heard it: My life, my rules.

  I’m Anna Hathaway… Anna Reeves, actually. The becoming of the Hathaway is what this fuss is all about.

  The first time I met Henry was three years ago on a fateful night. It’s a hilarious encounter from what I can remember of it. Henry says he will never forget it. I keep telling him to let it go. He can’t.

  He’s a wuss. He always has been.

  And now that we stand with each other all these years later, I can’t help but keep thinking. What made me fall for this man? We’re making decisions that can uproot our lives. And yet, here we are anyway.

  My story begins when I was adopted into the Reeves family. I was thirteen. I was an orphan. With serious anger issues that showed up when I turned five and slammed a boy’s head against an iron window. In my defense he was bullying my best friend. She turned out to be a bitch, but that’s a different story. I was circulated around foster families since then – until Markian Reeves decided I was disturbed enough to adopt.

  Markian is the Chairman of RDesigns and I am his social project.

  I don’t mind that. Whatever the reason, he gave me a comfortable life. Better than the one I had experienced for thirteen years. When I met Henry, it had already been ten years since I had been living with Markian. Being the business God he is, I am part of Markian’s share of corporate soc
ial responsibility. That’s what I think.

  He of course, thinks he loves me. I’m his prodigal daughter.

  I’ll be honest though. I think I love him too. Part of the reason why will always be Henry. Henry… how do I put it? It’s funny. Despite how fucked up Henry and I are, when I met him for the first time, he was just a funny, annoying ass. Like, when it all started, I’d never felt so angry before. I was fuming on that night, three years ago.

  I had just cleaned up a disturbing mess. Fought off three of my former underlings. I was there to help Henry out with a rather lucrative offer which he totally didn’t deserve. And what did he choose to do?

  Run away.

  I couldn’t believe my eyes back then. What a jerk! Here a lady was, fighting her shapely ass off, and this man chose to turn away with his car. He forced me to finish quickly. I beat up my rowdy underlings and called Henry Hathaway. His name was as unimpressive as his physique.

  I threatened him, “Don’t you dare fucking leave. I will find you and I will kill you if you do.” The least he could have done was given a drunk helpless girl a ride home.

  But yeah. Talk about foolishness. I threatened a lawyer, literally.

  In my defense again, I was angry. I dashed for the car, though I couldn’t see his face. I knocked at the windshield and waited for him. God knows I was fuming. What sort of a man runs when a girl is in trouble?

  Henry now teases me, “It was a girl beating up grown men in a dark alley. You get your facts straight.” I take his point. But back then, I remember being annoyed. When I faced him, it took him a good two minutes to react.

  He rolled down his window.

  Square jaw, lean and handsome face. Eyes that of a sea, blue and rather pretty. His body was unflattering from what I could see of it. And he was scared as shit.

  I rolled my eyes.

  Fine. He won. He was a scaredy cat. My mistake.

  I brushed through my bag for a paper. He practically looked ready to piss his pants, he wouldn’t even maintain eye contact. No wonder he was failing as a lawyer.

  When I found my paper, I scribbled down my address and slammed it on his half open window. Then, I turned around to leave.

  You see, I have rules. I fight, but I’m not a bully. Man or woman, I make it a point to spare the weak. Not because I’m a hero, but because helplessness of any sort makes me terribly angry.

  And that is how my first encounter with Henry went. Unflattering, right?

  But he is the man I fell in love with.

  The man I stand with now, wondering how in the world we found each other. Three years… not that long a period of time. And yet it seems like ages have passed. I don’t know what havoc our choices would bring along. I hope we’re ready for it.

  We, as the millennials would say these days, might be a classic case of not meant to be. Or we could be lovers of the century.

  That’s all that it is. Though I do want to retell this story from the beginning.

  Henry does too. I know.

  I hope we get it right this time around.

  Chapter 2

  Henry

  November, 2016.

  I am Henry Hathaway. Twenty seven years old, a lawyer with a firm that doesn’t have any notable clients or cases, easily put. I do come from a wealthy family though. My father is the Chairman of the Hathaway Constructions, and my mother is a psychiatrist. I have a crazy family, but I’m also one of those lucky men who never really faced a lot of struggle.

  Good for you, you might think. It isn’t.

  I mean, I did choose struggle whenever I could. Which was why I was there last night to meet Anna Reeves. Which is also why I’m here in her living room right now, scared as a reasonable fucking man should be.

  Out of all the people, she had turned out to be the one hiring me. I knew I was being asked for by the Chairman of RDesigns which was why I had undergone all the trouble. A high profile client that I had landed on my own was just what the firm and my pride needed. But as it turned out, his daughter was the one who had asked for me, not him.

  Anyway, as Phoebe Buffay from Friends would put it, Potato potahto.

  It didn’t matter who from RDesigns called me. It mattered that it was RDesigns that had called me.

  I had been unable to sleep the entire night yesterday. The events of the fight kept flashing before me. Of course I couldn’t forget Ms. Reeves’s angry eyes. She had looked like she would murder me. It didn’t help that I had been baffled enough to not even let her into my car. I mean, she had given me a death threat.

  Why then was I here? I did ask myself that before coming.

  It was the same reason I was there in the alleyway last night at two.

  I breathed, trying to calm down. I looked around – her house was rather plain compared to mine. I had been served a glass of water and I was waiting for the punk girl. I had forbidden myself from thinking too much. I did not, for the life of me, want to know why the daughter of Markian Reeves was fighting off thugs in a street in the middle of the night.

  Vigilante? Lady Batman? Or was she a thug as well?

  Stop thinking!

  I shrugged. I hate unpunctual people. She should have come down to meet me sooner.

  “Hathaway.”

  I instantly recognized her voice. Not many people who had threatened to put in the effort to find and kill me, you see. But she did have a knack for pissing people off instantly. First meeting and she calls me Hathaway?

  “Ms. Reeves,” I stood up and smiled. She came in dressed in the same unflattering clothes that she had on last night. She also looked like she had just gotten out of bed.

  Oh, damn. This was annoying.

  I think the smile wavered off my face because she didn’t smile back. She sat across the table before me and motioned me to take a seat as well. I was stiff, and my heart was racing. This woman was five foot four, but I could read the menace in all of her figure and actions. Somehow, I didn’t want to defy her.

  She was definitely not a vigilante. No way she was Lady Batman too.

  She definitely gave off a thug vibe.

  “You didn’t get coffee?” she asked, looking around for a maid maybe. I cleared my throat, “I didn’t want one actually.”

  “Cool. I hate coffee too.”

  You need it though. You look terribly hung over.

  Remind me again that she was the daughter of a company owner?

  “I don’t actually hate –“ I began. She cut me off.

  “Yeah okay.”

  Silence. This was awkward.

  “Why’d you run last night?”

  I swallowed. I really didn’t think she would bring up last night. I assumed she was a secret thug, if she was one. Why was she talking about this out in the open? Clearly, I didn’t think enough.

  “I – I’m sorry.” I DID NOT mean it.

  “It’s okay. Scrawny ones like you usually run. Do some exercise. It’ll do you good.”

  This conversation should not be happening. I tried to cough my way out. Of course, Anna Fucking Reeves couldn’t let it go.

  “Why’re you coughing? Am I making you uncomfortable? Don’t be. It’s just health advice. I’m not mad at you anymore. We have a long way ahead of us so I’m letting this go.”

  How magnanimous. She dared to say those words to me.

  Anger swelled in me. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to work with her anymore. I mean, worst comes to worst, I would have to ask for my father’s help again. It wasn’t that big a deal.

  I hated the idea as soon as it came to my mind. I stayed put.

  “Yes, Ms. Reeves. What do you mean by a long way ahead of us though? Why are we meeting here?”

  “You want us to meet somewhere else?”

  “No – I mean why did you contact me?” Why the fuck are we meeting at all?

  “Oh yes,” she was finally enlightened. It disturbed me, the way she sat, how she was carrying herself. Brown hair, tousled and tangled, unbrushed. Literally just out of bed. She
hadn’t even pretended to care about her appearance. I mean frankly, it was a little disrespectful.

  “You see,” she finally got a serious look on her face, “I want you to file a case for me.”

  “Against?”

  “My father Markian.”

  I wasn’t drinking my water, but if I was I would have spit it out. I was right. She was nuts.

  “Tell me the details, Ms. Reeves.”

  I was getting out of here. There was no way I was getting involved in some shit family feud. Another thought struck me. If this knucklehead was planning on suing her father, whose money was she going to pay me with? She didn’t look very capable in the job department, from what I had seen so far.

  “Call me Anna. Ms. Reeves is crap. Details… there’s not much to it. Markian doesn’t really like how I live right now so he’s selling me off to some business associate of his. Business expansion and get rid of the daughter – all at once. I want to sue him for that.”

  What?

  “What do you mean?” I hesitated, “Selling you off?”

  “Marrying me off.”

  Oh. “Is he forcing you?”

  “Not really. He threatens to cut me off if I don’t go on the blind date, but I don’t care about his money that much. I’m more worried about his health. If I marry off and leave forever, he might die.”

  Okay. This was ridiculous.

  “Ms. Reeves – Anna. I don’t see a case here.”

  She was agitated. She brushed the locks of hair from her face as ruthlessly as she could and actually stomped her feet.

  “Then make one,” she insisted.

  “What?”

  “Don’t they teach you all these smart tricks in law school? Use all of it. You did go to law school right?”

  And I’d think you graduated school. You’re making me doubt it.

  “Anna,” I tried to be patient with her, “There is nothing here that you can complain against. He’s suggesting you to get married, maybe a little more organized in life – that’s all.” Maybe you should consider it. You need to.