Our Broken Pieces - M.E. Clayton Page 0,55

who’s available and let you know.”

And because I couldn’t help myself…“I want a copy of the preliminaries, and updates on each phase as they come in.”

Marlon had gone quiet and I knew why. I never bothered with preliminary phases of any project. That’s what I had department managers for. That’s why I employed thousands of people. And while Lawrence Darwin’s battery could be revolutionary, it still didn’t need my personal touch. Not at this point, anyway.

“Uh, sure thing,” he finally replied. “I’ll…uh, instruct weekly reports and they’ll be on your desk every Friday.”

“Thank you, Marlon,” I replied. “Also, let me know who you assign to the project.”

More confused silence reigned on the other end of the phone, then a stuttering, “Uh…sure.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you later.” I hung up before he could say anything more.

I knew I was acting irrational, but I couldn’t stop myself. After Mystic had fallen asleep, I had stayed up, thinking about everything she had told me about the day she had left me. A part of me wanted to hunt down Margot Cross and ruin her fucking life, but that wouldn’t give me back the ten years I lost.

Her family was another problem. Since we hadn’t done much talking, I didn’t know if she was on good terms with them or not, but I suspected she was. They were her family after all. I couldn’t see her holding a grudge all these years later. Especially, since it was my actions that had actually ended us.

That still stung like a bitch.

Knowing that Mystic had been making plans to run away with me while I had stewed like a spoiled child felt like razor blades all over my skin. Turned out I was the one who couldn’t keep his word, and had I waited longer than I had, I would have been with Mystic all this time. Sure, we might have been poor with nothing to our names, but we would have been together.

I also had to consider that, if her parents had gone to all those lengths to keep her from me all those years ago, what would they do now? With social media and everyone in everyone else’s business these days, they could easily run an article or go on social media, outing me as a sadistic bastard who abuses their daughter. And while I trusted Mystic to set the record straight if it ever came to that, what would another rift with her family do to her?

Not to mention, I wasn’t even sure I could stomach the Andersons long enough to be cordial to them after what they had done to Mystic. Hurting her that way, making her choose, it was enough to make me go after them out of spite. However, this thing with Mystic was still new and fragile even if she didn’t have a choice in this. If I can rebuild with her, without everything else around us crumbling, I will.

Looking at the clock, I waited as long as I could. I called her, not caring that things were probably tense for her at work. Given the pressure she was under now and the situation with Reagan, she didn’t need me hovering, but that was just too damn bad.

I was going to hover like a motherfucker.

At least, until I put a ring on her finger, which would be soon.

She answered on the second ring. “Cavanaugh Industries, Mystic Anderson speaking.”

Her voice made me antsy and soothed everything in me all at the same time. “Hey, baby.”

“Gage,” she replied in acknowledgement; nothing more, nothing less.

“I’ll be over tonight around-”

“Oh, crap,” she grimaced. “I forgot to let you know.” My body tightened and I knew I wasn’t going to like whatever she was going to say next. “Alaric called me this morning to let me know he was stopping for a short visit.”

I had to take a deep breath and collect myself. We still had a lot to talk about. But, even if we didn’t, after last night, I had no intention of letting a single night pass by without Mystic with me. We had a lot of time to make up for.

“Meaning?”

Mystic let out a soft sigh. “He’s staying with me until Thursday morning, when he’ll fly back out to California,” she replied. “He had to fly to Connecticut for a work thing. He wants to catch up before going back home.”

Well, I suppose that told me where she was at with her relationship with her family. And as much as I should