The Trouble with Love

❝ if you're gonna take me down ❞

(unedited)

If the weapon is your love,
I got my hands up.
If you're gonna take me down,
I surrender.
I'll give you anything you want.

"Hold Up" -Demi Lovato

Tap. Tap. Tap.

I waited a moment before pushing open the door to Kaden's office.

"Hey Elena," he said, glancing up briefly.

I took a second to look around before answering. It was rare that I was in his office. It wasn't at all where we held family meetings and while I was curious, I wasn't desperate enough to invade his privacy. I remember when I had first come here; the floor to ceiling wall of bookshelves had been so intimidating. They didn't look as scary now, since papers were scattered all around his office.

"What do you want for dinner?" I asked, turning back to Kaden.

He shrugged. "I'm fine with anything."

Before I turned around to leave, I shot a glance at some papers on the desk, though they were too far away for me to read. I don't know how he did it, since he hadn't been looking at me, but Kaden had somehow caught my action without looking up.

"Is it just me or have you been more curious recently?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

I blew out a sign and leaned back against the wall. "It's my last year of high school and I still don't know what I want to be." I shrugged. "I like guessing people's secret's, though."

He chuckled. "Careful, Lena, you're starting to sound evil," he teased.

I rolled my eyes and continued as if he hadn't spoken. "The only jobs that would be useful would be a lawyer or a psychologist."

"What's wrong with Devon's job?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Nothing. I just don't think I'd be able to sit and listen to people talk about their problems all day," I replied.

"Devon thinks you'd be good at it."

"Devon has too much faith in me."

I had thought about it for a while, and I didn't mind Devon's job, but I meant what I said- after a while, I'd get bored. I'd get tired of hearing the same things over and over again from the same people. I was curious by nature; I always felt the need to figure out any secrets being kept, even if they had nothing to do with me. But once I knew everything, I lost interest.

I was sure if I asked Devon and let him do a full analysis on me, he could tell me why. But I didn't want to go digging around my mind or past, which I knew would be necessary to figure out why I felt the way I did about secrets.

Kaden sighed. "Okay, if you really want to, I'll bring you some witness cases and you can give your opinion on them-" Victory! "-But after I'm done the case I'm working on now." Damn.

"Why?" I asked curiously. I knew it wasn't really any of my business. But the sudden secrecy with the case he and Daniel were working on had piqued my interest. Not that Kaden hadn't been secretive about his cases before, this time it seemed like he was trying harder to keep everything under wraps.

He rubbed his temples. "This case could get very public and very ugly very fast. I don't want you getting caught up in it."

Maybe his words had been meant to discourage me, but they only served to do the opposite. I knew better than to push it, though. "Okay, thanks, Kaden."