Chapter 13: ❝ they never thought you'd make it this far ❞

(unedited)

They never thought you'd make it this far,

But turn around (turn around),

They've surrounded you.

It's a showdown (showdown),

And nobody comes to save you now,

But you've got something they don't.

"Eyes Open"- Taylor Swift

It took me a moment to process Kaden's answer.

"Murder?" I repeated. I stared at Ashton and Kaden, waiting for one of them to take the word back, to say it was some kind of stupid joke.

They didn't.

Ashton frowned at Kaden. "We had a deal. No telling anyone who isn't directly involved."

Kaden didn't take his eyes off me for even a second as he replied to Ashton. "I'd say she's pretty involved Ashton."

Is this a test? Part of me wondered as Kaden continued to watch me. To see how I would react? Probably, seeing as if I wanted a job like his, I'd be dealing with this kind of information almost every day. I tried to school my features into a blank expression, but I wasn't sure if it was working.

I wanted to squirm under Ashton and Kaden's steady gazes, but resisted the urge. no weaknesses, especially not in front of Ashton. "Who was it?" I asked. My voice barely came out above a whisper despite my efforts. "Who killed someone?"

Kaden and Ashton exchanged a glance and Kaden opened his mouth to respond, but Ashton beat him to it. "No," he said. "We're not telling her."

What? "Why?" I demanded. If one of his friends -people who I talked to- had homicidal tendencies, I wanted to know.

"Because you'll ruin it," Ashton replied.

I couldn't help it- my eyes snapped to Kaden. But he didn't give any indication of whether or not he had told Ashton about what had happened when I had first come to live with him and Raine. About what he said hadn't been my fault. His silence and lack of movements was an answer itself- that he had told.

Still I glanced back at Ashton. And how would you know?" I asked, hoping Kaden's silence meant something different than what I thought.

That hope was crushed with his response. "Kaden told me," he said.

There was a sharp intake of breath that came from Kaden. He was probably waiting for my anger, betrayal, maybe even for me to throw a tantrum. All those emotions raged inside me, but I pushed them down. I won't be predictable.

"You know I'll find out eventually, right?" I asked, keeping my eyes on Ashton. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it after a couple seconds, apparently deciding I wasn't good enough for what he was going to say, or that it gave away too much.

"It's not that easy, Lena," Kaden said. "We haven't even figured out who it is."

A noise escaped Ashton's throat. Something like a bitter chuckled that he had been unsuccessful in holding back. It told me Kaden wasn't telling the truth. Or at least not all of it. I played along anyway.

"Let me help, then!" I insisted.

"Why do you even care?" Ashton demanded. "It's none of your business."

I closed my eyes and dug me nails in my palm so I wouldn't punch him. "Are you kidding me?" My voice shook as I tried to keep from yelling. "I know one of your friends have taken a human life, but I don't know which one. I could be talking to them, eating with them, joking around with them, and I wouldn't even fucking know it."

Another sharp inhale from Kaden, possible at my use of the f-bomb. I made an effort not to swear, especially around him and Raine.

"You've been doing all those things for the past week!" Ashton said. His eyes were burning and in that moment, I was almost positive he hated me.

Unfortunate since I'm supposed to make him fall in love with me.

"I didn't know one of them was a murderer," I shot back. How did Ashton stand it? Knowing he was talking to a killer? And someone who had probably killed on purpose too. A life taken by accident through a car crash or something like that wouldn't need a lawsuit and a pile of cryptic answers.

"Just forget about it then!" He was yelling now, not even bothering to keep his voice down.

"Sorry, I can't erase-" I glanced at the clock on the wall. "An hour from my mind!"

"We don't know for sure if they killed, Lena," Kaden cut in. Ashton scoffed. "All we have is a series of coincidences and a couple suspicions." I think he was the only calm one out of all of us. If he wasn't, calm, that is, he didn't' show it. It made him a great lawyer, but extremely infuriating in circumstances like these.

"I don't believe in coincidences. Things don't just happen," I said, matching my voice to his steady tone. Another though occurred me. "Who did they kill?"

Neither of them answered.

Seriously? "What? Am I not allowed to know that either?"

They both shook their heads.

How many other people knew about this? Just them? "How does Daniel fit in this?" I asked. Him being Skylar's boyfriend's brother seemed a bit too coincidental.

"Another person who knows the case always helps," Kaden said.

Lie. It had to be Ashton. Kaden always said he worked better alone, and Ashton was in the Elite. He had information, directly from the inside. He didn't' need Daniel.

"I know you're lying."

He didn't even try and deny it.

"He said he'd take the fall," Ashton said abruptly.

"Take the fall?" I repeated. Then I understood what he meant. Take the fall if something went wrong. Say it was all his idea, maybe even make up some long winded believable lie to cover everything up.

"I told you, this could get ugly, fast. I don't want you getting linked to it," Kaden said quietly, watching me. I purposely kept my face blank and didn't meet his gaze. He turned to Ashton, his expression and his voice both hardening. "I think you've said enough, Ashton. Did you say you needed to go?"

I held back a laugh. Yeah, an hour ago when he was trying to dodge a punch he thoroughly deserved. "I'll walk him to the door," I said, standing up. Kaden narrowed his eyes, but didn't protest.

I peeked out side to see an unfamiliar car parked in the driveway that hadn't been here when I had arrived.

"I had my driver come here before he picked up Nate from school," Ashton said, catching my slight confusion.

"Oh." It was the only response I had.

"I warned you, you know," he said lowly as he pulled on his coat. His eyes flickered over my shoulder, to the living room where Kaden still was. "I told you we all had our secrets."

I stepped closer to him, keeping my eyes locked on his. "And I'm going to find every one of them."

He frowned. "This isn't' a game, Elena."

I took a step back when I heard the couch creak. "I wasn't the one who said it was."

"Goodbye Ashton," Kaden said pointedly from behind me. Once Ashton was gone, I turned to walk up to my room, but Kaden caught me before I even made it out of the living room. "Don't trust the Elite, Lena," he said. "They're dangerous."

"I'm not an idiot," I replied.

"I'm serious, Lena," he scolded.

I raised my hands in surrender. "I am too!"

"I don't want you around them," he said.

"It's not like I have much of a choice," I told him. They went to my school, Jacen borderline stalked me while we there and I was pretty sure there wasn't anywhere in the world I could hide. I had a feeling that they could do anything they really wanted to, if they combined all their resources.

"We can always-"

I already knew what he was going to say. "I'm not running. I'll just stick around Ashton, or something."

Kaden's response was immediate. "No."

"What?"

"I don't want you around him."

"I thought he was helping you with the case!" I exclaimed.

"I trust him more than his friends, but I don't trust him when it comes to you. You have any problems, you come to me." He gave me a hard look, leaving no room for arguments. I pushed anyway.

"What's wrong with Ashton?" I asked.

Kaden sighed. "I still have to consider the... Possibility that he did it."

"What?" So that was why Kaden had hesitated when I had asked him how he could be sure that Ashton wouldn't betray him. He wasn't sure. It was the opposite; he was toying with the idea that Ashton was the guilty one. How am I supposed to talk to any of them now?

"And is using this to try and cover it," Kaden finished.

"Why can't you tell me who was killed?" I had a couple guesses, but none of them were really certain. If I knew who had been killed, it would probably be a lot easier to figure out who had done it.

"Lena, I said I don't want you involved."

"Because you think I'll mess it up like last time." It wasn't a question.

"You did-"

"Then why did you tell him about what happened?" I demanded, cutting him off. "I was twelve!"

"Lena-"

"And you said it didn't matter!" I dug my nails into my palm and whipped around, running up the stairs before he could stop me. Another minute down there, and I probably would've broken out in tears.

I would never truly believe what I had done hadn't affected everything, hadn't let my parent's killed walk free. But for a while, I had almost deluded myself into thinking it hadn't been my fault. Maybe it was better that I stopped now.

With delusions and pretty lies, I could trick myself into believing anything.

♡ the trouble with love ♡

When Raine knocked on my bedroom door a couple hours later, I was attempting to draw a map of the Elite with what I knew. Which, unfortunately, wasn't much.

I didn't know any of them well enough to rule any of them out. I was tempted to cross out Nathan, because he was Ashton's brother and it would be dumb of Ashton to convict his own brother- but I didn't know either of them well enough to do so. The same went for Skylar, who was Ashton's best friend.

I wasn't sure if her injuries and the note for me were related to Ashton and Kaden's case, but it was pretty coincidental that they all happened at the same time. And I really didn't believe in coincidences.

"Hey," Raine said. "Dinner's ready."

I grimaced. "I'm not really hungry." I'd have to face Kaden eventually, but I didn't want to again today.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

I turned to look at her as she took a seat on the edge of my bed. "Did Kaden tell you?"

She nodded slowly.

"Did you know about the case?" I asked.

She nodded again.

For a fleeting moment, I felt betrayed. Why hadn't she told me? But then I realized it was idiotic- Raine hadn't known I was involved with the Elite. I hadn't told her or Kaden that they had picked me to participate in their... Game. She probably didn't think I cared.

"He lied, you know," I said after a moment of silence.

Raine looked up. "Lena-"

"He said it didn't matter. Not that I really believed it, but..." I trailed off.

She shook her head. "There wasn't enough evidence, anyway. It would've been near impossible," she told me.

But I had made it completely impossible.

There was a reason Kaden kept his cases hush hush, especially when they involved things like murder. If everyone knew he was working on a murder case, not only would it be harder to collect information with the paparazzi on his tail, whoever Kaden was trying to convict could bury all the evidence.

"He's trying to keep you safe, Lena," she added when I didn't reply. "People do a lot of things to try and keep people they care about safe. Lying isn't the worst of them."

"I know," I said. "I just need some time."

Raine stood up. "I'll put your dinner in the microwave, okay?"

I nodded. "Thanks."

Once she was gone, I looked back at my insufficient map and let out a sigh of frustration.

I had always known that there was something off with the Elite, but I had always thought it was just some kind of scandalous secret. I had thought they were just a group of privileged teens that had been shoved too far into the spotlight. But now knowing their secrets could kill me... Well, now, I had no idea what to think, what to expect.

And that was the most dangerous thing of all.

I gave up a while later and headed downstairs at the insistence of my growling stomach. Quiet voices and a faint light came from Kaden's office, but I didn't interrupt. Instead, I tiptoed to the kitchen, not really wanting to talk to Raine or Kaden right now.

Dinner had been simple, just pasta in some tomato sauce. With a pang of guilt I remembered that I had been the one who was supposed to make dinner but with everything that had happened with Kaden and Ashton I had completely forgotten.

The past was only a little bit cold so I put it in the microwave on high for half a minute. As I was waiting for it to heat up, I noticed a stack of paper with a bright sticky note on the coffee table. It was files on the Elite, to me, from Kaden. Some things were missing, like the fifth page of Jacen, Keira and Vanessa's files and the last page of Skylar's, but I knew it was Kaden's apology, his peace offering.

I grabbed the pasta and headed upstairs, hugging the files to my chest. When I got to my room, I set them down on my desk... Then found myself hesitating to open them. They would have answers, I was sure of that.

But it seemed every answer I got only came with a dozen more questions.

--♡--

Thank you to Xanahi for the banner on the right--->

Teaser: "She's not responding," one of the doctors yelled. "She's comatose."

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