Chapter 11
Oliver's assumption was right, but it didn't happen as quickly as he thought it would.
He kept a close eye on Kadienne, with the help of Diggle, neither of them wanting to see her harmed. While Oliver was out in the city saving it from criminals, Diggle stayed in a car across the street from Kadienne's apartment building with tinted windows. Oliver planted the idea in Thea's head to give Kadienne time to get over what happened, making sure she was paid for it too. It kept Kadienne in one place except when she had to go to the store and Oliver hated the fact she walked everywhere. It was easier to pick someone up off the street that way, especially at night. Protecting her ended up being a lot more challenging than he thought, but somehow Oliver pulled it off with his partner.
"Oliver, I know you care about this girl…" John stated a week later while they were in the Foundry, sparing with metal rods.
"No I don't." Oliver argued, the sound of the rods clinging together echoing off the cement walls and caught Diggle in the arm. "Stop losing your focus."
John shook it off and continued sparring, this time catching Oliver in the jaw, remembering their first session when he'd been struck in the face. "I will when you stop losing yours." He shot back, twirling the rods waiting for Oliver to continue.
Gritting his teeth, Oliver would admit only to himself he did have feelings for Kadienne. The talk they had at one of his favorite secluded spots in Starling City intensified them. She opened up and so did he, comforting each other in a way Oliver hadn't experienced since Felicity. She was his comfort whenever he doubted himself about who he was and what he stood for as The Hood. Kadienne didn't comfort him in the same way; she was straightforward and blunt, speaking the truth even if it was painful to hear. It was refreshing and intriguing, which made Oliver want to get to know her more. He tried convincing himself it was only to find a lead to whoever brought Vertigo back into the city.
It was an epic fail.
"What do you want me to say, Dig?" Oliver demanded, tossing the metal rods aside to end their sparring session and began hitting the wing chun wooden dummy. "She's Thea's friend and…"
"What did I tell you when you first brought me into your crusade? Don't lie to me. And you're doing it now. You can deny how you feel all you want, but you haven't been this protective over someone since Felicity and you know it." John was never a man to back down and frequently called Oliver out on his lies.
He was right and Oliver hated him for it sometimes like now. "It doesn't matter. I won't put her in danger like I did Felicity."
"In case you don't remember, that was on both of us, man. It wasn't just you. I should've known better than to let her leave here with a target on her back. She was stubborn and wanted to go home though. We couldn't stop her." John reminded his partner, knowing Oliver blamed himself solely for Felicity's murder when that wasn't the case.
"I know, and we should've stopped her. We should've made her stay here with us where she was safe. Or at least stayed with her at her apartment. I knew better and I didn't do anything, I let her go…" Oliver hit the wing chun wooden dummy harder, remembering the argument he'd had with Felicity the night she left.
What Diggle didn't know was he tried forcing Felicity to stay in the Foundry with him. Diggle had gone home after being assured nothing else would go down that night and it left Oliver alone with Felicity. He planned on telling her how he felt and everything fell apart; it ended with them arguing and Felicity storming out. Oliver had been angry and didn't go after her to give them both space, temporarily forgetting she was being targeted. It was a mistake Oliver had to live with for the rest of his life.
"So you're afraid the same thing will happen with Kadienne? You gotta stop beating yourself up over this, Oliver." John walked over to stand beside Oliver, folding his arms in front of his chest. "What happened to Felicity isn't your fault or mine. She was murdered and the murderer is the only one to blame. You guys got into a fight; it happens. But it's not your fault she died. She decided to get involved in this on her own, we didn't force her to do anything she didn't want to do. She wanted to help protect this city…"
"And we couldn't protect her…" Oliver threw a punch at the wing chun wooden dummy as hard as he could, splitting one of the rods in half from the velocity of the strike. "Or find her killer…"
John placed a hand on Oliver's shoulder, feeling how tense he was and couldn't argue those valid points. "We will. It's taking time and I know you're not a patient man, but we WILL find who killed her and make them pay. I promise you. But keeping yourself bottled up and at arm's length with Kadienne won't protect her either. Being close to her and in her life will."
Wanting to believe that with every fiber of his being, Oliver could only nod and walked over to the computer screen to check on Kadienne. "Who is that?" He pointed, ocean blues narrowing and turning to ice.
John smirked at the footage and shrugged, already hearing the jealousy in Oliver's voice. "Looks like she met a new friend."
"Mmmhmm."
Oliver had to walk away from the computer before he smashed it and looked up at the ceiling, deciding it was time to make a rare appearance at Verdant. He didn't trust anyone around Kadienne right now, not with her father out there looking for ways to lure her back home. Tossing on a white buttoned up dress shirt, leaving the top two buttons undone, Oliver made his way up the stairs to join the fray of customers…and Kadienne. John chuckled, watching how disheveled his partner was and wiped the sweat from his brow, keeping his eyes on the computer screen in case anything happened with the redhead.
It didn't take long for Oliver to spot Kadienne, wondering why she wasn't behind the bar. Then he remembered her managerial position and knew the perfect way to get her away from the guy she was currently conversing with. Being the owner of Verdant had its perks, after all. Clearing his throat behind them, Oliver smiled down at a surprised Kadienne and extended his hand to the gentleman, tightening his grip on purpose.
"Oliver Queen, nice to meet you." No it wasn't. "May I steal Kadienne away for a minute?" He didn't wait for the man to reply and placed his hand on the small of her back, guiding her away from him toward the stairs that lead up to Thea's office.
Kadienne didn't think anything of the exchange and went with Oliver, silently thanking him for getting her away from the creep. "Everything okay, Oliver?" She asked once they were alone, the thumping music vibrating the floor from below.
"Yeah…" Oliver finally noticed what she was wearing and had to keep his eyes locked on her face since the dress she had on hugged every curve of her body. "Just wanted to check in. See how you're doing with the new position." It made sense and harbored the perfect excuse for his real reasoning to pull her aside.
"Well I haven't slit my wrists yet if that's what you're wondering." She joked dryly, knowing he was referring to what happened with her father a week ago at the Queen mansion. "I'm fine, Oliver. And the position is never better. It's a lot better than being stuck behind a bar."
Joking about slitting her wrists bothered Oliver for some reason and he tried not to show it. He did care for her, Diggle was right, but that didn't mean he would put her in the same danger Felicity had been the moment she became part of his crusade. That also didn't mean he would let her end up with someone who was below her either. She deserved to be happy, but Oliver would make damn sure whoever the guy was didn't hurt her or they wouldn't make it to their next birthday.
"So what brings you in tonight besides asking me how I am?" Kadienne asked, breaking him out of his thoughts and could tell something weighed heavy on Oliver's mind. "Everything okay with you?"
"Yeah, never better. Just wanted to check on my club and make sure Thea hadn't burned it down yet." It was his turn to crack a joke, trying to ease the tension between them. "Have you talked to her at all?"
Kadienne shook her head in response.
"You really should. I told you it wasn't her fault…"
"I heard what you said and I know she was coerced into bringing me to the mansion. Still doesn't make me any less pissed off at her for doing it in the first place." Kadienne stated coolly, folding her arms across her chest firmly. "It's gonna take me some time to get over it and then I'll talk to her. She's still my friend, but my trust is gone right now. And I don't know how to talk to someone I don't trust."
Oliver heaved a sigh, not surprised by her attitude towards his sister. "You trust me though, so what makes me different from her?"
"You're not the one who tricked me, she did. I know she's your sister and you want to help her, but she made her own choice." Kadienne's tone held finality and told Oliver this conversation had reached its end. "I have to get back to work…"
Oliver caught her arm before she could walk past him out the door, their eyes searing each other. "Be careful who you talk to. Remember your father is still out there wanting you to come home." He advised in a low voice before letting her go, turning to stare out the window down at all the customers Verdant had that night.
Taking his advice to heart, Kadienne didn't talk to anyone else for the remainder of the night unless it was business related.
Unlocking her door, Kadienne stumbled in dead on her feet and kicked her flats off across the living room. She'd added a few things to her place now that she made decent money to spruce her apartment up a little. All she wanted at the moment was sleep, not bothering with a shower because she was afraid of collapsing from exhaustion. Yawning loudly, Kadienne pushed open her bedroom door and sunk down on the bed before dropping back, closing her eyes ready to fall asleep in that position.
A crash in her apartment made Kadienne snap her eyes open. She bolted upright in bed and reached in her nightstand for her weapons, trembling like a leaf. Someone was in her apartment uninvited and they were about to get a very rude awakening. Carefully getting to her feet, Kadienne stayed away from the closed bedroom door and heard another crash, this time in the hallway. Somehow, she was awake enough to lock her bedroom door before collapsing in bed, so it would give her at least a few seconds before the intruder came in. Sure enough, the door was kicked in and flew open banging against the wall, wooden splinters flying in different directions.
"Come quietly or I'll make you regret it." The man ordered, giving her fair warning and pointed a gun at her. "Miss Young, this way."
"Go to hell." Kadienne hissed, crying out when a gunshot rang throughout her room and the bullet whizzed past her to embed in the wall.
"The next one goes in your arm. Like I said, this way. Or maybe I'll shoot you in the leg so you can't run away from me." He had a job to do and would fulfill it, no matter what.
Kadienne knew it was a long shot, but she'd already been kidnapped once this month and it wasn't happening a second time. "No!" She threw the knife in her hand as hard as she could, nailing the intruder right in the shoulder forcing him to drop the gun.
"YOU BITCH!" He roared, holding his shoulder and scrambled to pick up the gun, deciding she was better off dead after that stunt. "You're DEAD!"
Before he could pull the trigger, something flew through the bedroom window shattering it and Kadienne took her eyes off the intruder to look at the new one, eyes wide. It was him. The Hood had come to her rescue again.
"GET DOWN!" Oliver shouted, shooting the gun out of the intruder's hand and drew another arrow to nail him in his other shoulder.
The intruder went down like a sack of potatoes, not sure which injury hurt worse and looked up at the Vigilante of Starling City with cold eyes.
Oliver wasn't done yet, storming toward the intruder and lifted him up by the front of his shirt, shoving him forcefully against the broken bedroom door. "Who sent you?" He ordered, using his voice modulator and pressed on the arrow, digging it deeper as the intruder yelled out. "WHO SENT YOU?!"
"I-I don't know…" The intruder sputtered out, tears filling his eyes as the arrow went deeper into his flesh. "P-Please…"
"You're lying! If you want full function in your arm again, you WILL tell me who sent you here!" Oliver growled, eyes ignited a sharp blue through the green grease around his eyes that hid his identity. "TELL ME!"
"I-I don't know, I swear! I receive jobs through my email and I do them! I swear, I don't know who hired me!"
"What did the job entail?" Oliver continued pressing him for information, hearing Kadienne's soft crying behind him and wanted to comfort her, but first he had to focus on the intruder. "Did they tell you to kill her?"
"No, just to bring her to the Young mansion, by any means necessary. That's it, I-I swear…" The man was on the verge of passing out from how much pain he was in, blood pooling down both arms.
Oliver pursed his lips tightly together and decided to put the man out of his misery, elbowing him in the face to knock him out. He slowly turned to where Kadienne stood, trembling from head to toe and knew this was her father's doing. The man really was determined to get her out of the Glades, even if that meant kidnapping her in order to do it. Oliver didn't know how to protect her without revealing who he was. With Diggle and Felicity, he had a pretty good judge of character with them and knew they wouldn't call the police. However, he had no idea what Kadienne's thought process would be if he revealed the truth.
Not yet, Oliver thought, deciding now wasn't the time and came up with another plan to get her out of here for a while. "Pack your things. Oliver Queen will come pick you up in a few minutes." He ordered, keeping his voice disguised and walked past her toward the window.
"Oliver Queen? You talk to him?" Kadienne remembered Oliver telling her the Vigilante had saved his life, but she didn't know they were in contact.
"No. I sent him a message and he already received it. Do what I say if you want to stay safe and away from your father."
Kadienne didn't want him to leave, but her vocal cords weren't working properly and all she could do was watch him jump out of her shattered window.
Then she did as she was told and packed a bag, hoping the intruder didn't wake up before Oliver arrived.