That's The Way Of It

9: The Inside Man's Story

He raked his tanned fingers through his dyed auburn hair, sighing in relief when the system showed that the hacker had seen the videos that he had purposely placed in the hacker’s way.

He had worked so hard to delete all of the evidence from that night, the night that Brenna escaped, to make it seems as though the computers had randomly shut down for an unscheduled maintenance during that time. Then he had to go through and meticulously erase any evidence of his existence during that time. It was a precarious mission, but one that he was more than willing to do.

He didn’t know if Brenna would be okay but he couldn’t stand by and do nothing. He had stood by for way too long and for too many things.

*

He had been hired into the Niragi family as a body guard in-training for the matriarch when she was still living. However, quickly seeing the potential in the young man, the matriarch had finished paying for his education and his training in many different things. He would be forever thankful to the matriarch but once she had passed and Niragi took over, that is where his loyalties and his morals truly came to a head.

He struggled for a long time, internally, on what he needed to do. The matriarch had been a patient but stern woman. As long as you were loyal to the family, then you were considered family. Everything changed when she passed and her son took over as Head of the Family. Niragi was psychotic, a murderer with no remorse, evil incarnate.

He had stood by for years, watching as one person after the other, non-Family and Family alike, were killed under Niragi’s tyranny. His skills made him valuable to Niragi, however, and he was pretty much granted free reign. It started becoming too much for his soul to handle, it seemed as though there was fresh blood every single day that needed to be taken care of.

He had decided to leave, knowing that if he did, he would have to run far and hide well otherwise he would wind up in a ditch somewhere, dead as the bodies he often had cleaned up.

He had been making plans. He had been saving up the money he was earning. He had his ducks in a row: Escape plan, money, new identity and passport, untraceable phone and laptop. He was set. He was good. He was almost free. And then SHE showed up.

She showed up with her long brown hair, beautiful green eyes and an innocence that was way too pure for this mansion. One look at her, one introduction was all that it took. He knew that he could not, in good conscious, leave her there without anyone to watch over her. One look into his boss’ face and he knew that Niragi would either go crazy because of this woman or go crazy towards this woman.

He knew that either way would end up with her dead. He couldn’t allow that to happen. And so he stayed. He stayed to watch over her, to protect her. He stayed to be with her when she would otherwise be in the viper’s den alone and, by the gods, he was fucking glad that he did.

At first everything was okay, everything was going well. To the point that even he was surprised at Niragi’s self-control, at his.. caring… towards Brenna. It almost seemed as though Niragi might have actually had a heart, small as though it may be. Looks can be deceiving though, he knew that well and he knew the truth behind Niragi’s new façade.

Niragi hadn’t changed, not at all, had just become adept at hiding behind a mask. The King of Hell disguised as a charming and lovely prince. In front of Brenna, Niragi was sweet, caring and attentive. Perhaps even a part of Niragi did feel a twisted type of love for her. But behind closed doors? Niragi was still a bloody monster.

He had watched, on more than one occasion where Niragi would brutally murder someone, or watch as his goons did the job for him and then he would shower and then immediately go and be intimate with Brenna or take her out for a date or cuddle up with her.
He noticed things beginning to shift when Niragi’s jealousy over Brenna’s friend Wooyoung started coming to a head. The couple began to fight, began to have arguments. And then Niragi started to become physical with Brenna. A little slap here, a shove against the wall there, a bruise or two hidden under sleeves from eyes that saw more than normal, such as his eyes. He saw everything happen and while he was unable to stop the majority of it without being caught, he always tried to help when he could.

The first time it happened, he was supposed to be delivering a report to Niragi.

After searching for his boss in the normal locations inside of the mansion and not finding him, he finally made his way to the den, the last place he could think of. When he was about to knock on the door he heard the angry voices of his boss and Brenna coming from inside.

“Don’t be so stupid. He’s obviously in love with you!”

“Woo is like my brother, there is no way that he’s in love with me, baby!”

“Oh, so I’m just a fucking idiot I guess huh? Is that it?”

“N-no, that’s not what I –“

*SLAP*

He heard Brenna cry out and instantly started knocking on the door. Niragi opened it, pushing his black hair off of his face, his ears red.

“What do you want?!” Niragi demanded. “I’m dealing with a situation right now,” he growled, looking back over his shoulder at Brenna was kneeling on the ground, her hand lifted to her cheek, still in shock.

He cleared his throat to gain his boss’ attention.

“Sir, I have the report of the Minor Family’s movement. I believe that it’s urgent that you look at it.”

Niragi took the file from his hand and skimmed the first few lines, his brows furrowing. Niragi looked back at Brenna once more before straightening his shoulders and walking out of the den.

“I’ll be in my office NO ONE fucking bother me.”
A
fter his boss swept from the room he slowly walked inside, his hands up in front of him in case Brenna was scared. He knelt down beside her and gently tugged her chin to him, her red-rimmed eyes met his before she jerked away, a quiet gasp escaping her. She hastily stood up and brushed the non-existent dirt from her clothing and smoothed back her hair.

There was a solid red handprint on her left cheek.

“Ms. Cassano...” he started but she interrupted him.

“It’s…it’s nothing. It’s not a big deal. We just had an argument, that’s all it was.” She whispered, looking down at the floor.

He stood up, dug into his wallet and pulled out his calling card.

“I know what goes on behind closed door Ms. Cassano. I know more than you do and more than I hope that you will ever have to learn.”

She looked at him somewhat surprised and somewhat hesitant.

“If you ever need me, for any reason, call me. I promise that you can trust me. Let me be here for you if you need me. We all need a safe place in this hell house.” He laid the card on the bar counter, knowing that she probably wouldn’t take it, bowed to her and then exited the room.

After a day the swelling in her cheek had gone down. After three nights Niragi had returned to their suite with arms laden with her favorite comfort food, a stuffed dragon and chick flicks. A week and a half later the bruising had disappeared. And so the incident had been forgotten.

That is… until it happened again. And again. And again.

The moments started becoming more and more frequent. And Brenna started to rely on him more and more along with it. She knew that they both had to be careful though, if Niragi found out then it would be bad for both of them.

At first it was comfort that he offered, a hand to help get ice packs or to help bandage a cut when Niragi decided to take out his anger in the bedroom. It soon turned into him helping her escape to go meet up with her friends for a few hours, securing a second untraceable phone for her to use away from Niragi, it led to him keeping an eye on her through the cameras when he could, and eventual wound up with him saving Wooyoung’s life for her.

One day turned into two, two days turned into three. On it went until Brenna’s friend Wooyoung burst into his boss' study with his gang in tow, demanding answers and locations.

He was watching through his laptop security page when he noticed something unusual. They had a hacker. A damn good one. Tracing the line back, he realized that they were after information on Brenna. Knowing he could lose his life if it was ever found out, uploaded the two videos he had saved to a place where he knew that they would grab attention. Sure enough, it wasn’t five minutes and Lee Minho was interrupting the almost-fight and declaring Brenna a missing person.

Watching the small gang make their way out of the mansion he knew that he would be for them exactly what he had been for Brenna – a helping hand on the inside. Their inside man.