Bound

16.* Unexpected Meeting

Not edited, so please excuse any grammatical errors

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Present time.
Valentini headquarters, Milan.

The crackling of the burning fire was the only sound in the large room as Axel tried to comprehend what he had just been told.

"One foolish man's orders led to the death of countless people on that night.  It is said that Jordan was tortured for weeks on end before he eventually gave up and died in the cellar that he was confined to. His death did not bring any satisfaction to the Sullivan and Romero men though, they wanted him to suffer much more than that.They wanted to make an example out of him for the whole world to see so that no one would ever dare to think about going after a member of their families", Carlos continued stoically.

"I'm sure that they were quite successful in that", Axel grimaced as he tried to get the detailed images of what tortures the kidnappers had gone through out of his mind. Damn Carlos for detailing some of the most gruesome tortures to him.

"The O'Reilly's were an old family but no where as powerful as the Sullivan's and Romero's. The few allies that they had were under great scrutiny after that, everyone was in fear that the incident might somehow become linked to them and then they would meet the same fate as Aiden O'Reilly and his men",Carlos said.

"The rat that Don Vitiello spoke about, it was Aiden O'Reilly wasn't it?", Axel guessed.

"Yes, it was him", Carlos smirked.

"And what happened to him?", Axel asked even though he already knew the answer to his question.

"He signed his own death certificate the moment he even thought that he could kidnap a child of the Romero and Sullivan bloodline and get away with it. I will not go into full details with you about how he was dealt with but I will tell you this..... What happened to Jordan was a mere child's play as compared to the tortures that Aiden O'Reilly was subjected to ", Carlos said ominously making Axel cringe.

"What happened to that woman? Alyssa? You did not say anything about her fate. Was her involvement in the kidnapping proved?", Axel asked curiously.

"I do not know to what extent she was involved. It was one of the things which was kept in closed wraps. But I do know that whatever punishment she was given for her betrayal, it had garnered great tension between both the families. Bernard Romero apparently did not agree with Sean Sullivan's way of punishing her. But he couldn't do anything about it as Alyssa was a Sullivan prisoner, he could question her about her involvement but her fate could be decided only by the Sullivan Don. They almost came on the brink of breaking their alliance due to it but fortunately the tension cooled down between them though it never disappeared completely", Carlos said as he stared intently at the dying embers in the fireplace.

Axel nodded thoughtfully.

"I don't understand though.... Why are you telling me this?. As much as I appreciate you telling me this, I don't quite see what purpose you're serving here. I'm not her enemy, nor would I want to bring any harm to someone whom I hardly know", Axel said truthfully.

"What purpose does it serve, the foolish boy asks", Carlos muttered under his breath. "What do you think was I telling you all this while, a bedtime story?", he scoffed at Axel.

Axel opened his mouth to object but Carlos interrupted him and said," Use your intelligence boy, I know that you are not as dim-witted as you appear
to be. A man slapped her once and Bernard Romero cut off that arm which was raised against his granddaughter. What do you think will they do if it breaks out that you were trying to collect information about her? Do you understand how it would look to them? You would be perceived as a spy intending to bring harm to the family".