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Chapter Seven
Bennett had things to keep his mind occupied, but that didn’t mean he’d stopped thinking about the look on Zoey’s face when he’d walked out. If he’d thought there could have been any other way, he would’ve stayed. Causing her more pain than she already had was going to kill him. If it meant he had to walk away from the job without completing it, he’d do it for her sake. It’ll be the first job I don’t finish, but some things are more important than a perfect track record.
He couldn’t resist looking through her file one more time. It was like looking at a report about a stranger instead of the person he knew to be Zoey. If he weren’t holding a photo of her, he’d say they had the wrong woman. But it was all there in black and white. No matter how many times he read it, something didn’t add up. Or is it that I don’t want to see it? Have I gotten so involved, I can’t be impartial? If that’s the case, I’m the wrong person to do this job.
As he questioned himself, his cell phone rang.
“What do you got for me, Vinchi?”
“You better sit down,” Jon said.
“It’s DNA results, how fucking bad can it be?” Bennett had dealt with life-and-death situations most of his life. A test result was as clear-cut as they come. He’d find out right now if she was adopted or not. Then he’d move forward and locate her mother and possibly her father. The only problem he could foresee was if they were deceased.
“I’m just delivering the results. I can’t tell you their names.”
Their names? Was she adopted? “You mean her mother’s name.”
“So you’d think. However, the results aren’t as you might expect.”
He had no time or inclination to play games. Bennett knew the samples were clean, so the findings should’ve been easy. They were adopted, or they weren’t. He only used Jon because he was the one with the best contacts and understood how confidential this was. “Just tell me what the fuck you found.” His patience was gone.
“All six share the same father.”
Not adopted? Great. He’s right. The same father isn’t honestly what I expected. With all the secrecy around their mother, I would’ve bet they were adopted. “Okay. What else did you find?”
“They all have different mothers.”
Six different mothers? “What the hell! Are you sure? I mean this family might not know who their mother is, but you’re telling me they don’t even know they aren’t looking for one woman, but looking for six?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. We can break it down even further, but it’ll take a bit more time. Based on the DNA, we might be able to pinpoint where the mothers are from.”
“I think you were right. I should’ve sat down. This is a fucked-up mess.”
“You didn’t label the cigars, but we can tell they are from five different men. The glass was a woman, so at least, she will stand out. If you can obtain another DNA sample from each male and send it to me, I can have them broken down so you can have the information for each of them.”
Zoey had willingly provided him a DNA sample and if needed, he knew she would again. Bennett never thought he’d need to track which cigar belonged to each brother. He was only hired to find her mother. When he sent the samples to Jon, he was only trying to confirm if they were adopted or not. At no time had he thought there were other options to consider.
He knew he should just focus on the one he was hired to find. Yet this was a family. If he found her mother, it would eventually come out that she wasn’t the mother of her brothers. To do this so they’d all get closure, he’d need to find them all.
This just got a lot more difficult. He knew he needed to get the DNA for Jon. How exactly he was going to pull that off was beyond him. Looks like I’m going to have to do some one-on-one visits with the family. Great.
“I need clean samples and clearly labeled. If you’re not willing to provide the names, then you need some way of tracking which belongs to whom.”
Bennett had figured as much and was already devising what action was needed next. “It’s going to take me a few days to collect them. Can you use the DNA you have to start the process?”
“That’s the plan. I’m not sure if we’re even looking at one geographical location or not. When I agreed to help you with this, there were some details you forgot to mention. This job might be easier if you tell me who we’re dealing with.”
“I gave you what I knew. And the majority of this family isn’t aware of what we’re doing.”
“That’s illegal,” Jon stated flatly.
“Then let’s not get caught. Besides, they’re not the go-to-the-police type.” However, they do handle anyone who crosses them in their own way. Also, not legal.
“I’ll get you what I can, but let’s keep my name out of it.”
“Deal.”
“Whoever this family is, you might want to prepare them. If they don’t know any of this, it’s going to come as one hell of a shock.”
