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“You think it’s relevant?”
“Only because she recently sent in one of those ancestry kits that test DNA. I’m guessing to see if she could track down her parents. Sometimes adopted kids want to know where they came from for a lot of reasons. Payton and I have had this conversation with our kids at one point.”
“What makes that pertinent to what’s going on here?” BB was starting to lose his patience.
“The company listed her results in their system as inconclusive. But Owen hacked their system and realized they weren’t so much inconclusive as blocked. The search triggered some sort of red flag, so the testing was shut down. It’s taken some serious hacking on Owen’s part and a couple of favors called in by Tristin, but we figured out who shut it down and why.”
BB growled in frustration. “You going to leave me in suspense?”
“The Marshals stepped in. Her father is Big Tommy Burke.”
BB searched his brain until he remembered the details associated with the name. “Shit,” he hissed. “Let me call you back.”
He ended the call and turned to face Cohen. “What do you know of Autumn’s upbringing?”
“What has—”
“Just answer the question, Cohen. It’s important.”
“She was put up for adoption when she was a baby. Her mother was sixteen and chose Autumn’s parents from a list of couples who wanted to adopt a baby. The records were sealed, but Autumn petitioned to have them unsealed not long after we started dating. She found her birth mother’s name, but her father’s name was listed as unknown. It never bothered her not knowing their identities, but she wanted to know more about her ancestry. We bought one of those DNA kits and sent it in. Something must have been faulty with the test because they couldn’t get any information from it. She decided to let it go. It wasn’t a big deal anyway. Now what’s going on?”
“You’re sure she let it go? She hasn’t reached out to anyone else or had someone to contact her about it?”
“No. Why do you ask?”
BB ignored his question. “I need to find Gen.”
“No!” Cohen grimaced. “Tell me what you know.”
“Her DNA test was flagged because it revealed the identity of her father. The results were a security risk because her father has been in witness protection for the last ten years.”
Cohen blinked. “Witness protection? What for? Did he witness a crime or something?”
“More like got busted for a crime and turned state’s evidence against his mobster boss. Autumn’s biological father was an enforcer with the Irish mob.”
“Holy shit! Do you think he’s coming after Autumn? You don’t think he sent someone to shoot up the wedding?”
“No, but someone could have shot up his daughter’s wedding to draw him out. Anything’s possible, and I need to tell Gen. We need to figure out where Autumn is going and why.”
Cohen nodded. “Go! Find her. You and Gennessey be careful but bring my girl back to me safe and sound.”
BB bolted from the room and almost ran into Gennessey in the hallway. She took in his serious expression and went on alert.
“What’s wrong?”
“Jay called. Autumn sent in one of those DNA ancestry tests, and it was flagged by the U.S. Marshals. Her biological father is Big Tommy Burke, an enforcer who has been in WitSec waiting to testify against his Irish mob boss. We need to get to the team and figure out how this is connected to what happened.”
She placed her palms against his chest to stop him from pushing past her. “Whoa, wait. What are you talking about? Who is Big Tommy Burke? And Autumn’s parents knew nothing about a DNA test. Or if they did, they didn’t say anything to me about it.”
“How could you not know Big Tommy? His arrest made national news. He worked for the O’Banion crime family. They are one of the last Irish mob crime families, and the feds have been trying to take them down for years. They arrested Big Tommy in connection with a missing person case involving one of O’Banion’s enemies. They couldn’t charge him with murder because they never found a body, but they had enough evidence to put him away for several other charges. He agreed to testify against O’Banion and several members of the family for a lesser sentence and was put into witness protection.”
“And you’re telling me this Big Tommy guy is Autumn’s father?”
“Biological father, yes. The ancestry test Autumn mailed in caught the attention of the U.S. Marshals. They managed to intercept the results, so Autumn was never told. But the O’Banions have a big reach, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a mole inside the Marshal service. The O’Banions could be coming after Autumn to draw Big Tommy out, and Cohen was caught in the crossfire. It could very well be an enemy of the O’Banions coming after Autumn because of her connection to Big Tommy. I don’t know for sure. But it has to be connected.”
He could see she had retreated into her thoughts, likely trying to make sense of the mountain of information he’d just dumped on her. Unfortunately, they didn’t have time to wait for her to catch up.
“What’s to stop them from coming here and finishing what they started?” Her voice wobbled as she asked, and he wanted to crush her in his arms and shield her from what was happening to her family.
