Razed (Barnes Brothers #2)(81)

The phone rang. Zach ignored it.

“Who says I am?” Travis shrugged, his voice easy. He looked at Zach without blinking. His voice was exactly on key and his motions, his mannerisms, everything was exactly as it should be.

But everything wasn’t as it should be and Zach couldn’t figure out just how he knew it. He just did. He wracked his brain, tried to figure out what sort of problem Travis could be having, but he didn’t know jack shit about what his brother did. Zane was smart. Both Zach and Seb had fumbled their way through school, even managed to pull Bs throughout honors classes in high school and Zach had held his own in college.

The twins had coasted by doing the absolute bare minimum. They’d aced any test put in front of them, but then they’d gone back to doing what they did best—causing trouble.

Come college, Trey had settled down.

Travis had gotten wilder.

Nobody would know it to look at him, but behind those cool, calculating eyes, that devilish grin hid the mind of a genius. Travis could have gone on to do anything. If he’d wanted to, the man probably could have gone into crazy shit like rocket science or whatever put people on the moon.

But for some reason, he’d decided to do spreadsheets and shit.

Zach didn’t quite get that, but whatever made the kid happy.

The problem was . . . Travis wasn’t happy. He also held his cards too close to his chest and out of all of his brothers, Zach knew the least about Travis. He suspected even Trey didn’t know as much as he’d like to.

How could he figure out where to poke and prod for a reaction when he hardly knew the man anymore?

Tired of trying to think it through, he dropped his pen and leaned forward, pinning Travis with a dark look. “What’s going on?”

Travis lifted a brow. “Who says anything is?”

Zach pushed out from behind his desk, worked through all the plausible scenarios in his head. He could ask, and get shot down again. He could ignore it, and that wasn’t much of any option, really. He could snoop, but that might not do any good at all.

There was always the good old-fashioned method of trying to pick a fight, but that had never really worked with Travis. He’d talk when he wanted to talk.

He might be able to wheedle something out of him, but that was his only option.

“Look, Travis,” he said, keeping his voice nice and level.

There was a knock at the door before he could go any further.

For another few seconds, he studied Travis, and then he raised his voice loud enough to be heard through the closed door.

“Come on in.”

Anais come in, eyes wide, her mouth tight.

Slowly, Zach rose to his feet.

“Zach, there’s this guy on the phone.” She shifted from one foot to the other, licking her lips nervously before she continued. “He’s asking about our employees—called looking for somebody named Katherine and I told him we didn’t have anybody here named Katherine. He asked for a Katie Lord. I was going to hang up, but then he started asking what the employees looked like. He’s kind of weird and I told him to go creep on somebody else, but then he started describing Keelie. I mean, like exactly. Even her eyes.”

He sensed more than heard Travis’s interest. Keeping his body between his employee and his brother, he kept her focus on him while Travis sat up and looked back at them. “Did he leave a number?”

“He hasn’t hung up,” she said softly, shaking her head. “He kinda insists on talking to somebody.”

“Okay. I’ll take it in here.”

Travis waited until Anais had left and then he studied Zach. “Should I leave?”

“Why? It’s not like you’ll say jack shit. You don’t even tell us what’s going on in your life.” Aggravated, Zach grabbed the phone and leaned back, ignoring his brother to focus on the phone call. “Hello?”

“Hello, Mr. Barnes, I assume?”

“You got that right. How can I help you?”

“I just need a few moments of your time. I’m trying to locate the daughter of a client—she’s been missing for a long time and my client is desperate to see her again.”

He noticed two things about the caller immediately. One, that smooth, polished voice was just a little too smooth and polished—Zach had learned a long time ago never to trust anybody who put that much work into sounding honest and open. Two, he was trying too hard to drum up sympathy, right out of the gate.

Using your voice could be an art form, something Zach knew well, and this guy definitely knew how to use his. It already had Zach on edge, but he didn’t let it show. After all, he was an actor—he might be out of practice, but he damn well knew how to fake a lack of interest . . . or just the right amount of curiosity.

“Yeah? Who are you trying to find?”

“Her name is Katherine Vissing, although she might not be going by that name.” The man on the other end of the line paused.

Zach just grunted. “Seems to me if she’s not using that name, maybe she doesn’t want to be found.”

“It’s rather complicated, Mr. Barnes.” That charm just continued to seep from him. “Can I beg a few minutes of your time?”

“Sure. Why the hell not? Can’t say I can help much—my employee just gave me the name you’d called about. I know a couple of Katherines, but Vissing? That’s not familiar. By the way, I didn’t catch your name.” He kept his voice nice and easy and unlike his caller, he knew there was nothing in his voice that he didn’t want there.