Worth the Trip Read Online Free PDF Page A

left her feeling a little defeated. Ignoring the truth, however, was never a solution.
    Her father, Lucius MacArthur, was a federal inmate, but before that he’d been a con man. One of the best. And a sucker for a challenge. He’d been tapped by a trio of petty thieves, moving up the criminal food chain by pulling their first bank heist. Lucius’s job was to charm his way into the bank and case the joint. He’d done his part, the others had done theirs, and then they’d died, one by one. All but Lucius. The proceeds of the robbery had never been found, which brought her to the infamous, and haunting, part of the story, at least for Norah. “You’re here about the loot.”
    Trip shrugged. “My job is to find out where Puff hid it, and recover all the stolen goods.”
    “That’s a pretty tall order,” Norah said, “since they emptied all the safe-deposit boxes, and there’s no way of knowing exactly what was stolen.”
    “I didn’t say it would be easy.”
    No, but he acted like it would be a piece of cake when really it would be next to impossible. First of all, her father hadn’t given up the hiding place, even after nearly fifteen years in prison—not that she’d had contact with him in all that time, but Trip’s invasion into her life meant Lucius had outlasted the FBI. And then there was the problem of even knowing what to recover. “Not all the people who rented those boxes had made accurate disclosures,” she reminded him. “Some of them refused to report anything at all.”
    “The final tally is now estimated to be more than fifty million dollars, and that doesn’t include the personal items of unknown value,” Trip added, smiling. “I have to hand it to your father and his friends. It was a nearly perfect crime.”
    “Sure, right up until the moment they got caught.”
    “Hence the nearly part.”
    “Hence?”
    “I’m a fed, not an idiot.”
    “You know what they say.” She glanced over at him, smiling slightly. “If you have to point it out . . .”
    “Hah, funny.”
    “Look, Trip,” she said, turning serious, “I know it’s irresistible.” Especially to a guy like him. Bank robbery was a sexy crime to begin with. This one was a legend, even before you added in the unrecovered loot and topped it off with the legendary crime. “The agent who solves this will get a gold star.”
    “I’m going for a little more than a gold star. And you’re going to help me.”
    Norah snorted out a laugh. “In your dreams.”
    He gave her a look that said in his dreams she was naked, which gave her a flash hot enough to make her wish she was. And not just naked, naked with him, in a room with a bed, or a wall, or a table. A really strong table . . .
    And some really strong drugs, ones that wouldn’t burn off in the heat so that before she tested the table legs she’d remember that James Aloysius Jones, III was just that kind of guy. The kind of guy who poured on the charm for any woman unfortunate enough to come into direct contact with him. Hell, he probably didn’t even know he was doing it. The charm just oozed out of him. Well, she’d spent enough of her life being oozed on; best to remember she’d hated it.
    Still she didn’t imagine she starred in all that many naked male fantasies, so it was kind of a kick to get that feeling, even when she knew it wasn’t real.
    “Resistance could be construed as obstruction of justice.”
    She laughed again, softer this time. Trip’s kind was so predictable. “Your charm didn’t work, so now you’re threatening me?”
    “Charm? I kissed you because there were two guys in the audience this morning who looked hinky.”
    Norah felt a chill, and it wasn’t because the temperature dropped as they exited the stairwell. Then again, maybe he was dipping into his repertoire of tricks again. “You’re only trying to scare me.”

chapter 3
    “SCARE YOU? SOMEBODY JUST TRIED TO RUN you over.”
    “It was probably those two ‘hinky’ guys. Why