Read Online Worth the Trip by Penny McCall - Free Book Online Page B

point in letting her get used to having her own way. On the other hand, he was still walking a fine line between tolerance and banishment, and presented with another pair of agents, one of them a woman, he wasn’t sure she’d choose him . . .
    And she had him second-guessing every word and every action he took, Trip realized, worried about how she was reading him. Well, the hell with that. He needed to treat this like any other case—and bottom line? It was his case. “Don’t tell me Mike sent you,” he said to his competition.
    “Aubrey heard about the missing loot,” Jack said, shooting his partner a long-suffering look that Trip took to mean she’d nagged him into coming. “She got bit by the treasure-hunting bug.”
    “Take your butterfly nets and run around in someone else’s garden,” Trip said.
    Jack shrugged. “No skin off my nose.”
    “If you need any help,” Aubrey said to Norah.
    Norah slid a glance in Trip’s direction. “Well . . .”
    “Honey, I read your book,” Aubrey said with a small chuckle. “Chapter four.”
    “What?” Trip looked from one woman to the other, feeling his face heat even though he had no idea why. “What about chapter four?”
    Aubrey and Norah burst out laughing. Even Jack was smiling.
    “What are you grinning about?” Trip grumbled.
    “They’re just poking fun at you.”
    “Is that what you think?”
    Aubrey popped up an eyebrow, leaned close to Norah, and whispered something. Norah’s eyes widened, as her gaze shifted to Trip’s face, then slipped down.
    “What?” Jack asked Aubrey, who said, “Just rumors, nothing for you to worry about.”
    “Aren’t there any rumors about me?”
    “Of course, although not the same kind.”
    “What kind are they?”
    “I’ll tell you later.”
    “I hate this shit,” Jack said as they walked off. “You know I hate this shit. Tell me what the rumors are or there won’t be a later.”
    “Now, Jack,” Aubrey said, reaching up to pat his cheek, “you should never withhold sex to make a point.”
    “Who’s withholding sex? I was talking about my gun.”
    “They’re adorable,” Norah said once they were out of earshot.
    “Don’t let Jack hear you say that.”
    “Aubrey has him wrapped around her little finger.”
    “Maybe in this kind of situation, but when they’re on a job, they make a hell of a partnership.”
    “That’s what every woman wants in life,” Norah said, sighing. “Someone to have amazing sex with, and someone to talk to after sex.”
    “They seem kind of . . . contentious.” Trip exited her office, Norah following along absently as she took the verbal bait.
    “It’s banter, Trip, and banter is really just another way of saying I care for you. Jack clearly isn’t the kind of man who talks about his feelings easily. When Aubrey teases him, it’s just like the eight-year-old boy on the playground who pulls the little girl’s braid and runs away because he wants her to notice him. Aubrey knows Jack very well, I’d say, and she’s careful to poke fun at him without crossing any lines. He gets the kind of attention he’s comfortable with from her, and she gets attention back from him. It’s a win-win.
    “And you’ve checked out of the conversation.”
    “I’m listening to every word,” Trip said as they passed the dean’s office, “just keeping an eye on the surroundings. That’s my job.
    “You have a real knack for translating psychobabble into English,” he added nonchalantly. “Maybe I should read your book.”
    “Maybe you should find out what the dean’s secretary wants first. Since you’re keeping an eye on our surroundings.”
    Trip halted a couple of steps past Norah, huffing out a breath and wondering when he was going to get his shit together on this job. He held up a finger for the benefit of the dean’s secretary, a thin, washed-out slip of a woman who looked like the first stray breeze would float her off to bank against the nearest curb with the last