Down Among the Dead Men (Entangled Ignite) by Claire Baxter Page B

Peterson’s taking a long time getting here, isn’t he?”
    “I was bluffing about that. Michael wasn’t in the pub tonight, and I didn’t stop to phone him. I was in too much of a hurry.”
    “Oh.” She swallowed. “Probably for the best that he doesn’t know. I get the impression that he doesn’t like strangers in his town. He might have told me to leave to avoid any more problems.”
    Dale stopped the truck alongside the Valiant. “Are you coming back inside?”
    “No, I’ve had enough for tonight. I’ll go and collect Max and hopefully have an early and uneventful night.”
    …
    Caitlyn held off saying anything to Max until she felt calmer about the whole kidnapping episode. By then, Max was in bed and Caitlyn knocked on the bedroom door. “Max? Do you mind if I come in? I want to talk to you.”
    Max sat up, shuffling over to make room for her on the edge of the bed.
    Caitlyn sat, flattening her palms against her jeans then twisting her hands together.
    “Thought you wanted to say something?”
    She inhaled. “I do.”
    “Okay. Shoot.”
    Caitlyn shivered, unsure where to start, or how to tell a seventeen-year-old about men who wanted her father so badly they might do something to Max to get to him.
    “Do you want to get under the covers?”
    “No, I’m not cold.” She took another deep breath and told Max what had happened with Baldy and Bushy.
    Max’s eyes widened. “If Dale hadn’t come after you, you could be anywhere by now. We wouldn’t even know where to look.”
    “Exactly right. The thing is, these guys seem pretty desperate to find Wally, and they think he’s alive and in hiding. They wanted me to tell them where he is, and the really scary thing is, it might be you they come after next time.”
    “But I don’t know anything…” She fell silent.
    Caitlyn squeezed her hand. “We’ll both have to be more cautious. I want to know where you’re going to be at any time, and I’ll be sure to tell you where I’m going. Neither of us should be here alone if we can help it.”
    Max nodded.
    “But even when we’re both here, we won’t be safe unless we plan ahead. We need to be ready for them. I have no intention of being caught off-guard again.”
    “Two of us will be much harder to handle than one.”
    “True, but there’s two of them as well, and they’re bigger than us and have knives.”
    Max was quiet for a moment. “I have a hiding place,” she said. “I used to hide there, sometimes, when I was a kid. When I didn’t want Dad to find me. We could hide there if anyone turns up.”
    “Where?”
    She hopped out of bed, flipped back the faded floor rug, and scrabbled around on the boards beneath it, then lifted a section of floor. The boards had been joined together to make a trap door. Uneven edges made it inconspicuous to the casual eye.
    Caitlyn stared into the hole Max had uncovered and shook her head. “You have to be kidding me. There could be snakes down there. Spiders. Rats. God knows what else.”
    Not to mention the fact that it meant climbing into a hole and the not-so-minor matter of her claustrophobia.
    No one in their right mind would crawl into such a disgusting place willingly, yet Max had done so and she’d only been a child at the time. She must have badly wanted to hide from Wally. Maybe she should revise her thinking regarding who’d been the luckier daughter, the one with a father or the one without.
    “Caitlyn, don’t be a wuss. I’ll have my torch with me.”
    “Good for you.” She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter what you say, you won’t get me down there.”
    …
    Over the next couple of days, Caitlyn kept an eye out for the two miners, but didn’t see them. Dale asked around and discovered they were working a genuine claim and preferred to camp out in a tiny tin shed on it rather than take accommodation in town. Not unusual, he said.
    “Any idea why they’re looking for Wally?” she asked Dale. She was having a quick drink with