Crimson Highway by David Wickenhauser (brene brown rising strong TXT) 📗

contacts. When he found that, he tapped it, and then scrolled until he saw the name, Adam. He had remembered Jenny telling him that was her uncle’s name.

“OK. Here we go,” he told Jenny as he tapped the icon for her uncle’s name, and then put the phone in speaker mode.

Someone picked up on the third ring, and answered with a non-committal, “Hello.”

“May I speak to Adam, please,” Hugh said.

“Yeah,” the voice said.

“Is this Adam?” Hugh asked.

“It’s what I said,” the voice answered back.

“Adam, listen. I know you know from your caller ID which phone this is. And I think you can figure who’s calling.”

“Yeah, I figured.”

“Adam, I’d like to say something to you, and ask you something,” Hugh said.

“I’ve got nothing to say to you, you son of a bitch,” Adam replied.

Hugh looked at Jenny, as if to say, “This isn’t going well.”

Jenny shrugged back at Hugh, as if to say, “I told you.”

Hugh continued quickly, hoping that Adam wouldn’t hang up on him. “Adam, I’d like to say how sorry I am for injuring you and your friends. And, I’d like to ask for your forgiveness.”

“I ain’t forgivin’ nothin’,” Adam said. “You killed three of my best friends. Turned my motorcycle buddies against me. Kidnapped, and did who knows what, to my niece. No, pal. Your ass is mine, and I intend to collect. Got that?”

“I really am sorry,” Hugh said, with as much sincerity as he could project over the phone.

“Oh, I do want to say one thing,” Adam said, with a sneer in his voice. “Thanks for calling me. Now I know where you are, you dumb shit.”

“Wha …?”

“You think you’re so smart. Keep looking over your shoulder, dumb ass, ’cause, one day soon I’ll be there. Another thing. I don’t have a niece anymore. Whatever happens to you, happens to her.”

With that horrific announcement, Adam hung up.

Hugh looked at Jenny, perplexed.

“What did he mean? ‘Now I know where you are?’”

Jenny just shrugged.

Hugh and Jenny went inside the house, and Jenny followed Hugh directly up to Mary’s bedroom, where she was studying.

He handed her the phone, and asked her if there was anything about this particular phone that would give someone a clue as to its location.

Mary tapped around a bit, searching through the apps. Then, she looked up at Hugh, and showed him the phone’s screen.

“Here,” she said, pointing at an app whose icon had a map symbol and a little tower on it. “This app is running right now. It is sending a signal onto the Internet. And anybody who knows the right website, and who has the right login, can see on a map where this phone is.”

Hugh considered her answer, then asked, “How accurate is it?”

Mary looked at the screen, and tapped.

“Right now, it’s showing which room of the house we are in,” Mary said. “Does that answer your question?”

“More than enough,” Hugh answered. “And it explains a lot,” he added, looking directly at Jenny with that last statement.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Hugh turned off the phone. But he knew it was too late. He was certain that the uncle already had a fix on their location.

“That definitely explains a lot,” Hugh repeated to Jenny. “Did you know about this?” he asked, accusingly, shaking the phone at her.

“No, Hugh. I didn’t,” she answered him with an angry tone. “Can we talk … privately?”

They left Mary’s room, and went next door into Jenny’s room. Jenny left the door slightly ajar.

“Listen, Hugh Mann. I want to get one thing straight. From now on. And for good,” she said, with her voice rising in anger.

Hugh nodded for her to go on.

“I am completely over the thing with my Dad, and definitely, absolutely, completely don’t want to have anything to do with my uncle. Ever. Ever again. Got that?” she added at the end, with a lot of the former Jenny heat.

Hugh could only look at her. Darn, she’s pretty when she’s being spunky, he thought, remembering back to their first tussle when he’d had to pin her against the seat in his truck after she had fallen out of his upper bunk as a stow-away. How many years ago was that?

Misunderstanding Hugh’s non-response, Jenny ratcheted up her umbrage a notch. “If you can’t accept that, and if you don’t realize that nothing is the same as it was in the beginning, then you can just drop me off at the nearest bus station, and say good-bye!”

Hugh just continued to look at her.

“I’m telling you, I will never, ever do …”

Hugh then swept her into his arms, tilted her chin up to his face, and kissed her gently, but firmly on her lips.

“… anything … to … hurt … you …,” Jenny tried to say, but her words got smothered by Hugh’s lips, and then finally got forgotten completely as she reached up to put her hands behind Hugh’s neck, and respond passionately to his kiss.

“Come to lunch!” Martha shouted up the stairs.

“Great timing. Let’s go,” Hugh said, gently breaking off their embrace.

The threshold has definitely been crossed. In fact, it’s been completely obliterated.

Martha and Mary saw Hugh and Jenny walking down the stairs together.

Ever perceptive about he son, Martha whispered to Mary, “Me thinks they are more than just friends, now.”

“Yeah, look at them, will ya. They almost glow,” Mary replied, with a big smile on her face.

Hugh looked at his mother and Mary, who were standing their grinning like conspirators.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Martha responded in a lilting, sing-song voice.

Just then, Hugh, Sr., and Roly came clomping in through the door.

They both did a double-take upon seeing Hugh and Jenny. Hugh’s dad looked inquiringly at his wife, who merely shrugged a look that