Crimson Highway by David Wickenhauser (i can read with my eyes shut txt) 📕

the Walmart there. The pleasant time that they had spent there before going on to see the wild horses, and parking at the small truck stop where Jenny had made him that fabulous meal, didn’t fit well with the mood that he was in right now.

Still without talking, Hugh made them a couple of lunchmeat sandwiches. Jenny sat in her seat, and Hugh sat on his bunk. The silence was growing unbearably uncomfortable, and the tension between them was reaching the breaking point.

“You can do what you want. I’m turning in,” Hugh said as he put on a pair of headphones to listen to music on his smart phone. Jenny started to reply, but Hugh turned over in his bunk and turned his back on her, putting a finale on their day.

He could sense when Jenny climbed up into her top bunk. After awhile, he removed his headphones, and he could hear her crying softly to herself.

Hugh was moved by her emotion. Nevertheless, he could not bring himself to respond to her. He knew that she had been through a lot, what with finding out that he was her dad’s killer, and everything she had been through because of her uncle. But he just wasn’t ready yet to console her. He wasn’t sure he would ever feel that way about her again.

With that, and with his throbbing head reminding him of what he had gone through on yet another “routine” day with Jenny, he finally slipped off into sleep.

He was awakened about an hour later by his ringing phone. It was someone from the Nevada Highway Patrol. They had some news about the guys responsible for Hugh’s kidnapping and hijacking.

“We found the place you described where they had parked the two cars and your truck,” the NHP officer said. “But it was UTL on the perps.”

“What?” Hugh asked, still groggy from sleep.

“There was nobody there—unable to locate. One of the cars was overturned in the ditch, like you described. It was the escort company car, so it couldn’t lead us to your perps. And we found some bloody spots—one where somebody had obviously bled himself out all over the highway—like you described. But, the other car was gone, and the three guys you had told us about.”

For crying out loud, those sons of bitches did it again!

“Obviously, we’ve got an all-points out for them, but this is an awfully big desert. We’ll do the best we can.”

“Alright. Thanks,” Hugh said, hugely disappointed.

Hugh drifted off to sleep again, his last thought being to wonder what it must have been like for the other two guys to have to stuff their nearly decapitated buddy into the back seat of the car … or maybe into the trunk.

He only hoped that this was the last he’d seen of this bunch. Surely, they have had enough by now.

Chapter Eighteen

The next morning was accompanied by the same uncomfortable silence that had hung over them like an oppressive cloud the night before. Hugh and Jenny went about their morning routines to get the truck ready to roll. To Jenny’s credit, she did her window and mirror-cleaning duties. But there was no coy winking at Hugh this time.

No surprise there. He definitely didn’t feel like flirting, himself.

He still felt somewhat woozy and headachy from the “tap” on the back of his head. He was sore all over from being hogtied and confined, and bounced around on the floor of the car. And he was just generally agitated and stressed out from all that had happened over the past few days.

As he drove out of the truck plaza and got back onto the 80, Hugh wondered why Jenny had bothered to rejoin him after their aborted kidnapping and hijacking. Surely, she must have realized that Hugh wouldn’t be too thrilled to see her after she had set him up to be killed.

And, they certainly weren’t comfortable with each other right now.

Hugh was curious about how they had managed to find him so quickly, and set up the hijacking. He knew he’d find out eventually, but he still couldn’t bring himself to talk to the silent, sulking rider sitting in the passenger seat across from him.

It was a good seven-plus-hour drive to Boise, providing they didn’t stop anywhere between here and there. Hugh planned to drop the load there, spend the night at the company’s drop yard, and then head out first thing in the morning to start his home time at his destination outside of Sandpoint.

That final leg to Sandpoint would be another seven to eight hours, or so, and it would be on Hugh’s dime, as he wouldn’t be under load. He figured it was worth it, however, because he really needed to take a break.

Then, something occurred to him.

“Jenny,” he said abruptly, which caused Jenny to jump, since it was the first time that either had said a word since last night.

“Jenny, I need to know one thing. Do you have any more surprises for me? Because I’m just about ready to kick your ass out on the side of the highway right now. And, I swear, if you cause me even the smallest bit of trouble, I’ll do just that.”

Jenny shook her head vigorously. “No, Hugh, I swear, I … ”

“Save it for later,” he interrupted her.

Hugh took the 95 at Winnemucca, and the rest of the drive to Boise was a straight shot up that highway. It took them through typical Nevada landscape, mostly desert, which was punctuated by the very occasional patches of those intriguing circular irrigated alfalfa fields.

They continued on in silence. Then Hugh turned on the satellite radio. He hoped that Jenny didn’t mind country and newgrass music, but he actually could care less if she did. At least it helped fill the empty silence of that oppressive cloud in the