Under Illusion: Day 14

Word Count: 84,015

Summary of Events:

Trace, having turned back south, drove to Abilene for the night, doubts and misgivings coming up as he drove and starting to make him question if he'd made the right decision. Dallis, observing signs of them, tried to do what she could to assuage Trace's fears before they went to bed. The following morning they set out again to head for a city in southern New Mexico that neither of them had heard of before after they had breakfast…

Excerpt of the Day:

“So I go west?” Trace asked, sounding reluctant.

“Yes please,” Dallis replied. “You’re not fully committed to doing this, are you?”

Trace shrugged as he steered his truck to follow the curve of the road that would merge them onto the I-20 westbound.

Dallis sighed. If there were some way for her to get Trace out of this, she would’ve, but she didn’t have any ideas, and she doubted that Ratko and Javor would be inclined to assist her.

“I just feel like I kind of convinced myself I could be a hero yesterday, keeping you alive by making sure people didn’t get angry enough to kill you, but… I don’t really know what’s so good about that when I’m not going to survive. I’d have a better chance of survival if I just went home because I might have enough time to pack up my stuff and get into Canada and hide in some wilderness cabin somewhere long enough that it’d either be forgotten or I’d be able to get the paperwork to change identities.”

“I don’t want you to die,” Dallis said.

“But you can’t guarantee that I won’t,” Trace countered. “I know that you’re confident with a gun, and a knife, and that with full hands your feet are pretty effective, but you’re one girl, against a bunch of gangsters who’ll all have guns, and probably won’t be the sort that would be disposed to being reasoned with either.”

Dallis wanted to say something to give Trace hope, but in the face of what he’d just said, she didn’t have answers. Sure she knew Bentley at least to see him, and knew Al a bit better than that, but without knowing Bentley and Al’s relationship, an appeal to Al might backfire from the off.

On top of it, an appeal to Al could backfire anyways because of the fact that he might not be any more inclined to believe that Trace was harmless, and wouldn’t tell any of their secrets.

Sure she’d be able to convince them that she had means necessary to blackmail Trace — whom she’d certainly not want to hear her say that, as she wasn’t wanting to use it that way, she just wanted Bentley and Al to believe she would — but she couldn’t be sure that they’d trust her to be able to do it, considering she lived in St. Louis, Trace lived in Spokane, and Dallis couldn’t say she really wanted to move, nor was she sure she’d be able to convince Trace to do so instead.