Under Illusion: Day 18

Word Count: 108,034

Summary of Events:

Dallis supervised as Pancho and two other gangsters searched Trace's truck for a key to the lock on his trailer, but found none — which didn't surprise Dallis — before trying to break the lock and the trailer, but finding they didn't have the tools strong enough to do either. The blond man, very upset, had Trace taken to a room to be tortured for the truth, where Dallis was surprised to see a battered Bentley, as she followed to see what was going to happen to Trace, who continued to protest his innocence and civilian status, to the rage of the blond man, who struck him across the face with a stick in anger…

Excerpt of the Day:

“How dare you insult Litton Kane!” the man shouted.

“He’s not a gangster,” Dallis spat. “He’s just an ordinary citizen.”

The blond man stalked toward her, looking intent to use his stick on her.

Before he could get into arm range Dallis struck him with a solid kick to his ribs that caused him to crumple to the floor in pain, where Dallis kicked him a couple more times.

“How you ever got Al and Bentley to work for you I can’t begin to imagine,” Dallis spat.

“Al was never in allegiance with us,” Pancho said.

“Litton is my uncle,” Bentley said.

Dallis turned and saw Bentley had managed to get himself leaned back against a wall, although he still looked and sounded to be in more pain than when she’d entered the room.

“Paternally, obviously,” Bentley continued. “They never got along. Dad was older, more charismatic, better organised, taller, stronger.”

“Was?” Dallis asked.

“Nonetheless, Dad gave Litton a place in his gang, and a pretty good one too,” Bentley continued, ignoring Dallis’ question. “But that wasn’t good enough for Litton. He needed the power for himself, so he struck out on his own to build a competing empire, which is a little bit easier said than done, especially considering his superiority complex. So he decided to go the hostile takeover route and killed Dad, threatened to murder and otherwise destroy all the women and children in order to get Dad’s men to do his bidding, and means to sell the cargo of the truck to Mexican cartel lords he wants as allies for a smuggling operation in order to give himself greater glory than Dad ever achieved. Or so he thinks.”
“Or so I think!?” Litton shouted, surging up from his crumpled heap on the floor.

He drew a pistol from somewhere and fired it at Bentley, missing wildly. Dallis could tell Litton wasn’t aiming at all as he fired, thus only a few of his shots grazed Bentley, while the rest embedded around him.

“You have the aim of a Stormtrooper,” Trace said.

Immediately Litton whipped around and fired with a similar wildness at Trace, except that his bullet made a more significant contact with Trace than any he’d fired at Bentley had, as blood immediately started flowing down the back of Trace’s hand and a look of significant pain came over Trace’s face.

Dallis immediately drew her gun and fired two shots, one into Litton’s gun-holding hand, the other into his hip, prompting Litton to crumple to the floor in pain. She then turned to Pancho, whom she saw had his gun out as well.

She shot his gun out of his hand and then fired a second shot into his shoulder before turning to the men holding Trace, who both immediately raised their hands, releasing Trace, who crumpled to the floor, clutching at his hand.