Don't Hold Your Breath

Chapter 11

When I arrived at LAX, I was horrified to see that my parents had brought the police with them to greet me. I tried to push that aside and immediately ran to Diana and Paul, crying once again and silently thinking that this was the most I had cried in years. They were holding me tightly against them until the policeman interjected.

"I'm so sorry ma'am, but we'd like to get a statement while everything is fresh in your mind."

"Of course." Diana said, wiping the tears off her face.

"They've set aside a room for us this way." The policeman indicated for us to follow him.

The small room looked like an office, and the two policeman situated themselves behind the desk while pulling out things to write with. My parents and I sat on the other side, both of them had one of my hands gripped in their own as if to reassure themselves that I was still here. I felt a wave of guilt wash over me seeing their worry.

"Now before you go into any details, we want to know if you were injured anywhere?"

I nodded, knowing I couldn't keep this a secret. "I was shot in the shoulder."

I wished I could say all of this without Diana and Paul in the room, they both went pale at my words and clutched my hand even harder. But I knew they would want to hear it eventually.

"We'll have to bring you down to the station to get a photo. Maybe tomorrow if that works for you." He waited for me to nod before asking me to recount what had happened.

The story I had spent the whole flight concocting was very close to the truth. The only difference was that I kept his name out of it and made it sound like Dex had kidnapped me in collusion with the gang. I told him that because I had accidentally seen his face he ended up having to keep me with him in a house somewhere before driving me cross country to try to find somewhere to sell the jewelry. I then mentioned that when he stopped in Omaha to meet up with other members of the gang, I was able to escape with the help of a stranger but was shot during the process. He knew people in Chicago so drove there where they helped me recover and then bought me a flight home.

"Why didn't you call your parents sooner?" the cop asked.

"The wound wasn't large, however I contracted a small infection and had a fever for a few days. Between that and the exhaustion from what had happened, I slept most of the time and wasn't in my right mind to think about calling them."

The policeman nodded, jotting down a note. "Would you be able to describe this person they called "Dex" to a sketch artist? Or any of the other gang members you might have seen?"

"I could describe Dex." I said immediately, before trying to think of the men we saw in Omaha and in the garage. "I didn't get a good look at anyone else. I noticed two men that I might be able to describe, but I'm not sure how accurate it would be. That was right before we escaped in Omaha and I had a lot of adrenaline."

"Any little piece of information you have would be helpful." He said, writing down something else. "Thank you so much for your time, I'll let the three of you enjoy being together again. I'm glad you were able to get back safely, Indigo, and we'll talk more tomorrow."

He held the door open for us to leave, and my parents led me to the car still clutching onto me. The drive home was comforting in its familiarity. When we got home, small feet immediately began to run our way and then Rachel and Regan both grabbed onto one of my legs.

"Indie, you're back!" they cried.

My parents already prepped me that they had just told the girls that I was gone for a bit and would hopefully come back soon in an attempt to not worry them, so I dropped down to their level and gathered them into my arms to shower their faces with kisses. When I looked up, I saw Sam standing in the doorway, his eyes red and his lip quivering.