On The Run

Chapter Twelve

I hear voices, maybe three, outside the door of the office we are being held in. Can we make it past three people. I hope there are only two cops and the cashier, maybe we will have better chances then.

Ty looks at me and he puts his pointer finger over his mouth to silence me, and a hand motioning to calm me down. But my heart is in my throat. We both get up and walk toward the only door in the office.

My job is to slam the door into the police mans face while he is trying to open it, Ty will take his gun, and use me as leverage.

It sounds like a solid plan, but so many things could go wrong with it. I just have to trust Ty.

I listen carefully outside the door, when are they going to open it? How will I know the right time to slam it in the guy's face? I'm so unsure of how this will go.

I hear the voice is getting louder and louder as they come closer.
"Turns out she was in on it the whole time!" I think that was the cashier, talking about my part in the plan.

"Sir just calm down. We need to take a statement with them if you don't mind." One of the officers says.
"Yeah yeah. They are over here. I locked them in my office so they couldn't get away." He says. Before they enter I hear another police man, who sounds much older say,
"I don't know if there is much we can do, since they didn't walk out with any merchandise."

Even though that sounds like great news, the cops are going to know who I am right away, leaving Ty in trouble. So we both nod in agreement, silently understanding that we have to stick with the plan or things will get ugly quick.

The cashier puts the keys in and unlocks the door.
"Here you go." He says, and it sounds like he is letting the officer open the door first. Yes! It's all going as planned. The door nob turns and he starts to pull the door handle as I ram the door right into him. He falls, and before the other cop knew what was happening, Ty already had the gun.

Next, he grabs me and holds the gun to my head, but the cop still pulls out his gun... What?

"Put the gun down, or she dies!" Ty says. Why is the officer holding his ground?

"See, I don't actually think your going to shoot her, because if you did, you wouldn't have anymore leverage on me." The cop says fearlessly. I instantly felt my stomach drop, he must know that Ty wouldn't hurt me. He is more experienced than the other officers we have dealt with.

Ty doesn't say anything. I think he's just as shocked as I am.
"I said put it down! Don't get testy with me, I still have the cashier over here I can use as cover." He tries to take control of the spiraling situation. It is true though. The cashier is frozen, wide eyed standing next to us.
"And don't even think about moving." Ty adds directing the comment at the cashier. Poor guy.

The old cop realized that he isn't in control anymore.
"Now son, think about this. Your young, if you let poor Iz go now, the court will go a little easier on you. You don't need to do this." He says, now he's trying to be a negotiator.
I realize he said my name, Iz.
I must be all over the news. First the home invasion, then the hospital encounter, and now we are stealing from a store.

It makes sense that so many people know my name, but I still hate the attention.

"Stop trying to bull shit me, and but your gun down!" Ty is getting louder. I don't have to fake being afraid anymore, I'm not scared of Ty, so much as the fact that we are in this mess to begin with. And now Ty is scared too.
I hope the cop doesn't notice and take advantage of it.

But the cop listens, and slowly, bends over, puts the gun on the floor, and kicks it over to Ty. Ty bends down, takes the gun, shoves it down the front of his pants. Slowly, he turns to walk out with me, keeping his front to the cop the whole time.

On his way, he grabs a bunch of canned goods and snacks without even looking away or breaking eye contact with the wide eyed cop.
"Don't follow us. She will die if I even think there is someone behind me. Got it?" Ty asks, I can feel his hand tremble, and his grip tighten. This is not good, I can tell that Ty is terrified.

"Ty!" I whisper so even I can barely hear it.
"Steady your hand! Your gonna shoot me on accident!" I'm really glad the cops can't hear us from this distance, Ty has opened the door and we are backing toward our little blue car. Slowly, but surely closing the ground to our destination.

Ty opens the door and shoves me in. He is creating quite a show. He's good at acting, but I can see through his façade and I know he almost lost it back there. The thought terrifies me.

He gets in the drivers door, and slams it. The tires squeal as he faces out of the parking lot, out of eye sight from the officers and cashier. At least he got some food...

"Ty...?" I ask warily, I still don't know how upset he is and I don't want to see a break down while he is driving.
"What?" He snaps.
"You still have the gun in your hand." I say.

"You know why I was so nervous, Iz?" He asks. And I really don't. After shutting the cop up, we seemed to be in pretty good control of the situation.
"No." I answer honestly.

"This gun wasn't even loaded, Iz! If he would have noticed my bluff, I wouldn't be able to fire a warning shot or anything." He says.
"Look." And he puts the gun to his head.
I can't help it, I hold my breath.
He pulls the trigger, and I release my breath as I hear a wimpy "click."

"How did you know?" I ask, still a little angry at his little stunt, but I hide it, not wanting to stress him out anymore.

"I have been around my fair share of guns, Iz. I know when a gun is loaded and when it's not, just by holding it up and feeling the weight." He says.

I nod, and then I ask...
"Why did an officer walk around with an empty gun? And how didn't his partner know?" The whole situation seems sketchy to me, but out of the corner of my eye I see Ty shake his head and I look at him.

"I don't know, Iz but we are damn lucky he didn't." He didn't need to finish the sentence... Because I knew, if the cop would have known about the empty gun, the cop would have Ty in custody, and be questioning me.

That reminds me... When Ty lets me go, a lot of cops and press are going to want to question me.

What would I say. Too many witnesses have seen him and I together and so I will have to give a description. I will have to tell them what happened to me... But I don't think it's a good idea to use the truth in this type of situation, the more the cops know, the more it leads to Ty.

And I have already decided that I want to protect him. I want him to reunite with his sister, and I want him to have enough money to live easily with her. To have enough food so he never has to pull a stunt like this again. God knows I will never steal again, and it makes me wonder if we have enough food. He grabbed a lot and stuffed it in his shirt. I think we should be good for a while.

I keep thinking about what I will say to the cops when I get home.

I will come up with a story, one that is very believable and one that the cops won't question me too much about. I will practice this over and over again so I don't get it wrong. I think it's only way I can keep them safe so I vouch to do it.

However, I just remembered something... something that may make this situation even worse.

"Ty?" I ask. The last thing I want to do is make him anymore nervous than he has to be, because I can tell he is really shook up by the whole incident, but he needs to know what happened.

I look at his face. He doesn't seem to notice that I said anything. Maybe I was too quiet.
"Ty!" I say louder, my heart drops because the problem becomes so much more real. He looks over and must see the horror on my face, because he looks worried now.

"What? What's wrong, Iz? He asks. His voice quick and full of sudden fear. I look at him, and I finally spill it out:

"Stores have cameras, and you didn't wear a mask."