“What?” I tilted my head as my hand went to my phone.
What is she going to do?
28
Eliza
“You fucking asshole!” I grabbed the gun that was sitting on the desk near the entrance and pointed it at Mayor Stevenson.
“Eliza, what the fuck are you doing?” Preston took a step towards me, but I shuffled away. “Stay back, Preston. This is between me and him.”
“Um, Eliza. Please put down the gun.” Mr. Anderson lifted his eyes, and I could tell he was trying to be the voice of reason.
“One of you better put a muzzle on your bitch before she does something that puts all of you on death row instead of in a cell.” Mayor Stevenson looked at the Andersons.
“Oh yeah?” I dropped to my knees and grabbed him by the throat, pushing the gun against his neck. “Why don’t we finish that fucking conversation from earlier—the one about my parents.”
“Your parents?” Preston stared blankly and the confusion didn’t stop with him.
“Eliza—Abner,” Mr. Anderson’s words trailed off for a second. “Oh my god, you’re Joe Abner’s daughter. The name didn’t even register before…”
“I know who he was to me.” I jammed the fun against Mayor Stevenson’s throat again. “I want to know who he was to you.”
“Eliza, hold on.” Mr. Anderson words came out fast and I could tell he was connecting the dots in his head—dots that didn’t make sense to me yet. “Your father was on the city council. He was—against the mill closing. The only holdout. He tried to organize a fundraiser after Henry Walford said that they weren’t going to be able to make it another year.”
“And then he died in a car accident.” I snarled and leaned forward a little more. “That seems to be a common occurrence with people that get in your way, doesn’t it?”
“Get off me! I can’t breathe!” Mayor Stevenson started gasping and his face turned red.
?
?Then you better talk fast, because I’m either going to keep squeezing or pull the fucking trigger.” I gave him another nudge with the gun. “Unless I hear the truth about what happened to my family.”
“They…” Mayor Stevenson coughed. “They weren’t supposed to die! It was just supposed to be a warning!”
My hand started to tremble. My entire life—every bit of the agony and suffering. All of the foster homes. It was because of him. I really didn’t know much about my parents. I tried looking up information about them when I was older, but the news stories just mentioned a car accident involving a drunk driver. I didn’t even know my father was on the city council. Things started to become clearer as I stared into the terrified eyes of the man who was responsible for their deaths. The newspaper wouldn’t even run the story about Preston’s campaign. They reported whatever Mayor Stevenson told them to report. My father tried to stand against Mayor Stevenson and it cost him his life. It almost cost Hudson his life. I could have choked the life out of Mayor Stevenson. I could have pulled the trigger. I wanted to do both at the same time—but I couldn’t. I wasn’t a killer.
“Did you get that, Hudson?” I pulled the gun away from Mayor Stevenson and stood.
“Every word.” Hudson nodded and held up his cell phone.
“You’re finished.” I spat in Mayor Stevenson’s face.
“That will never hold up in court!” Mayor Stevenson leaned forward, yanking on the handcuffs. “It was said under duress!”
“It doesn’t have to.” Preston walked over and wrapped his arms around me, taking the gun from my hand.
I wanted justice—I wanted vengeance—but I wasn’t going to reduce myself to Mayor Stevenson’s level to get it. His reign of terror in Andalusia was over. The four of us left the police station and Hudson sent the video to everyone in his contact list. By the time we got to the truck, he was weak and barely able to stand on his feet, so we drove straight to the hospital. The doctor said he was fine, but he had likely pushed himself too much, so they decided to keep him overnight for observation. A few hours later, Andalusia became a kaleidoscope of red and blue lights as federal agents arrived. The video had been circulated enough to get picked up by a television station in Birmingham and it aired on the evening news. The federal agents found Mayor Stevenson and Sheriff Tate still handcuffed where we left them, and we got to watch them being taken out of town on the television in the waiting room.
“What a fucking mess.” Mr. Anderson sighed and looked over at me. “I can’t believe you’re Joe Abner’s daughter. He was such a good man.”
“And she’s a good woman.” Preston smiled and put his arm around me.
“One thing I don’t understand though…” Mr. Anderson tilted his head to the side. “Are you dating Hudson or Preston?”
“Dad, we can talk about that some other time.” Preston cleared his throat and shook his head.
* * *