The Girl Who Saw Too Much (The Firth Twins' Series Book 1) Read online

  THE GIRL WHO SAW TOO MUCH

  The Firth Twins Series

  Book 1

  By Athena Floras

  Copyright © 2017 Athena Floras

  All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be distributed, shared, resold, posted online, or reproduced in any electronic or hard copy form.

  This ebook is a work of fiction. Any similarities between actual persons or events is entirely coincidental.

  Cover art design by Athena Floras.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Perseverance and love for his surviving family members fuelled Sam Firth’s escape. In the cover of the ominous, dense forest and the dim, mysterious moonlight, he tried to run. His mangled leg he half dragged behind him made each step in the heavy snow excruciatingly difficult. He was on the brink of death and yet he couldn’t succumb to its overpowering will. At least not until he warned his neighbor.

  The killer was coming. In just a matter of seconds he’d catch up to Sam and finish the job he’d started. Sam had to deliver his message before time ran out.

  His strength was quickly draining. He’d lost so much blood. His extremities felt as cold as ice. If someone touched him, they’d swear he was dead. A dead man trudging through the snow, that’s who he was.

  His body futilely tried to conserve heat to his inner core and pump what little blood he had left to his vital organs. But it was only a matter of time before his heart would give out and he’d take his last breath.

  Sam prayed he’d get to Al Wentworth’s house before either the killer caught up to him or he’d pass out. He closed his eyes gathering his strength. The events of less than ten minutes ago flooded his mind. The surreal memory was too overwhelming to bear, but he couldn’t cast it out. It fueled his will to escape.

  The image of the axe slicing into his leg had him trembling. If he weren’t in so much damn pain, he’d wonder if this were a dream, a horrible nightmare that would end when he awakened. But he knew that the only time this living nightmare would finally end was when he passed on.

  Dear God, please let me save them before I die.

  Would Jessica and Eric be safe until help arrived? Sam had instructed his young twin siblings to hide in Sam’s closet when they’d first heard their mother’s scream. He’d handed Eric his baseball bat and instructed him and Jessica to stay put and keep quiet until he came back to get them. If someone other than him or their mother opened the closet door, Eric should start swinging as hard as he could aiming for the head.

  Sam had descended the stairs in stealth mode. Of course the old wooden stair boards under his feet creaking with each step he took made that virtually impossible.

  Whomever had broken into their home and made his mom scream would know someone approached. Sam couldn’t have fathomed what to do if the intruder had sprung at him at that time. Sam had no weapon and cursed his stupidity. Only a lame brain would have gone down empty-handed.

  His heart had pounded frantically in his chest, stopping him from taking deep breaths when he entered the living room.

  His mother’s lifeless body had rested just at the entrance. The gory, grotesque scene was worse than anything he had seen in a horror movie. Blood stained her pink flannel nightgown from the waist down to her knees. Her skull had been crushed, her protruding left eyeball barely resting in its socket. He’d fallen to his knees in shock, crying hysterically, shaking her in vain to wake up.

  That was when the unexpected blow to his leg happened. The killer’s sharp, bloody axe that he had used on Sam’s mother first had cut deep into Sam’s upper thigh. Sam almost fainted from utter agony, but was able to grip the bronze horse statue resting on the stand beside him before the killer came at him a second time.

  When the hooded assailant wrapped his thick, powerful hands around Sam’s neck chocking the breath out of him, Sam could see the feral coldness in the killer’s ice blue eyes. This man would kill him without any hesitation or remorse, just like he’d done to Sam’s mother.

  Sam managed to smash the heavy statue in his grasp hard against the killer’s skull. The hooded assailant’s strangle hold loosened and he collapsed onto the floor unconscious, the blood oozing from the side of his gaping mouth.

  Wasting no time Sam had grabbed the phone resting beside his mom’s slipper-less foot. She had probably picked it up to call the police before the killer hacked her with his axe.

  Sam had cursed upon hearing no dial tone. The phone was dead. The killer most likely cut the line before he broke in so no one could call for help. Their nearest neighbor was almost half a mile away and wouldn’t hear his victims’ cries when he attacked.

  A muffled moan escaping the hooded man’s lips had alerted Sam. He’d be waking up soon. Sam and his younger siblings needed to get out of their fast before he did. Sam had headed toward the stairs attempting to climb them, but his mangled leg made his ascent impossible. He had tried to holler signalling them to come down as fast as they could so they could make a run for it, but his damaged vocal chords from the killer’s strangling grip made it impossible for him to speak louder than a whisper.

  In desperateness the only other option that had come to his mind at the time was to run to get help.

  Now as he dragged himself through the thick, wet oppressive snow, he wondered if it had been the right choice. His vision was starting to narrow and his legs felt like two-hundred ton slabs of concrete. He couldn’t go any farther.

  Al’s home was just twenty feet away. The lights were on downstairs. Someone was definitely home.

  So close and yet so far.

  As Sam tumbled onto the undisturbed white, dense snow, he mustered what little energy he had left to scream. But once again it only came out as a whisper. “Mr. Wentworth, help! Help! Eric and Jessica at still at home. Save them.”

  He couldn’t say a word more. Death encroached, replacing the blanketing cold snow with darkness and carried him into its void forever.

  Chapter 1

  Jessica Firth was furious. She wanted to slam her cell phone against the wall erasing his annoying words forever. But instead she screamed and stomped her feet.

  She couldn’t believe the audacity. Her cheating ex-fiancé had just sent her a text message asking her to give him back the tablet he’d bought her for her thirtieth birthday.

  “Excuse me? Oh, no, you’re not going to get that, Jason. The engagement ring, yes, but not a birthday present for crying out loud. Who the hell asks for birthday gifts back when they break up?” She cursed staring at the screen on her Samsung S6.

  Huffing, she flipped her curly, silky raven locks out of her crystal blue eyes. “Okay, if you want that, then…”

  Enraged, she scrolled the keyboard on the screen. She fused her pent up anger into every word she composed. Fine, I’ll give you bac
k the tablet, but you have to return the laptop I bought you for your birthday last year. It’s only fair, right. An eye for an eye!

  If he were standing here beside her instead of texting her like the sleaze ball that he was, she would have loved punching him in the gut, offering him a fraction of the hurt he’d put her through.

  A month had passed since she walked into his apartment and found him in bed with another woman. It had shattered her heart and brought her whole world crumbling down.

  He had tried to do damage control, claiming it was the first time it ever happened and that he was sorry for hurting her, the other woman meant nothing to him. Jessica was the only one he loved.

  As a federal agent specializing in criminal behavioral analysis, she’d studied the science of deception detection for many years, so she knew when someone was lying. But she didn’t need to have a trained eye to see that this was the biggest load of bullshit he had ever delivered.

  Every word Jason uttered had been a bold-faced lie. She’d seen it in his dilated pupils, his wavering stare, the twitch in his lips and the drawn out confession he so desperately clung to like a drowning man clutching a lifesaver.

  Even the part about him only loving Jessica was a lie. He didn’t love her anymore. The only person Jason was in love with now was himself.

  She completed the text message and turned off her phone. She’d had enough of Jason’s drama for today and for the rest of her life. If she could erase him from her past, she would.

  “To think I wasted eight years of my life on him. How could I have been so stupid?” Chastising herself, she bowed her head before meandering into the kitchen to boil water.

  Camomile would help her de-stress. “I can’t believe he fooled me for so long.”

  Almost eight years ago they had met in college in Psychology 101 and had quickly become friends and locker partners. Two months later they began to date and six months following that they proclaimed their love for one another. Jason had proposed about five years after they’d graduated and he’d gotten a job in marketing at one of the biggest advertising companies in the country.

  Jessica had accepted his proposal. She’d been ecstatic. She thought he was the love of her life, her soul mate with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life. She’d suggested on their one-year engagement anniversary that they should move in together, but Jason didn’t think it was a good idea just yet. They should take it slow. He wanted her to focus on her career in the Bureau and become the best federal agent on the force.

  At the time she’d thought he’d had her best interests at heart, but now after analyzing the circumstances with a more observant eye, she realized he’d had his own best interests in mind. If Jessica kept herself busy with her challenging career, he’d have more time to play the field.

  All the tell-tale signs had been there. The man she’d fallen head over heels in love with back in college and whose proposal she had accepted a year before that had begun to change. He’d become cocky, distracted and a little self-centered. She’d thought it was simply a phase he was going through. He’d been promoted to Regional Marketing Manager in the eastern division of the company in less than a year, so his self-confidence was blooming. It was understandable.

  She had been so proud of him back then and figured once he’d settled in his new position, he’d revert back to the sweet, loving, humble and amazing Jason she’d first fallen in love with.

  But he never did phase back to being the old Jason she’d fallen in love with. Back then, having taken his advice, she’d focused on her career and really didn’t realize they were slowly drifting apart.

  They both had changed, not only Jason. They were no longer the two young college students who had fallen in love. But somehow both of them refused to see the truth and continued to stay together.

  She had to set her ego aside and look at everything from a fresh prospective. Their relationship failing was as much her fault at it was his. They were no longer compatible. She should have ended things long before they soured and his infidelity came into the spotlight.

  She held the mug with both hands and blew on the surface of the hot tisane. The steam it released settled as a sheen of mist on her nose and cheeks, cooling quickly.

  It was time to move on. They both needed to cut all ties with one another and start new lives apart. If giving Jason back everything he’d gifted her would help Jason move forward without her, then so be it. She’d return it all.

  Contrary to what she’d texted a few minutes ago, she didn’t want the presents she’d given him returned. No matter what he did, how much he hurt her, and how obtuse he was being now, she had given him those gifts out of love.

  “Be the bigger person, Jessica. Tell him you changed your mind. You don’t want the laptop returned and you’ll give him the tablet and whatever else he wants back.” She prepped herself while setting the mug on the table beside her and slipped her hand into her jeans pocket to retrieve her phone.

  When she turned it on two messages were waiting for her. One was a nasty text message from Jason saying he didn’t have the stinkin’ laptop any longer because he threw it away. The cheap piece of crap broke after the first month.

  She huffed and rolled her eyes. Her temper was rising again. How could she deal with such a child!

  Focusing her attention on the next message, she listened to the voicemail. It was from her brother Eric.

  “Hey, sis. How are things? Sorry it’s been awhile since I called. Can you call me back as soon as you get a chance? We need to talk about our father.”

  Jessica almost let the phone slip out of her grip. Eric and Jessica hadn’t seen their father in years. Twenty-three years to be exact. Right after he was sentenced to life in prison for killing their mother and brother Sam.

  Why did Eric want to discuss their father after all this time?

  Curiosity overcame her. She couldn’t wait any longer to find out. Selecting his number under her contacts, she waited with bated breath for her twin to answer.

  Chapter 2

  Eric Firth had listened to the message on his answering machine so many times that it formed a loop in his brain, a broken record playing over and over again.

  “Hello, Mr. Firth. I am Jonathan Archer, the public defender who represented your father in the murder case. I have a message from him. Can you please call me back at 262-555-1839 when you have a moment? Thanks.”

  Eric had picked up the phone maybe ten or eleven times since he first heard the message. He’d started to punch in the number only to hang up halfway through composing it. Apprehension and his gut had kept warning him that talking to the lawyer would only open up Pandora’s Box.

  His father was evil incarnate. What he’d done to his brother Sam and his mom was a monstrosity. If Eric were to listen to his father’s message his lawyer wanted to relay, it would only cut open sore wounds that had never completely healed. It had taken Eric years of therapy to get rid of the haunting nightmares and night terrors he’d experienced after the murders. Every time he closed his eyes he’d re-lived the horrifying events of that evening twenty-three years ago. He’d wake up screaming and trembling unable to fall back asleep.

  Medication and psychiatrists didn’t help Eric. Only yoga and meditation allowed him to tame his inner demons, settle his mind and body to sleep soundly and peacefully.

  He feared hearing his father’s message would spiral him back into that black abyss that chocked him and drained him of all his positive energy.

  Yet he couldn’t just erase Mr. Archer’s message either. His obsession of solving mysteries compelled him to investigate further.

  The only safe passage through this without him sacrificing his sanity or his soul was just a phone call away. Jessica. His twin who had lived and relived that horror with him. She’d been his crutch through the ordeal.

  They had leaned on each other for support and strength during and after the tragedy. They had been able to grow stronger and move on. But neither of them was
able to steer clear of the experience either.

  They’d both joined law enforcement once they graduated from college. They were FBI agents. Jessica was a criminal behavioral analyst in New York while Eric had become a special agent in Newark.

  It was pretty ironic that they both became law enforcers while their father was a murderer. It was their desire to be the complete opposite of the monster whose blood they shared that had drawn them to their vocations.

  Yet no matter how far they ran or how hard they tried to change their lives, their past would always be there to torment them.

  Eric cracked his knuckles to relieve the building tension, then proceeded to call his sister. Her answering machine came on. “Hi, you’ve reached Jessica Firth. I’m unable to take your call. Please leave me a message and your phone number and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks.”

  He took a deep nasal breath. ”Hey, sis. How are things? I know I haven’t called in a while and I’m sorry. But can you call me back as soon as you can? We’ve got something important to discuss about our father.”

  He ended the call and slumped into the black leather armchair in his bedroom. He hoped Jessica would call back soon, waiting was hell.

  He leaned forward to get the TV remote when his cell home resting beside him in his chair began to vibrate. Jessica was returning his call. Thank God.

  His heartbeat speeded when he answered, “That was quick.”

  “What? No hello?”

  “I already said hello on the message.” He smiled. It was good to hear her voice again.

  She snorted. “You always have to be a smart ass, don’t you?”

  “Yep, I do. So how’s it going?”

  “Things are okay. And you?”

  “Ditto. How’s Jason?”

  There was a drawn out pause before she replied, “Never mind Jason. Let’s get back to the cryptic message you left. Why do you want to talk about our father?”

  “I got a phone call from the public defender who represented him at his trial. Did he call you, too?”