64

GABRIEL
CEO OF STARK APPAREL INC., GABRIEL STARK, OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCES HIS GIRLFRIEND, AUDREY HOPKINS, IN A MAGAZINE INTERVIEW. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT HER?
GABRIEL STARK DATING HIS EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT.
STARK APPAREL’S CEO AND PLAYBOY, GABRIEL STARK, FINALLY FOUND LOVE IN THE OFFICE!
Those were the most searched titles on several news sites one week later when this month’s Exclusive issue was released. I picked up the magazine with the bold letter E and my picture on the cover.
But Carla couldn’t be more outrageous. She deliberately wrote about the non-fraternization in the magazine, questioned an ethical workplace at the end of her article, and mentioned NSFW. I couldn’t believe she would go that low, but I couldn’t care less about myself. I didn’t want to offend Audrey this way. It was partially my fault.
But I guess that’s for the better. People would talk about what they want nonetheless. They would forget eventually. I just couldn’t bear any secret affairs anymore.
Coulson and Duke knocked on my door, snapping me out of my thoughts in the afternoon.
“Well, well, lover boy.” Duke dropped a tabloid on my desk with a picture of Audrey and me captured by a paparazzi two days ago in front of my building. He sat on the chair across from me. “You’ve truly changed. You inspire me, bro. You fucking inspire me.”
Coulson perched on the chair to my left. “As if we’re not used to this,” he teased, beaming. “But I do feel worried for Miss Hopkins. She suddenly becomes a what—celebrity? How’s it going for her?”
I shook my head and sighed. “She’s bothered, but she’ll be fine. What’s up?”
“Well, she will be bothered more if she finds out about it.” Duke placed his iPad on my desk. “This.”
It was Samuel’s investigation report from the Phoenix Police Department. It amazed me how the Garner brothers got a hold of this information.
And fuck! A picture of Samuel when he was found dead.
My stomach twisted. I cleared my throat.
“Our victim had multiple stabs, head contusion, and marks on his neck,” Duke explained. “Whoever did this made sure he won’t survive, and it appears the murder didn’t happen in the lake but somewhere else. He was thrown there. There’s no trace of the killer.”
“My God.” Coulson rushed his hands through his hair.
“It’s not murder,” Duke went on. “It appears to be a homicide, but what’s odd is that this case has been closed.”
“How? Why would someone close this unsolved case?”
He took his iPad and scrolled through the screen to play a video. It was fucking Edward Hopkins.
“My son. My beautiful boy!” He screamed in between tears. “Whoever did this to you, I will hunt them down!”
Duke ran another video from another day. “I’m closing this case!” He shouted at a police officer, still fucking crying. “Let my son be at peace if you can’t do your jobs! I can’t bear to look at his face on every home screen like some kind of a national topic. I will do the investigation myself!”
I remember Audrey mentioned that Anton told her their father was suffering from an illness. So much for a sick man. He looked as sturdy as a stallion. He obviously just wanted sympathy from the people.
The last video of him made my blood boil. “If I win this election, I will make sure every criminal, murderer, thieves, will be put in their rightful places… This way, I could avenge my son.”
I shut my eyes and pinched my eyebrows.
“Wow. He’s one vile man, isn’t he?” Coulson remarked. “He’s using his own son’s death to get sympathy from people.”
Duke put the screen back into the material. “As I said, this is a homicide. Based on the forensic examination.” He showed us the picture again and pointed to the injury on his head. “He was first hit by some hard type of glass, then he was stabbed here on the collar bone, his chest, down to his left rib. Looked like he was still fighting for his life, and so he was strangled.” He pointed out his neck. “I think this case should be raised to murder until it is closed.”
“Whoever did this has a dilemma on him,” Coulson said.
“I can’t remember Samuel being a violent man,” I said.
“It doesn’t just end here, Gabriel,” Duke continued. “The last person he was seen with was a doctor. A doctor named Allen Clark.”
“Was he questioned?” I asked.
“Yes, but he can’t be the killer because of his alibi. Samuel left the doctor’s office alive.”
I clenched my fist. “What do we know about this doctor?” I asked.
“Dr. Allen Clark was Georgina Rossi’s personal physician,” he said. “A cardiologist.”
“Audrey’s mother died years ago, so he had no business with him,” I concluded.
“Unless he’s there for himself, Gabe,” Coulson said.
“Our victim wasn’t suffering from any heart disease like Audrey’s mother,” Duke pointed. “So it was still curious what he was doing there, and it was the first time he visited the doctor after Georgina’s death based on the hospital logbooks. Their meeting lasted for an hour based on the CCTV records.”
“Find this doctor, Duke,” I instructed. “He must have known something.”
“On it. Dylan is in Phoenix right now,” he informed me. “We’re not the police, so it would take time.”
I nodded in approval. “Good.”
“But Gabriel,” Duke went on. “There’s something else.”
“Hmm, what is it?”
“The Hopkins’ properties.”
“What of it?”
He closed the current document on his tablet and presented me with another one. “The only property Edward owned was the vineyard. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

AUDREY
“You ready?” Gabriel asked softly. We were standing in his bedroom while his painter friend Francesca waited for me to step into the study room, utterly naked.
I wasn’t wearing anything underneath a black, lacy bathrobe, and Gabriel’s fingers were playing on its knot.
“I’m ready,” I whispered and chuckled nervously.
“Listen. It won’t take long. You’ll just have to listen to her instruction, she’ll take a picture of you, and that’s it.”
“I don’t have to pose for long hours? Because you know I can.”
He chuckled. “That’s too old-fashioned. No one does that now when she can just paint your picture. France is an excellent fine artist, and I don’t want you to become numb from exhaustion. I need your strength later,” he teased, smiling.
My cheeks flared, and I felt my nipples harden. I understood his signal.
I cleared my throat. “Okay. I got it.”
“Come on. I’ll take you to my study.”
Francesca was already taking test shots on an exquisite wildflower arrangement on Aztec ceramic pottery and a bench seat cloaked with white sheets with her camera. She wore a very casual shirt, jeans, and sneakers, but she was still as stunning as I first saw her.
She grinned at me when she noticed my presence, and Gabriel remained standing by the door, leaning on the frame with crossed arms.
“Audrey,” she greeted, and she kissed my cheek. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.” I nodded. “I’m good.”
“You can sit on the couch anytime now,” she instructed. “And you can take off the robe.”
I gulped, my throat dry. I guess this was it.