Page 17 of What Happened Last Night

“Luna.” This was Neal, who crossed the room and surprised me by dropping to one knee before me, taking one of my hands in his as if he were proposing. “Please, I am begging you. Tell us everything you know about Billy Hale.”

“Neal, knock it off,” Denver warned. “I didn’t invite her to get interrogated.”

“I can’t help it,” Neal said, and then to me, “You can tell me to fuck off if you want. But I’m dying of curiosity. We all are.”

I blinked. Neal’s hand was warm, his grip gentle, his fingers callused from playing bass. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“He’s a complete mystery to us,” Neal said. “We can’t crack him. He wouldn’t tell us his identity for months, and then he didn’t tell us that he was Stone’s brother until he was forced to. We’ve tried everything since then. We’ve been nice to him, we’ve ribbed him, we’ve invited him to our gatherings, we’ve gotten him drunk. We still can’t figure him out.”

“You probably know him better than we do,” Denver said.

“Don’t listen to them,” Callie said to me. “Some people are just private. These guys can’t figure that out.”

My brain rewound to what Neal had said. “You got him drunk?” I couldn’t picture it. I had never seen Will take a drink or even refer to drinking.

“Really drunk,” Neal said. “Several times. It was a team effort. Even Axel chipped in by being the designated driver.”

Axel—I knew from an article I’d read—was a former addict who had been sober for a few years now. Axel excluded, I couldn’t imagine anyone more capable of getting someone drunk than a rock band. “What’s Will like when he’s drunk?” I asked in avid curiosity.

“Disappointing,” Stone said from his sofa across from me. “Really fucking disappointing.”

“He doesn’t talk when he’s drunk,” Denver added. “We were hoping he’d spill his guts, or at least make a fool of himself. He doesn’t get into fights or pick up women. Even if he’d acted like an asshole, it would be something. Instead, he just got quiet.”

“He did sing karaoke,” Neal said. He was still on one knee. It was rather charming. “His voice isn’t bad. But we didn’t want to hear him sing One Direction. We wanted to learn his secrets and figure him out.”

“He sang karaoke?” This was delicious.

Neal nodded. “He did. And then he went home and threw up.”

“I took him to some of the grimiest clubs I know,” Stone said. “I made him listen to terrible bands. He didn’t make a single comment at how bad the music was or how dirty the bathrooms were. And yet he owns sweaters that cost more than my entire wardrobe. I’m related to him, and I still don’t know what the fuck to think.”

“He’s pretty reserved,” I said. “His last assistant in New York said he was a gentleman. From what I’ve seen, it’s an accurate description.”

“Then what is he doing with us?” Denver asked.

“Are we grilling her about Billy?” Axel walked back into the room. He’d changed into different jeans—presumably the pair he’d left in the iso booth. I had no time to wonder where he’d left the pair he’d arrived in. “Did we get anything good?”

I looked around. “Will doesn’t tell me much, but I think he’s here with all of you because Stone is his brother. And because he likes you.”

“I told you,” Callie said. She turned to me. “They keep thinking Will has a complicated motive. I keep telling them they’re wrong.”

“He was rich in New York,” Neal said. “Rich and getting richer every day. He owned a brownstone. He was a golden boy, a moneymaking genius. He was accepted to Harvard but didn’t go.”

“Really?” I’d never heard that.

“Really,” Neal said. “We’re nice guys, but come on. Will could have lived a life in a Park Avenue penthouse. He could have looked up his birth parents and visited Stone, then gone back to his destiny. So why didn’t he? Why is he here using his huge brain to sell our T-shirts?”

I stared at him, as perplexed in that moment as he was. Will hadn’t told the band about Lizbeth and whatever had happened with her. He hadn’t confided in them about his parents’ disappointment in him, and he hadn’t told me about not going to Harvard. I’d thought I was starting to understand my boss. But maybe I didn’t understand him at all.

“Um, Neal,” Axel said, “Raine is here.”

I looked up to see a woman in the doorway. She was tall, brunette, beautiful, and very, very pregnant. She had a wedding ring on her left hand, and she was scowling at Neal, who was still on his knee, holding my hand.

“Neal,” she said calmly, “are you proposing to that woman?”

Neal didn’t even blink. “No, honey. This is Billy’s assistant. We’re trying to get her to talk about him.”

“Will’s assistant?” Raine’s scowl vanished, and she took her phone from her purse. “I’m ordering pizza. Introduce me. I want her to tell us everything.”

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