Page 33 of Lawless (Dauntless Island #2)

DOMINIC

N atty Harper was as brave as hell. He was also cagey as fuck about something, but I put that down to general Dauntless Island weirdness, since there was no shortage of that.

Especially not tonight. When Red Joe shook my hand outside the old church, I’d fought the crazy urge to bow like I was meeting royalty, or at least salute.

And I was pretty sure I hadn’t saluted since the academy.

It was one of those things they taught you that you never really did again once you were sworn in. Like burpees.

But the way Natty had squared his shoulder and jutted his chin out...

“You should have seen it, Frank,” I said as I tried to make my bedroom look less like a bomb had gone off. “It was shit hot. ‘Me and Dominic are together. And it’s nobody’s business but ours.’”

Frank looked unimpressed, but she was a cat; that was her job.

I dragged a dirty shirt out from under the bed, balled it up, and tossed it into the corner.

Should probably make the effort to put it in the hamper in the bathroom before Natty arrived.

I’d seen the state of his house, and it was a hell of a lot neater than mine.

And considering that Nipper Will was hardly ever home and Susan probably wasn’t much of a housekeeper, it was pretty obvious who kept the place clean and tidy.

Natty wasn’t like most other young blokes his age—he’d notice the shit all over my floor, for sure.

I found a sock lurking under the bed too.

It joined the shirt, and then I picked both of them up and detoured to the bathroom.

Frank followed me there and then followed me down the stairs to the kitchen.

She wound around my ankles in a desperate plea for food while I stared into my refrigerator and made plans for what to make Natty for breakfast. Because whatever happened tonight, and I didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself when it came to expectations on that score, tomorrow morning was going to be our first full day together as boyfriends, and I wanted to get it right.

I’d probably cancel my plans with Eddie, to be honest—Natty had clearly not been onboard with that—and just spend the day with Natty.

I wondered if a picnic lunch was still on the table if I made it clear that it would just be us, without Eddie third-wheeling.

I stared at the contents of my fridge and the contents stared back at me.

“Looks like it’s gonna be cereal,” I said. “At least I have milk now. I’m winning at life on Dauntless.”

And, despite trying to sound sarcastic because of my lack of breakfast options and my inability to cook anything anyway, I was winning at life on Dauntless. I had milk, but most importantly I had Natty . I checked my watch.

If he ever gets back here, that is.

I went to the back door and opened it. There were no lights on at Natty’s house.

I wondered if that meant I’d missed them while I was cleaning my room, and Susan was already asleep in bed, or if Natty hadn’t got her to leave the church yet.

Because the party was still in full swing over there, the sounds of music and laughter spilling into the night.

This time last week I would have been appearing on Frank’s talk show and pointedly not listening to the music, but tonight I hummed along with a smile.

Natty’s declaration and Red Joe’s show of acceptance had caused a seismic shift in the way I thought about Dauntless and the islanders.

Turned out that ‘hostile and murdery’ became ‘charming and quirky’ when I was no longer in the firing line.

I wasn’t sure if that made them the hypocrites, or me, but the important thing was that ‘murdery’ had been taken out of play.

I fed Frank and then headed into my office to check my emails. As expected, there was nothing there that was particularly relevant to my day-to-day duties on Dauntless. The mainland might have been only four hours away by boat, but it felt like a whole different world.

When I shut down the computer and checked the time, it had been almost two hours since Natty had promised to be back. I stared at the front door of the station, waiting a few minutes for a knock that didn’t come, and then got off my arse and headed outside into the brisk night air.

The music was louder outside, but still lively and cheerful despite the late hour.

I walked to the front of the church. The doors were open, and light spilled outside. A few people gave me odd looks as I entered, but I nodded and smiled and made a beeline for Button John, who was dancing on his own. Space had opened up around him, probably on account of all his drunken flailing.

“Button John!” I waved a hand in front of his face to get his attention.

He gazed at me, bleary-eyed, a slow grin spreading out over his face. “Heeeey, copper!”

“It’s Dominic,” I said out of habit. “Have you seen Natty?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Oh, yeah. He was right here, copper. Constable . That’s a funny word. Hey, have you heard that joke? It goes, ‘I haven’t had any cu?—”

“Drinkstable,” I said, cutting him off. “Yeah, I’ve heard it.” I craned my head and looked around the church. “Where did you see Natty?”

“Outside,” Button John said, and pointed, inexplicably, to the altar. “He was all, ‘Guess what, bitches? I’m fucking Dominic, and screw what any of you say!’”

“That’s not really how that happened.” Also, that was two hours ago. “I think you need to drink some water, okay?”

“Okay!” He reached out, possibly to pat my face, but missed.

I looked around the church again and spotted Red Joe’s unmistakable profile.

He had Baby Joe on his hip, while Amy was showing Eddie something on her phone.

I wended my way through the crowd to get to them, but before I did, I spotted Susan Harper sitting at the end of a pew with Addy beside her.

I changed direction and made my way over to them instead.

“Hi,” I said.

Susan smiled faintly, and Addy smirked and raised her eyebrows.

“Have you seen Natty?” I asked. “He said he was coming to take Susan home.”

Addy wrinkled her nose. “What? No, me and Mum are keeping Aunt Susan company tonight. Natty went home with you. Where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

“You haven’t had a fight already, have you?”

“No.” I peered around the church. “No, he said he was coming back here to take Susan home.”

“Well, he’s not here,” Addy said, her usual brashness tempered with uncertainty.

“If you see him, tell him I’m looking for him, can you?”

She nodded, her brow furrowed.

I turned around and almost walked smack into Nipper Will, who was glowering at me.

“What’s this about Natty?” he asked through his scowl.

“He’s not here,” I said. “He said he was coming back here, and he’s not here.”

“He’s probably just cracked the shits at something,” Nipper Will said with a shrug. He snorted. “You piss him off already?”

“No, but thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said, and began to shoulder my way back through the crowd towards Button John. I needed to try to get some sense out of him this time, because if anyone knew where the hell Natty would disappear to in the middle of the night, it was Button John.

I grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him towards me. “Button John?—”

He lurched sideways, stumbled, and then recovered enough to stay upright as he vomited all over my shoes.

“Jesus.” I led him outside into the darkness and stood beside him as he knelt on the ground and finished. “Button John? John?”

He made a pathetic sound. “I don’t feel well. I think I’m gonna...”

“That ship has sailed,” I said, and leaned down to pat him on the shoulder. “Button John, where’s Natty? He’s not here.”

Another sad little noise escaped him.

“Button John?”

He made a squealing sound as he was suddenly wrenched to his feet. I spun around to see Nipper Will holding him upright.

“Where’s Natty?” Nipper Will asked, his tone fierce.

“I dunno!” Button John exclaimed. Why would I— oooh .” He struggled free. “Why is everything moving ?”

“You’re drunk.”

“That makes sense.” He swayed. “What’s going on? Where’s Natty?”

Nipper Will growled.

“Natty’s not here,” I said. “Where would he go?”

“He’s probably at the copper’s place,” Button John said, and then clapped his hands over his mouth. “That’s a secret!”

Nipper Will narrowed his eyes at me.

“He’s not at my place,” I said. Nipper Will looked like he was about to lose his shit with Button John, but I had a lot of practice talking with drunks.

As long as you didn’t mind going around in circles for a while, you usually got where you wanted to go in the end.

Or they fell asleep. It was about fifty-fifty.

“Where would he go in the middle of the night if he was angry or upset?”

Button John wrinkled his nose and tugged a hand through his mad hair. “Why would he be angry or upset? He’s getting laid!”

I did not look at Nipper Will. “Okay, so where would he go though? In the middle of the night?”

“He’s not angry !” Button John exclaimed. He poked me in the chest and giggled. “Mr. Constable . He’s shitting himself because—” His eyes grew wide. “Oh, I am definitely not supposed to say that .”

“What aren’t you supposed to say?” I asked him.

He giggled again. “Nuh-uh! I plead the Fifth!”

“We don’t have that here.”

“What the fuck are you two into?” Nipper Will demanded, hauling Button John closer by his stained shirtfront. “Where’s Natty?”

Button John eeped. “He’s probably gone to the cave!”

“What cave?”

Button John’s gaze darted between us. “The one at Mayfair Bay.”

“What cave?” Nipper Will shook him like a rag doll. “Why the fuck would he be in a cave at this bloody time of night?”

“Um...” Button John squirmed out of his grasp and stared at me. “Um... no reason?”

Clearly there was a fucking reason, and it didn’t escape me that Mayfair Bay was where I’d been intending to poke around tomorrow with Eddie. Coincidence? Un-bloody-likely.