Searching (Planet Double Dick #20)

Tammy

“Where is she? Get her back now! How can she be gone?” I practically scream the words at my mate Ar-Hagan. “She was right here when we went out…and now…nowhere to be found.”

“Perhaps she is on the roof terrace, enjoying the view.”

“I have looked there. I have looked everywhere damn it.” My heart squeezes as I pace the kitchen area. “She is not in this bala, and El-Frankin says she is not with him at the barn and her thread…it’s not even beeping when I call it, as though it’s dead.” I struggle with that last word.

Dead.

I have a really bad feeling about this. Call it twin intuition but I know Tammy is not sitting enjoying the view somewhere, or taken a trip to see Sophie or Rachel and gossiping with them over a glass of wine.

She is in trouble.

I know that with every fiber of my being.

“My love.” Ar-Hagan puts his hands on my shoulders. “Calm down. We will find her.”

“When?” I snap. “When will you find her?”

“Soon, I promise.”

“You know my heart can’t beat without her,” I say, my eyes filling with tears. “She is the other half of me.”

“I understand, I promise I do.” He pulls me close and kisses the top of my head.

I sag against him, appreciating his strong arms around me, and the solidity of his body.

“Oh wait.” I look up at him. “What if she went to the basement bunker? Where the emergency supplies are. Perhaps she got trapped in.”

“We should check.” He nods, two sharp gestures, and releases me. “Hurry.”

I follow him to the elevator pod and step in. He presses the button for the basement, one that is barely used and I only noticed a few days ago.

We are whizzed downward. My heart is thudding and my limbs twitchy. I can barely think straight. Seeing Tammy is all I want.

Ar-Hagan steps out and straight up to the sealed door. He’s told me that within it is everything we would need to survive for several months. A bunker type precaution King Athos took many years ago when the Jakarty became more of a threat.

He opens it and the darkness is revealed.

“Tammy! Tammy!” I call.

Nothing.

Disappointment grips me but still I step in and flick the light on.

She isn’t here. It’s totally empty.

Set up with beds and containers and a control panel it is well equipped. But my twin sister isn’t to be found.

“Now what?” I run my hands through my hair, agitated and at a loss.

“El-Frankin will be here soon.”

“Yes, maybe he will have an idea.” I can only hope.

Not that he had any idea when Ar-Hagan had just spoken to him. He’d been at work, at the barn, and said he hadn’t seen her all day.

We go back up to the main area of the farmstead. I pour myself a glass of water and drink it as I stare out at the vast alien landscape that suddenly seems extra huge now Tammy is lost within it.

Lost?

No. Surely not. How? She is not stupid, she wouldn’t get lost.

The door opens and El-Frankin walks in. Tall and lean and with a stern expression he stops before us. “Have you found her yet?”

“No, have you?” I snap. “She is your mate.”

He scowls at me.

“When did you last see her?” Ar-Hagan asks him.

“Last night, when you both came back from the palace.”

“Not since then?” My mouth falls open. “You didn’t come back in the middle of the day to see if she was okay?”

“I was at work. Lots to do.”

“You could have left In-Sar to get on with it while you checked on her,” I say. “She was upset, you know.”

His tail twitches at the end, it has some kind of bandage on it, and he rubs his right horn. “I know.”

“Yet you did nothing about it.” I step up to him, anger blooming. “How can you call yourself her mate when her emotions, her well-being mean nothing to you?”

“Of course they do.”

“You could have fooled me, and her. She thinks you have no interest in getting to know her, of having a family with her.” I pause. “She is wondering why she came to Planet Hade and I have to say I agree with her.”

“Mel.” Ar-Hagan steps up behind me and puts a calming hand on my lower back. “That’s a harsh thing to say.”

“Even when it’s true.” I turn to him, not placated in the slightest. “Because the way I see it is you and I have a totally different relationship to Tammy and El-Frankin. You make me feel seen and special, she feels ignored and worthless.”

“That is not true.” El-Frankin’s tail thrashes left to right behind him, narrowly missing a stand holding a cactus like plant. “I made her feel special when she arrived.”

“Yes, for a few days, now you are never here. You are always with In-Sar.” I close the gap between us. I stare into his eyes, waiting to see how my words land.

His jaw tenses and he clenches his fists.

“El-Frankin,” Ar-Hagan says. “You should go and find her.”

“What do you think I’m going to do?” His cheeks are flushing deep purple. “I want her home as much as you do.”

“I doubt that.” My fury with him knows no bounds. “You have no idea how much I love her.” I raise my hand, wanting to punch him, if not on the face on the shoulder or his thick biceps.

Suddenly my thread beeps. I snatch it from the table. It’s Rachel.

“Hey,” she says, “I’m trying to get in touch with Tammy but the line to her thread isn’t working.”

“We can’t find her.” I close my eyes and squeeze the bridge of my nose, turn away from the males watching me warily. “She’s gone.”

“What do you mean gone?” The instant panic in her voice matches mine.

“Gone. She’s nowhere to be found, like you said her thread isn’t connecting and no one knows where she is.”

“She’s not at the barn with El-Frankin?”

“No, he hasn’t seen her.” I swallow, my throat is tight. I feel sick. “Not since yesterday.”

“She was going to him.”

“What?” I spin to face the brothers again. “How do you know that, Rachel?”

“I spoke to her. She called to say hi, and well, to say she wasn’t getting on so well with her mate and we chatted for a bit about it.”

“What else did she say?” I hold onto a thin strand of hope that Rachel might have a clue to Tammy’s whereabouts.

“Just that they weren’t communicating as well as she’d hoped and that she needed to speak to him.”

“And…” I roll my hand through the air. “What else?”

“That she was going to walk to the barn again, through the crop fields, in the hope that they would make some progress with a conversation, you know, in a calm constructive way.”

“She was walking to the barn,” I say to the males. “Through the crop field.”

“And no one has seen her since?” Rachel asks. “Since she set off on her walk?”

“No.”