Page 10 of Tiger Queen

“Wait!” David stayed by the door but struck out a hand toward me. “Don’t scream. I’m not going to hurt you. I came here to talk.”

“Talk?”

“Yes, talk. You ran out of the zoo before Anthony and I could talk to you about everything. Can you please put on some clothes? It would make me feel like less of a creep.”

Somehow, I felt like he was telling the truth. That he just wanted to talk. I didn’t want to turn around, so I backed up slowly until I was deeper into my room. I felt around for the backpack on my bed, then pulled out the t-shirt I had been planning on wearing tomorrow. That was all I put on, though. If he was uncomfortable talking to me while I was in my panties, then all the better.

“How did you find me?” I asked.

David scratched the back of his head, which flexed the muscles in his arm. “This is the only hotel on the way back to the highway. You were smart parking the car around the back.”

“Must not have been smart enough since you still found it. What do you want?”

David crossed his arms in front of his muscular chest and leaned against the wall. “You’ve got the wrong impression of us.”

“Are you serious?” I blurted out. “That zoo is a shit-show. Unkempt enclosures, wounded animals that have not received attention, and a disgusting food prep room. Every aspect of the zoo is unacceptable.”

To my surprise, David nodded. “Totally agree.”

“Then why aren’t you doing anything about it?”

“Because,” he said simply, “we just inherited the zoo yesterday.”

I gave a start. “You… What?”

“Carl Haines, more commonly known as Crazy Carl? He is my dad.” He flinched. “I keep saying that. He was my dad. He’s dead.”

“Oh. Did, um…”

David gave me a small smile. “No. He wasn’t killed by one of the animals. He was on a private plane coming back from Costa Rica. It crashed in the Gulf of Mexico. No survivors.”

“I’m sorry,” I said automatically, not because I was sorry but because it was what you were supposed to say.

David shrugged. “Dad and I weren’t close. None of us were. He wasn’t the best father in the world.”

“I can imagine.”

“So, yeah. Dad died six days ago and we inherited the zoo yesterday after speaking with the executor of his will. Turns out the place is bankrupt. None of the employees have gotten paid in weeks. As soon as Anthony and I showed up yesterday, the employees who had been sticking around finally left. We’ve been sort of figuring it out as we go since then.”

“That’s why you were so desperate to hire someone as soon as possible.”

“We don’t know the first thing about running a zoo,” he explained. “We’re learning. That’s what we want your help with. We need guidance. On, well, everything. And look. We know our dad isn’t, wasn’t, the best person. We were horrified when we saw the condition of the zoo. We want to fix that. Right now our plan is to send the animals to proper zoos and wildlife sanctuaries. A true home for them. And in the mean time, clean up the zoo and refurbish it so that it’s up to code while we try to relocate the animals.”

That explained why the job was only a short-term contract: not because they were being cheap, but because they were planning on moving the animals to real homes. The zoo was only going to operate for a few more months until that happened. My mind raced. This was the exact opposite of how I expected this conversation to go.

David spread his muscular arms. “There you go. All the cards on the table. Do you have any thoughts?”

I sat on the edge of the bed. “Finding proper homes for all these animals is not going to be easy. Aside from the logistics of the move itself, taking on new animals is a tremendous financial responsibility. Most zoos and sanctuaries will only take a few new animals at a time. It may take a lot longer than a few months.”

“Understood. If it takes longer, then it takes longer. What else do you recommend?”

“Um. The tiger cub breeding and trafficking. You and Anthony are aware of that?”

He grimaced. “Learned about it when we looked at the accounting this morning. That was why dad was down in Costa Rica—he was transporting a dozen tiger cubs to a private buyer.”

Good thing he crashed on the way back, not the way there, I thought. That would be a shitty thing to say out loud though, so instead I said, “That needs to stop. It’s illegal.”

“Okay,” David replied.

---