Page 14 of Tiger Queen

The employee gate was locked, just like yesterday. Anthony came jogging up to unlock it. “Morning! No need to jump the fence this time. I’ll get the door for you.”

I grimaced. “Sorry about that.”

He grinned widely. “You kidding? That was a hell of a sight, you scrambling over the top and running like Ted Bundy was chasing you. We can laugh about it now. Thanks for coming.”

I could see the resemblance between Anthony and his brother. The same strong jaw and wide shoulders, though Anthony was slightly less muscular. He was also more upbeat and charming than David. I liked him immediately.

“Thanks for giving me a second chance,” I said as I followed him into the zoo. “David told me everything. I’m sorry about your dad.”

His warm smile wavered for an instant, and he looked down at the ground. “Yeah, it sucks. The funeral the other day was tough. But hey, what can you do? Right? Life sucks sometimes.”

I swept my arm around. “So you guys inherited this place.”

“Fell right into our laps. And we know jack shit about taking care of animals. Fuck us, right?”

We laughed, and I said, “Good thing you hired me.”

“David told you the plan? To try to find good homes for all these animals?”

“That plan is the only reason I’m helping you,” I replied. “If you were reopening the zoo to sell tiger selfies and illegal breeding and all the other crap, I wouldn’t have come back.” I looked sideways at him. “Did you two consider just selling the whole zoo and the animals?”

“We kicked the tires on the idea for about ten minutes,” Anthony admitted. “But then decided that would be a fucked up thing to do. We want to make sure these animals go to good homes, not shitty private owners that want an exotic pet. You seen Tiger King? On Netflix?”

I chuckled. “Everyone has been asking me that. No, I never saw it.”

“Really? You didn’t binge it during the pandemic last year?”

“Nope. Spent the quarantine studying. I was too busy getting my doctorate to watch TV.”

“Good for you,” he said genuinely. “I wish I had that much willpower. I mean, I was busy as hell during the quarantine, but I still watched an episode every night.”

“What do you do?” I asked. “Normally, I mean.”

“I’m a computer programmer up in the Triangle. I work for a company in Raleigh, but during the quarantine I took on a bunch of freelance jobs. All these companies were scrambling to find ways to let their people work from home. I worked sixteen hour days for three straight months.”

“Wow. That sucks.”

“No way! I made a ton of money. Hustling my ass off. The good news is I can still do my job remotely. I’ll be doing that while I’m here, plus whatever other work needs doing.”

“Wait. You’re going to keep working a full-time job while you’re here, plus helping with the animals?”

Anthony stopped in front of the visitor’s center and grinned. “I’m good at what I do. Really good. I can finish a week’s worth of coding projects in an afternoon. I’ll have plenty of downtime to focus on the zoo.”

David walked toward us. He was sweaty like he had been working for several hours already, and his muscles held a sexy sheen. I smiled and waved at him.

“Wasn’t sure if you would show up this morning,” he said.

“Your speech convinced me.”

David looked around. “Do you want to see where you’ll be staying first? I don’t know how much stuff you have to unpack, or if you want to get situated first…”

“That can wait until later. I’ve already showered and eaten a cheap continental breakfast. Let’s get right to work.”

“Awesome. I’ll show you what I’ve done so far this morning.”

“Have fun you two,” Anthony said happily. “Don’t get eaten! Hey, don’t laugh. I’m half serious. It would totally ruin my day if you got eaten by a tiger, Rachel.”

“Only her?” David asked. “If I got eaten, it wouldn’t ruin your day?”

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