Tiger Queen: A Reverse Harem Romance

by Cassie Cole

  It made me angry how cavalier they were about the poor treatment of their animals. They laughed about it! I had done the right thing by coming here and gathering this evidence. Those animals needed to be properly cared for.

  My hands were still shaking on the steering wheel. I felt nauseous. That was probably the adrenaline withdrawal. I had never done anything like that before in my life! At the intersection with I-95 was an Applebee’s, so I pulled into the parking lot. I needed to relax before I got back on the road, and it was not too early for dinner. The parking lot was a little too open though, so I drove around to the back and parked with the other employee cars, out of sight from the road. I was fifteen miles from the zoo, but it was probably best to not take any chances in case I was followed.

  “Are you here for happy hour?” the waiter asked me after I was seated. “All beers on tap are two bucks.”

  “What the hell,” I said. “I could really use a drink.”

  While waiting for my food, I sipped my beer and browsed the photos on my phone. They looked good. The video was especially exciting, because it continued filming when I broke out into a run. The view spun and swirled as I pumped my arms, then climbed the fence. There was a brief image of the two men chasing after me as I dropped down on the other side.

  And most importantly, it was exactly as I remembered. Anthony could be heard on the video saying, “Tiger cub sales are a large revenue stream.” Surely that would be enough probable cause to have the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raid the zoo.

  “Another?” the waiter asked, pointing at my empty glass.

  “Sure,” I said. I didn’t realize I had finished it already.

  While it was still fresh in my mind, I called Ashley. “You’re not driving, are you?” I asked.

  “I am, but I’m still on the interstate. I can talk. Did you do it? How was it? Tell me!”

  I told Ashley everything, starting from when I arrived to the exciting chase out of the zoo. She squealed with excitement.

  “And you didn’t see Carl Haines himself?”

  “Nope. Thank God for that!”

  She laughed. “I can’t believe you actually did it. I thought you would chicken out. Alright, don’t do anything yet. I’ll call you tomorrow night once I get settled in at the horse farm. Then we’ll figure out a plan of action.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “You’re amazing! Drive safe!”

  Talking with Ashley didn’t leave me feeling as excited as I had hoped. The satisfaction of what I had done had already worn off and I was left with a deep sadness for the animals I had seen. I could still feel the white Siberian tiger’s blue eyes following me, intense and thoughtful. Like he knew he didn’t belong there either.

  I finished my second beer, then started on a third as my food arrived. By then I realized that I was buzzed from the beer. I slowed down on my third drink and wolfed down my food, but I could tell I wasn’t totally sober. And I was still five hours from Fredericksburg.

  Outside my window, on the other side of the Applebee’s parking lot, was a Sunshine Motel. Sobriety aside, the thought of relaxing for the rest of the night rather than getting back on the road was appealing.

  “Hey mom, it’s me,” I said into my phone while walking across the parking lot.

  “Rachel! How are you? Are you in Virginia yet?”

  “I got a late start this morning. I’m just outside of Fayetteville. I think I’m going to take your advice and split the drive in half. I’ll get a hotel here and come home tomorrow.”

  “I told you eleven hours is too far to drive in one day,” she said. “I’m glad you’re being smart. We’re so excited to see you!”

  “I’m excited too,” I said. “I’ll text you when I leave, but I should be home by lunch. Love you.”

  She was so enthusiastic and supportive. More than I deserved. Once again it made me dread the coming weeks, staying at home and trying to find a job.

  Hopefully the evidence I gathered today will help with that, I thought.

  The rooms at the Sunset Motel were cheap. After getting the key from the front desk I walked back to my car, then drove it to the back side of the motel where it would once again be hidden from the road. Just in case anyone came looking for me. The room wasn’t anything to write home about, but it had a bed and a bathroom, and it was clean. All I wanted was to take a shower and go to sleep. It had been a long day.

  I turned the water on in the shower and began to strip out of my clothes. When I was down to my bra and panties I realized that the towel rack above the sink was empty. No towels there, nor on the back of the door. I turned the water off.

  “Damnit.”

  I didn’t feel like putting my dirty clothes back on, so I called down to the front desk and asked for them to bring me some fresh towels. The girl who answered promised to send them up right away. I waited by the front door in my bra and panties. Impatient, I checked my email on my phone to see if David or Anthony had emailed me after what had happened. Nope—my inbox was empty.

  A knock came at the door. Taking care to keep my body hidden behind the frame, I opened the door and reached a hand out. “Thanks for bring it so quick—”

  Everything happened very quickly.

  A man pushed aside my hand and shouldered his way inside. I backed away instinctively. He shut the door and bolted the chain, then turned to me with danger in his blue eyes.

  “You,” David Haines said in an ominous voice.

  5

  Rachel

  I hated scary movies because the characters never behaved realistically. The women in scary movies would freeze when they saw the killer, and just stand there as he raised a knife to kill them. Meanwhile, I was screaming at my television for them to run, to call for help, to do something. Anything.

  Yet as David Haines locked my door and turned to me, I realized that nobody could predict how they would react in such a situation until they were there. It felt like my feet were frozen in place. My tongue was heavy in my mouth. My brain struggled to process what was happening and what I should do next. It felt like my system was rebooting, and I stood there helplessly.

  “You,” David said as he turned to me. “We need to talk about what—oh shit. Why are you half naked!”

  He turned away and shielded his eyes with a hand.

  My voice came out in a squeak. “Because this is my hotel room!”

  “Then why did you open the door!”

  “Because I was waiting for the front desk to bring me a towel! Why are you here!”

  It was a dumb question. I knew exactly why he was here: to take my phone. To retrieve the evidence I had taken.

  Or worse.

  I cleared my throat and prepared to scream.

  “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.

  That was easy.

  “The zoo currently sells personal photographs with the tigers,” I said. “That’s a terrible practice.”

  “Why?” David held out a palm. “Not that I disagree. I’m just new to all this and am trying to understand.”

  “You never know how a tiger will react to a new person,” I explained. “The only safe way to let people hug them and take photos with them is to pump the animals full of sedatives to the point that they’re barely conscious.”

  “Makes sense. Just one problem: personal photographs are where most of the zoo revenue comes from. Most of the advertisements and billboards promote that service.”

  “Then maybe don’t re-open the zoo at all,” I said. “A zoo this small is too exploitative to the animals. They should be kept in larger pens where they don’t have humans surrounding them at all times. That’s too much stimulation for a big cat. Yeah, the more I think about it, the better it would be to permanently close the gates until the animals are moved.”

  David thought about it for a moment. “We were hoping to generate some income during the process, but you make a compelling argument. Okay. We’ll keep it closed.”

  I nodded. “Since you brought up money… it may take years to relocate all the animals to permanent homes. Their enclosures and cages need to be refurbished and upgraded in the mean time, even if it’s just temporary. Larger enclosures, better sanitation and maintenance…”

  “I agree.”

  “It’ll cost money,” I insisted. “You said the zoo was bankrupt.”

  “We’re setting up a GoFundMe page for donations. But in the mean time, my brothers and I are fronting the costs as best as we can.”

  I was throwing demands at him, and he was accepting all of them. It was kind of shocking. Like telling Santa Claus that you wanted a fighter jet for Christmas and then having one land on the lawn.

  David’s blue eyes gazed at me calmly. “I’ll be blunt. This isn’t ideal. None of it is. But we’re going to do the best we can with what we have. Will you help us?”

  I tried to find reasons to tell him no. Nothing popped into my head. I wanted to say yes. This entire situation had been flipped around. If everything he was telling me was true, this was pretty much my dream job. And it would help me get some much-needed experience on my resume.

  “Okay,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

  “Good.” He nodded like he expected nothing less, then pointed at my phone on the table with the TV. “Now you want to do us a favor and delete the photos you took?”

  I hesitated. “Is this all a big scam to force me to delete those photos?”

  He smiled. God, he was gorgeous. “I’m not forcing you to do anything. I’m just asking nicely. It’d be a show of good faith.”

  I got up from the bed, grabbed my phone off the table, and deleted the photos and video. “Done.”

  David seemed to relax. “Thanks for not screaming earlier.”

  “Thanks for wanting to do the right thing. With your zoo. Assuming everything you told me is the truth.”

  He strode toward me until he was close enough for me to smell his manly aroma. I took a deep breath because it smelled so good. He was taller than me, and I had to gaze up to look in his eyes.

  “We aren’t like our father,” he said softly. “We’re good people. That’s the truth.”

  It was impossible to ignore how devastatingly sexy he was. His body was covered with rippling muscle. His hard face and strong jaw challenged me to disagree with him. But I didn’t want to disagree with him.

  I wanted to kiss him.

  The sexual tension was thick between us. He sensed it too. His nostrils flared as he breathed deeply, chest heaving. I was absolutely positive that he wanted me. We were on the precipice of action, that wonderful moment when both people are certain something is about to happen but neither want to make the first move.

  A knock came on the door.

  The sound broke the spell. David exhaled and said, “See you tomorrow.”

  I shook off the sexual daze I had been in. “How early?”

  “The earlier, the better. We have a lot of work to do.” He opened the door. The girl from the front desk stood there with a stack of towels in her arms. She blinked when she saw him.

  “Uh, I thought this was room…”

  “It’s the right room. I was just leaving.” He turned back to me. “I hope you can help us, Rachel. I really do.”

  The girl turned to watch him go, biting her lip and making a soft noise. I snatched the towels from her and closed the door.

  “What have I gotten myself into?” I wondered out loud.

  6

  David

  “What have I gotten myself into?” I wondered out loud. I had been reviewing the financ
ials for the zoo since I got back from meeting with Rachel. As a small business owner, I knew how to read a profit-and-loss sheet. But dad’s finances were a jumbled mess.

  “I think you mean what have we gotten ourselves into,” Anthony said from the chair in the corner. “Cause it’s not just you in this. It’s me too. And Jake, if he decides to show up and help.”

  I snorted. “Fat chance of that. The only thing Jake cares about is himself.”

  Anthony bobbed his head. “Yeah, yeah. I know what you mean. He doesn’t have the best track record. But we really need him, you know? I think he’ll surprise us.”

  “You keep thinking that. How’s the GoFundMe page?”

  “Still setting it up. I need to take photos tomorrow. These things are only effective if you post a lot of photos, you know? So I’m going to do that first thing.”

  “Then how long until it’s up?”

  “Couple of hours. Maybe more. I’m new to all this stuff. It’s more complicated than I expected.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “We need some money coming in if we’re going to take care of this place the right way.”

  Anthony’s eyes widened. “Sure, sure. If you say so. I can expedite the whole thing. Noon at the latest. But the zoo should have plenty of money between what you and I threw in. Right?”

  I loved my little brother to death, but he wasn’t savvy with money. Never had been. Kid had a high-paying computer programming job and kept every paycheck in a single checking account. Close to a hundred grand that was sitting around, not earning interest. So when I had tried to explain to him how strapped for cash this zoo was, he didn’t really understand.

  “Right,” I said. “But more money coming in would help. Get the website up as soon as you can.”

  “Roger roger,” he said with a mock salute.

  I tried to return my attention to the accounting books, but it was a futile effort. My mind kept drifting to the same topic that had been distracting me all night.