Page 86 of Tiger Queen

Rachel suddenly sucked in her breath. I realized she was beginning to sob.

“He… he almost died. I’ve never performed surgery by myself and I could have messed up, and he could have died, and all the other animals here could have been injured or worse.” She hugged Caesar around the neck and rested against his fur as the tears streamed down her cheeks. “I’ve worked so hard… to give them… a better home. To keep them healthy… while we move them to other zoos… and then the AFF comes along… and endangers their lives! I’m so sick… of people misunderstanding… what we’re doing here… We are the good guys! We’re trying to do the right thing… for the animals! We’re better than Crazy Carl!”

Jake hugged and comforted her, and then I put down my phone and did the same. David returned moments later and joined us, hugging Rachel on all sides.

“It’s okay,” I whispered into her hair. “Everything is okay.”

We held her while she wept until there were no more tears to cry.

37

Rachel

I should have been relieved. Caesar was okay, and aside from a few more missing birds all of the animals had been subdued without injury. We had narrowly avoided disaster.

Instead, I had a nervous breakdown.

Panic and despair overwhelmed me. It felt like the entire world was working against us. As soon as we fixed one problem, another appeared. I couldn’t even trust someone like Brandon. Not to mention the intense guilt that Mary Beth really was innocent…

The group hug from the boys helped calm me down. I felt relieved afterward, like maybe I had needed a really good cry. I didn’t even mind that Mary Beth was recording the whole thing on a phone.

We spent the next hour retrieving the sedated animals and returning them to their enclosures. Mary Beth was cheerful as she helped, and didn’t seem to hold a grudge against me. She was probably just really good at hiding it rather than actually forgiving me. For now, that was enough.

We found all the birds. Most had clipped wings and couldn’t go far. Jake and I moved Caesar back to his smaller cage to keep him from doing anything strenuous that might rip open his stitches. Jake insisted he be there when Caesar woke up, so he slept in the cage with him. By the time we were done the sun was rising to the east and spreading orange and purple across the sky.

David closed the zoo for the day so we could get our shit together. Fortunately it was a fasting day for the big cats, so the workload that morning was lighter than normal. David and Mary Beth took care of feeding the rest of the animals so I could go home and sleep.

“You’ve done so much today!” Mary Beth insisted. “Surgery, and collecting all the animals… You deserve some sleep!”

I walked back to the house on exhausted legs, and didn’t even make it up stairs to my bed. As soon as I reached the foyer I curled up in one of the leather chairs and fell right asleep.

I woke up with a blanket draped over me and a pillow behind my head. David and Anthony stood by the window, peeking behind the curtains at something. According to my phone I had been sleeping for five hours. It was nearly time for lunch.

“What are you looking at?”

Anthony rushed over to hug me. “You’re up! Do you feel okay? You should keep sleeping.”

“I don’t want to screw up my sleep schedule.”

“Want some food?” Anthony asked. “I can make you a sandwich. Or whip up breakfast, if you feel like that. Just let me know. I’ll fix you whatever you want.”

I was touched by his insistence on taking care of me, and my stomach did rumble loudly at the mention of food, but my curiosity was stronger than my hunger. “What’s going on outside?”

David held the curtain aside so I could look. The circular driveway in front of the house normally held five cars: my Accord, Anthony’s Civic, David’s Jeep, Jake’s truck, and Crazy Carl’s huge monster truck with the cherry-red stripe on the side. Now there were half a dozen news vans and other vehicles crammed along the driveway and on the grass beside it. A cluster of cameras on tripods were aimed at the house, and more than one news correspondent stood with a microphone.

“Guess the word got out,” David said.

“You know, they’re technically on our land,” Anthony mused. “We can kick them off. Make them go all the way back to the main road.”

“Not worth the hassle,” David said. “Better to let them make their story and then leave on their own.”

“None of you have talked to them?” I asked.

David shook his head. “They want a spectacle. Something that will generate website clicks. I don’t want to give it to them.”

I looked at myself in the mirror on the wall. I was still wearing my dirty clothes from yesterday, my face was badly in need of a rinse and some makeup, and my hair was crazy. But after the insane night we had had, I didn’t care. I fished a hair tie out of my pocket, pulled my hair back, and opened the door.

“Where are you going?” David demanded.

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