Page 51 of His Pet

AMELIA

Itake deep inhales through my nose with my hands above my head. My eyes close as leaves rustle around me. Animals scutter about in the trees. It doesn’t scare me today. They’re much less threatening in the light.

I drop my hands and open my eyes. Lorenzo has finished tying an orange strip around a tree, something he’s been doing for the last hour since we reached the last of his markers. We’re following something. Lorenzo stops and bends every now and then, studying something on the ground before continuing forward.

The sun shines directly above us, and we’re shaded by the trees. We’ve been walking for hours.

Lorenzo glances over his shoulder at me with the silent question, and I nod to signal that I’m good. Once we reached the last marker, he insisted my mouth not open for the remainder of our excursion. As insulted as I was, I agreed. I don’t want to scare off whatever it is we’re looking for.

We begin forward, careful not to step on anything that will make noise if it crunches.

Lorenzo stops abruptly, and I freeze. He bends and stares at something, and I creep next to him and crouch.

I follow his gaze to a slimy-looking snake about four feet in front of us, and when I open my mouth to scream, Lorenzo pulls me into him with a hand cupping my mouth.

“Shhh,” he whispers. “You’ll scare it off.”

Good!

He pulls his hand away slowly, as if expecting me to scream. I hold perfectly still, my eyes never leaving the slimy-looking creature. I tell myself over and over that Lorenzo knows what he’s doing.

I swallow. “It looks weird,” I whisper, disregarding the no talking rule. The snake is a skinny, pink little thing.

“It’s a worm snake. It’s almost never on the surface because it burrows itself into the ground. It’s shed its skin recently. Right now, it’s more vulnerable than it will be for the next several months.”

“How do you know all this?”

Lorenzo turns his head to me, and then back to the snake. “I have a deep interest in animals.”

“And nature in general,” I comment, my eyes dipping to the tanned, olive skin on his arms. The tan makes sense now. This is my third time out here, and so far, this is the only day he hasn’t been in the water shirtless. It turns out, Lorenzo is a good swimmer too.

“You can imagine how insulting it is to be accused of animal cruelty.”

The snake stays put, curled into itself, as Lorenzo stands. I follow his lead and walk several feet away from the snake while I stay on Lorenzo’s heels.

I have to admit, Lorenzo is way different than I expected him to be. I was sure the owner of the lions was some pompous asshole using innocent animals for his financial gain. That isn’t the case. The way Lorenzo talks about Lucian, you’d never know he was a lion. Maybe a dog or a human.

“Do you genuinely believe the tigers and lions were happy in cages? If you know so much, you should know the majority of tigers in zoos are depressed. They pace their cages out of absolute boredom, and many are either obese or stop eating altogether.”

“Mine weren’t.”

“Because you didn’t want them to be? Or because they actually weren’t? How can you be so sure you’re not in denial?”

“Because,” Lorenzo turns swiftly, and I bump into him. “If they were depressed, I would have known. Large cats in zoos are unhappy due to a lack of stimulation. I assure mine get plenty. And their shows give thempurpose. There was no abuse during their training, and I know because I did it myself. They were never going to be running free where they belong in nature. They were born in captivity and don’t have the hunting skills necessary to survive in the wild. Now, they’ll either be in a zoo or put down if I don’t get them back. You didn’t set anything free.”

Lorenzo takes a step back, and his anger settles after taking a few deep breaths. Or at least it appears to. “That’s enough talking. We’re too close, and cats have excellent hearing.”

Cats?

Lorenzo turns and begins walking, and I hurry to follow. I bite my lip and look around for any cats. I don’t suspect we’re seeking out a house cat.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, the words bitter on my tongue. Guilt swirls in my head as his words settle in. “I read the situation wrong, and I fucked up. It’s obvious you care about them, and there wasn’t any cruelty going on… My judgement was off.”

“I suppose that doesn’t do us any good now, does it? Drop it, Amelia.”

I do just that, following Lorenzo’s footsteps while praying we don’t find what he’s looking for.

Lorenzo ties three more orange markers to trees before he finally looks at me.

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