Free Wild Man's Curse (Wilds of the Bayou #1) by Susannah Sandlin Page A

to make him a Colorado millionaire, and turned him and his stash over to the sheriff, along with a semiautomatic and high-capacity magazine.
    Now, at midnight, they were headed back to the boat launch to get in their respective trucks and spend a few hours doing paperwork.
    Except Gentry had something on his mind, and he’d put it off as long as he could. They’d exchanged their usual banter tonight, neither of them mentioning Eva Savoie or the murder case. Gentry had no intention of discussing how much he’d been thinking about Ceelie Savoie and her sexy voice. He did have an agenda related to the case, though.
    “Hold up, Red,” he said after they’d gotten the boat hitched to the back of his truck and stashed their gear. “You still got some contacts at NOPD?”
    Jena leaned against her truck, her face shadowed in the dark parking lot lit by a single streetlight. “Depends on why you’re asking. What’s up?”
    “I want to look at the paperwork on a closed case from a few years back.”
    Jena crossed her arms. “You worked in Orleans Parish long enough to know they’d let you look at a closed case file if you asked. You were Wildlife and Fisheries, but you worked with the police force a lot. What are you not telling me?”
    “I need it to be under the radar.” Gentry tried to read her expression for any sign of suspicion, but couldn’t see well enough. Plus, she was good at keeping a blank expression; he bet the NOPD had hated to lose her.
    “Gentry, I won’t do it unless you tell me what you’re up to.” Yep, she was definitely suspicious. “Does this have anything to do with Eva Savoie?”
    He needed to trust her, but could he? He trusted her with his life on the job every night they partnered together, but could he trust her with his secrets? Especially this secret?
    “You can talk to me, you know. Partner-partner privilege.”
    He chuckled. “You mean like doctor-patient or attorney-client privilege?”
    “Something like that.” She wasn’t laughing.
    He took a deep breath and plunged into the bayou of trust. It was deep, and its waters swift and dangerous. “I want to look at the files of the last case I worked in Orleans Parish. An interagency drug-smuggling case.”
    “The one where your brother was involved?”
    They’d never discussed it, but he should’ve realized she’d know about his background, about why he’d eventually decided to transfer out of Region 8. He’d done his research on her, so she would’ve done the same, especially with her NOPD resources. He’d lay odds his file was a lot thicker than hers, and it wasn’t just that he’d been an agent longer.
    “You mean the case that involved my brother because I shot him? Yeah, that one.”
    “Okay.” She paused. A long pause. “Can I ask why you want to revisit the files?”
    Oh hell, maybe it would help to talk about it. “I caught a glimpse of Eva Savoie’s killer, right?”
    “Your description was pretty generic. Not a lot to go on.”
    True enough. “Yeah, well, the Broussard men aren’t very distinctive, I guess.”
    Jena came to stand in front of him. He was six-two and she could almost look him in the eye, which was unsettling. Her expression had edged out of the shadows, and her brows contracted in a frown. “What are you saying, Gentry? What are you not saying?”
    Deep breath; just get it out. “The killer was a dead ringer for my brother Lang, no pun intended.” He looked past her into the darkness of Bayou Terrebonne. A shrimp boat rocked gently in the water, its white nets illuminated by the streetlight like misshapen spiderwebs. “I know it sounds nuts. Lang’s dead. We buried him.”
    Jena shook her head. “No, you had a funeral. You didn’t bury him, though, did you? His body wasn’t found.”
    She’d definitely done her homework, and the fact they’d worked together for three months without her even hinting at what she knew upped his respect for her.
    He huffed and ran his fingers along