Free Playing Doctor (Bandit Creek Books) by Julie Rowe Page A

wore out, that’s what I am.”
    “Damn, and here I thought we could do this all night.”
    “In your dreams, soldier.”
    “You feature in them nightly.”
    “Do I?”
    “Yeah, since we met.”
    “Smitty, I wore a uniform and body armor most of the time. You could hardly tell if I’m male or female when I was geared up.”
    “Sweetheart, there’s no hiding your sexy wiggle when you walk or your I’ll-take-you-to-heaven smile.”
    “Why wait so long to say or do anything?”
    “Because a combat situation is no place to be initiating anything more than a one-night-stand.”
    “This isn’t a combat situation?”
    He shook his head. “I’d have come regardless of the circumstances.”
    She rolled over and petted him with one hand. “I used to watch you, too. You move like a big cat, graceful and dangerous.”
    “But…?”
    “You have the power to hurt me. You’re the one man I trust. The only one who doesn’t set my internal alarms off.”
    “I’m not going to hurt you.”
    “No?”
    “No. I’m going to stick to you like glue.”
    “What about after we find the guy who’s been shooting at me?”
    “I have no plans to leave.” He ran a hand down her face. “In fact, I’ve discovered I really like it here.”
    “Really like it?”
    “Yeah.” He leaned forward and kissed her.
    They cuddled together a bit longer, then went down stairs to finish cooking supper and put their supplies away. They ate then went back to bed, making love again.
    Smitty liked to snuggle when he slept, curling around her body and holding her like she was precious. She tried to relax, to enjoy the feeling of having someone close, but the series of events from the second shooting kept replaying through her mind.
    The wood exploding behind her head.
    Yes, she agreed that the shot had been aimed at her, but it was also only a couple of feet from Smitty.
    He could have died as easily as she.
    Who was the ghost behind the sniper rifle?
    If this person really thought she’d found the mine, she had to do something to convince them she hadn’t.
    The simplest thing would be to show them, but could she do that without getting killed first?
    She’d been tossing dynamite into the lake for weeks and nothing happened until Smitty came along. The only thing she’d done differently had been to give him the dynamite and miss a morning.
    Perhaps she shouldn’t miss this morning.
    She wiggled out from Smitty’s embrace, found her clothes and got dressed. The keys to Smitty’s Jeep were in his jeans pocket. She hated to strand him like this, but it was only about ten miles back to the ranch from the cabin, so he’d be fine.
    She’d ensure it.
    She started the Jeep and drove off, hoping he wouldn’t wake up until she was well into her insane plan.
    Setting herself up as a target could only be called crazy, but it was also the only plan she could come up with that might end things without anyone other than herself getting killed. If it worked even she would still be around to wake the dead.
    Driving through the yard at the ranch was fun. She had to turn off the headlights and creep past the house, but no lights came on, so she figured she’d made it through without waking anyone. She headed back to town and her house.
    The key to the whole problem lay there. She’d kept quiet about where she’d gotten the dynamite because her grandmother asked it of her in a private letter she’d left for Abby in her will. The letter included a map to where the dynamite was stored.
    Abby had visited the site a couple of times, removing enough dynamite for a few weeks of daily explosions, but there was still some left.
    Hopefully, Ghost would be watching. She’d thought of a way to ensure that too.
    She arrived in town and carefully began searching up and down the streets for a particular person. She found him sleeping on the back step of her office. Again.
    “Get up JD,” she said, nudging him with one foot. “Rise and shine.”
    “It’s