Read Online Blake, Abby - Mikayla's Family [A Bride for Eight Brothers 6] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) by Abby Blake - Free Book Online

waiting, and now Ryan was beginning to understand what he’d meant. Once the fighting started, a soldier moved on instinct, his training falling into place as life broke down to just the next moment, the next danger, the next threat.
    But waiting was driving them all nuts. Despite their best intentions, all of the men—Tracey’s husbands included—were beginning to argue amongst themselves. It felt like they were all moving in a type of holding pattern. They couldn’t make plans for the future. They couldn’t travel. They couldn’t deal with the day-to-day running of the farm without major changes and adjustments. The farm was beginning to show signs of neglect not only because everything took an extra step to ensure Mikayla and Tracey’s safety but also because they were always several people short. Mikayla’s pride and joy—her own vegetable patch—looked abandoned. That more than anything else drove home the fact that Mikayla wasn’t able to live her life the way she should’ve been able to.
    Impotent anger gripped Ryan harder, and he found himself with the irrational urge to slam his fists into the solid walls of the barn.
    The shrieking of the proximity alarm was a very welcome distraction.
    “Heads up,” Bryce’s voice came through the short range communicator. “We have one person on foot. Ashton and Lachlan are moving to intercept. Stay out of their way.”
    Ryan almost laughed humorlessly—he would’ve if the situation hadn’t been so real—at the reminder that there were at least five men better suited to protecting Mikayla and Tracey than he and Ty. Add feeling useless to the list of things that pissed him off.
    The sound of old-fashioned gunfire stole the breath from his lungs. Despite the situation, part of him had never actually expected it to happen. Ty moved to the open door of the barn, his need to protect his brothers obvious, but Bryce’s warning to stay out of the way likely holding him back.
    Another round of gunfire broke the tense silence, and this time both Ryan and Ty ignored Bryce’s instructions, grabbed their med-kits, and left the barn. Ryan had but a moment to consider the stupidity of running head first into a gun fight before Ashton’s voice crackled through the communicator. “Call emergency services. We need an ambulance. Tell them we have one injured, one dead.”
    Dead?
    Ryan’s heart stuttered to a stop, but then beat double-time when he rounded the corner and found Ashton leaning over Lachlan, trying to stem the bleeding from a wound in his leg. Lachlan looked pissed but thankfully very much alive. Jet Killarney lay in a pool of blood several paces away from Ashton and Lachlan.
    “Emergency services are on their way. Ryan, Ty, Ashton needs your help.” Ryan could hear the strain in Bryce’s voice and realized that none of the others knew who was dead and who was injured.
    “We’re on it,” Ryan said urgently into the communicator. “Jet is dead.” He glanced at Lachlan’s pale face and grinned. “Lachlan just has a boo-boo.” Lachlan gave him an incredulous look before his mouth relaxed into a small, if somewhat strained, smile. He was bleeding pretty badly, but it would’ve been a lot worse if the bullet had hit the femoral artery. Ryan quickly took over from Ashton and got the bleeding under control. Ty moved to check on Jet but returned moments later.
    Ashton shook his head to Ryan’s unasked question. “My bullet hit him in the eye.” Ryan nodded in understanding. The small caliber bullets that Ashton used in his antique Heckler & Koch HK4 wouldn’t have had the momentum to exit the skull so had probably bounced around inside the hard bone, effectively scrambling the man’s brain. It wasn’t what any of them had wanted, but at least Jet’s death had been quick.

Chapter Seven

    It took less time for life to return to normal than Bryce would’ve expected. Ashton, Rick, and Tony had all resigned from the police force and moved with their wife