Odin (Billionaire Titans Book 2) by Alison Ryan Page B

had been treating his son to look for answers, he was rebuffed by a receptionist, told he’d need an appointment, that the doctor was “a very busy and important man.”
    Marvin Fenske went home and armed himself. He crafted pipe bombs and loaded his weapons, and three days hence, at 10:54 AM on a warm November Thursday, he and his brother, Jim, arrived at the Desert Springs Medical Complex, each carrying two duffel bags. They entered the building and identified themselves as elevator repairmen. They set about disabling both the building’s elevator cars, then barred the door to the emergency staircase in the rear of the lobby. What remained was the main staircase, going all the way to the seventh floor.
    Marvin produced a gun and murdered the receptionist, then Jim gunned down two patients in the lobby, likely before any of the three had any idea what was happening.
    The killers then chained the main doors shut and attached a bomb to them before returning to the stairs.
    A witness reported that two doctors, upset that the elevators weren’t working and that they couldn’t reach the receptionist, came down the steps next. Marvin shot them both, killing one instantly. The other, a friend of Callum’s, was wounded but managed to drag himself into a bathroom and make the first 911 call.
    Marvin and Jim Fenske methodically climbed the stairs, shooting everything that moved. By the time they reached Callum’s floor, word had spread about what was happening and panic had set in. People hid where they could, did their best to bar the doors to whatever room they were in, and prayed. Most of the victims were found in defensive postures; bullet holes through raised hands and gunshot wounds through the back or down into the head as they cowered.
    A notable exception to the terror was Callum O’Grady. When news reached him, he shepherded his patients and colleagues into his own office, where he helped them to push his heavy oak desk against the locked door. That door was never breached by the Fenske brothers.
    Satisfied that his people were safe, Callum climbed a chair and got into the air ducts, dropping down in the reception area of his office. He would not wait to be shot. He armed himself with a fire extinguisher and waited. The gunfire got closer and closer and when he saw the barrel of Jim Fenske’s rifle cross the threshold into his office, he swung the extinguisher with all his might. The shooter collapsed in a heap, and Callum yanked the weapon from his hand and slid it across the room. He straddled the man to hold him in place, thinking the danger was over.
    Unbeknownst to him, Jim Fenske’s brother was right around the corner. By the time Callum realized his mistake, that there were, in fact, two shooters, it was too late. A hail of gunfire from Marvin’s rifle shredded Callum O’Grady’s chest.
    In the midst of the tragedy, Sergeant Hutton informed me, Callum O’Grady died a hero. Among so much senseless bloodshed that day; nineteen dead and another eight wounded, not counting the two Fenske brothers, both killed by police, one man died fighting. My husband.
    No one who remained on the fourth floor or above died that day. Once Jim had been injured, Marvin became unsure of how to proceed and the two of them went back to the lobby and exchanged gunfire with law enforcement.
    I took a deep breath as I finished telling Odin the story. My cheeks were dry. My heart swelled with pride whenever I told anyone what Callum had done that day. At first, I battled with hating him for having to be the hero, wishing he’d just stayed in his office and lived. But over time, I came to realize that the man I’d fallen in love with, the man I’d planned to spent the rest of my life with, the man who stopped the murderous rampage, did what he had to do.
    I sat silently for a moment, my knees pulled up my chest, pensive.
    Tears fell, rolling and staining his cheeks. The cheeks of Odin Titan.
    “Oh my God,” I said, leaping to my