The Day I Stopped Waiting Was the Day He Started Begging novel Chapter 99

In moments of pure crisis, the human body is always half a beat too slow.

Madeline felt a brutal force yank her backward, and she completely lost her balance, collapsing against the pavement.

She rolled violently across the ground, her forehead smashing against the curb. A blinding pain shot through her skull, the world around her rapidly fading to black.

York had his arms wrapped tightly around her, his normally composed face entirely stripped of control, raw panic breaking through.

"Madeline! Can you hear me?"

He snapped his head up, eyes blazing with lethal, unfiltered murderous intent as he glared at the Lamborghini speeding away.

Tyler Zimmerman shot him a mocking sneer through the rearview mirror and gunned the engine.

Madeline's entire world was spinning. Through her violently blurring vision, the only thing she could see was York's desperate terror.

She hadn't seen him look at her like that in three years.

In that split second, she couldn't tell if the impact had scrambled her memories, or if the sheer chaos of the last few days had finally snapped her fragile grip on reality.

She weakly grabbed fistfuls of his bloodstained sleeve.

"York, you..."

Her lips moved, but the darkness dragged her under before she could finish.

"Madeline!"

York crushed her against his chest. He lowered his head, his lips pressed into a bloodless line, and gently, reverently, brushed a shaking finger across her cheek.

The man's arm was drenched in blood, yet as he held the unconscious woman, the aura radiating from him was utterly terrifying.

Half an hour later.

Seraphina rushed down the hall. The second she saw blood still seeping from York's arm, the color drained from her face.

"York, what happened? Your arm is bleeding! Come on, let me get a doctor to patch you up."

"She's still in the ER. I'm staying right here."

York kept his head lowered, entirely motionless, his expression hidden in the shadows.

"You..."

"It was Tyler Zimmerman."

His voice was a gravelly whisper, dripping with a quiet, lethal violence.

"What?"

Seraphina looked equally appalled.

Right outside a hospital, the Zimmerman heir had the absolute audacity to run someone down in broad daylight.