Unbroken (The *Wanted* Convicts #2)

Chapter 1

Wren

The Sentencing.

“I’ll wait for you, Kayden.”

“No, Wren!” His fingers grip my chin tighter, startling me with the intensity in his voice.

“You will not do that, you hear me? You have to move on with your life, baby. You have to keep on living and go and be happy. It’s the only thing that’s going to keep me breathing on the inside.

I won’t survive my sentence knowing your life is on hold because of me. ”

I’m not moving on. It’s not even possible.

He is my life. There is no happiness knowing he’s locked in a cell living amongst monsters.

I can’t just go about my days acting as if I’m not terrified for his safety and worried sick.

As if I’m not missing him with every part of my being.

The only thing that’s going to keep me breathing while he’s inside is fighting for his freedom.

And I won’t stop until he’s out. He’s innocent and I’m going to prove it.

Whatever it takes. Whatever I have to do, I will.

His forehead presses to mine, and the tears slip faster down my cheeks. A downfall of fear and misery.

“Need you to do this for me, little one. I need to know you’re happy out here.

I need to know you’re chasing your dreams. Go become a Michelin-star chef and open the finest restaurant New York City has ever seen.

Go fall in love with all your heart. Get married.

Have kids. Go on family vacations and see the world— all the places on that bucket list of yours.

And I’m going to be locked in my cell, laying in my bed every night, smiling at the thought of you finding your happiness. You hear me?”

He shifts back, and I can barely look into his beautiful brown eyes.

I can barely breathe with his words wrapping around my lungs, choking me with sadness.

I don’t understand how he could even think I’d be capable of chasing a life without him.

He should know me better than that. I would never abandon him.

And I could never love another. It’s inconceivable.

“Go and shine, baby.”

The sobs rock my body. I know he’s trying to set me free.

His selfless heart is giving me permission to move on, but my heart will only ever belong to him.

He’s my everything. The blood in my veins.

The air inside my lungs. My every thought.

My every dream. I don’t care if I have to wait twenty years to be with him; I’ll wait an eternity to marry him.

And when he gets out of prison, we’ll have the life we always wanted.

I’ll only be thirty-nine. We can still have kids if we want or adopt if we can’t.

We can still travel the world and do it all.

“Time to go, Rork. Don’t got all day.” The bristly officer steps up to his side, gritting his coffee-stained teeth, and the panic takes hold of me. He’s going to take him now. He’s going to take him away from me.

Kayden tips his chin at the big hulking man then turns to me one more time.

“I love you, angel. Thank you for the memories that are going to keep me smiling in there.” He presses a gentle kiss to my lips, breathing me in one last time before he turns.

The officer grabs his arm and yanks him toward the door at the side of the courtroom, and my sanity finally snaps.

“Stop! He didn’t do it! You can’t do this.” I chase after them, grabbing onto Kayden, trying to stop the officer from taking him away from me. “You can’t lock up an innocent man. He didn’t do anything. I was with him that night. Why don’t you believe me? You can’t do this.”

“Miss.” The officer snaps, narrowing his beady eyes on me like I’m the criminal. “You are going to end up locked up yourself if you don’t let go and stop throwing your fit. Now release him and step back.”

“But he didn’t do it. Why won’t you believe me? He was in my bed that night. He couldn’t have robbed anyone when he was with me.”

“Baby.” Kade shakes his head, pleading with me to stop.

The fear shimmering in his tear-filled eyes breaks me down further.

“You have to stop. Please. It’s going to be okay.

All right? Now, I need you to give me a smile, so I can think about it when I go to sleep tonight.

I need you to be strong for me. Can you do that for me, angel? ”

The sobs nearly take me down. I shake my head as I look at him. It hurts. God, it hurts so much. “I love you, Kade. Please don’t ever forget how much I love you. Say it to yourself every night under the light of the moon, because I’ll be whispering those words to you. I love you so much.”

The tear slips down his cheek right as he’s pulled through the doorway, and I fall, my knees hitting the floor as my soul is ripped from my body.

There’s noise around me, a commotion, and deep voices in the distance, but all I can hear is the pain.

All I feel is my heart being torn from my chest. All I see is the shadow of fear that crossed his face when the judge read him his sentencing.

Twenty years without parole. Twenty years for a crime he didn’t commit.

The system is broken. I’m broken. Everything hurts.

“Wren.”

I can barely lift my head to look at Kayden’s attorney, Mr. Whitlock.

A man who I now loathe with every ounce of my being.

He did nothing. He barely even pleaded the case.

He didn’t build Kayden’s defense. He didn’t even cross-examine the witness.

The witness who lied through his rotten teeth because there’s no way he saw Kade leaving the scene of the crime.

He couldn’t have because he was with me that night.

And I know for a fact he was with me because that’s the night my parents were out of town.

It was our one chance to be alone. That was the night I gave him my virginity.

We made love all the way through the night until the sun started to rise, so he couldn’t have robbed anyone or hurt anyone.

The only blood on his hands that night was mine.

“Why didn’t they believe me?” I push the watery words out, trying to get myself off the ground and find some semblance of strength. It won’t help Kayden if I crumble. He needs me to fight for him. “Why wasn’t there reasonable doubt? Why wasn’t there a mistrial?”

Mr. Whitlock shakes his head, not even showing an ounce of concern for his client.

Does he not have a conscience? “Because the witness is a respectable man of the community and you’re just a nineteen-year-old little girl.

They think you’d say anything to keep your boyfriend out of prison.

Kids will lie through their teeth when it comes to the ones they love. They make for weak witnesses.”

I’m not a fucking kid, and I wasn’t lying.

God, he sounds just like my parents. They wouldn’t even come with me to the trial because they think Kayden’s guilty.

The cuffs went on, and that was enough in their book.

Though, they’ve been against us dating from the start.

They never liked the fact that he’s four years older than me, or the fact that he worked at a gas station.

The moment Kade was arrested, they both breathed a sigh of relief and practically celebrated the fact.

Innocent or not, they don’t even care. All they care about is that their daughter can no longer be corrupted by the boy from the wrong side of the tracks.

“The credible witness,” the sorry excuse for an attorney continues, “is a stranger who has no bias toward Kayden and no reason to lie about what he saw. He had nothing to gain or lose from telling the truth. You, on the other hand…”

“But I wasn’t lying,” I practically shout, hating his insinuation.

The witness is wrong. And he does have a reason to lie.

He’s probably the one who committed the crime.

“Did you ever stop to think that maybe he’s the one who did it?

He came forward rather quickly, don’t you think?

” The moment the news hit, there was a policeman knocking on Kade’s door, claiming that an eyewitness had come forward.

“If he doesn’t know Kade, how could he give the cops a name? Did you ever stop to think about that?”

It makes no sense. Kayden had never seen the guy before in his life. He’d never even heard of him. So, how could this so-called “stranger” know his name?

“I thought of everything, little girl,” he grits through his yellow crooked teeth.

“I’m one of the best attorneys in this town and will not tolerate being questioned by some spoiled brat.

What you haven’t thought of is the fact that your boyfriend is lying and did in fact commit the crime.

Now, I suggest you take his advice and move on with your life.

Otherwise, you’re going to be wasting your time.

The case is closed, and justice was served. ”

The case is not closed. And justice was not served.

And until it is, I’m not giving up the fight.

I will work day and night to get Kade free.

I’m going to find the truth and prove his innocence.

And once I do, I’m going to have this jackass disbarred.

He’s wrong about his client, and I’m going to prove it.