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  Rushing In

  Ace’s Wild 3

  Alice Winters

  Rushing In © 2019 by Alice Winters. All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Cover designed by Morningstar Ashley

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Alice Winters

  Visit my website at www.alicewintersauthor.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing: Oct 2019

  Alice Winters Author

  CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Foreword

  Ace's Wild is a multi-author series of books that take place in the same fictional town. Each story can be read in any order. The connecting element in the Ace's Wild series is an adult store owned by Ace and Wilder. The main characters from each book will make at least one visit to Ace's Wild, where they'll buy a toy to use in their story! The only characters who crossover to each book are Ace and Wilder. And with various heat and kink levels, there's sure to be something for everyone!

  Thanks for giving the series a chance! We hope you enjoy the books!

  Christina Lee, Riley Hart, SE Jakes, Alice Winters, Devon McCormack, Max Walker, Annabella Michaels, Neve Wilder, Jaclyn Quinn, Morningstar Ashley, Davidson King, NR Walker, Luna David, & Lane Hayes.

  Chapter One

  “What are you doing here, Clyde?” Dad asks as soon as I walk through the door of the police station.

  “Aren’t you guys having a retirement party for Officer Davies?” I ask.

  He looks over to where Davies is sitting in the middle of the room with two birthday hats on her head, a big smile on her face.

  “We are… but why are you here?”

  I glare at him. “Funny. Because I work here. You’re the one in a different department!”

  “Yes, but you hate coming to parties and this is a party. You know, where people have fun and stuff. I thought you were allergic to fun.”

  I glance at the reason why I’m here. The gorgeous, six-foot-two, dark-haired, blue-eyed reason. He’s like every prince from a fairy tale, every romance novel’s wet dream.

  “Howell?” Dad guesses as he looks over at him. “That’s why you’re here?”

  “He’s just… the image of perfection.”

  Dad grabs my head between his hands and forces me to look at Officer Howell, which isn’t hard at all since I was already staring at him. “Wipe the lust out of your eyes and look at him. His shirt is buttoned wrong, he clearly didn’t even touch his hair this morning, his desk is a mess. He’s polite, so I guess he has that going for him.”

  “Don’t be jealous,” I say.

  Dad snorts as he lets go of me. “Help me bring the cake out. You can jump naked out of it for Officer Cutie-pie if you want,” he says as he heads toward the break room.

  “That’s such a good idea, but would I get arrested? As a cop I feel like it would be perfectly reasonable to allow me to do that,” I say as I hurry after him.

  “Just let me leave first. I saw you naked enough when you were a child—I don’t want to see you naked now.”

  “Thanks, I’ll give you a huge heads-up,” I say as he walks over to the counter and looks down at the sheet cake. “Can I retire?”

  “You’re like twenty-seven, so no.”

  “I’m twenty-nine,” I say.

  “Whoops. That must be my other kid.”

  “You only have one kid,” I say.

  “That you know of.”

  I sigh. “So… Christmas…”

  “I’ve heard of it,” he says as he takes the plastic off the cake.

  “You know what would be absolutely awesome for Christmas?” I ask.

  “If you have to work so you can’t make it to the family dinner?” he asks.

  “You are my least favorite father,” I growl.

  He reaches over and picks up the mug I got him for his birthday even though he doesn’t drink coffee. He turns it so the “World’s Best Father” part sticks out as he takes a sip of water.

  “Am I?” he asks.

  I ignore his flaunting of the cup. “You’re really good friends with my boss, so why don’t you persuade her that Officer Howell would be an excellent partner for me. It’s perfect. My partner is on maternity leave, and his partner is retiring. It’s almost fate.”

  “Thankfully, Christmas is six months away and I don’t have to think about it for a while. I might even persuade them to fire you by then,” he says as he pats my back. “Carry the cake out so people think you want to be here.”

  “I do want to be here.”

  “Everyone knows your secrets. Carry that cake. And please keep your clothes on while doing it.”

  “Hold on,” I say as I push my short sleeves up so my biceps are showing. Then I pick the cake up, flexing my muscles as I do so. “What do you think? Will it grab his attention?” I ask.

  “It sure grabbed mine,” someone says from the door.

  I turn and look Officer Howell right in the eyes and die a little inside. He’s giving me a huge smile as I nearly drop the cake and my pride in the same moment.

  “Ha ha! I’m joking!” I say as I promptly put the cake on the desk and pull my sleeves down. “My dad made me do it. He wanted me to deliver it naked, but I told him that I’m far too modest to do that.”

  “Did I?” Dad asks.

  But Howell laughs and that’s all that matters. I will throw my father under the bus any day of the week, even make him look like a creep, to hear Howell laugh.

  “I was just coming to see if you need help?” he asks my father.

  God, he’s so polite.

  “I don’t but Clyde might. I’m not sure even you can fix him, though. No one can help my poor, sweet child,” my father says as he hugs me to him. He’s literally the worst wingman I’ve ever seen. “Did I tell you about the time Clyde pretended to give birth to our cat?”

  Oh no. Not this. “I was five.”

  “We had so many people over!”

  Officer Howell looks delighted by this story.

  “You are the worst father ever,” I growl as I snatch up his mug.

  “Not the mug!” he says as he grabs for it.

  “I don’t know, he seems like a pretty cool dad to me,” Howell says.

  “Would you call me daddy? Clyde won’t,” my father says, and I realize that my mother needs to stop informing him about terms he should never know.

  “Excuse me while I try to see if someone else will adopt me,” I say. I head for the door that Howell is blocking with his body that I’d love to just smoosh myself up against, before remembering that I’m supposed to be carrying the cake. I grudgingly go back to the cake instead of sliding my body past his. I turn my back to Howell so I’m facing my father and mouth, “Monster.”

  And he just grins. “Howell, can you help Clyde carry the cake?” Dad asks.

  “Uh, yeah, of course!” Howell says as he grabs onto the
other half of the sheet cake. So now we’re both awkwardly holding onto this cake that isn’t heavy in the slightest and really doesn’t need more than one set of hands, but I’m now close enough that I can smell his cologne. This means my dad is now back in the running for best father of the year.

  “Man, this cake sure is heavy, so I’m glad for your help,” Howell says with a grin as we do this weird side shuffle into the office so neither of us has to walk backward with this tiny cake.

  I snicker. “Yeah, but I have to do whatever my dad says or he beats me,” I say so he won’t let go.

  He laughs. “Now I’m scared he’s going to beat me and make me call him daddy.”

  “Oh god,” I groan. “He kept telling me to call him ‘daddy,’ and after I explained what I thought of when I hear ‘daddy,’ he thought it was hilarious and wouldn’t stop.”

  “I suppose as long as he’s enjoying it, we have to put up with it. Not only is he our superior but he could arrest us if we don’t comply,” Howell says with a grin as we set the cake down in front of Davies.

  “I’m going to miss you guys,” she says as she looks down at it and starts bawling. That’s my cue to quietly back away and let those who actually worked with her deal with it. While I do know her, we weren’t very close since we rarely worked together.

  Once Davies has been calmed, we sit down to eat our cake, and they tell stories about different things that have happened on runs with her. I sit next to Howell and try to pretend like I fit in while avoiding my dad, who will surely embarrass me further. Sadly, I don’t get to talk to Howell anymore since his attention stays fixated on Davies, and I feel like it would probably be quite rude of me to make Howell look at me by body blocking the woman who’s leaving for good.

  As I’m walking out to my car, I text my father.

  Me: About my new partner?

  Dad: Sanders?

  I shudder at the thought. Sanders is weird, smells, and I’m convinced he’s a creep.

  Me: Don’t you dare, you need to fire that man.

  Dad: You can’t fire someone for being “a creep.”

  Me: It’s a brilliant idea to have me work with Howell.

  Dad: It’s all you’ve ever wanted, right? From birth?

  Me: No. I wanted a dog and instead you bought me a cat from the depths of hell.

  Dad: The guy getting rid of her did have horns and a fork.

  Me: A fork?

  Dad: Yeah, that thing the devil carries.

  I sigh. This is not going well, and I might as well give up.

  Chapter Two

  “You were supposed to walk in my shoes,” Dad says. As soon as I got to work this morning, my boss, Sgt Parker, called me to her office. But when I got there, I realized she was gone and only my father was in her place.

  “Don’t you have that foot fungus or something? I don’t want to walk in your shoes,” I say as I walk into the room.

  “Metaphorically.”

  “Sounds just as awful,” I say. “I actually think I’d prefer the foot fungus.”

  “What did I do to end up with an evil child?”

  “You taunted, teased, and tortured me throughout my entire childhood.”

  He grins fondly at the memory before sighing and waving at a chair. “Sit.”

  “Did you… annoy Sgt Parker and make her leave or something?”

  “Not yet.”

  I walk over and sit down just as there’s a knock on the door.

  “Come in,” Dad says and that’s when Howell walks in and this ridiculous grin just slaps itself onto my face.

  Dad gives me an alarmed look, but I can’t make it disappear, and now I’m staring at Howell with this smile I can’t seem to get rid of. He looks confused so I say, “Hey!” But for some reason, it comes out really deep and husky like a chain-smoker on the verge of dying.

  “Good morning. Are you alright?” he asks in concern.

  I nod and glance over at my dad, who is grinning just as wide because he thinks I’m hilarious. “Good. You?”

  “Yeah, I’m good. The sergeant needed me… Is she here?”

  “Right here,” Sgt Parker says as she comes in and hands my father a file. He thanks her before heading out the door and back to the area he works in.

  “I know Davies just left yesterday, but I’d like for you two to work together for the time being,” she says, and I realize she’s an angel.

  She goes over some other stuff and then sends us on our way. Before we even have time to make it back to our desks, we get called over about a missing person. The detectives are all out on cases except for the few who are on vacation, so they ask if we can identify whether the case is exaggerated or if it’s something that needs to be further looked into. Since Howell and I are both in the Crimes Against Persons Unit, we’re the first to respond to cases involving missing persons, especially when there’s suspicion of foul play. While we aren’t as involved as some of the detectives, we’ve been asked to assist on more than one occasion when they’re short-staffed.

  “I’m going to grab my stuff and meet you at the door,” Howell says with a smile.

  “Sounds good,” I say, before gathering my stuff.

  As I follow Howell to the door, I get a text, so I pull my phone out. My father has sent me a picture of a creepy fucking clown with a huge manic smile on its face. It’s literally the most mortifying thing I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’ve seen a cow give birth.

  Dad: This is what you look like right now.

  Me: Goddamn, I’m sexy.

  We head out to Howell’s cruiser and I get into the passenger seat before turning to him.

  “Howell, do you want me to do directions?”

  “Sure. And just call me Bradley. It feels strange that I know you by your first name, since that’s what your father calls you, and you’re using my last name.”

  “Yeah, I get that. A lot of people just call me Clyde because of that. It’s not like we’re super formal here anyway.”

  “I was surprised to see you show up last night. Your father told me you hate people and wouldn’t come,” he says.

  “I’m not sure I actually hate people, but I don’t always like social events. Just not my thing, you know?”

  “Yeah, I get that. I kind of prefer hanging out with my close friends too. I do have one question, though. Do you mind?” he asks as he looks away from the steering wheel. Clearly, it’s something serious.

  “No… of course not.”

  “Did you really give birth to your cat in front of your father’s friends?”

  I stare at him in disbelief as he starts laughing ridiculously hard. “You’re not allowed near my father again.”

  “But I see him every day, so I kind of have to do what he says. Was it like… natural birth or C-section?”

  And since he’s laughing, I decide to just go for it. “Natural all the way. But I was five. It wasn’t like my dad was having a dinner party yesterday, and I showed up with my cat tucked up in my shirt and proceeded to push her out in front of everyone.”

  “That would have been even better,” he says.

  “I even shouted, ‘It’s a girl!’ to the horror of my parents.”

  Bradley laughs harder. “I’m surprised your dad didn’t jump in and help; he seems like the kind.”

  “Maybe even he was too embarrassed of me. So what embarrassing thing have you done?” I ask.

  He shakes his head like he’s disappointed. “Nothing. I was literally a perfect child.”

  “Oh wow, that must have been a lot of weight on you, living up to that title.”

  “It was a little stressful, if I’m being honest.”

  “Then what happened to you?” I ask.

  He grins at me. “You’re saying I’m not still perfect?”

  I shrug. “Should I lie?” Although it definitely wouldn’t be a lie. He even smells perfect. That makes me sound like such a creep.

  He chuckles. “I’d prefer you wouldn’t.”

  “
Oh… your hair looks… properly unbrushed.”

  “Thanks, I planned it that way,” he says as he swipes his fingers through it, or at least tries to before his fingers get tangled in it. “See? Beautiful.”

  I snicker because it’s probably better than running my fingers through it myself, which I have a huge desire to do. I feel like it would up my creepiness factor if I just started brushing his hair, though. “Looks like it’s this house up here,” I say as I point to a tan one on the right. There’s a car in the driveway, so we park on the street before getting out.

  “That’s the car that was mentioned,” Bradley says as he takes his camera over to it and begins taking pictures of it. The door is shut, which is different than what we were told, letting us know that someone closed it.

  We walk up to the front door together and Bradley knocks once, but before his hand hits again, the door is pulled open. In the doorway is a young guy, probably nineteen or twenty, if I had to guess. With our body cams on, it’s easy to get a good recording of the scene without having to set up a camera.

  Bradley gives the guy a smile and a nod. “Good morning, this is my partner, Officer Clyde Michaels, and I’m Officer Bradley Howell.”

  “I’m Tanner Johnson. I called you. I didn’t know if you guys would respond. I thought… there had to be a waiting period,” the young man says, sounding nervous. “I might… I mean, I don’t…” He wrings his hands.

  “If there’s suspicion of foul play, we’ll respond immediately. Can we see your ID?” Bradley asks, and the young man quickly pulls out his wallet.

  “Please come in! Do you want something to drink? Water?”

  “I’m good, thank you,” I say.

  “I’m fine as well,” Bradley says as we’re led into the living room. He waves at a stained couch and we sit. Tanner, realizing that he doesn’t have a spot, stands in front of us.

  “So, you said your roommate is missing,” I say.

  “Yes! So he works third shift and is usually home when I get up in the morning, but today he wasn’t here. We share the car. It’s mine, but he drives it to work at night since I don’t need it then. But when I woke up the car was here, Jamal was gone, and the door was open.”