Powerful Men 2: Four More Alphas Who Seize Control Read Online Free PDF Page A

still handsome, but his hair was silver and his face was lined. His eyes were stern and serious but he had a mouth that looked like it could have a wicked sense of humor from time to time. Though Jennifer had never seen it.
    ‘Miss De Le Cruz,’ Leahy greeted, without getting up from his desk, ‘please sit. What the hell’s the matter with you now?’
    Jennifer sat down. The Captain liked to get straight to the point. That suited her just fine, because so did she.
    ‘James De Cali,’ she said, sliding a picture of a teenage boy beside a bicycle across the desk. Leahy didn’t pick it up.
    ‘Who?’
    ‘James De Cali,’ Jennifer repeated firmly, ‘he’s a straight-A student from a broken home. He works part time at Chang’s Convenience Store just down the street from here to support his mom and baby sisters. Right now, you’ve got him in lock up accused of grand theft auto downtown.’
    The captain stared at her. He didn’t blink. ‘Well I guess he shouldn’t have done the crime then, huh?’ he said.
    Jennifer sighed wearily and took a deep breath. She hadn’t expected it to go over easily, but did he really have to make everything so damn difficult for her? ‘Captain,’ she said, ‘if James hotwired that car, you think I’d really be here?’
    Leahy shrugged. ‘Well you are, aren’t you?’
    ‘The kid’s innocent Mick,’ Jennifer said, ‘he was across town with his sweetheart in Strikes and Aces Bowling Alley when the crime went down. We’ve got scores of alibis, so there’s no question how this is going to go. Why not just let him out and save on all the paper work?’
    ‘Miss De Le Cruz,’ the captain sighed, ‘I trust my men. They say this kid did the deed, then I go with that. If they’re wrong then that’s for the courts to decide.’
    ‘Yeah,’ Jennifer asked, smiling knowingly, ‘but do you know who the arresting officer was? Liam Ryan.’
    The captain tried not to let it show on his face but she could see it plain as day: that absolute Oh Fuck moment. Liam Ryan was the baddest bastard on the force, a near sociopath who did whatever the hell he wanted. At that moment he was currently embroiled in a corruption scandal involving payments from drug dealers, amongst other things. Word on the street was that he’d go down for it too and the only reason he hadn’t been suspended already was because the mayor himself was his uncle-in-law.
    ‘Like I said,’ the Captain repeated, ‘I trust my men. I know this feels like something else to you right here, but to us it’s a warzone. A war that never ends. And if my boys don’t have the comfort of knowing I’ll go all the way to the line for them, then what the hell else do they have?’
    Jennifer studied him closely. It was an honorable sentiment – she couldn’t fault him on it, even if it did go against most of her leanings. The guy was all man, there was no doubt about that.
    ‘And what?’ she asked, ‘so I should just let James De Cali rot in that cell, while his family struggles to make bail? While at the same time you and I and everybody else is this damn city knows that Liam Ryan only picked him up so he could get back to drinking beers and cruising for whores like he does every other night he’s supposed to be on duty?’
    ‘Girl,’ the captain warned, ‘you watch your mouth.’
    Something in his voice got to her. She felt a little shiver run down her spine and reproached herself for responding to it. She decided to try a different approach.
    ‘He’s a good kid Mick,’ she said, ‘God knows there’s not many of them left these days. Don’t ruin another one.’
    A strange look came over the captain’s face. For a moment she almost saw him as he once must have been, back when he was a fresh-faced young recruit, back before the harsh realities of the city had wiped away the idealism. She was right about this one and no matter how his gut told him to respond, she could tell that he knew it too.
    ‘And what if he’s