His Last Chance at Redemption by Michelle Conder Read Free Book Online

have to go to Greece for the weekend. I need somebody I can trust to take care of Ty.’
    ‘You want me to go to Greece with you? For the long weekend?’
    Lexi wasn’t even prepared to go into the next room with him, let alone another country!
    ‘No. I was taking Mrs Parsons to Greece because she is an unknown entity for both myself and Ty, and I felt it was better to have her close by. You, on the other hand, are not anunknown entity. You have looked after my son for two years and you will be perfectly fine to take care of him here, in London. And, as I said—’ he paused, regarding her calmly ‘—I’ll pay you. Well.’
    ‘Is money your answer to everything?’ Lexi snapped.
    ‘Not
everything
, no.’
    Her lips compressed at his sensually mocking smile.
    ‘How much?’ he asked with quiet confidence.
    Lexi tried not to be intimidated by his size and understated force of will. Hadn’t he realised that she wasn’t the type of person who could be bought? Or was he the type of person who paid off everyone in order to get his own way? She wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that he was. ‘You mean I can name my price?’ she asked sweetly, as if she might actually be considering his offer.
    ‘What’s the number?’ he demanded curtly, his smile flattening as if her answer had displeased him, though why that should be the case she hadn’t a clue.
    Lexi paused. Would he pay any figure? For a minute she was tempted to find out but she didn’t play these types of games and it would give her more satisfaction to put him—and his open bank account—in their rightful place.
    ‘The number is that there is no number. You don’t deserve my help. Goodbye.’
    Lexi didn’t look at him as she picked up her bag and dropped her mobile phone inside. She was about to stride out of the door with her head held high when Leo’s quiet voice stopped her.
    ‘I might not. But Ty does.’
    Lexi turned and stared at him incredulously. ‘Are you trying to
emotionally
blackmail me now?’
    ‘If it means you’ll stay, yes.’
    Lexi couldn’t believe the gall of the man. Had he no shame?
    ‘You get a girl pregnant and then don’t even have the decency to get to know your own flesh and blood and now you’lldo whatever it takes to have someone you don’t even know take care of him. What kind of a man are you?’
    He jammed his hands onto his hips and glared at her. ‘Don’t pass judgement on things you don’t understand.’
    ‘Oh, I understand all right,’ Lexi fumed. ‘I understand that your lifestyle is so precious you rejected an innocent child. Well, that’s something you should have thought about
before
you got Amanda Weston pregnant, not
after
.’
    ‘This has nothing to do with my lifestyle and everything to do with Ty’s well-being.’
    ‘And just how do you figure that?’
    A muscle ticked in his jaw. ‘I don’t have to explain myself to you but I did not reject my son.’
    ‘Oh? What would you call it?’
    ‘Since he was born I have paid for every single thing he needs and I have six monthly reports carried out to ensure that he is safe and well cared for.’
    ‘Reports that failed to inform you that his mother travels so often that his grandmother was his main carer until her death a fortnight ago.’
    He had the grace to look uncomfortable, pulling at the collar on his shirt in a telling movement.
    ‘And,’ he continued, as if she hadn’t spoken, ‘I fully intend to have a relationship with him when he’s older.’
    Of all the …
    ‘Older and less work?’ she scoffed. ‘He needs you now. A boy looks to his father as he grows up to figure out what it means to be a man. What kind of a man will he grow up to be with an absent father who never cared enough to spend time with him?’ Lexi stopped, aware that her impassioned speech was about to get out of hand. But damn it, that was exactly what had happened to her brother, Joe, who had become lost and angry in his teenage years, even though