Page 4 of Liberating Lily

“And Jaret isn’t my friend; he’s my boyfriend,” Clem stated.

“I think we might need to make that fiancé soon, baby,” Jaret told her.

Harvey glanced at Lily, but she was just staring off into the distance.

“That is not a proposal.” Clem pointed a finger at Jaret, who grinned and stretched his arms above his head.

“Damn, I have some kinks in my back. Thinking I might need a massage. You know, Senator, you look like you’d know where to get a special massage.”

Here we go.

“Excuse me, who are you?” Rick’s father asked angrily.

“Sorry, I forgot my manners. The name is Jaret Malone.”

Senator Sampson grew pale. Interesting. Maybe he should look into the Malones. He remembered Ronan mentioning a Malone family who lived in New Orleans a few times. Were they related to Jaret?

“Malone?” the senator said.

“Yep,” Jaret replied.

“You’re not part of the New Orleans Malones, are you?”

“Aw, you’ve heard of my cousins. How nice. I’ll be sure to send your regards.”

That answered that question.

“We need to leave now,” the senator said hastily, standing.

“What? Why?” Rick asked.

“It’s probably because he’s worried I know things about him that he wouldn’t want to get out,” Jaret said. “My family is good at ferreting out secrets. Like your gambling addiction. And your father’s massage addiction. Oh, and then there’s the fact that your family is completely broke.”

“What?” Roberta gasped. “You have a gambling addiction, Rick? You’re broke, Barry?”

“Don’t forget about the massages,” Clem said. “I didn’t even know that massages with a happy ending were an actual thing.”

“I’ll show you one later.” Jaret winked at her.

“Can’t wait.”

“Do you mind!” Roberta said.

“Nope, don’t mind at all,” Clem replied.

“We’ll be fine. Especially once our families align,” Barry said.

Stupid asshole had no idea how bad his life was going to be, did he?

The reason he was broke wasn’t just because of Rick’s gambling. Nope, it was because Ronan and Harvey had worked over the last year to systematically take the whole family down.

“That’ll be a bit hard considering mommy dearest is broke too,” Clem said.

“What? Clementine, what are you talking about?” Roberta said with a gasp.

“The fact that you don’t have any money left. What happened to all the money, Mother?”

“I think we should leave,” Senator Sampson said.