New York City-
Uh Huh-
Center Of The Universe-
Sing It Girl-
Times Are Shitty
But I'm Pretty Sure They Can't Get Worse-
I Hear That-
It's a Comfort To Know
When You're Singing The Hit The Road Blues
That Anywhere Else You Could Possibly Go
After New York Would Be A Pleasure
Cruise-
We'll Pack Up All Our Junk And Fly
So Far Away
Devote Ourselves To Projects That Sell
We'll Open Up A Restaurant In Santa Fe
Forget This Cold Bohemian Hell
Oh--
Oh--
Do You Know The Way To Santa Fe?
You Know, Tumbleweeds...Prairie Dogs...
Yeah
-Santa Fe from Rent-
It had been four months and Josef still had nothing on Jamari's parents. Aside from the abuse, they were the perfect citizens, and he knew that he couldn't prove the abuse.
He was on his way to New York for two reasons, the first, since his people couldn't find anything on her parents, it was up to him to figure something out. The second, one of his business partners was having a big party that he had to be at. He wasn't exactly happy about the party part, but, unfortunately, it was something he couldn't get out of.
When the plane landed in New York, he had less than an hour till the party, and with the city traffic, that meant he had to leave immediately towards his partners house.
-One Hour Later-
The house was already full of people when he arrived. All he had to do was make an appearance to his 'friend' and then he could leave. When he found him, he was in the middle of a conversation with a middle aged couple.
"Oh Josef, I'm glad you could make it."
He gave him a very small smile. "I do every year."
"I'd like you to meet some of my good friends, John Sanders and Maria Sanders...This is Josef Konstantin, one of my business partners."
Josef stared at the couple for a minute, trying to figure what he should do. Maria gave him a smile. "Nice to meet you Mr. Konstantin."
He stared her down, then decided to respond."Likewise Mrs. Sanders..."
Josef excused himself from the conversation and started walking around the room. If Jamari's parents were here, she had to be. The life of a heiress consisted of boring parties hosted by their parents friends, no matter how bad the relationship between the family was.
It took him nearly an hour to find her, and when he did, he scolded himself. He should have been able to find her sooner.
Jamari was slumped over a piano in one of the many backrooms of the mansion. Dressed in a red silk gown, her heels had been dropped at the door.
"She can't play in heels." He thought with a laugh.
At the sound of his laugh, she stopped and turned around.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
He walked further into the room, making sure to shut the door behind him.
"Taking you home."
She scoffed. "Good luck with that, I'm not going anywhere with you..." She stood up, walked to where her heels were laying and started slipping them on. "You pretended to be my friend, you pretended to care at least a little bit about me, then you call my parents to collect on their reward. That's so beyond low, it's not even on the radar."
"What do I have to do to prove that I didn't call them?"
"Phone records, lie detector...selling me your soul...you name it."
"I don't have a soul to sell."
"Oh yea, I forgot, Dracula, vampires don't have souls."
He sighed and walked over to her. "I have been working at trying to get you out of here, and trying to figure out who called your parents, I swear to you, I didn't call them."
"I want to believe you, I really do, it would be easier to forgive and forget, but I've never been good at that."
He grabbed her hands and was shocked when she didn't pull them away. "I have been so worried about you. I can't even sleep without dreaming about you..."
"Either that's a load of shit or you really mean it..." She narrowed her eyes at him.
He laughed. "Is it sad that I expected you to say that?"
She smiled. "No, scary, but not sad...are you reading my mind Dracula?"
"Yes, yes I am, and right now, you're wishing I would push you against the wall and ravish you for hours."
"Damn, you are good."
He laughed and leaned down to capture her lips in a much needed kiss. The kiss was ended when Josef heard the door open. Jamari looked over his shoulder and gasped.
Camryn and Tobie were dressed in servers outfits and were staring at Jamari with shocked looks on their faces.
"We come here, to kidnap you, and find you making out with some guy in the backroom...what the hell?!" Camryn said with a glare.
Jamari let out a small squeal and ran over to pull the two other girls into a hug. It had been so long since she had seen either of the two girls that she considered to be 'sisters'.
"Don't think we're forgetting that we caught you in a lip-lock with Richie Rich over there...but come on, we need to get you out of here." Tobie grabbed her hand and started pulling her out the door.
Jamari turned back to Josef. "Well are you coming or not?" She put out her other hand for him, he quickly walked over and grabbed it. They had to sneak out back, through the servers entrance, no one even noticed them leaving.
"Okay we need to get a taxi or something..." Tobie started waving, trying to get one of yellow cabs to stop.
Josef shook his head. "I'm not riding in a taxi, I have a chauffeur."
Jamari laughed. "Always the snob."
Josef glared at her and pulled out his phone. A minute after he hung up, a black limo drove up and the group quickly climbed in.
"Where too Mr. Konstantin?"
Josef sighed. "The airport, as fast as possible."