Dark Chocolate Demise Read Online Free Page B

would get the most traffic. They locked the wheels on the little trailer, keeping the coffin safely propped up.
    â€œIs it stable enough?” Mel asked. “Marty is going to hang out in it and let people take pictures in it.”
    â€œLet me try,” Paulie said. He took his fake arm back and climbed into the coffin. He rested against the satin, clutching his fake arm to his chest. “How do I look?”
    â€œHorrible,” Al said. He screwed up his ghoulish features with a look of distaste. Then he reached forward and slammed the door shut on the coffin.
    â€œHEY!” Paulie shouted from inside, making it muffled but still discernable. The banging coming from inside started slow but quickly became panicked.
    Mel shot Al a reproving look before she lifted the lid on the coffin. Paulie came staggering out and fell to his knees. His free hand was clutching his throat and he was gasping for air.
    â€œI can’t breathe,” he wheezed.
    â€œOh, Paulie, are you okay?” Mel asked and she hunkered beside him. “That was not nice, Al. You scared your brother half to death.”
    Al had the grace to look slightly abashed and he hung his head and mumbled, “Sorry.”
    Paulie snapped up straight. “I was
not
scared, not even a little. It was the lack of oxygen.”
    â€œYeah, right,” Al said. He pushed his John Deere cap back on his head and gave his brother a skeptical look.
    â€œIt was!” Paulie insisted.
    The two looked ready to brawl so Mel figured a change of topic was in order.
    â€œHave either of you heard from Joe?” she asked.
    If she’d hit them with a spray of ice water, she was pretty sure they wouldn’t have clenched up as much as they did at the name of the brother who had ripped her heart out.
    They exchanged a worried look and Al said, “Nope, haven’t seen him.”
    â€œMe neither,” Paulie said. He waved his fake arm at Mel as if to emphasize his words. “And you need not to be asking about him.”
    â€œWhy not?” Mel asked. “His trial is in all of the papers and on the news. It’s not like I can avoid it.”
    â€œWell, you need to try,” Al said.
    â€œYes, Joe was very clear that we need to keep you safe,” Paulie said. “And to do that, we shouldn’t talk about him with you at all ever.”
    â€œOh, he said that, did he?” Mel asked.
    Al reached over and snatched Paulie’s fake arm and then whacked him over the head with it.
    â€œYou are an idiot,” Al said. Then he handed the arm back.
    â€œ
Ouch!
What did I say?” Paulie asked.
    â€œYou just admitted that you’ve been in contact with him,” Mel said. “Now spill. When did you see him? What did he say? How does he look? Is he all right?”
    The brothers exchanged another look, and she was afraid they were going to clam up on her. She was desperate for news about Joe, as he’d cut ties with everyone at the bakery in order to keep them safe from the mobster case he was presently working on. It had been an excruciating few months for Mel, and she wasn’t about to let the brothers hold out on her now.
    â€œPlease,” she said. She gave them her best sad puppy look. “Please just tell me how he is.”

Four

    Paulie opened his mouth and then closed it. He didn’t know what to say and it showed.
    Mel tried to juice up her eyes a little. It wasn’t hard to do given how much she’d missed Joe over the past few months. In fact, the sob that made her throat constrict was barely manufactured at all.
    â€œPlease . . .” she said.
    Al groaned and Paulie nodded. She knew she had them.
    â€œBrains! Brains! Brains!” Chanting voices interrupted Mel’s plea and she was shoved back when one particularly large zombie pushed her aside to get to the cupcake van. She was separated from Paulie and Al as the horde of zombies shambled