Carlita clenched her fists, resisting the urge to whack Elvira. She had enough going on without having to put up with the woman’s nonsense. “Are you done insulting me and my family?”
“So he is related.” Elvira clapped her hands. “I knew it! Man, I’m good.”
“You’re a pain in the butt. I have enough to do without standing here listening to you rattle on.”
“Wait!”
Carlita slowly turned back. “Now what?”
“Someone left a box on your back step while you were gone.” Elvira ran inside her apartment and returned, carrying a large brown box. “It looked like it was going to rain. I thought it might be a wedding present or something and I didn’t want it to get wet.”
She handed the box to Carlita. “Whatever it is, it’s not very heavy.”
Carlita shook the box. It made a small rattling noise. “Thank you for picking it up. As annoying as you tend to be, I appreciate you offering your security services for Tony and Shelby’s wedding. We’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Absolutely.” Elvira stepped back inside her apartment and closed the door.
Carlita wandered across the alley and up the steps. “Mercedes?”
Mercedes emerged from her room. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Uncle Eddie and Aunt Anjelica. Uncle Eddie wanted it to be a surprise.”
“It was a surprise all right.” Carlita perched on the edge of the sofa, still holding the box.
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know. Elvira found it on our back stoop. She thought it might be a wedding gift and didn’t want it to get wet.”
Mercedes joined her mother. “Well? Open it up.”
“If it is a wedding gift, maybe we should give it to Tony and Shelby.”
“Then they should’ve addressed it to Tony and Shelby.”
“True.” Carlita eased her fingernail under the corner of the packing tape. She ripped the tape off and flipped the flaps.
Inside was another smaller box. “Garlucci” was scrawled across the front in big, black letters. She picked it up and gave it a gentle shake.
“Is there a return address?” Mercedes reached for the larger empty box. “No. Nothing.”
Carlita frowned. “Maybe it’s not for the wedding.” A troubled feeling settled over her, an inkling she wasn’t going to like what she found inside.
“Here. You open it.” She handed the box to her daughter. “I’m gettin’ a bad feeling about this.”
“Maybe it’s a mini bomb.” Mercedes pried the tape off and reached into the smaller box. “What in the world?”
Chapter 3
“It’s a miniature bride and groom…a cake topper.” Mercedes gingerly removed the figurine. On closer inspection, she noticed something was missing. “The groom’s head is missing.”
Sure enough, the intact bride clutched the hand of a headless groom.
“Maybe there’s something written on the outside of the smaller box, and we missed it.” Carlita carefully inspected the box. “It could be the package got damaged in shipping, and the groom’s head broke off.”
She removed the brown packing paper. The groom’s missing head was not inside.
“Well, that blows my theory,” Mercedes said. “Why would someone mail a bride and groom cake topper with the groom’s head missing?”
“Maybe Eddie is playing a sick joke on Tony.” Carlita reached for her cell phone and tapped out a message to her brother, asking if he had left a box on the back stoop. “I wonder if Elvira’s surveillance camera picked anything up.”
Carlita’s cell phone beeped. Instead of Eddie, it was Vinnie, telling his mother Brittney and he had exited the highway and stopped for gas. His text ended with him telling his mother there was something important he needed to discuss with the family and wanted to make sure everyone was around.
“I don’t like the sound of this.” Carlita dialed her eldest son’s number and waited for him to pick up. “You’re not springing another surprise on me, are you?”
“No. No surprise this time. More of a complicated matter.” Vinnie sounded distracted. “I’d rather not get into it over the phone in case someone is listening in. You know?”
A chill ran down Carlita’s spine, and one word popped into her head…mafia. The family. “You’re not bringing trouble to Tony’s wedding, are you? Cuz we got our hands full without having to worry about family friends crashing the wedding.”
“Like I said, I’ll talk to you when I get there. Brittney and I will be there in ten minutes, fifteen tops.” Before Carlita could reply, Vinnie disconnected the line.
She frowned at the phone.
“Now what?” Mercedes watched her mother set the cake topper on the coffee table. “What did you mean by family friends?”
“Vinnie said he wants to have a meeting when he gets here. He has something important to talk to us about.”
“We can rule out Vinnie eloping, and his new wife being pregnant,” Mercedes joked. “What else could there be?”
“I don’t know.” Carlita headed to the kitchen while Mercedes kept an eye on the alley.
“He’s here,” Mercedes said. “I’ll run down to let them in, and see if Tony has a second to spare while I’m at it.”
Carlita watched through the window as her daughter greeted her older brother before giving Brittney a quick hug. The trio disappeared from sight, arriving on her doorstep a couple of minutes later with Tony in tow.
She gave Brittney a warm hug and took a step back. “You’re absolutely glowing, although not even showing.”
Brittney patted her nearly flat stomach. “I’ve been waitin’ every day for the baby bulge to appear, but nothing yet.”
Vinnie wrapped his arms around his mother and hugged her tight. “You look great, Ma.”
“Thanks. All of this running around trying to get the restaurant ready for the grand opening, not to mention helping out with the wedding have kept me on my toes.” Carlita, not one to mince words, got
