Chapter 17 - The Reveal

Joe's POV - New Jersey State Prison

It's been 63 days since I was unceremoniously torn from my life and thrown in this stupid jail cell. I shouldn't be here right now. I didn't do anything wrong. How could my Cupcake betray me and side with those thugs. They should be the ones in here.

As soon as I was here they took me to solitary and I have remained here ever since except for two days when they tried to release me into the general population but after being nearly beaten to death for being a cop I got put back here. It sucked there was no one to talk to and I was starting to go mental. While I was recovering from my injuries in a private hospital room I got one of the nurses to allow me to make a few phone calls. The first was to my mom who, while she was still extremely angry with me, promised to add some money to my commissary so I could get some items I desperately needed and also send my Brother to visit. My next call was to my lawyer who was still working on finding a way to get me out of here.

Finally I called my old Navy buddy Blade to tell him about a bounty hunting position in Trenton that had recently been vacated. We discussed some other things that ended with him promising to help carry out my plans. I may still be incarcerated but I wasn't going to let that stop me from getting my revenge.

SPOV - Bridal Shop in Trenton

"Girls, I think we've done it!" Lula exclaimed excitedly.

Myself, Connie, Tank's sister Juliette, and her wedding planner Sally Sweet have been sitting in the bridal shop for the past 3 hours watching Lula try on various wedding dresses. She started with too small tight mermaid like dresses, then moved into trumpet and A-line styles, before finally settling on the princess ball gowns. I'm pretty sure she's tried or at least looked at every dress in the store.

"It's beautiful!" Juliette stated while wiping tears from her eyes.

"Tank's gonna love it!" Connie added.

"Girl. I've never seen anything so gorgeous" Sally commented.

"It's great Lula. You're right it's the one." I said. At this point Lula was twirling in the mirror as tears streamed from her eyes. I got up and brought the box of tissues over to her.

"I'm sorry for all the tears, it's just I never thought I'd get to have my fairytale wedding." Lula said through her blubbering. "My Tankie is my true love and I can't wait for our wedding day."

Lula and Tank had decided on a fall wedding in Louisiana at his family home. Most of Trenton Rangeman was coming so we would be hiring contract workers and filling in with guys from the other branches. I was going to be Maid of Honor while Ranger was to be Best Man. Tank's other groomsmen were Lester and Bobby. One of the young girl's from the youth center was going to be the flower girl and her brother was going to be the ring bearer. They were currently living in a foster home due to their parents being druggies and abandoning them when they were just learning to walk. Lula and Tank had become extremely attached to them and refused to let them be separated so they were in the process of adopting the twins. It was still early and they were still getting approved to even become parents but both me and Carlos wrote letters to the agency as character witnesses. They were hoping to become temporary guardians of the twins before the adoption got finalized.

"Okay now that I've found my dress it's your turn!" Lula turned and directed her statement at us. The attendant followed Lula to the back to get her out of the dress before they both returned. The attendant asked for us to follow her to try on our dresses.

I stepped into the dressing room and came face to face with a hot pink slim tight fitting silk dress with small spaghetti straps. The back scooped low with the fabric draping at the small of my back. Lula definitely kept her promise about no ruffles but there was no way Carlos was gonna be happy about this. I was gonna look like I was about to do a distraction when the heels were added. I put on the dress and then walked out to the show room.

Juliette was there in the same style dress but hers was a baby pink color. Connie came out after me and her dress was a rose pink. Standing next to each other it gave off an ombre effect.

"It's good Lu but I think Steph's is too bright so we either need to switch hers to a more muted blush magenta color or the other two need more neon added."

"I agree let's change white girls since it's only one as opposed to two" Lula replied. I did a little happy dance in my head. The attendant came over and made some measurements for the alterations that would need to be done to Juliette and Connie's dress. Then she made the measurements for mine but said she would order one in the same size but different color first.

We changed and downed the last of the mimosas before heading down the street for brunch. At brunch I couldn't help the uneasy feeling in my gut that we were being watched. Although unlike last time when it was just Mooner and Dougie my spidey sense was telling me this time it might be a real threat.

RPOV - Trenton Veterans Memorial Cemetery

This weekend was Memorial Day so today I was heading out with a group of my men, Julie, and Stephanie to the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Trenton. When we arrived we met the director of the cemetery in the parking lot.

"Ranger, Welcome back I see you brought a good crew with you this year." Tom the director stated. I wasn't sure what he was talking about since we had 2 fewer men than last year but then I looked around the parking lot and noticed that I recognized several of the vehicles as my families and Stephanie's family.

"I had nothing to do with the increase of participants but I agree it's nice to see. Tom let me introduce you to my girlfriend Stephanie Plum." I placed my hand on the small of Steph's back and pulled her over to where we were standing and they exchanged pleasantries.

"Did the shipments arrive?" Stephanie asked.

"Yes ma'am. One for every veteran in this cemetery they were delivered last night we put them in our walk-in cooler to keep fresh."

"Wonderful! Let's get started then." Stephanie thanked Tom and we followed him inside where our families and my men were standing mingling waiting for further instructions.

"Mama, Papa what are you all doing here?" I asked giving my mother a hug and kiss and father a hug.

"Stephanie asked us to come. She thought it would be a good way to spend time together and honor our soldiers." I nodded and thanked them for coming. I said hello to my sisters who bright some of their kids before making my way over to where Stephanie's family was standing.

I acknowledged Frank, Helen, Edna, Valarie, Albert, and their children. "Thank you for joining us today."

"It's good to be here son. You know some of my own comrades are buried here. It will be nice to honor them this year." Frank stated. I knew that Frank had served in Vietnam before leaving to work at the post office.

"Let me introduce you to my family." I said as I directed them across the room and introduced them. Just as my mom and Helen started talking about food for after today's festivities Steph returned to the room. My men and Julie were with her carrying several large boxes.

Steph cleared her throat and clapped three times to get the room's attention which had gotten quite loud. "Okay everyone thank you for being here today. It is a tradition at all of the Rangeman branches to take a day the week before Memorial Day to visit a local cemetery to lay red poppies on every stone. Red poppies are a symbol of remembrance for our soldiers. This year we will also be placing American flags with the flowers. In these boxes is everything you will need. I believe with the Merry men here we should have enough adults to be partnered with one child so buddy up grab some flowers and flags and get started!"

Everyone in the room scrambled to partner up. Most of my family was partnered with my Siblings children. I took Julie, Stephanie got Mary Alice, Edna and Helen went with Angie, while Val, Albert, and Lisa grabbed a box. Frank joined Joe Juniak who had arrived during Stephanie's speech. We all grabbed our materials and headed out. Almost two hours later every stone had a poppy and flag. In the field by the remembrance stone we had put in about 50 flags and left a few bouquets of flowers.

We all went back to Rangeman after as Steph had arranged for a pizza party catered by Pino's in the first floor space that we had recently renovated into a space to hold large gatherings. Stephanie had suggested it after feeling bad that when we had full team meetings not everyone got to sit down and the room got rather packed. I also picked up on the fact that she couldn't stand the smell as the last time we had it some of the men hadn't showered yet as they just finished their morning workouts.

LPOV - Bobby and Lester's Home

Today was Memorial Day and was also going to be the day me and Bobby told everyone we were in love. We invited everyone to my house which was really our house for the Barbeque. We had gotten everything together over the last few weeks with the help of Ella. We knew the guys would eat a lot so we've been going to the store every Sunday to purchase items in bulk but not buy out the store. We also had to buy a grill and furnish our backyard.

Bobby walked into the kitchen to help me prep the food. He had been in the backyard getting the lawn games that we had bought set up. We had invited all of the men to the festivities. Only two wouldn't be coming as they had plans for their families but since most of them were young and unmarried most were available. Me and Bobby told Cal and Hector earlier in the week since they would be covering Rangeman while we are all at the party. This evening Ranger and Stephanie planned to take over for them so they could come and join the party. They took it surprisingly well with Hector admitting he already knew since Bobby's office was right down from his and we sucked at locking doors. He was also excited to have more gay men at Rangeman even if we were bisexual. Cal wasn't even a little bit surprised but was curious if we had ever had a threesome with a woman.

"Are you nervous?" Bobby asked as he got another cutting board out to chop onions.

"I'd be lying if I said no. But I also am choosing to keep the faith."

"Agreed. I hope they won't be too mad at us for keeping it a secret for so long."

"If they are or if they don't accept us then we still have Hawaii." We continued prepping until 4 before taking a joint shower and getting ready to receive our guests at 5.

Stephanie, Ranger, Julie and their dogs were the first to arrive. Steph and Julie gave us big smiles and hugged us before moving to the backyard to let the dogs run. Ranger didn't follow them, instead he stopped giving us both a knowing look.

"You know." Bobby stated, it wasn't a question. "Did Steph tell you?"

"No you two just suck at keeping a secret. But for the record I am happy for you two. I do expect you to move into one apartment after this though so we can clear our waiting list for apartments in the building."

"Thanks Cuz." I responded before giving him a big manly hug. He moved back into the house to join Steph and the rest of his family. We waited at the door to greet Tank and Lula, Binkie, and Vince had just arrived. 10 minutes later everyone had arrived with only Ram and Zero bringing plus ones. Ella and Luis had come with additional desserts and a housewarming gift basket. Bobby got the grill going and was talking about grill techniques for the burgers with Hal and Fish. Some of the other men had started on a game of bean bag toss and another group was kicking a soccer ball around. The woman at the party were chatting and playing giant Jenga. It was nice to see everyone enjoying themselves outside of the office for once. We will have to do this more often.

An hour later everyone was sitting around eating so me and Bobby decided it was a good time for our announcement. We stood up and I brought the room to attention.

"Ladies, Men. Thank you for being here today for this wonderful Barbeque we have enjoyed having you all here. We have an announcement for all of you but first we wanted to take a moment of remembrance for our fallen brothers who we wish could still be here with us today." Everyone was silent for a minute or so as we remembered those who we had lost along the way. After the moment bobby picked it back up.

"So I'm sure now you're wondering what kind of announcement we have. Well for the past 11 months me and Lester have both been in exclusive relationships." He paused for a moment. "With each other and," then he turned to me I didn't know what to say there wasn't anything else to the speech but then he slowly sunk down to one knee. "Lester Santos I have enjoyed every moment of those months and I want to be able to spend a lifetime of them with you by my side. Will you marry me?" He opened his hands to reveal a small silver band that looked like it was engraved.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. But no longer caring about the reactions of the men to our announcement I threw my arms around him and kissed him. "Yes of course" I paused to tell him. We were broken from our trance from the thundering of cheering being shouted from the rest of the party. I started laughing as we had become completely unaware of our surroundings.

Ranger stood up and clinked his fork against the throat of his beer bottle getting everyone to settle down. "I think I speak for all of us when I say Congratulations and we couldn't be happier for the two of you"

"HUA" the rest of the men added.

After that the group went back to making conversation within their small groups and we made the rounds. Our first stop was at Tank and Rangers table. Tank spoke first "I know that you two probably think that this would have come to more of a surprise but you two really need to work on your ability to be aware of your surroundings. By the way you do know the supply room has cameras right?" Julie and Lula snickered at his comments. I could feel my face flush a little.

"Noted, Although that shouldn't be a problem now that we don't have to hide." Bobby responded.

We then made our way over to Hal's group where all four of them stated they also already knew after accidentally catching us at various times around the building. We talked to Ram and Binkie next who said they suspected it since we hung out all the time, didn't talk about girls anymore, and even took vacations together. By the time we got around to everyone they had all expressed that they either suspected it or already knew. I guess we had no reason to be nervous about telling all the men after all. However I was looking forward to Hawaii. Maybe we can honeymoon there.

By 10:30 everyone had left since the movies were over and the fireworks were finished. It was a wonderful evening but after we cleaned up I was looking forward to taking my fiance to bed.