Steph:

Only a moment after Joe asked me to marry him, as my mind was reeling from the news that Joseph Anthony Morelli has just asked me to marry him, his cell phone rang before I could explain I'm already engaged to Ranger.

And I am not gonna lie, I took it as divine intervention.

Because telling Joe was going to be dreadful. I just can't believe he asked me. Now. When I am already engaged. Talk about feast or famine.

Breathe, Stephanie!

"Chief, I am not in the rotation, I just got back…" Joe is shaking his head. I watch as him clenches his eyes closed. This can't be good.

"All right, yes, of course. Of course, I will come…" Joe rubbed his hand down his face before pinching the bridge of his nose. "I know not to say anything to anyone… I will be there in ten minutes."

Joe ended the call, clipped his phone to his belt and pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes

"Steph, I'm sorry, I have to go- there's been a major homicide…"

I started to say we would talk when he got back, but I was immediately aware that he was completely undone by the call he'd received. I watched as he struggled to calm himself and it ran through my mind that it must be a kid.

"Joe, are you okay?"

His chocolate eyes were glassy as he looked at me and gave a slight shake of his head. And he was gone without another word… without a kiss… which wouldn't strike me as odd till later.

I waited for him to come home for hours. I needed him to know about Ranger. I needed to tell him. Tonight. Because I was marrying Ranger on Wednesday. In Vegas. But Joe didn't come home.

In fact, I never saw Joe Morelli again.

Angie Morelli

I was up all night. The shock and disbelief. My son, Joseph… His last request was for me to speak with Stephanie, who was at his house awaiting his return. No mother should ever have this asked of her. When morning light came over the horizon, I made a pot of coffee, packed up Italian cookies and went to tell Stephanie of the events last night and of the seismic shift coming to all of us.

Vito Grizzoli was assassinated- a mob hit, by all accounts. Terry, poor woman, was there as well and could identify the gunman. Someone within the Grizzoli family.

Terry was on borrowed time and there was nowhere she would be safe.

At least that's how the Feds put it to her.

The Feds would give Terry a new life, let her start again, but she would need to give the Feds EVERYTHING.

And she asked for Joseph… my Joseph… Because there was nobody else in her life she could trust. To ask her questions and trust the answers.

And Joseph went to her, like a moth to a flame. His first lover, when he was fifteen, though I never let him know I caught them. Foolish children. They were cut from different cloth, but he could not stay away.

He still can't, my boy Joseph. Which is why I have to go to his home, which he has signed over to me, along with all his other assets, and tell his fiancé that she will never see him again… that none of us will ever see him again… as he and his childhood lover have gone into Witness Protection.

My heart is broken.

I whisper the rosary as I head over to Slater with breakfast. I hope the news doesn't break her heart the way his words to me have broken mine.

Tank

Her trackers indicate that Little Girl is still at Morelli's house. Sometimes I hate my job. I am the only one who knows that Ranger planned to marry her on Wednesday. As second in command, I had the need to know. Finally, he asked her and she said yes. He told me months ago that he was asking the very next time it was possible. He was ready.

To my mind they both should have clued in at least a couple of break up/make up sessions ago. The cop was never gonna be right for her. I beat Ranger's ass when he sent her back to the cop that first time and clearly, I didn't hit him nearly hard enough. Life is too damn short…

If she is having a last hurrah with the cop, I just do not want to know. But what I need to tell her can't wait. I need to get her to Inova Fairfax Hospital as soon as the plane arrives and is fueled.

Steph

When Angie Morelli showed up on Joe's doorstep with breakfast, I thought Joe was dead.

"Joseph is worse than dead," she told me when I inquired.

What is worse than dead?

"Mrs. Morelli, what do you mean? Why are you here?"

And so, she told me the whole story of Vito being ambushed at dinner by his own guys in a civil war within his organization. How Terry would need to turn State's evidence if she wanted to stay alive and how she begged Joe to go with her. How he wrote his mother a letter. But not me…

"In his letter to me, Joseph asked me to come to you, to tell you in person that he must go. He must protect Terry, Vito would want him to…"

I nodded, because my mind was moving in too many directions to make any coherent words. "Stunned into silence" for a $1000, anyone?

When I didn't respond, Mrs. Morelli continued, "Joseph asks that we tell a story of him staying in Miami after the trial. Only you and I know he came back tonight, and until the trial it would be safer..."

"If your family isn't roped into the warfare?" I finish her sentence.

Mrs. Morelli gave a quick nod and continued, "And to protect you, he would like us to spread the story that you stopped dating when he left town, that you and he wanted different things, and kept it quiet intentionally…"

And the gossip after it comes out that I married Ranger soon after he left town would further obscure his helping Terry.

I nod again. "I understand. He wants to protect all of us for as long as possible." It would come out at the trial, but that would be ages from now.

Mrs. Morelli rose to leave. "When you leave, please take Bob. Joseph asked specifically."

As I press my back against the closed door when she departs, I mentally go through all the things I need to gather up to remove myself from the house.

When the knock comes at the back door, I have filled two boxes of my things and another of all Bob's stuff. Bob was really gonna miss Joe.

I opened the door to Tank. Hal was at the steering wheel of the RangeMan SUV in the alley behind the house

"You must be a mind reader. I am ready to go and could use a hand with these."

Tank nodded and we loaded my boxes and I locked up the house but when I put on Bob's leash, he looked confused.

"Aren't you leaving Morelli's dog here with him?" I shake my head as I load myself and Bob in the back of the SUV.

"It's a long story, but if anyone asks, Morelli didn't make it back to town. I will explain everything later, but I need to talk to Ranger first."

"Stephanie…"

Tank never calls me Stephanie

"Hal will take care of the dog. We need head straight to the airport. Lester and Bobby are waiting for us. We need to be in Virginia as soon as possible."

Wait, Ranger was in Virginia…

"What's wrong?"

"Ranger was shot last night. He is in critical condition but he killed the guy who shot him."

My head spun and I felt queasy. Ranger is hurt. He could be dying instead of marrying me. Oh my God! Another shooting?! Could it be a coincidence?

"It looks like it was a professional hit."

So that's a no…probably not a coincidence. My thoughts are everywhere and nowhere.

I ask the question, "Could this be related to Vito Grizzoli? He was shot and killed last night…"

How odd. My voice sounds almost normal. I am numb. It's probably shock.

"It's possible, but we don't know enough about Ranger's shooter to know anything for sure. Silvio and Hector are tracking it down."

I hug Bob as I try to control my shaking. I feel nauseous and I have an ache at my temples. My eyes are burning, but no tears fall.

Yesterday, telling Morelli I was getting married was my biggest worry. Now Joe is gone and Ranger…

And I start to pray.