I'm quiet unless you know me. Then I still don't talk to much. Cause of my childhood I had a stutter that went away back in high school, but it still appears once in awhile if I get nervous or anxious about something. I grew up watching my back and still do to a point unless I'm with the Moretti brothers or Thorn. I don't trust easily, and you have to earn that trust. My family isn't my blood, and I don't count my blood as my family. I stay in the background in huge crowds, but I don't cower anymore in fear as I used to.

I was born in upper state New York out in the middle of nowhere. I was told in the back of a rusted beat up old ford. I never knew my mother she left shortly after I was born leaving my father and four older brothers. My father was abusive so that was probably why she left him. No one ever really told me why or rather probably didn't give a shit to. My brothers and I were spaced about two years apart from one another. Grant was already turning out like the old man by the time I came around. If I wasn't getting pushed around or beaten by my dad then I was by one of my older brothers. Grant was the meanest though. I still have scars from him.

I lived in hand me downs that were torn and bloodied growing up. Most of the time they stunk cause no one bothered to do any washing or even take a bath for that matter either. By the time I started school I had no learning of any kind and talked with a stutter cause of my family. That didn't make it any easier in school. If I was lucky to get there in the first place. Dad never bothered to make sure we went anyhow. It was five miles to the back woods town that had any kind of a schoolhouse for miles. If I missed the bus that barely stopped at our ramshackle farm then I had to hoof it to school, and most of the time barefoot. To top it off I was dyslexic which didn't help any kind of learning, and there were so many kids there that I got shoved to the back. The teachers just kept on passing me not caring at all.

The old man died in a so called farming accident shortly after my twelfth birthday. My oldest brother was in prison by then, and the second one about ready to end up in there. The other two were in and out of juvie. I still think it was my brother Tony that did him in. That I kept to myself though. I was sent to live with the next nearest relatives that happened to be my mother's parents that never even knew I existed or I them for that matter. To them my mother had disappeared of the face of the earth around the time she married my father. They'd had no word from her since then so I was quite a shock for them.

It was a culture shock for me as well. Coming from a poverty stricken background to a well to do place. My grandparents weren't rich by any means but they lived well off. It was an awkward situation, but I got by and my grandparents well they lived with me and put clothes on my back and food on the table for me. It was the first time I had ever seen a picture of my mother as well. Now I knew why I didn't look like my father or any of my brothers for that matter.

Starting junior high in Big Sky Montana was a nightmare. I was laughed at and ridiculed cause I couldn't read and could only barely write my own name. The teachers sneered at me as well, and didn't want me around. Somehow I got caught in the landslide and sent on to the next year of school. Then there were the bullies who did more than laugh and just make fun of me. I went home covered in blood so many times my grandmother was ready to have a nervous breakdown.

It wasn't until my freshman year of high school that was becoming the bleakest part of my life in my opinion that I had any kind of friends at all. It was a few weeks into the school year when it happened. I always skipped taking a shower after physical education cause it unnerved me. That or I stunk too much I would wait till the others left to grab a quick one, before the football team came to change for practice. One day I was a little too late, and I got caught by the bullies while I was in the shower. I was on the floor with blood mixing in the water that was still coming from the shower head, and they were laughing saying what else they should do to me. I'll never forget what happened then.

A sophomore walked in and rose an eyebrow at the bullies. He was naked as a jaybird and crossed his arms glaring at them. He was joined by a couple of older boys that were barely dressed as well having been getting ready for practice. I never seen the bullies take off so fast, but the naked one caught one and shoved him up against the wall holding him about a foot off of the ground. His words are still penetrated in my mind. "If you boys touch even one strand of hair on him again you won't be so lucky." That was the last time those boys bothered me, and those three older boys took me under their wing. It was Python Moretti who had caught the boy and warned him. The others were his older brother Woody, and their friend Thorn Thomas.

The other stuff slowly dwindled off as well when the kids saw who had befriended me. Over that year I lost my stutter and finally gained some confidence under their guidance. Come to find out they lived on the block next to us, and my grandparents knew their parents so my grandparents were accepting of my new found friends. That was the first time I was ever around little kids as well. Woody and Python had a little sister ten years younger who I came to adore. Especially when she followed us around. Her brothers were good with her though, and I learned how siblings who got along were. They had a little brother Cris too who was a couple of years younger than Gwen. Oh the Moretti boys did fight once in awhile, but no one messed with the other or their head would be torn off by the other. Thorn on the other hand had two younger sisters.

It was Thorn's mom who had been a school teacher at one time that taught me how to read. By the time I was a senior I was reading up a storm. I cherished those times with them. My senior year my grandparents died within months of one another leaving me alone yet again. It was Thorn's mother who took me in and took care of me the rest of that year. Thanks to his mother I actually graduated not with that great of grades, but passing. His parents had gotten a divorce the year before, and Thorn had another baby sister now. Two years later his dad and step mom had another baby girl. There names were Laura Beth and Abigail. The older two girls were Candy and Kayla.

I moved in with Thorn in an apartment he had shortly after graduating. By this time he and the Moretti brothers had prospected into a motorcycle club called the Wild Wolves. I was prospecting soon after that. It had been Mr. Moretti who had taught me how to ride a bike a few years before.

I was never really that good with girls back in high school. Never would have had a date probably if it hadn't been for Woody's girlfriend setting me up. His girlfriend who eventually became his wife. There had been one girl I really liked, but she was killed in a boating accident our junior year. After that I didn't get serious with a girl cause I didn't want that pain again. It was Thorn who had gotten all the girls, and I still don't understand it especially when they kept coming back when he would never bother to call any of them back.

It wasn't until a few years later that I read in the paper that a body had been found buried on the old farm I used to live on. A few days later someone came by and told me that it had been my mother's remains that had been found. So she had never left the old man had killed her. There had been rumors, but you never knew what to believe. I hadn't seen any of my brothers, and I really didn't care. I had new ones that weren't blood related that cared about me and called me there brother.

A few years back Abe paid me a visit. I didn't trust him and well I should never have let him in. He got me into a lot of trouble the few weeks he was there. I kept it hidden from the guys though till it was too late, and they couldn't help me out. My brother had used my name to gamble and who knew what else. It was me that his bookies came after and put in the hospital. Never saw my brother again after that either. The bruises and broken bones there were added onto what my own brother had given me as well. Out of the blue though the bookies were paid off and so were the hospital bills.

I also sort of have an old lady now. I've been in love with her for years, but after losing one girl I liked back in high school I stayed away. That wasn't the only reason. I didn't want her on my brother's radar. After drinking almost a whole bottle of whiskey, after finding out my brothers were here in Big Sky, my secrets were all out in the open to Stephanie and she was mine. I was never going to let her go!