MEET THE BAD BOY IN A FAMILY OF OVER-ACHIEVERS...

**Thomas O'Shea revved the motorcycle's engine and sped down the black ribbon of highway unfurling in front of him. Familiar but always changing, the ocean crashed against the beach as if reaching for him. Coaxing him to quit running and see what he was missing.

He slowed, took an exit, and rode past the signs warning "private beach." Once on the hard-packed sand, he cut the engine and stared at the moon shimmering on the endless horizon.

Dismounting the bike, he took the crumpled letter out of the inside pocket of his leather jacket and smoothed the angry creases.
"My dearest brother, Thomas..." 

He didn't really need to read it. The words were etched on his heart with the jealous acid of rejection. Marly wasn't his sister by blood, and he had often fantasized she would look at him with something in her eyes other than sibling adoration. 

But she made it clear she loved another man and planned to marry him. 

"...I hope you come home to celebrate with us. Love always, your sister, Marly."

Happiness had eluded Thomas his entire thirty-five years. Each dream he pursued crumbled into dust. Until he quit trying. He simply let life blow him wherever it would and took what temporary pleasures came his way. 

Yet lately, his restless yearning had grown more intense. The compulsion to find answers had become more urgent.

When he finally mounted the bike again, Thomas didn't take his usual route along the beach, but sped back onto the highway and detoured inland. Up and over the coast mountain ranges, across California's fertile Central Valley and into Sacramento, where The Wizard was reputed to have an office. Where he hoped to find a calmness he used to find in the waves of the ocean. To find answers to the restlessness that pushed him away from his family.

Why would a cop take in seven boys and shape them into a family? Thomas wondered. And why these particular boys?

None of his other siblings questioned why. Thomas might not have either--except for what he saw the night his mother died.

**Excerpt from LEGACY OF TRUTH, copyright Genene Valleau, writing as Genie Gabriel