Free Supernova by C.L. Parker

property, roughing up or even taking the life of some poor sap that got on the wrong side of some very vengeful people. He wasn’t proud of what he had done by any means. On the contrary, he was quite disgusted with himself, but he only did what was necessary to take care of his little brother and his alcoholic mother. It wasn’t like anyone would give a young boy a job that paid enough to handle the shit he had to handle. He was supporting three people, for Christ’s sake.
    He blamed his mother, Sarah, for the bullshit he had to endure. She was handicapped by her alcoholism, drinking herself into oblivion to the point that she couldn’t function or exist without it. Her dependency on the Devil’s juice left her unable to take care of Dominic or his baby brother. Hell, she couldn’t even take care of her damn self. But, she was his mother and gave him life – however non-existent and truly messed up it was – and he still loved her.
    Dominic turned to Ricardo and the streets in search of the things that his mother couldn’t provide. With each dirty job, he somehow managed to swallow the bile that rose in the back of his throat. At least his family had a roof over their heads and food on the table. It was a shitty way to survive, but it was the only way for him to survive.
    It wasn’t the fact that her son was dealing drugs or killing thugs that sent Dominic’s mother to an early grave. It was her overwhelming need for the drink. It slowly killed her leaving only the hollow shell of her body until that, too, had to be buried.
    Dominic resented her for that. She never would tell them what drove her to the bottle; what had happened to her that was so terrible that she would just give up everything for the taste of the hooch. At times – in a drunken stupor – she would mumble things about their father, a man they never knew. She wouldn’t dare utter his name because she said he was the Devil, and it would surely bring him back from Hell. Sarah didn’t want him anywhere near her boys, so all Dominic could surmise is that he wasn’t a good man. On several occasions, he had considered hunting the bastard down and killing him with his bare hands for what he had put them through. However, he soon found out that it wasn’t necessary because he was already dead. So, when his mother died, so did the secrets they kept.
    His little brother, Colton, was completely oblivious to it all. He became dependent on Dominic to take care of him and looked up to his big brother like he was some kind of saint. Of course he didn’t deserve that kind of reverence, but Colton also had no clue about the things his older brother had to do to make sure they were going to be all right. He just knew that all his problems were nothing in his brother’s more than capable hands. He was a smart kid with a lot of potential, and Dominic made damn sure he would get the chance to live up to all he could be.
    He would surely have to pay penance for all the bad things he did to make sure that Colton had the means to go to college. He was going to be a doctor someday, and it comforted Dominic to know that his brother would be saving lives. Hopefully, making up for the ones that Dominic took by his own hand. It was a necessary evil on the streets – kill or be killed, survival of the fittest. If he wasn’t alive to take care of his little brother, who knows where he might have ended up?
    Once Colton was off to school and his mother was dead and buried in the ground, there was no reason for Dominic to keep up the lifestyle, but he did. It was all he knew. Hell, he never even graduated high school because slinging on the streets and taking care of his family was a full-time job. It wasn’t exactly the career path Dominic would have chosen for himself, but it’s not like he was given much of a choice either.
    Ricardo taught Dominic to always be a man of his word, but to never trust anyone else. This cold hard fact he had to learn the hard way. Trust