Toronto, Canada, 2006. A few months after the worst year of the Iraq war. Gabriel Navarro splits his time between his job slinging ink at the Atlantis Ink tattoo parlor, and working on his master’s degree in fine art. Gabe is twenty-two, sure of his beliefs and his artistic integrity, and na?ve enough to think he’ll never have to compromise. And then one night Jake MacLean walks into the shop and changes everything. Jake Maclean is twenty-eight and a veteran American Army pilot. He's been staying with his ex-pat sister in Toronto while he tries to get his life in order. The problem is, he can't. After his disastrous final mission in Iraq, he's overcome with anger and survivor’s guilt, trapped in a losing battle to atone for a failure he’s sure can never be forgiven. Left without hope, he decides to have his memory of the mission tattooed on his back, with the condemning words: God Will Judge Me. He doesn't expect to fall for the tattoo artist. Gabe falls just as quickly and deeply for Jake, though Jake's reluctance to talk about what happened frustrates and worries him. Gabe knows Jake isn't doing well, but accepting Jake’s claims that he's "fine" is far easier than dealing with the frightening truth. But soon it’s horribly clear Jake can’t control his panic attacks or flashes of violence, and he's getting worse. If Gabe can’t help him face his demons, Jake is headed for a crash -- and there’s every chance he’ll take Gabriel down with him.

Black Hawk Tattoo

The engine control console was right above him. All he had to do was reach up and switch it off. If he did that, everything would be fine. They’d have time to get out. But he couldn’t move.


Jake couldn’t move. His arms were like lead; just lifting his hand was almost impossible. He started screaming for help, but he couldn’t make a sound. He could see people moving outside his Black Hawk—the crew of Skites’s copter that hadn’t been hit—but they didn’t know he was there. They didn’t know he couldn’t turn the engines off. And the helicopter was going to burn and they were all going to burn and he was screaming and no one could hear him—


Jake snapped his eyes open to the silvered dark of his room. He’d woken himself up with his own cries for help.


Chapter 12