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

“Portuguese. But yeah, I know it’s a Spanish name, too. Some guy even asked me if I was from Cuba once, when I was a kid. I guess because of how I look.” He smirked, but Jake doubted it’d been funny at the time.


“Seriously,” Gabriel said. “My mom ripped the guy a new one. She said she couldn’t believe that anyone could grow up that ignorant.”


Jake turned his head so he could see over his shoulder better, and saw Gabriel’s smile was a lot more rueful than admiring.


“Your mom sounds pretty ferocious.”


“Oh, yeah,” Gabriel said. “You don’t want to cross her, believe me.”


“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jake said wryly. “You still haven’t told me about your family yet. They sound interesting.”


Gabriel hummed a little as he ran another line of ink over the tattoo. “I really can’t believe you want to know about my folks. Okay. Um…They came here right after they got married to do their PhDs, and never left.”


Chapter 36