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

“Well, fuck,” Gabe muttered. Not only had he managed to sand one part of the canvas too much, but now it was going to be hell trying to concentrate so he could fix it. He looked at his watch, mournfully noting it was past eight. He didn’t have time to do more work tonight, if he wanted to get home at a reasonable hour. It always took forever to get from York University back downtown.


He was washing his hands and mentally going over the fastest bus routes to the nearest subway stations when his cell started screaming at him. He didn’t recognize the song but immediately hated it, which meant Hype had somehow gotten her hands on his phone and had been fucking around with it. Again. God only knew how many other terrible ringtones she’d downloaded. Hopefully he wasn’t going to have to pay for them.


Gabe wiped his hands on his gesso-spattered pants and fumbled the phone out of his pocket and hit the answer button. “This is Gabe.”


Chapter 41