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

Gabe barely knew Jake at all, really. He tallied up the few things Jake had told him as he climbed the stairs.


Jake was from Indiana, one of the many, many US states Gabe knew nothing about. He was pretty religious and didn’t seem to like his parents much. He was living in Canada now, staying with his sister. He’d been a helicopter pilot. He’d been in Iraq. His helicopter had crashed over there and burned.


It was pathetically little, when Gabe thought about it. He knew more about Jake’s skin than he knew about the man himself, and even then, Jake had been scheduled to come in Tuesday morning, not Monday night. Gabe had known Jake a week, they’d gone out on two—sort of—dates if Gabe wanted to count the walk, and yet the four hours of the first inking session had been the longest time Gabe had ever spent with him.


Gabe didn’t even really know if Jake was gay. He had a feeling Jake was interested in him, but he didn’t know that for sure, either.


Chapter 42