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 train finally screeched into the station. It sounded like screaming and there was no way Jake could go through those doors and fight the monster in his head while the subway car swayed and the train shrieked through the dark.


He bolted along the platform, up the stairs and out into the gray daylight, and then stood there gasping with the sky weeping over the world.


Jake had never been claustrophobic before. He’d never been frightened of loud noises or the dark. He hadn’t much liked fire since he was five, but that was controllable, unimportant. Being worried about fire was reasonable. It had never been anything compared to this.


But it wasn’t really the cramped space, or the noise, or the dark of the underground tunnels. It was what they reminded him of, and it was getting worse. If Jake couldn’t stop this, pretty soon he wouldn’t be able to ride the subway at all.


Chapter 51