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

Jake licked his lips. “I don’t know.” He kept staring at the wall, irrationally afraid if he looked left or right, the alley would disappear and there’d be nothing but sand all around him. Part of him was sure he could smell something burning. A large part of the building in front of him was taken up with a single word in bubbly, white graffiti, but Jake couldn’t concentrate well enough to figure out what it said. He held his gaze on it anyway. He swallowed. “I wanted to kill him.”


“You weren’t the only one,” Gabriel said. “Is that why you left? Because of what happened?”


“Yeah,” Jake said, though he didn’t actually know. He didn’t understand this. There was no connection between the fight and the panic searing through him. There had been nothing in the shop like there had been at his sister’s house. Nothing had burned here except the flare of his rage.


Chapter 70