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 stopped the machine instantly. “You okay?”


“Yeah.” Jake nodded. He closed his eyes. “It’s fine. You can keep going.”


“Okay.” Gabe started the machine again. He still didn’t get how easy it seemed for Jake to handle the pain. He was pretty sure Jake wasn’t getting off on it, but sometimes Gabe didn’t even know if he was hurting Jake or not, and that reminded him too much of what Rob had told him to be comfortable. “I still think that after this I should leave your back alone until Saturday or Sunday. If I do too much too fast it’s not going to heal right, and I don’t want you to get an infection.”


“I’m fine,” Jake said, which Gabe already knew was pretty much his only response to anything about his body. “I don’t mind doing more before then.”


“Well, I do.” Gabe wiped some more blood from Jake’s back. “I wasn’t thrilled about doing more now, eh? Even if you feel fine, you’re still stressing your immune system. If you keep this up you’re going to get sick.”


Chapter 72